An investigation into the type of farmer who chose to participate in Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) and the role of institutional change in influencing scheme effectiveness

This paper examines the voluntary aspect of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) in Ireland by modelling the type of farmer who chose to participate in the agri-environment programme from 1995 to 2010. The impact of changing scheme payment rates and organic nitrogen restrictions on scheme uptake are also examined. In order to examine some of the heterogeneity of variable influence on participation across the different phases of REPS, separate models for each of the four phases were ran (one for a reference year in each phase). Results from the random effects model show that the type of farmer who was most likely to participate in REPS over time had an extensive farm system, low income and spent more hours working on-farm than their non-REPS counterparts. Single year logit model results were compared to the random effects panel logit model for the entire sample period. The results suggest that the individual year models do a better job in demonstrating how farmers responded to contractual changes in the scheme over time (in terms of their participation decision) compared to the panel model.