Utilised Agricultural Area Research Articles

Efficiency of the EU Environmental Policy in Struggling with Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5): How Agriculture Makes a Difference?

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions are an important global issue as air pollutants lead to approximately 7 million deaths per year (World Health Organization). In an attempt to combat this global threat, countries in the European Union (EU) allocate relatively large funds for environmental policies. The main goal of this paper is to assess the long-term efficiency of the EU countries’ environmental policy in reducing the pressure of particulates pollution on the natural environment. For this purpose, multilevel panel regression models based on seminal within–between specification are used. The models are run for a panel of 25 EU countries for the years 2004–2016. In the investigations, we tried to capture the effect of the share of utilized agricultural area (UAA) in non-urban areas of the analyzed countries, as it may potentially influence policy efficiency. It was found that environmental spending in all main categories (pollution abatement, biodiversity, R&D, and environmental protection) had a significant impact on decreasing pollution pressure; however, the policy was more efficient in countries which had a lower share of UAA in their non-urban areas. The study emphasized that the impact of “pollution abatement” expenditure may be underestimated in basic panel models.

Limiting Factors that Influence the Formation of Producer Groups in the South-East Region of Romania: A Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)

The fragmentation of the Agricultural Real Estate in Romania, which is due to the lack of vision regarding the retrocession of the land and to the ineffective measures for reparcelling farmland, manifests by the existence of a record number of about 3422 million farms in Romania, of which about 92% have a utilized agricultural area (UAA) below 5 ha. The Romanian agricultural sector possesses about 30% of the total European farms but contributes only 3% to the total EU agricultural production. The association of local agricultural producers may be an alternative to reparcelling farmland on a short-term basis in order to reduce the fragmentation degree and increase the competitiveness of the national agricultural sector. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 25 active groups of agricultural producers are registered in the South-East Region in 2018, where these associative entities have been recorded to have a low degree of viability. The paper proposes an analysis on the farmers’ motivation regarding the access to/exit from a form of agricultural association and the identification of some alternatives for increasing the viability of the associative forms in the agricultural sector in the South-East of Romania. In this respect, a study was carried out on a sample of 16 entities that gave up their status of producer groups in the analyzed region in 2011–2018. The Fuzzy Set Quantitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) Qualitative analysis method was applied, which identified the main influence factors that have led to the disappearance of this associative form. We consider this study relevant for drawing attention to the main obstacles that Romanian farmers face in joining an associative form. The study has shown that mainly the factors directly influenced by government policies have led to the withdrawal of a relatively large number of producers from producer groups in the studied region.

ECO-EFFICIENCY IN AGRICULTURE OF EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES

The objective of the paper is to estimate efficiency and eco-efficiency of agriculture in 24 EU Member States from 2006 to 2015. In the study, a panel of yearly aggregated data [Eurostat 2018] of the total value of agricultural goods output (AGO), labour (AWU), utilised agricultural area (UAA), fertilisers N, P, K (NPK) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of agriculture of selected EU Member States were used. The directional distance functions (DDF) approach both with and without undesirable output (GHG emission) were employed. Malmquist-Luenberger indices were applied to measure productivity changes and their decomposition to identify sources of these changes. GHG emission reduction per agricultural output in all EU MS was observed. Significant growth of GHG per UAA occurred especially in the OMS: The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, France, while an increase of GHG per UAA was less pronounced in Bulgaria, Latvia, Hungary (NMS). The highest efficiency and eco-efficiency in agricultural production over 2006-2015 was reached by the Netherlands and Denmark. The most inefficient and eco-inefficient agriculture was noted in the agriculture of Ireland and Finland (OMS). The highest inefficiency among NMS was detected in the agriculture of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia, while the most eco-inefficient were Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Improvement of productivity and eco-productivity due to technological improvement occurred in all 24 EU MS. Agricultural technical eco-efficiency fell in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Portugal and Hungary.

Does a Good Concentration Involve Necessarily a Better Use of the Production Factors?

