In their continuous quest for ecologic improvements, private voluntary certification initiatives might undermine the willingness to continue of the participating farmers. In this research, the ecologic contribution and the farmers’ acceptance of changing the pesticide policy of a private...

The paper discusses an ex ante evaluation of the derogation on the Nitrates Directive for Flanders, Belgium, which is a case of intensive but highly productive livestock areas. The aim is to develop an accurate simulation model to detect small differences in manure surpluses caused by changes of...

In intensive animal husbandry areas surface water N and P concentrations often remain too high. The Water Framework Directive calls for additional nutrient emission abatement measures. Therefore, costs and benefits for possible agricultural measures in Flanders were first analysed in terms of...

In 2005, 30% of the Flemish farms faced a manure excess, while at aggregated level still 9.7% of the emission rights were unused. This means that, despite the various possibilities, Flemish farmers do not succeed in an effective exchange of manure between farms. In current paper is shown how...

This poster aims at describing different groups of technology use within a farm population and at delivering realistic prognoses of their future status as input for sector modeling. This because sector models are in many cases not based on reasonable technological progress estimations or too...

Greenhouse horticulture can play a major role in Flemish rural development, regional economy and employment. However, the sector deals with structural problems. Scale increase of greenhouse firms is required for economic reasons, but high investments and risks make this quasi unsupportable for...

This paper evaluated diversified rural tourism activities from the perspectives of economic viability and endogenous utilization of rural resources and investigated labour productivity. First, we presented a conceptual framework on how to evaluate economic viability and the endogenous...

The paper deals with the political economy determinants of EU agri-environmental measures (AEMs) applied by 59 regional/country units, during the 2001-2004 period. Five different groups of determinants, spanning from positive and negative externalities to political institutions, are highlighted...

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...