Ireland is currently importing 90 percent of its energy. The burning of domestically produced nonrenewable peat provides 4.9 percent of Ireland’s total primary energy supply while renewable biomass crops currently account for only 1 percent of the domestically produced energy supply. The Irish...

Household food consumption data is used to estimate likely changes in diet under healthy eating guidelines, and the consequences this would have on the agricultural sector in England and Wales. The first step entails imposing nutrient restrictions on food consumption following dietary...

The paper analyses the land use behaviour of Scottish land managers and the factors influencing it in the current context of the EU rural land use policies. The analysis employs a frequently used behavioural economics method, namely structural equation modelling (SEM). Central to the empirical...

Land improvements with long pay-back periods are often delayed on leased agricultural land, resulting in social costs through land degradation, decreased land productivity and environmental problems. An important question is thus how landowners would respond to regulations and mandates...

We show that whether intensive or extensive farming is most beneficial to biodiversity depends on the equilibrium of agricultural markets. With higher production costs, extensive farming tends to be more beneficial to biodiversity than intensive farming, except when there is a very high degree...

The European farm model is aimed at stimulating and facilitating multifunctional agriculture. This paper presents the results of research into the factors determining the adoption of multifunctional activities. In the paper survey results from 495 farms, spread all over the Netherlands, were...

The importance of agriculture is decreasing all over the world. The aim of the paper is to compare the ownership structure and land use in some selected former Central and Eastern European countries. The property structure and land use is in dichotomy, the production is performed simultaneously...

The structure of land estates and farm-sizes are the basis of a competitive agricultural production, hence these questions belong to the evergreen themes both of theory and practice also on international level. In Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), the change of political and...

This contribution discusses assets and limits of the local/territorial level as a core level to improve the sustainability of agriculture. The focus is on the issue of rural landscape maintenance through farming. Some possible institutional solutions to overcome the difficulties of family farms...

In this paper we investigate the impacts of abolishing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the post-2013 European Union (EU) financial perspective and the impacts of re-investing the released funds on research and development (R&D). We apply a linked system of models to analyze the impacts...