Abstract The paper was based on the idea that important changes have been occurred in the last years in the Romanian agriculture. Labour is one of the most important production factor in rural area and when this is linked to the agriculture sector, becomes a strategic issue. Land as one of the most limited resources in agriculture plays also an important role, its degree of concentration determining the structure of the farms system. The purpose of the study was to explore, by means of the Gini coefficient, whether the labour, in different forms (paid, unpaid labour) follows a similar degree of concentration as the Total Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) and the farm output. The datasets used for the paper were the FADN public database (period 2007-2015) and the Tempo online dataset from Romanian National Institute of Statistics. The findings of this analyse were that paid labour, unpaid labour and the output followed a decreased trend of concentration and become during the analysed period, more equal distributed, while the area tends to have more unequal distribution, so the large farms tends to become larger.

CONDITION AND AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT OF FARMS WITH SLAUGHTER CATTLE

The goal of the study was to assess the effectiveness and competitiveness of farms breeding slaughter cattle in Poland and in other selected countries. The study covered farms from Poland, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and France. The selection of countries was deliberate. The research materials are based on data from farms covered by the monitoring of the Polish and European FADN. The index and comparative method was used in the assessment of the surveyed farms. An ability to compete was demonstrated by medium-sized Polish farms keeping over 50 livestock units of cattle per one holding and using 55 hectares of utilised agricultural area (UAA) and very large German farms keeping 480 livestock units of cattle and using 417 ha. Payments were the main source of farm income. Their share in the farm income was: 83% (Polish) and 166% (German) respectively.

Regional Variation in Changes in Agricultural Production in Poland in the Context of Environmental Impact

Abstract Subject and purpose of work: Agricultural production activity brings about specific environmental effects. The aim of the study was to analyse changes in agricultural production in regions of Poland (NUTS-2) in the context of environmental impact using the gross nitrogen balance. Materials and methods: The analysis covered the medium-term perspective of 2001-2016. The primary source of information was statistical data of the Polish Central Statistical Office (Główny Urząd Statystyczny - GUS). Results: During the 2002-2004 period, the balance of gross nitrogen balance in Poland did not change and amounted to an average of 47.5 kg N∙ha-1 UAA (Utilized Agricultural Area). The progressive extensification of plant production in the following provinces: Slaskie, Malopolskie, Podkarpackie and Swietokrzyskie, is accompanied by a rapid reduction in the stocking density of livestock. Conclusions: The nitrogen balance, highly differentiated regionally, just as its individual elements, show the potential differentiation scale of the agricultural impact on the state of the environment. Very high balance surpluses occurring in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lodzkie and Wielkopolskie provinces may indicate high environmental pressure from the agricultural production.

Using the French LPIS database to highlight farm area dynamics: The case study of the Niort Plain

Decreases in the number of farms over the last decade have led to an increase in mean farm size and a fragmentation of the land on the remaining farms. These changes can influence the management of cropping systems by farmers, generally leading to a decrease in crop diversity at the landscape scale and a homogenization of agricultural practices between fields, to reduce logistic costs. At the landscape scale, these changes can modify agricultural pressure on natural resources (e.g. water, soil, biodiversity), by creating hotspots of fields subject to intensive management. Consequently, natural resource management, mostly at the local scale, requires new monitoring tools dedicated to local farm dynamics.This work aimed to characterize farm area dynamics between 2007 and 2013 on the Niort Plain, a sensitive area located in the South-West of France that is subject to water and biodiversity issues. Changes in farm area were characterized, taking into account not only farm size, but also the spatial distribution of the islets included in the land pattern. The LPIS database, which provides quasi-continuous broad coverage of the French agricultural areas, was used to analyze changes in farm area, through characterization of the annual changes in farm area and their effects in terms of land fragmentation and farm size distribution.Six types of farm area dynamics were characterized: the enlargement of farms with and without a reconfiguration of the land use pattern, a decrease in the utilized agricultural area (UAA) of farms with and without a reconfiguration of the land use pattern, and a stable UAA with and without reconfiguration of the land use pattern. We found that 5.5% of the farms were either split into smaller units or stopped seeking CAP subsidies during the period considered. Two patterns predominated: a stable farm area and enlargement of the farm area. Farms of many different initial sizes displayed enlargement, generally through the acquisition of islets from another farm that was split up.Farm dynamics had a limited impact on the fragmentation of farm land. Farm enlargement led to a slight increase in the dispersion of islets from the farm center.The procedure developed here for the characterization of farm area dynamics is particularly suitable for application at the temporal scales used by planners working on environmental programs. By monitoring farm area dynamics, planners could also set specific devices to enable them to focus either on the total number of farms or exclusively on a subset of farms of strategic importance for the management of natural resources due to their area dynamics, location or aggregation in the environment.

