Organic and low-input farming practices are considered keystones for the conservation of biodiversity in semi-natural systems. Accordingly, attention to the assessment of the benefits stemming from these activities is increasing in order to provide a solid base for the adoption of...

data contained in the Farm Accounting Data Network (FADN). Analyses covered the first four years following the extension of the European Union in 2004. The adopted units comprised average farms representing 80 regions belonging to eleven countries of EU-15 and four new EU member states....

In order to measure agriculture sustainability, the efficient use of inputs becomes a crucial issue. In this perspective, the analysts concentrate their attention on the total factor productivity index (TFP). In this view, Lynam and Herdt (1989) proposed the TFP as a suitable assessment of the...

In modern agriculture, pesticides feature so prominently in growers’ arsenal to reduce crop damage caused by various pests and diseases. But their indiscriminate use can harm human health and the environment and, eventually, impact agricultural productivity negatively. In an era of an...

The aim of this paper is to set-up the algorithm for determining the degree of workability of the soil, to help the owners of family farms to plan working hours of agricultural machines, i.e. with the machine park management. The plans, which would be made by use of these algorithms and based on...

Herbicides account for approximately 2.2% of total farm expenses and are applied to more than 80% of farmland in the USA. The widespread adoption of herbicides contributed to the increased and relatively cheaper productivity of modern intensively managed agricultural systems in developed...

Organic farming is the most adequate system for the production of food and other agricultural 9 products to sustain ecological and environmental sources. Ecologically produced foods are 10 becoming more and more popular; accordingly, the demand for organic products is growing. In 11 addition to...

This study investigates the optimal agricultural land use allocation and nitrogen application to a representative Japanese farm. The site-specific nature of numerous agri-environmental issues necessitates analysis at a disaggregated level in order to capture the underlying heterogeneity of...

Targeting has become the buzz word in the national agri-environmental policy reform in Finland. It is generally accepted that more environmental benefits could be reaped by implementing environmental protection measures where they have the biggest positive impact. However, considering one of the...