cultivar_22_Final_EN

52 ANALYSIS AND PROSPECTIVE STUDIES CULTIVAR Issue 22 APRIL 2021 user. The aim is to encourage the establishment of non-market PES (financed by the taxpayer) and mar- ket PES (financed by the user), the latter also aim- ing to reduce the budgetary constraints mentioned above. The application of the polluter-pays principle also calls for the taxation of negative externalities from agriculture so that farmers’ choices are based on all costs, both private and public, and not only on pri- vate costs. In order not to hinder competitiveness, this tax would be applied at EU level and its proceeds kept within the agricultural sector to finance other measures, and above all to encourage virtuous practices and discourage bad ones via, for instance, a bonus-malus system for good and bad performers respectively. Taking advantage of the opportunities offered by green finance Budgetary constraints call for increased recourse by agriculture to the financial markets and the development of financial instruments whose pri- mary objective is to encourage the transition of the various forms of agriculture towards multi-perfor- mance, in particular environmental and economic. This transition requires changes in practices and often in production systems, changes that in turn involve organisational modifications within the farm holding, with work that is often harder, more com- plex and more technical. Very often it also requires investments, probably to a greater extent in live- stock farms (buildings) than in farms with perma- nent and annual crops. However, even in the latter, investment needs are not negligible, whether it is about modernising equipment (for instance, replac- ing chemical crop protection by mechanical protec- tion equipment), investing in more diversified and increased value-added outlets and incomes, or pre- cision farming. Finally, on all farms, the transition to multi-performance requires intangible investments linked to new skills to be acquired. A better link is therefore necessary between changes in practices and investments in the framework of multi-year farm projects aiming at multi-perfor- mance, particularly in economic and environmental terms. The creation of guarantee funds (guaranteed by the European public authorities) and/or debt funds that would also be guaranteed by EU author- ities is a lever to be used for this purpose in order to take advantage of the opportunities offered by financial markets (and in par- ticular in the EU framework by the Juncker Plan), and to relax certain constraints of the current funding channels (for example, on the duration of loans or their guarantee mechanism). However, it is not question of funding any kind of project as soon as a farmer or a group of farmers request it. Rather, it is a matter of favouring projects that have a double benefit in the long term, both economically and environmentally. In this per- spective, it is therefore necessary to ascertain, ex ante and along the way, the economic and environ- mental impacts of investment projects and changes in practices. This impact analysis will be facilitated by the above-mentioned shift from an obligation of means to an obligation of results, which requires a comprehensive and reliable information system. The application of digital technology and big data to agriculture should facilitate the implementation of such an information system. Green finance is now booming. Agriculture should not be left out of this opportunity. Basing the development of the CAP environmental component on the notion of services rendered and disservices avoided The inclusion of environmental objectives in the CAP, and more generally in public policies, via the notion of services, disservices, packages of services and dis- services, and payments for environmental services, is auspicious, particularly because it may make it possible to base instruments on services provided and disservices reduced or avoided. It thus make it A better link is necessary between changes in practices and investments in the framework of multi-year farm projects aiming at multi-performance, particularly in economic and environmental terms.