Agricultural production is facing high requirements on nutrient runoff reduction. Furthermore, the reductions should by done efficiently. For instance, the European Water Framework Directive calls for cost-effectiveness from schemes of measures to fulfill the target of good water quality in...

The scattering of nature areas in the Netherlands and the increased demand for nature lead to a governmental project in 1990 to complete a network of nature favouring areas, the ecological main structure, in 2018. The financial and economic costs and benefits of this project were analysed....

A comprehensive quantification of biodiversity in farming systems would require a very significant amount of work (and funds) even for a small area. Therefore, biodiversity indicators are needed to solve the problem of the measurement feasibility. Even though the issue of cost and effectiveness...

The economic calculations carried out prior to the Plan for the Aquatic Environment III included a comparison of regulation systems aimed at reducing nitrogen leaching, analyses of measures for reducing phosphorus losses and estimation of administrative costs. The conclusions were that taxation...

Rational land use decisions of private landowners are analysed in the framework of Common Agricultural Policy and other public support schemes effective in Finland in 2003. Net present values are computed for a marginal hectare of a typical Finnish farm. Three alternative land uses are...

Biomass based energy production has attained a significant market share within the developing renewable energy market. In comparison to alternative renewable energy sources, biomass has several special features: it is not inexhaustible in the short term (limitation of arable land) and it is not...

The agronomic characteristics of willow and miscanthus make these crops highly susceptible to risk. This is particularly true in a country such as Ireland which has limited experience in the production of these crops. Issues such as soil and climate suitability have as yet to be resolved. The...

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the jointness between agricultural production and ecosystem services using a spatial explicit economic-ecological programming model. Thereby, the consideration of non-agricultural competitors in the provision of ecosystem services allows a simultaneous...

Bioenergy has been politically promoted as a means to mitigate air pollution, climate change, and scarcity of fossil energy sources. This study addresses the question whether increased agricultural incomes from bioenergy production will improve food security despite increasing food prices. We...

The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of crude oil prices on the EU-27 agricultural sector in an era when the biofuels sector is expanding because of the policy initiatives taken by the EU Commission and member states. To this end, first a baseline is set up for the EU-27 ethanol,...