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  • Validation of Economic Indicators – Survey

    Survey on the relevance and prioritization of economic indicators for the resilience of European livestock production systems (STEP UP – Horizon Europe Project).

  • Section 1 –Information Sheet and Informed Consent

    Please read the following information carefully before proceeding.

  • Dear Participant,

    We would like to welcome you to take part in a study for STEP UP, a Horizon-Europe funded project.

    This study aims to investigate the economic sustainability of European Livestock Production Systems and how it is measured. Particularly, it intends to validate and prioritise new indicators to better capture the economic sustainability of those systems. It will be used for reporting to the European Commission, in the context of a Horizon Europe project. It might be used to inform future academic publications.

    Structure of the Survey

    After you have given your informed consent, you will enter the survey itself. The objective of the survey is to assess a series of indicators for economic sustainability of European Livestock Production, focusing on three different impact categories. Those impact categories are subdimensions of economic sustainability that have been identified as relevant for further development of indicators. Each section will have an explanation of the impact category and of the evaluated indicators. The indicators will be evaluated against a set of predefined criteria.

    PART 1 will collect some general and background information.

    PART 2 will focus on Resilience.

    PART 3 will focus on Risk Management.

    Informed consent form

    Participation in this study will involve completing a 10-to-15 minutes online Survey. During the survey, the participant will be asked to rate a series of indicators, from three different impact categories, based on pre-defined criteria. Responses will be recorded, but no personal data will be recorded. Participation in this study is completely voluntary. This means that, for participation, a consent form must be signed. You will have the option to withdraw at anytime before the study commences, even if you have accepted to participate. Also, you will be free to discontinue and terminate the survey at any stage. After the conclusion of the survey, your data will be completely anonymised, and therefore withdrawal will not be possible.

    All information provided will be treated as confidential. During the project, the data will not be shared with anyone outside of the research team. Once the survey is completed, responses will be collected and aggregated. This will be stored securely on a Teagasc drive. The data will be stored for minimum of ten years. All the information will be used for research purposes and the results may be disseminated in academic publications, technical reports, online articles and other outreach communication. In all cases, data contained within these publications will be anonymised and aggregated.

    Anonymised research data collected from this study may be deposited in a recognised repository – namely, the Teagasc Data Value Platform. Open data sharing in research enhances collaboration, accelerates discoveries, improves reproducibility, validates findings, reduces duplication, and fosters interdisciplinary innovation, leading to robust, generalizable results.

    Ethical approval has been obtained from the Teagasc Social Science Research Ethics Committee. It should be noted that no personal data will be collected during this study. The Teagasc Data Protection Officer may be contacted at DPO@Teagasc.ie at any stage. A copy of Teagasc’s privacy policy is available here.  The document provides further information about how Teagasc will process your personal data in connection with the study.

    If you need any further information, please contact Santiago De Ponti by email (deponti.santiago@teagasc.ie).

    Please read the following statements and reply yes below if you agree to participate in the study:

    1. I have read and understood the information provided, or it has been read to me. I acknowledge that I am informed about communcation channels if I would have questions about the study so that my questions are answered to my satisfaction.

    2. I consent voluntarily to being a participant in this study.

    3. I understand that even if I agree to participate now, I can withdraw at any time without having to give a reason.

    4. I have been given sufficient information about this study and have read and understood this information.

    5. I understand that all information I provide in this study will be treated confidentially.

    6. I consent to the use of the data in this study to be used in research and in the further development of knowledge related to the economic impact of European Livestock Production Systems.

    7. I understand that personal information collected about me that can identify me will not be shared beyond the study team.

    8. I give permission for the anonymised data I provide to be deposited in an open data repository so it can be shared and used for learning and potentially reused for future research.

  • Do you accept to participate in this study?*

  • Section 1 – General Information and Background

    Please provide some background information about yourself and your organization.
  • What livestock sector do you represent?*

  • Section 2 – Resilience

    In this section, you will be asked to assess different approaches for assessing farm-level resilience. Resilience is defined as the capacity of livestock systems to absorb external shocks and adapt over time. It is commonly divided into three branches: Robustness, Adaptability, and Transformability. We would like to get you opinion on the relevance of ways to assess these branches.

  • Section 2A - Robustness

    Robustness describes the ability of a system to resist or minimise the impact of external shocks. For measuring it, we analyse the evolution over time of an underlying economic indicator.

  • Land Productivity

  • Section 2A.1 Robustness

    How would you assess the relevance of different aspects of land productivity (gross output) in evaluating the robustness of a European livestock system?

