The concept of sustainability is one of the forefront issues in global agricultural production at present, given mounting pressure to increase food production in both a socially responsible and environmentally friendly way. From an Irish perspective the sustainable intensification of agriculture...

Developing the capacity to assess and chart trends in the sustainability of farming and food production is becoming increasingly more important as agriculture strives to produce more food while minimising the risk to the natural environment. The multi-faceted nature of sustainability is...

The application of artificial fertiliser continues to be a vital component of the production system on the bulk of Irish farms, accounting for approximately nine percent of total costs on dairy and cattle farms (Hennessy et al. 2011). However, the average application of artificial nitrogen...

The adoption and possible abandonment of organic farming has yet received little attention in the literature. As time plays an important role in explaining farming decisions, a dynamic econometric framework, namely duration analysis, is used. The probability of entry to and exit of the organic...

The Doha round of WTO negotiations has been ongoing since 2001. In the summer of 2008 the negotiations on the modalities for a new WTO agriculture agreement collapsed when seemingly on the verge of a successful conclusion. In this paper we present quantitative analysis of the impact of a new WTO...

As part of its continuing commitment to address the causes of climate change, the EU has agreed reduction targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be achieved by 2020. In the case of Ireland the target is a reduction of 20 percent relative to the 2005 level. Agriculture is a major source of...