The literature on the effectiveness of Agri-Environmental Schemes focuses mainly on the environmental effects; only a few studies have focused on economic aspects. The number of papers that address ...ecological and economic outcomes simultaneously is even more limited. In this paper, we apply the concept of eco-efficiency to integrate these two factors. The aim of the paper is to analyze the impact of participation in the agri-environmental scheme of Hungarian field crop farmers in terms of eco-efficiency. To make unbiased and consistent comparisons we use advances from aggregation and bootstrap theory in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) context. The results indicate that there exists a significant potential for enhancing eco-efficiency in Hungarian crop farms. Furthermore, our results reveal that, in terms of eco-efficiency, perceived as the relationship of farm income to pesticide, fertilizers and energy use, no significant differences exist between participating and non-participating farmers. The results are robust to different methods. Our results pose questions about the efficacy of the Agri-Environmental Scheme.
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•There is potential for enhancing eco-efficiency of Hungarian crop farms.•No differences in eco-efficiency between non-participating and participating farms•Results are stable irrespective of the method applied or the timespan analyzed.•Results pose questions about the efficacy of the Agri-Environmental Scheme
► French COP farms are more efficient under their technology than their Hungarian peers. ► Hungarian technology is more productive than French technology in COP production. ► There is no strong ...difference between France and Hungary in dairy production. ► Bootstrapping and confidence intervals show a large uncertainty in results. ► Corporate farms in Hungary may partly explain Hungary's superiority.
This paper investigates the differences in technical efficiency and productivity change, and the technology gaps, between French and Hungarian farms in the dairy and cereal, oilseed and protein crops (COP) sectors during the period 2001–2007. The analyses were performed with national Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data and the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach under each country's respective frontier and under a metafrontier.
Results reveal that French COP farms were on average more efficient under their own technology than Hungarian farms under theirs, but there was no difference between the two countries for dairy farms. However, metatechnology ratios calculated with the construction of the metafrontier indicate that Hungarian technology was the more productive in both the dairy and the COP sectors, but more noticeably in COP production.
This article investigates dairy farm investment behaviour and the presence of soft budget constraints in the dairy farms of Baltic and Central European transition countries - Estonia, Hungary and ...Slovenia - using individual dairy farm accountancy panel data for the years 2007-2015. The empirical results confirm that gross dairy farm investment is positively associated with gross dairy farm investment for the previous year for financially unconstrained dairy farms, and negatively for financially constrained dairy farms. It is also positively associated with public investment subsidies, and, except for Slovenia, with growth in real sales for financially unconstrained dairy farms. Mixed results are found for gross dairy farm investment squared and cash flow variables. A particularly significant negative cash flow regression coefficient implies significant soft budget constraints for financially unconstrained Estonian and Slovenian dairy farms, while insignificant cash flow regression coefficients imply weak soft budget constraints for financially unconstrained Hungarian dairy farms.
Summary
Eco‐schemes are set to play an important role in the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post‐2022 for the delivery of environmental and climate benefits and enhanced animal ...welfare. This article surveys current plans for the design of eco‐schemes in fifteen European Union Member States. The number of eco‐scheme measures to be offered per country varies between 3 and 21, and the complexity and level of ambition of the individual measures are quite heterogeneous. The majority of the proposed eco‐scheme measures either build upon components from greening obligations or stem from agri‐environmental and climate schemes currently offered under Pillar 2. All fifteen Member States address Green Deal targets, with particular emphasis being given to biodiversity enhancement and non‐productive land. Eight of the countries surveyed are planning to provide support for organic farming through an eco‐scheme. The greater creative freedom offered by the CAP’s New Delivery Model has resulted in a situation where similar measures are programmed as eco‐schemes in some countries and as Pillar 2 measures in others. By adding yet another policy instrument to the CAP’s toolbox, the complexity of the CAP is vastly increased. It remains to be seen how farmers will respond.