  • Relative semi-deviation: A measure of downside risk, semi-deviation measures how much farm performance falls below its average over the analysed period. Instead of looking at all variability (like standard deviation does), it only looks at the values that are lower than the mean.

    For example: If the land productivity of a farm is on average 5000€/ha for a 10-years period, and its relative semi-deviation is 10%, then the land productivity of the bad years of that farm could generally be around 4500 €/ha

  • Volatility of the farm compared to the volatility of the sector. This indicator analyses the variance of the farm’s land productivity versus the variance of the sector’s land productivity.

    A value above 1 means that the land productivity of the farm is more volatile than the average land productivity of the sector. A value below 1 means that the sector is more volatile than the farm.

  • Resistance rate: How much the performance is reduced due to an economic shock; i.e., when land productivity drops from one year to the other, how much it drops.

    For example: a resistance rate of 30% means that land productivity has dropped from 5000 €/ha to 3500 €/ha due to an economic shock

  • Resistance rate relative to the sector: How much the performance is reduced due to an economic shock, compared to the performance of the sector.

    For example: a resistance rate of 30% for the farm versus a resistance rate of 50% for the sector.

  • Frequency of economic disruptions: How many times in the time series land productivity (gross output) has dropped more than 30% from one year to the next?.

    For example: a frequency of 2 implies that land productivity has dropped by more than 30% from one year to the next twice in the time series (e.g. 10 years)

  • Recovery rate:  How much a farm's land productivity recovers after an economic shock.

    Following the previous example, a recovery rate of 80% means that the farm was able to recover to a land productivity of 4700€/ha of the 5000€/ha that was generated before the economic shock.

  • Return on Assets (ROA)

  • Section 2A.2 Robustness

    How would you assess the relevance of each aspects of Return on Assets (ROA, farm income as a function of assets employed) in evaluating the robustness of an European livestock system?

  • Relative semi-deviation: A measure of downside risk, semi-deviation measures how much farm performance falls below its average over the analysed period. Instead of looking at all variability (like standard deviation does), it only looks at the values that are lower than the mean.

    For example: If the ROA of a farm is on average 5% for a 10-years period, and its relative semi-deviation is 10%, then the ROA of the bad years of that farm could generally be around 4.5%

  • Volatility of the farm compared to the volatility of the sector. This indicator analyses the variance of the farm’s ROA versus the variance of the sector’s ROA.

    A value above 1 means that the the ROA of the farm is more volatile than the average ROA of the sector. A value below 1 means that the sector is more volatile than the farm.

  • Resistance rate: How much the performance is reduced due to an economic shock over a period of time (e.g. 10 years) i.e., when ROA drops from one year to the other, how much it drops.

    For example: a resistance rate of 30% means that ROA has dropped from 5% to 3.5% due to an economic shock

     

  • Resistance rate relative to the sector: How much the performance is reduced due to an economic shock, compared to the performance of the sector.

    For example: a resistance rate of 30% for the farm versus a resistance rate of 50% for the sector.

  • Frequency of economic disruptions: How many times in the series ROA has dropped more than 30% from one year to the next over a period of time?

    For example:  a frequency of 2 implies that ROA has dropped more than 30% from one year to the next twice in the time series (e.g. 10 years)

  • Recovery rate:  How much a farm's ROA recovers after an economic shock.

    Following the previous example, how close does the ROA recovery to the ROA in the year before the economic shock.

  • Section 2B Resilience – Adaptability

    Adaptability refers to the flexibility of farm systems to make adjustments to the production system in response to external shocks.  For example, farms that are highly adaptability have the ability to change production systems in the short to medium terms.
  • Rows

  • Section 2C Resilience – Transformability

    Transformability relates to the capacity of farm systems to adopt deeper, more transformational changes while maintaining core functions to deal with external shocks.
  • Rows

  • Section 3 – Risk Management

    In the following questions, we will ask you to assess different aspects for the impact category Risk Management. We understand Risk Management as the Strategies employed by farmers to manage uncertainty and potential risks in their business. Generally, risks are classified in different categories: Production risk, Marketing risk, Financial risk, Personal risk, Institutional risk. Production risk groups those sources of uncertainty that impact on the agricultural livestock production process.
  • Rows

  • Marketing risk focuses on the uncertainty in the value chain, prices of inputs and outputs and market access.

  • Rows

  • Financial risk relates to how the farm is financed.

  • Rows

  • Personal risk groups those sources of risks to individuals and problems with health or relationship that affect the farm.

  • Rows

  • Institutional risk relates to unpredictable changes in policies and regulations that affects agriculture.

  • Rows

  • Thank you very much for completing the survey. We really appreciate your time and patience.

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