The Future of Grasslands and Beef Cattle in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Grasslands received policy attention in the Czech Republic only just fifteen years ago, when they were threatened to be abandoned in the economic transition process. The supports to farming on grasslands have grown gradually, particularly after the EU accession. The policy followed the notion of jointness between grassland management and beef cattle raising and conditioned Agri-environmental (AE) and Less Favoured Areas (LFA) payments by a minimum livestock density. There are many reasons why the current policy will change in the new programme period. This paper attempts to assess the impact of the envisaged changes on grassland maintenance. It is showed that overall future supports to farming will be sufficient to keep positive profit on grassland farms, however the structure of supports might be less appropriate to the actual objectives of grassland protection and hence, there is a threat of policy failure in the end.