Titterington F.M.1, Báldi A.2, Lellei-Kovacs E.2, Newell-Price J.P.3, Sagoo L.3, Aubry A.1, McConnell D.1, Patterson D.1, Rankin J.4, Annett N.4, Brown S.4, Abdalla M.5, Smith P.5, Bufe C.6, Almedia R.7, Bausson C.8, Hejduk S.9 and Lively F.1
1Agri Food and Biosciences Institute, Large Park, Hillsborough, BT26 6ET, UK; 2Centre for Ecological Research, Alkotmány u 2-4 Vácrátót, Hungary; 3Spring Lodge, 172 Chester Road, Helsby, WA6 0AR, UK; 4AgriSearch, Innovation Centre Large Park, Hillsborough, BT26 6DR, United Kingdom; 5Institute of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, United Kingdom; 6Wageningen Plant Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708PB Wageningen, the Netherlands; 7CONSULAI, Rua da Junqueira, Lisbon, Portugal, 8La Chambre Régionale d’Agriculture de Normandie, 6 rue des Roquemonts Caen Cedex 4, France; 9Mendel University, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Abstract
The existence and management of permanent grassland (PG) is key to the delivery of multiple ecosystem services (ES) across Europe. The development of a farm-level decision support tool (DST) is being undertaken as part of the EU-H2020 project ‘SUPER-G’ to help inform farmers’ decision process. The aim of the tool is to provide the farmer (user of the tool) with an overview of the various ES delivered through the management of PG within their farm. A multi-actor approach, with discussions between farmers, landowners and their advisers, non-governmental organizations and researchers was undertaken to develop the tool. The user needs to answer a series of questions which will calculate values for six ES. These ES indicators are then combined using simple additive weighting to provide the user with scores for six ES. This paper assesses the farmer perception of currently available tools and introduces the proposed alternative tool. Feedback from farmers revealed current tools did not fulfil requirements, and there was appetite for a new ES tool. The new tool was demonstrated to a working group of farmers and was found to provide useful, intuitive feedback on farm ES. The working groups’ feedback will be integrated into the building of the tool.
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