Types of EU Countries Agrarian Structure, Based on Fuzzy Structure Classification

The paper identifies the types of agrarian structure of the European Union member states, based on the fuzzy classification method. The research is based on the Eurostat data regarding the number of agricultural holdings by areal groups and the utilised agricultural area they represent in different countries. Poland and Romania belong to the EU countries with the smallest average size of utilised agricultural area (UAA) per farm, and, as a consequence, semi-subsistence holdings have a dominant position (Popescu and Condei, 2015; Timofti et al., 2015) in both countries. The following areal groups were taken into account in the analysis below: up to 2 ha of UAA, 2-5 ha, 5-10 ha, 10-20 ha, 20-50 ha, 50 ha and more. The use of fuzzy classification allowed identifying groups of countries with similar distribution of the number of holdings in different areal groups, as well as the area they represent. As a result, four types of agrarian structure of the EU countries were identified.

Economic impacts of CAP greening: application of an EU-wide individual farm model for CAP analysis (IFM-CAP)

This paper presents the EU-wide individual farm-level model (IFM-CAP) applied to assess the economic effects of CAP greening. IFM-CAP is a static positive programming model developed to capture the full heterogeneity of EU farms in terms of policy representation and impacts. Simulation results show that, although the proportions of farms and utilised agricultural area (UAA) subject to CAP greening are sizeable (55 per cent of all farms and 86 per cent of UAA) at EU-27 level, the reallocated area caused by CAP greening represents only 4.5 per cent of UAA. Farm income and total production both decrease by 1 and 0.9 per cent, respectively. In total, around 29 per cent of the farm population is affected by CAP greening in the EU-27.

Efficiency of field farms situated in less-favored areas (LFAs) and beside in Dolnośląskie and Opolskie voivodeships in 2011–2013

The aim of this paper is to identify differences in production potential, organization of production, economic efficiency and investment abilities of two groups of polish field farms with cereals, oilseeds and protein crops situated in Less Favoured Areas (LFA) and beside in Dolnośląskie and Opolskie voivodeship. In order to achieve this aim empirical data was used from 64 farms situated in 64 farms that was situated in LFA and from 348 remaining farms that collected data from 2011 to 2013 for Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) in 2011–2013. It was found that farms situated in LFA in comparison to remaining farms characterized larger utilized agricultural – area (UAA) and higher share of rented area. Moreover, worse technical equipment of labour and lower family farm income per 1 hectare of UAA is indicated.

EFFICIENCY OF FARMS PARTICIPATED IN THE MEASURE AFFORESTATION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND UNDER RDP 2004-2006 AND REMAINING FARMS IN THE YEARS 2004-2013

The aim of this paper was comparative assessment of production potential, organization of production, economic efficiency and investment abilities of two group of farms from the same communities that collected data for Polish Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) in the years 2004-2013. The first group was farms that participated in the measure Afforestation of agricultural land under RDP 2004-2006 (beneficiary farms), while the second group was remaining farms that didn’t participate in this measure in the analyzed period. It was found that beneficiary farms in comparison to remaining farms characterized smaller utilized agricultural area (UAA) lower share of rented area and higher share of own UAA with the worst quality of soil. Moreover they had worse technical equipment of labour and lower family farm income. However, beneficiary farms like remaining farms had positive rate of reproduction fixed assets but their scale of investment was lower.

