The contribution of the agricultural sector to climate change is gaining more and more visibility and therewith, interest is growing on policy options to induce agricultural GHG mitigation. However, so far only little is known about the different impacts of specific policies on GHG mitigation on...

Both WTO and the EU use a “Rule of additional costs†(RAC) to restrict payments for ecological services in agriculture in order to prevent trade distortions. We assess this rule in the light of modern economic theory. It is shown that the RAC is efficient, if conventional agriculture...

The widespread use of pesticides in agriculture provides a particularly complex pattern of multidimensional negative side-effects, ranging from food safety related effects to the deterioration of farmland ecosystems. The assessment of the economic implications of such negative processes is...

Replaced with revised version of paper 11/18/08.

The aim of this paper is to carry out a comparative analysis of alternative methods on constructing composite indicators to measure global sustainability of the agricultural sector. This comparison is implemented empirically on the irrigated agriculture of the Duero basin (Spain) as a case...

Our optimal control model identifies economic reasons as to why farmland bird populations have dramatically declined in modern agricultural landscapes. By integrating recreational wildlife values into farm level decision-making on arable crop choice and herbicide use, we derive those economic...

Proposals of the European Commission stress the future importance of agri-environmental payments within the rural development policy of the European Union. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss a model for choice for plant species protection contracts in the Netherlands. The model...

Following the decoupling of the cotton subsidies in 2006 the production system has become less intensive in input usage with an average yield reduction of 40 per cent. Albeit the farm income has not been reduced, the reform has had a negative effect on the economy of some rural areas of Southern...

This paper examines the factors affecting farmer's participation in an agri-environmental scheme (AES) in marginal areas implying few changes in the traditional farm management (environmental fallow). The enrolment theoretical micro-economic model reveals that farmers` (extrinsic) factors as...