Benchmarking Eco-Efficiency and Footprints of Dutch Agriculture in European Context and Implications for Policies for Climate and Environment

Grinsven, Hans van; Eerdt, M.M. van; Westhoek, H.; Kruitwagen, S.

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2019.00013

Cited by 47 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In the described research, we noticed the reverse tendency, which was also confirmed in the literature, i.e., EE increased with increased farm area [10,41]. However, it should be taken into account that the small-and medium-sized family farms that were analysed generally have extensive management, in contrast to large-scale farms, which have intensive management and thus create stronger environmental pressure [44]. Some researchers pointed out that not only small-and medium-sized family farms, as in this study, but also farms with strong economic power are characterised by increased eco-efficiency, but this does not mean that these farms exert less absolute pressure on the environment [45].…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 83%

“…The analyses carried out in five European countries covering small-and medium-sized family farms allowed us to conclude that eco-efficiency increased with increased farm area, and it should be assumed that the increase in EE had a limited value, after which, it decreased. This suggestion can be substantiated by literature reports on the significant environmental pressure caused by large-scale farms [44].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

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Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency: Example of Small- and Medium-Sized Family Farms in Selected European Countries

Polcyn

2021

Sustainability

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Small- and medium-sized family farms are places to live and sources of income for about half of the population. The aim of this analysis was to determine the relationship between eco-efficiency and human capital efficiency on small- and medium-sized family farms. The analysis was carried out using an economic measure (value of agricultural production per work hour calculated per hectare) and two synthetic measures (human capital and environmental measures). The synthetic measures were determined using the TOPSIS-CRITIC method by defining weights for variables used in the measures. The analysis covered five countries: Lithuania (960 farms), Moldavia (532 farms), Poland (696 farms), Romania (872 farms) and Serbia (524 farms). All of these countries are characterised by a high fragmentation of agricultural holdings. The analysis allowed us to formulate the following conclusions: eco-efficiency and human capital efficiency indices increased with area for small- and medium-sized family farms. An increase in the eco-efficiency index with an increase in farm area suggests that the smaller the farm area, the more extensive the agricultural production that was carried out. In addition, an increase in human capital efficiency with an increase in farm area indicates that there was inefficiency in the utilisation of human capital resources on the agricultural farms studied.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency: Example of Small- and Medium-Sized Family Farms in Selected European Countries

Polcyn

2021

Sustainability

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“…The analyses carried out in five European countries covering small and mediumsized family farms allow us to conclude that Eco-Efficiency increases with the area of the farm, and it should be assumed that the increase in EE has a limit value, after which EE decreases. This suggestion can be substantiated by literature reports on the significant environmental pressure caused by large-scale farms [44]. It was also found that HCE increases with EE, this can be explained by the accumulation of human capital in small farms which greatly exceeds the capacity to use it, resulting in low HCE in small farms and a gradual increase in this indicator in farms with a larger area (Figure 1).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…EE increases with an increase in the area of farms [10,41]. However, it should be taken into account that the small and medium-sized family farms that were analysed are generally farms with extensive management, in contrast to large-scale farms, which have intensive management and thus create strong environmental pressure [44]. Some researchers point out that not only small and medium-sized family farms, as in this study, but also farms with high economic power are characterised by an increase in eco-efficiency, but this does not mean that these farms show lower absolute pressure on the environment [45].…”

Section: Table 3 Contrasts Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency on the Example of Small and Medium-Sized Family Farms in the Selected European Countries

Polcyn¹

2021

Preprint

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Small and medium-sized family farms are the place of life and source of income for about half of the population. The aim of the analysis was to determine the relationship between Eco-Efficiency, Human Capital Efficiency in small and medium-sized family farms. The analyses were carried out using an economic measure (value of agricultural production per work hour calculated per 1 ha) and synthetic measures: human capital and environmental measures. The synthetic measures were determined using the CRITIC-TOPSIS method by defining weights for variables used in the synthetic measures. The analyses covered five countries, namely: Lithuania (960 farms), Moldova (532 farms), Poland (696 farms), Romania (872 farms), and Serbia (524 farms). All the countries qualified for analysis are characterised by a high fragmentation of agricultural holdings. The analyses carried out allowed us to formulate the following conclusions: the Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency indexes increase with area for small and medium-sized family agricultural farms. An increase in the Eco-Efficiency index with an increase in farm area leads to a suspicion that the smaller the farm area is, the more extensive the agricultural production being carried out. In addition, an increase in human capital efficiency with an increase in the area of a farm indicates that there is inefficiency in the utilisation of human capital resources in the agricultural farms studied.

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“…Practices reducing global impacts have to go together with measures that guarantee local environmental quality (Garnier et al, ). Thus, both GHG emission per kg of product and nitrate leaching must be considered (Van Grinsven, ). The contrasting effect of the scenarios on nitrate leaching highlights the relevance of management practices to mitigate the negative local effect on water quality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated management for sustainable cropping systems: Looking beyond the greenhouse balance at the field scale

Quemada

Lassaletta

Leip

et al. 2020

Global Change Biology

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Cover crops (CC) promote the accumulation of soil organic carbon (SOC), which provides multiple benefits to agro‐ecosystems. However, additional nitrogen (N) inputs into the soil could offset the CO2 mitigation potential due to increasing N2O emissions. Integrated management approaches use organic and synthetic fertilizers to maximize yields while minimizing impacts by crop sequencing adapted to local conditions. The goal of this work was to test whether integrated management, centered on CC adoption, has the potential to maximize SOC stocks without increasing the soil greenhouse gas (GHG) net flux and other agro‐environmental impacts such as nitrate leaching. To this purpose, we ran the DayCent bio‐geochemistry model on 8,554 soil sampling locations across the European Union. We found that soil N2O emissions could be limited with simple crop sequencing rules, such as switching from leguminous to grass CC when the GHG flux was positive (source). Additional reductions of synthetic fertilizers applications are possible through better accounting for N available in green manures and from mineralization of soil reservoirs while maintaining cash crop yields. Therefore, our results suggest that a CC integrated management approach can maximize the agro‐environmental performance of cropping systems while reducing environmental trade‐offs.

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Benchmarking Eco-Efficiency and Footprints of Dutch Agriculture in European Context and Implications for Policies for Climate and Environment

Cited by 47 publications

References 24 publications

Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency: Example of Small- and Medium-Sized Family Farms in Selected European Countries

Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency: Example of Small- and Medium-Sized Family Farms in Selected European Countries

Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency on the Example of Small and Medium-Sized Family Farms in the Selected European Countries

Integrated management for sustainable cropping systems: Looking beyond the greenhouse balance at the field scale

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