Can public policies tackle the phosphorus paradox in pig farming? The case of Po-valley and Lower Saxony

P management in agriculture is raising the attention of policy makers as well as of researchers. While the former aims at designing proper P related policy measures to restrict the P load into water, the second search for technical innovation to increase the efficiency of use of P contained in the livestock diet. Our research aims at analysing the impact of two P-related policies, limiting the P surplus application to 0 kg P/ha/year and to 4.35 kg P/ha/year respectively, on farmers’ technical decisions and on their gross margin. We focus on pig fattening farms in two highly dense livestock regions, Po-valley in Italy and Lower Saxony in Germany, and simulate alternative strategies the farm can adopt to comply with the two policies.