Dans la politique agricole commune (PAC) de l'Union européenne après 2022, les éco‐régimes sont appelés à jouer un rôle important pour la fourniture d'avantages environnementaux et climatiques et l'amélioration du bien‐être animal. Cet article passe en revue les projets actuels de conception d'éco‐régimes dans quinze États membres de l'Union européenne. Le nombre de mesures d’éco‐régimes à proposer par pays varie entre 3 et 21, et la complexité et le niveau d'ambition des mesures individuelles sont assez hétérogènes. La majorité des mesures d'éco‐régimes proposées s'appuient sur des éléments des obligations de verdissement ou découlent de mesures agro‐environnementales et climatiques actuellement proposées dans le cadre du pilier 2. Les quinze États membres répondent aux objectifs du Pacte vert, un accent particulier étant mis sur l’amélioration de la biodiversité et le foncier non‐productif. Les quinze États membres répondent aux objectifs du Pacte vert, un accent particulier étant mis sur l'amélioration de la biodiversité et les terres non productives. Huit des pays étudiés envisagent de soutenir l'agriculture biologique par le biais d'un éco‐régime. La plus grande liberté créative offerte par le nouveau modèle de mise en œuvre de la PAC a abouti à une situation où des mesures similaires sont programmées en tant qu'éco‐régimes dans certains pays et en tant que mesures du Pilier 2 dans d'autres. En ajoutant encore un autre instrument de politique à la boîte à outils de la PAC, la complexité de cette dernière est considérablement accrue. Reste à savoir comment réagiront les agriculteurs.
Eco‐Schemes werden in der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik (GAP) der Europäischen Union nach 2022 eine wichtige Rolle spielen, wenn es darum geht, einen Nutzen für Umwelt und Klima zu erzielen und den Tierschutz zu verbessern. Dieser Artikel gibt einen Überblick über die aktuellen Pläne für die Ausgestaltung der Eco‐Schemes in fünfzehn Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Union. Die Anzahl der Maßnahmen, die in einem Land angeboten werden sollen, schwankt zwischen 3 und 21. Hierbei sind die Komplexität und Zielsetzung der einzelnen Maßnahmen recht heterogen. Die meisten der vorgeschlagenen Eco‐Schemes bauen entweder auf Komponenten von Greening‐Verpflichtungen auf oder stammen aus Agrarumwelt‐ und Klimaregelungen, die derzeit im Rahmen der zweiten Säule angeboten werden. Alle fünfzehn Mitgliedstaaten befassen sich mit den Zielen des Green Deals, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Förderung der biologischen Vielfalt und der nicht produktiven Flächen liegt. Acht der untersuchten Länder planen, den ökologischen Landbau durch ein Eco‐Scheme zu unterstützen. Die größere kreative Freiheit, die das neue GAP‐Modell bietet, hat dazu geführt, dass ähnliche Maßnahmen in einigen Ländern als Eco‐Scheme und in anderen als Maßnahmen der zweiten Säule definiert werden. Durch das Hinzufügen eines weiteren Politikinstruments zum Portfolio der GAP wird die Komplexität der GAP erheblich größer. Es bleibt abzuwarten, wie die Landwirte und Landwirtinnen darauf reagieren werden.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of crop insurance among Hungarian crop farmers and the responses to the introduction of the two-scheme risk management system. ...Specifically, first, it examines the economic and environmental factors affecting the willingness of farmers to contract crop insurance. Second, it reveals the relationship between having crop insurance and technical efficiency of crop producing farms.
Design/methodology/approach
Probit models of panel data are applied to explore the factors of insurance decisions. The relationship between efficiency and insurance is investigated with two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with double bootstrap using panel data for the 2001 to 2014 period.
Findings
The results of Probit model estimations show that the education, the size, the indebtedness of crop producing farms and the new two-scheme risk management system are in positive correlation, while the concentration of farming activity are in negative correlation with the crop insurance contracting. The estimations of two-stage DEA model reveal that crop producing farms with an agricultural insurance contract are more efficient than the farmers without using this risk management tool.
