Farmers' decisions about conversion to organic farming are analyzed with a structural equation model. The Theory of Planned Behavior (ToPB), one of the prominent theories in the social psychology, is used as the theoretical basis of this study. Though ToPB is a well-defined theory, it is static...

The research objective is to shed light on the structural adjustment process of farming enterprises in Switzerland. To this end, an analytical tool is developed which allows us to identify the most important influencing factors and to estimate in advance their effects on the structural...

Agriculture is responsible for a large share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially for methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Applying a bio-economic whole-farm model, we assessed five GHG mitigation options on their economic suitability to reduce emissions from grassland-based...

The switch from market-support to direct payments in Switzerland had impacts on the income distribution among farmers. In this paper, the distributional effect of the switch as a whole and of the different kinds of direct payments are elaborated through a presentation of different decomposed...

Sustainable development is both a global and local challenge to managing change. It requires integrating social, ecological and economic objectives and system requirements that are generally expressed in terms of maintaining some suitably defined aggregates of social, ecological and economic...

This paper analyzes the evolution of Swiss farm productivity during the implementation of environmental policy reforms. We employ a production model formulation with technology parameters defined as the functions of subsidies, as well as individual farm characteristics. Our estimates for two...

Farmers' intentions about conversion to particularly animal-friendly stabling system (PAFS) are analyzed with a structural equation model. The Theory of Planned Behavior (ToPB, Ajzen 1985) is used as the theoretical basis of this study. Though ToPB is a well-defined theory, it is static rather...

The improvement of the sustainable performance of the agricultural sector is a priority of the Swiss agricultural policy. The sustainability of Swiss dairy farms located in the mountainous area might be critical as many of them show a weak performance in the use of their economic and/or social...

Environmental impacts of agricultural production, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen emissions, are of major concern for scientists and policy makers throughout the world. Global agricultural activities account for about 60% of nitrous oxide and about 50% of methane emissions. From a...

National public debates on sustainable agriculture are often framed by the respective attitudes and interests of the dominant stakeholders involved. The objective of this study is to analyse the public debates on sustainable agriculture in Switzerland and New Zealand by means of two stakeholder...