The latest reform of the CAP, CAP towards 2020, opens up the possibility to arrange agri-environmental service provision via contracting groups of farmers, rather than contracting individual farmers. The Dutch government decided to fully switch to a farmer group service provision system in 2016....

The allocation of variable inputs among crops is a common problem in applied studies that use farm accountancy data. Standard farm accounting information is typically restricted to aggregate or whole-farm input expenditures; there are usually no details on how these expenditures are split among...

The decoupling of direct payments, caused by the introduction of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS), has generated an incentive for farmers to decrease the production of cereals, oilseeds and protein crops (COP) and (because of the reform of sugar CMO) sugar beet. In some cases, this has also...

Replaced with revised version of paper 02/22/08.

The impact of increased consumption of biofuels on agricultural markets has already been substantial, and will increase further as countries around the world seek to expand the proportion of their energy that they get from renewable sources. Models of the agricultural sector must therefore...

Agri-food chains are complex systems involving multiple multifaceted firms usually working together within specific industry sectors (e.g. grains, beef, wool, dairy) to satisfy an increasingly globalised market demand for high value food products. In so doing, the groupings of companies involved...

Since 1992, the European Union protects names of regional foods as Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) or Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). Besides direct benefits such as higher prices or the protection from unfair competition, researchers and rural development agents emphasize the...

Because objectives influence behavior, there should be thoughtfulness of economists on stating objective functions. In contrast, most farm economists work with the assertion that farmers maximize income. A major question is, are there alternatives? It is the aim of this paper to get a deeper...

This paper focuses on the notion of localised agricultural and agro-food system as unit of analysis (LAFS). LAFSs appear to be as quite resilient and dynamic systems. As we will see, the analysis of exports in the last years can provide enough evidence of their strong resilience and capability...