Current extent and stratification of agroforestry in the European Union

An accurate and objective estimate on the extent of agroforestry in Europe is critical for the development of supporting policies. For this reason, a more harmonised and uniform Pan-European estimate is needed. The aim of this study was to quantify and map the distribution of agroforestry in the European Union. We classified agroforestry into three main types of agroforestry systems: arable agroforestry, livestock agroforestry and high value tree agroforestry. These three classes are partly overlapping as high value tree agroforestry can be part of either arable or livestock agroforestry. Agroforestry areas were mapped using LUCAS Land Use and Land Cover data (Eurostat, 2015). By identifying certain combinations of primary and secondary land cover and/or land management it was possible to identify agroforestry points and stratify them in the three different systems. According to our estimate using the LUCAS database the total area under agroforestry in the EU 27 is about 15.4 million ha which is equivalent to about 3.6% of the territorial area and 8.8% of the utilised agricultural area. Of our three studied systems, livestock agroforestry covers about 15.1 million ha which is by far the largest area. High value tree agroforestry and arable agroforestry cover 1.1 and 0.3 million ha respectively. Spain (5.6 million ha), France (1.6 million ha), Greece (1.6 million ha), Italy (1.4 million ha), Portugal (1.2 million ha), Romania (0.9 million ha) and Bulgaria (0.9 million ha) have the largest absolute area of agroforestry. However the extent of agroforestry, expressed as a proportion of the utilised agricultural area (UAA), is greatest in countries like Cyprus (40% of UAA), Portugal (32% of UAA) and Greece (31% of UAA). A cluster analysis revealed that a high abundance of agroforestry areas can be found in the south-west quadrat of the Iberian Peninsula, the south of France, Sardinia, south and central Italy, central and north-east Greece, south and central Bulgaria, and central Romania. Since the data were collected and analysed in a uniform manner it is now possible to make comparisons between countries and identify regions in Europe where agroforestry is already widely practiced and areas where there are opportunities for practicing agroforestry on a larger area and introducing novel practices. In addition, with this method it is possible to make more precise estimates on the extent of agroforestry in Europe and changes over time. Because agroforestry covers a considerable part of the agricultural land in the EU, it is crucial that it gets a more prominent and clearer place in EU statistical reporting in order to provide decision makers with more reliable information on the extent and nature of agroforestry. Reliable information, in turn, should help to guide policy development and implementation, and the evaluation of the impact of agricultural and other policies on agroforestry.

Annual agricultural N surplus in France over a 70-year period

High levels of nitrogen (N) contamination of ground and surface water are still detected at European and national scales, despite the implementation of Directives, highlighting the need to improve understanding of changes in N pressure. Soil surface nitrogen balance was investigated at the county level in France over a 70-year period to identify areas with high N surpluses and trends in N pressure. Soil surface nitrogen balances were calculated for 90 NUTS3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics in the EU) called ‘departments’ (ranging from 611 to 10,145 km2, median surface area 6032 km2) and one NUTS2 entity. Over the whole period, the N surplus calculated for France as a whole averaged 37 kgN per ha of utilized agricultural area (UAA) and departmental N surpluses mean ranged from 10 to 86 kgN ha UAA−1. Imprecision, i.e. an 80% confidence interval in N surpluses, was calculated using Monte Carlo simulation. Average imprecision for the whole period ranged from 6 to 45 kgN ha UAA−1 across different departments. Analysis revealed that yearly and departmental imprecision values were mainly correlated with N export (R2 = 0.46). Despite this imprecision, the soil surface nitrogen balance was found to be a consistent and suitable tool to determine trends in N pressure at the department level. The model revealed an upward trend in N surplus until the 1990s for 82% of the area studied, and a downward or stable trend for more than 90% of the area since the European Nitrates Directive has been implemented.

AN ATTEMPT TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURE ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL-EASTERN EUROPE

