Using a crop sequence typology to assess agri-environmental policies for crop diversification

This file is a discussion paper on "Using a crop sequence typology to assess agri-environmental policies for crop diversification", linked to WP 3 activities of the BrightSpace project. Crop diversity offers numerous benefits and is therefore promoted through various measures under the EU Common Agricultural Policy, amongst others, being part of the Conditionality to receive direct payments. We apply an established crop sequence typology to analyze the past Conditionality of crop diversity in a German case study and the opportunity costs of possible future diversification. Furthermore, our results provide insights into the usefulness of applying a complex crop sequence typology for policy assessments. Results show a high heterogeneity regarding crop diversity, with the Northern livestock production region of the study area as a hotspot of non-diverse sequences. The Conditionality causes maize monoculture to decrease further. Its importance is negligible, however, as it affects only around 1.19% of the analyzed land. Furthermore, sequences with one to three different crops introduce additional crops or transitions. Opportunity costs for implementing more diverse sequences vary widely. We estimate a range of opportunity costs of -77.21 to 388.94 Euro ha-1a-1 for having at least three crops present and of -71.39 to 134.25 Euro ha-1a-1 for having at least one spring-sown and one leaf crop in the rotation, when excluding fields with the upper and lower 5% of costs. Our findings offer valuable insights for designing crop diversity measures under the future Common Agricultural Policy, questioning current uniform compensation mechanisms. The crop sequence typology allows for evaluating diversity changes in the context of the overall diversity and serves as a target framework, which is beneficial in ex-ante assessments. --------------- Funding acknowledgement Funded by the European Union. Grant Agreement No. 101060075. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. UK Research and Innovation Project Code: 10047415 https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10047415 This work is further also funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2070 – 390732324 (PhenoRob). Citation Kuhn, T., Adenäuer, L., Egenolf, K., Gömann, H., Pahmeyer, C., Storm, H. (2026): Using a crop sequence typology to assess agri-environmental policies for crop diversification. Discussion paper, 10.10.5281/zenodo.18740378. Legal notice This document was produced under the terms and conditions of Grant Agreement No. 101060075 for the European Commission. It does not necessary reflect the view of the European Union and in no way anticipates the Commission’s future policy in this area. The European Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the reuse of this publication. © BrightSpace, 2026 The reuse of this document is authorised under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CCBY 4.0) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that reuse is allowed provided appropriate credit is given and any changes are indicated. For any use or reproduction of elements that are not owned by the BrightSpace consortium, permission may need to be sought directly from the respective right holders. Project information BrightSpace Horizon Europe project Grant Agreement No. 101060075 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101060075 CALL: Innovative governance, environmental observations and digital solutions in support of the Green Deal WORK PROGRAMME Topic ID: HORIZON-CL6-2021-GOVERNANCE-01-12 EU agriculture within a safe and just operating space and planetary boundaries BrightSpace Project coordination: Wageningen Economic Research, The Hague, NL Contact: brightspace.wser@wur.nl | Website: www.brightspace-project.eu Project duration: 1 November 2022 – 31 October 2027