Nutrient emissions from agricultural land are now widely recognized as one of the key contributors to poor water quality in local lakes, rivers and streams. Nutrient trading has been suggested as a regulatory tool to improve and protect water quality. However, farmers’ attitudes suggest that...

We consider two approaches to quantify New Zealand farmers’ ability to mitigate their farm’s environmental impact: The construction of marginal abatement cost curves and improvements in farm management practices. Marginal abatement cost curves can be constructed by combining information on...

Among the green lobby and the general public there is urgency for agriculture to clean up its act on environmental issues. Increased intensification of land use and in particular dairying has led to environmental spill-overs that the public is no longer willing to tolerate. Agriculture is in...