The main aim of the study was to identify and evaluate the progress of implementation of selected assumptions on sustainability of agriculture in countries of CentralEastern Europe in relation to environmental protection. Data from the input-output balance sheets and the European Environmental Accounts were used to realize the aim of the study. The analysis considered material fl ows to and from agriculture, pollution, and the production and consumption of biomass. The share of the participation of agribusiness sphere I, including mainly services, as well as the fuel, energy and chemical industries, has been increasing in the material infl ows to agriculture in the countries of CentralEastern Europe. This indicates production modernization, associated with a higher load on the environment. The highest emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants into the environment per 1,000 euro GDP were recorded in Lithuania, Romania and Latvia. The Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia have the lowest values of emissions. In Latvia, there was no overall reduction in pollution emitted by agriculture in 2008–2012. Emission of these pollutants per 1,000 euro GDP and 1 ha UAA (utilized agricultural area) of agricultural land decreased in most countries in the analysis. In EU countries of Central-Eastern Europe, a reduction in direct material input and domestic consumption of biomass from agriculture per one euro of GDP is reported. These changes indicate a decrease in the intensity of use of natural resources (dematerialising economy), which is consistent with the objectives of sustainable development. In countries where agriculture is better developed, the implementation of pro-environmental goals of sustainable development takes place to a greater extent than in countries with lower levels of socio-economic development.

Making the best of both worlds: Can high-resolution agricultural administrative data support the assessment of High Nature Value farmlands across Europe?

Worldwide, the role of farmlands for biodiversity conservation and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services has been widely acknowledged. In the European Union (EU), societal demands to include environmental conservation concerns within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have resulted in the recognition of the importance of maintaining High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf).HNVf constitute complex social-ecological systems, which owe their nature conservation value to the maintenance of specific, mostly low-intensity farming systems, supporting high levels of species and habitats dependent on agricultural practices. Even though HNVf assessment in space and time is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of Rural Development Programmes, the diversity of rural landscapes across EU, the scarcity of data on farming systems, and the lack of common methodological guidelines has hampered the implementation of HNVf mapping and monitoring across Europe. Thus, there is a pressing need to develop and test methodological approaches that may support HNVf assessment across the EU.The Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) which is mandatory for all EU Member States constitutes a system for the management and control of CAP payments to farmers. Essentially, IACS comprises high-resolution, spatially explicit information on the type and intensity of agricultural land-use. Even though such data exhibits high thematic, spatial and temporal resolution, IACS has seldom been used, due to significant access restrictions. Here, the potential to use IACS data to support the assessment of HNVf was evaluated within the German Federal State of Lower Saxony by implementing a recently developed methodological framework. Sets of indicators known to be essential for identifying potential HNVf and underlying farming systems (expressing landscape structure and composition, farming systems, and crop diversity), were derived from IACS. Spatial patterns of indicators were analyzed at two different scales to delineate the potential distribution of HNVf across Lower Saxony.Results highlighted that most regions in Lower Saxony were characterized by intensive farming practices including high livestock density, high share of intensive crops and low density of linear elements. Only 3% of the Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) of Lower Saxony potentially constituted HNVf, with the majority of HNVf coinciding with mosaics of arable and/or permanent crops and semi-natural features under less intensive farming practices. Semi-natural grasslands, partially under agri-environment scheme management contracts, covered roughly 1% of the UAA and were mostly intermingled with other farmland habitats in extensively managed agricultural landscapes.In the context of the EU-wide HNVf assessment, IACS constitutes an important source of data, characterized by a high spatial, thematic and temporal resolution of data collected annually. Whilst having the potential for use in HNVf assessment, some challenges remain, especially due to significant access restrictions. Nevertheless, IACS constitutes a powerful tool to evaluate the extent and condition of HNVf across the EU countryside. Making use of IACS data in such a way could provide a stepping-stone towards achieving a more effective balance between the management and control of CAP support payments and the growing societal demands related to the maintenance and enhancement of farmland biodiversity and ecosystem services.

RPG Explorer: A new tool to ease the analysis of agricultural landscape dynamics with the Land Parcel Identification System

