Agriculture in dry land Mediterranean areas faces considerable level of production risk as result of the unpredictable weather. Governmental income stabilisation instruments have had a major impact on Mediterranean farms in changing land allocation, and changing income levels and variability....

Sustainable agriculture implies the exploitation of natural resources now, without compromising the natural resources stocks for the future generations. In the context of the paper, agricultural sustainability takes place at the interface between agriculture and the environment. The focus is on...

A erosão dos solos é um problema importante e a desertificação está a aumentar na região Mediterrânica. Os sistemas produtivos baseados na gestão tradicional dos cereais de Inverno, olivais e vinhas podem agravar a degradação dos solos. Para estes sistemas agrícolas, o solo pode ser...

The study describes the evolution, since the Portuguese accession to the European Community, in 1986, of the different types of farm holdings (household-farms, corporations, co-operatives and other legal forms), using the Agricultural Census data. In addition, the experience of agricultural...

The main purpose of this paper is evaluating the competitiveness of the Alqueva irrigation project in the Alentejo region, South of Portugal. This study was based on three representative farms which were selected from one farm sample of the Monte Novo irrigation scheme. For each farm, it was...

This study aims to characterise the evolution of vineyard production, to measure the levels of technical efficiency, and to relate these with farmers and farms attributes. The sample used is composed of a panel of vineyard farms, for the period 2000-2005, belonging to Portuguese Alentejo region....

In this paper, the prescriptive capacity of different types of positive mathematical programming models applied to the Alentejo agricultural sector is analysed. Model results are compared for 2000 and 2004 agricultural price and subsidies scenarios, regarding optimal combination of activities....

Neste artigo avalia-se a capacidade de calibração e de prescrição de resultados de um modelo de oferta agrícola da Região Alentejo. A capacidade de calibração é analisada para o regime de preços e de ajudas agrícolas em vigor no ano 2000, comparando os resultados de diferentes formas...

Este estudo teve como objectivos caracterizar e analisar a evolução, medir os níveis de eficiência técnica e relacionar esta com alguns atributos dos agricultores e das explorações, de uma amostra de explorações vitícolas pertencentes à região Alentejo. Os atributos considerados...

Every year thousands of hectares of forest are destructed as a result of the practice of swidden agriculture, shifting cultivation or "slush and burn" causing changes in forest ecosystems. In Timor-Leste shifting cultivation is still practiced nowadays as a form of subsistence agriculture. The...