Optimizing legume cropping: The policy questions

The cultivation of legumes is low in Europe. Public policy incentives and/or regulations have a role to play in changing this. This chapter examines six such policies. The CAPRI (Common Agricultural Policy Regional Impact) model, a partial equilibrium model for the agricultural sector, is used to simulate the effects of these policies and compare them to what would happen if no policy action were taken. Five of these policy scenarios are aimed at grain legumes (pulses and soybean), and one at forage legumes (in particular, clover). Three of the policies could be incorporated into the Common Agricultural Policy, whereas the other three are more general in nature: related to consumption, international trade and climate-change mitigation. It is the latter two that are likely to have the most significant effect on the cultivation of grain legumes.