In the early 2000s a Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) was set up by each member state of the European Union, to manage agricultural subsidies. These databases describe field geometry and landcover, and provide information on farm characteristics. LPIS data could therefore be used to describe agricultural landscape dynamics, but are seldom put to this purpose by scientists and local stakeholders because it requires the use of GIS software and programming skills. The objective of this paper is thus to present RPG Explorer, a new tool that we developed to analyze agricultural landscape dynamics with LPIS data. RPG Explorer doesn’t require any specific skills in GIS and programming allowing non specialist to deal with complex data.RPG Explorer includes a first module which computes the changes in crop proportions and farm characteristics (numbers of farm, farm area, farm type). A second module computes crop sequences on each farmer block of LPIS data. We also included a crop rotation model in a third module.We illustrated the use of RPG Explorer for two example neighboring catchments located in western France, the Vivier catchment (16,000ha) and the Courance catchment (15,000ha). For example, RPG Explorer easily revealed the evolution of crop proportions, such as the increase of temporary grasslands in the Courance catchment (from 7.2% of the Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) in 2007 to 11.7% in 2013). The number of farms was also shown to vary a lot: from 230 in 2007 to 207 in 2013 for the Vivier catchment, with a subsequent increase of their mean UAA (from 101ha to 119ha). RPG Explorer also showed that more than half of the Vivier catchment UAA (59%) was occupied by only 50 farms in 2013. Concerning crop sequences, the sunflower → winter wheat sequence was the most frequent 2-year sequence in both catchments, but some differences appeared with for example, a higher proportion of winter wheat → winter wheat sequence in the Courance catchment (7.2% against 3.6%). Crop rotation modeling indicated that the rapeseed → winter wheat → sunflower → winter wheat, sunflower → winter wheat and maize monoculture were the three main crop rotations.Finally, these examples illustrate well the ability for scientist and local stakeholders to easily describe some major agricultural landscape dynamics with RPG Explorer.

Mapping and Assessing Urban Agriculture in Rome

Abstract The paper focus on the concept of food and agriculture as an infrastructure – which is both spatial and relational -, within the context of the urban Mediterranean phenomenon, where, with all its political, cultural, economical, social and environmental differences, there is a common relationship with food and food production in an urban setting. The aim of this paper is to explore the agricultural context of Rome, focusing on its relationships with development in the metropolitan area, within the framework of sustainable food planning. Starting from the relationship between food and city, we have mapped the foodscape, identifying a number of representative conditions - typologies - in the metropolitan area of Rome. Through a of criteria - relationships with the urban fabric, production patterns, flows, services, infrastructures, environmental characters, social behaviour linked with the production - the study tries to summarise Roman agriculture. We focus on a set of recurring elements, involving both criticalities and opportunities, that bring together city and food production. Rome has what we could call a compact structure compared to the dispersed urban model and this has encouraged the development of local agricultural systems, where both flows and landscapes involve the city. While production is organised into wedge-shaped areas, the places where exchanges occur are mainly within the municipal area of Rome, with the exception of farms involved in direct sales. Despite a strong urbanization pressure caused a reduction of 42% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) between 1990 and 2000, this trend was reverted back between 2000 and 2010, with an increase of the UAA of 14%. The analysis of land use (CLC, 2006) reveals a system of wedge-shaped agricultural areas, where short supply chain models can be used efficiently to manage and promote the use of land and landscape. In synthesis, in terms of their production systems, there is a high number of short supply chain farms in Rome (over 40%), mostly with mixed production systems linked to multifunctional farming. The role played by the local food network in Rome is remarkable, particularly in case of farmers’ market, SPG’ and those linked to box schemes experiences have seen significant success. The increasing importance of Alternative and Local Food Networks is showed in the data: the 60% of Rome municipalities farms sell directly (Istat, 2010) it was registered an increase of + 57% Farmers’ market at municipality level and of + 64% in Rome's province (2010/13) ( Marino et al., 2013 ). The local food network behind agriculture in the city, within a number of integrated social agrarian cooperative, who represented an alternative food production system and landmark for many initiatives carried out by the civil society, associations, cooperatives, volunteer and school sectors, community supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives. This account of short supply chains in Rome is inevitably the account of an urban phenomenon. It is indeed the city that determines its special characteristics for both physical and relational aspects. The mapped farms are mostly located near the main routes that radiate from the city to the countryside, underlining the centrality of the flow of exchanges that take place with the city. The processes of transformation affecting the primary sector in urban and suburban environments reflect an agriculture that forms (and produces) new landscape and functions, typically reconnected to the historical value of agriculture in and around the Mediterranean cities. Food, because of its cultural and historical place in Mediterranean tradition, has a significant role in configuring the areas where exchanges takes place, which are, therefore, specific places for meeting and forming relationships within the public spaces of a city. The system identified by the paper configures the set of all the different forms of agriculture and food in Rome as a device of resilience for the city, made up of places where flows, relationships and processes become increasingly more sustainable, and where both physical and intangible spaces act as an infrastructure in their exchange with the city.

