Economic and environmental linear optimization model of crop production in selected regions of Slovakia

Abstract

Abstract For the agricultural industry in Slovakia, the dominating sector is crop production. The major part of arable land is devoted to the cultivation of cereals (57%), feed crops (20%) and industry crops (19%).The aim of this paper is to model the distribution of crop management practices in selected regions of Slovakia and identify the net return for four selected crops in these regions. We use integrated modelling framework which incorporates bio-physical and economic data to identify opportunity costs of agricultural production choices. We delineate homogenous response units (HRU) and aggregate them on regional level as the model is constrained by land endowment in particular region. The results suggest that highest yields and thus high returns are achieved in case of management practice with high nitrogen input and irrigation. The high input management causes environmental pressures on soils, therefore its enforcement in regions is not desirable. The solution might appear in policy premiums for low input management practices.