Do farmers provide agri-environmental services efficiently? An economic analysis

Agricultural land use does not only concern farmers, but also has a large number of social and environmental effects. Consequently, it is to be assumed that farmers have to use financial resources as well as labour in order to provide these services. Using the nonparametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we calculated the economic as well as the ecological efficiencies of farms and examined whether farms are able to succeed in combining ecological and economic efficiency. In addition to this analysis, we studied the driving factors of the respective efficiencies. The study was carried out in four typical production regions in Bavaria which vary in their proportions of grassland as well as their yield potential; thus, the study regions reflect a gradient of agricultural land use which is typical for Southern Germany. In all regions, a farm survey was conducted covering a total of 122 farmers.