Originality/value
Empirical investigation of the influencing factors of agricultural insurance demand in Hungary and the examination of the relationship between insurance and technical efficiency may contribute to the development of Hungarian risk management system.
Pig farming is one of the strongest polluters of water due to its intensive production and slurry rejection. Several European countries have introduced environmental regulations aiming at reducing ...the pollution caused by nitrates from agriculture, but not yet Hungary. We investigate how Hungarian pig farms' output and technical efficiency would be affected if such regulations are to be fully implemented in this country. Results indicate that the pollution could be reduced with no impact on the output level, and that pig farmers have incentives to reduce nitrogen pollution in order to increase their efficiency even in the absence of regulation.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of institutional quality (IQ) in exporting and importing countries on agro-food exports from the world's leading emerging economies: ...Brazil, the Russian Federation, India and China (BRIC countries).
Design/methodology/approach
– Measuring is based on using the gravity trade model and econometric panel data analysis for the period 1998-2009.
Findings
– Agro-food exports from the BRIC countries, particularly Brazil and China, have increased. The Russian Federation has experienced stagnating and volatile patterns. Brazil and India have strengthened market shares in the existing importing markets, while the Russian Federation has experienced severe deterioration. The export of existing products is more important than of new products. Agro-food exports are positively associated with IQ and the size of the gross domestic product in exporting and importing countries, but negatively with distance.
Research limitations/implications
– Among IQ variables, the focus is on the indices of legal structure and security of property rights and freedom to trade internationally in agro-food importing countries and the BRIC exporting countries.
Practical implications
– Different institutions and their quality can affect agro-food exports differently. The impact of institutions is not uniform across product groups.
Originality/value
– This paper adds the impacts of IQ on agro-food exports. Except for processed products for final household consumption, agro-food exports from the BRIC countries are positively associated with the quality of the legal structure, the security of property rights and the freedom to trade internationally as IQ in exporting and importing countries.
We investigate credit market imperfections in Hungarian agriculture. Farmers with low debts and using mainly rented land are liquidity constrained. We find also evidence for the presence of soft ...budget constraint for high debt and corporate farms.
In this article the stochastic frontier analysis method is used to evaluate the technical efficiency of Hungarian farms before and after accession to the European Union (EU), and to investigate the ...efficiency determinants. The results show that EU membership has reversed the pre-accession process of efficiency decrease. But the other side of the coin is that access to higher post-accession subsidies contributes to lower efficiency of Hungarian farmers. The other remarkable finding is a seeming scarcity of labour on farms, which constrains their production and efficiency. The Hungarian government may therefore have to design specific national policies if its aim is to promote a farming system that uses labour and at the same time is competitive.
Some argue that the lack of modern agricultural development in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe has made cutting-edge biotechnology attractive. However, enthusiasm for ...planting genetically modified (GM) crops varies greatly in the enlarged European Union (EU) and especially among the New Member States (NMS); the Czech GM maize area is progressively growing whereas Hungary imposed a de facto ban on GM crops. Remarkably, the Hungarian ban was not supported by any cost-benefit assessment. In the literature, ex ante impact assessments of monopolistically priced technologies are often based on cross-sectional comparisons of average cropping budgets. Such assessments ignore heterogeneity of farmers and underestimate the true impact of these technologies because of homogeneity bias. Therefore, we propose an improved method by explicitly modelling farmer heterogeneity under imperfect information, and assess the potential value and benefit sharing of GM crops in the two NMS using a stochastic partial equilibrium model. The total potential value of GM crops is estimated at Euro Sign82 million for both countries, of which Euro Sign60 million (73%) accrues to farmers and Euro Sign22 million (27%) to the gene developers and the seed industry. This is in line with the literature on global benefit sharing of first-generation GM technologies.
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