Reducing Food Losses: A (Dis)-Opportunity Cost Model

A huge amount of resources used in food production is lost or wasted globally and the same for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the production of food. A plethora of methodologies to assess economic, environmental and social impacts stands out. The aim of this paper is to analyze the social impacts of food losses along the food chain: the methodology is based on the elaboration of a disopportunity cost taking into account food waste and losses Kcals and Kcals/required per day (to cope with the energy expenditure), U.A.A. (Utilized Agricultural Area) cost. Findings are aimed at highlighting how the food looses reduction is crucial for an intra-generational equity. Una grande quantita di risorse utilizzate nella produzione alimentare e sprecata inutilmente e persa a livello globale: le stesse considerazioni possono essere fatte per le emissioni di gas serra derivanti dalla produzione di alimenti. Esistono una pletora di metodologie per valutare gli impatti economici, ambientali e sociali di tali perdite. L’obiettivo di questo lavoro e analizzare l’impatto economico-sociale delle perdite alimentari lungo la catena alimentare: la metodologia si basa sull’elaborazione di un modello di costo (dis)-opportunita, tenendo conto delle Kcal dei rifiuti, delle Kcal pro die (necessarie per affrontare il dispendio energetico) e del costo S.A.U. I risultati evidenziano come la riduzione delle perdite alimentari sia cruciale per una equita intragenerazionale.

Assessing the impact of RDP agri-environment measures on the use of nitrogen-based mineral fertilizers through spatial econometrics: The case study of Emilia-Romagna (Italy)

Agriculture is the main source of nitrogen loading (EEA, 2012) and is the sector with the largest residual emission reduction potential (Sutton et al., 2011). Moreover, surpluses of nitrogen are forecast to grow in the next decade (FAO, 2012). The objective of this study is to evaluate the determinants of the use of N-based mineral fertilizers in agriculture and the effectiveness of Agri-Environmental Schemes (AES) implemented in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, in preventing nitrate pollution.The indicator N mineral fertilizer application rate in agriculture was first estimated at the municipality level for the years 2000 and 2010. Thereafter, we performed a Moran's statistics and a LISA (Local Indicators of Spatial Association; Anselin, 1995) analysis to test the data for local spatial autocorrelations. Finally, in order to provide a quantitative evaluation of the impact of the agri-environmental measures on the application rate of N fertilizers, we constructed an aspatial model (Ordinary Least Square model) and two spatial models (spatial lag and error models). All of the models are able to explain more than 70% of the change in the N mineral fertilizer application rate between the years 2000 and 2010 (the dependent variable).The results indicate that the observed decrease in the application rate of N mineral fertilizers in the considered decade was positively influenced by both the uptake of specific AES and the location in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ). Among the policy variables, the participation in AES is less important than the location in a NVZ for explaining the reduction in the N mineral fertilizer application rate in the municipalities of Emilia-Romagna. Other significant variables are farm size, population density and share of certified organic surface in the utilized agricultural area (UAA). The availability of finer scale data for the estimation of changes in nitrogen inputs would improve the robustness of the models.

Zmiany w rolnictwie województwa podlaskiego po integracji z Unią Europejską

The objective of this paper was to assess major changes within agricultural economic activities in Podlaskie region (NUTS 2) which occurred between 2002 and 2012. These economic changes in family farms (a dominant form of farming in Podlaskie) across the region were found to be substantial as a result of implementation of the funds offered by the European Union (EU) within Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Over this period the number of farms in the region decreased by 13%, average Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) of commercial farms increased up to 11.38 ha, and livestock production increased substantially. Additionally, structure and intensity of non-agricultural activities in farm households both on- and off-farm improved. Livestock production predominated (approaching to 90%) within commercial agricultural production; dairy production was approximately 50% of total livestock production. It was proved that the EU funds implemented to Polish agriculture over 10 years, since 2004 until 2012, caused more diversification and multi-functionality and, through this, more sustainable economic activity in family farms across Podlaskie region.