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Reversing the decline of biodiversity in European agricultural landscapes is urgent. We suggest eight measures addressing politics, economics, and civil society to instigate transformative changes in agricultural landscapes. We emphasize the need for a well-informed society and political measures promoting sustainable farming by combining food production and biodiversity conservation.

Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) have recently been introduced as key element in the greening of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. In 2015, farmers across the EU have implemented EFAs for the first time. Data for German federal states indicate a strong variance in EFA decisions with an overall dominance of catch crops, nitrogen fixing crops and fallow land – two of which bear limited benefits for biodiversity conservation. This article explores how experts explain EFA choices. We conducted 35 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with representatives from the Ministry for Agriculture, farm advisory services, and farmers’ associations in each federal state. Applying content analysis we clustered the factors mentioned as determinants for farmers’ EFA choices into the categories administrative considerations, economic considerations, local factors, ecosystem considerations and policy incentives. According to the interviewed experts, farmers have primarily registered measures that already existed on their farms. Administrative considerations dominate the identified determinants for farmers’ EFA decisions, and together with economic considerations appear to function as a negative incentive for EFA options that are beneficial for biodiversity, such as landscape elements and buffer strips. We conclude that conditions for EFA implementation were found to not effectively incentivise a higher share of biodiversity supporting characteristics in German agricultural landscapes. Based on a detailed discussion we extract recommendations on how to improve EFA implementation.

This study models the technical efficiency in the Chilean agribusiness industry between 2001 and 2007 by taking into consideration the structural differences between the different subsectors meat, fruit & vegetables, dairy, milling, and bakery. We analyze firm data from the Annual National Industrial Survey (ENIA) totaling 2,940 observations using a stochastic frontier model combined with a metafrontier model. We observe dynamic developments in the subsectors meat, fruit & vegetables, and dairy, with a pronounced export-orientation. We show that especially meat and fruit & vegetables firms have experienced positive technological change, whereas dairy firms are exhibiting a slight decrease in efficiency and technical change. The milling and bakery subsectors, which mainly produce for the domestic market, show a rather constant status in efficiency and technical change. The results confirm that an in-depth analysis of subsectors is necessary to evaluate the competitiveness of the agribusiness industry in Chile. [EconLit citations: D24; Q13].

Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) are one of the three new greening measures of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). We used an interdisciplinary and European-scale approach to evaluate ecological effectiveness and farmers‟ perception of the different EFA options. We assessed potential benefits of EFA options for biodiversity using a survey among 88 ecologists from 17 European countries. We further analyzed data on EFA uptake at the EU level and in eight EU Member States, and reviewed socio-economic factors influencing farmers‟ decisions. We then identified possible ways to improve EFAs. Ecologists scored field margins, buffer strips, fallow land, and landscape features as most beneficial whereas farmers mostly implemented „catch crops and green cover‟, nitrogen-fixing crops, and fallow land. Based on the expert inputs and a review of the factors influencing farmers‟ decisions, we suggest that EFA implementation could be improved by a) prioritizing EFA options that promote biodiversity (e.g. reducing the weight or even excluding ineffective options); b) reducing administrative constraints; c) setting stricter management requirements (e.g. limiting agrochemical use); and d) offering further incentives for expanding options like landscape features and buffer strips. We finally propose further improvements at the next CAP reform, to improve ecological effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

Peatlands are lands with a peat layer at the surface, containing a large proportion of organic carbon. Such lands cover ≈1 000 000 km2 in Europe, which is almost 10% of the total surface area. In many countries, peatlands have been artificially drained over centuries, leading to not only enormous emissions of CO2 but also soil subsidence, mobilization of nutrients, higher flood risks, and loss of biodiversity. These problems can largely be solved by stopping drainage and rewetting the land. Wet peatlands do not release CO2, can potentially sequester carbon, help to improve water quality, provide habitat for rare and threatened biodiversity, and can still be used for production of biomass (“paludiculture”). Wisely adjusted land use on peatlands can substantially contribute to low-emission goals and further benefits for farmers, the economy, society, and the environment.

As central policies for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes in the European Union (EU), the Habitats Directive and Agri-environmental programmes (AEP) have largely failed to halt biodiversity loss. In response, the German federal state of Saxony combined the instrument of management plans with AEPs to support the implementation of the Habitat Directive. In this study, we investigate the determinants of a farmers’ decisions to adjust their farming practices. Our data set consists of a quantitative survey with 131 farmers conducted between 2004 and 2011, complemented by implementation data from 333 grassland-plots. Determinants of farmers’ decisions to conserve grassland were estimated using a multinomial logit model. Our results show that a combination of management plans and AEPs can increase farmers’ disposition to adopt nature conservation measures. As central determinants, structural and location factors as well as the complementary provisiion of specifically designed AEPs increase farmers’ willingness to adopt conservation practices for grassland management. It can be concluded that additional costs are a major barrier to farmers’ adoption, particularly to those farms directing their farm management towards the optimisation of productivity and profitability . The findings highlight the complementary potential of integrated policy packages to incentivise specific measures of nature conservation within the framework of the Habitats Directive.

The diversification of farms can be a result of multifunctional farming, however, in some cases at the cost of lower farm efficiency. In our paper we investigate the influence of para-agricultural diversification on productivity and the technical efficiency of organic farms in Austria, Switzerland, and Southern Germany. We show the benefits and drawbacks of diversification for organic farms, which go beyond the core agricultural production (para-agriculture). We do this by estimating a Stochastic Frontier (SF) combined with a metafrontier model. The data-set consists of bookkeeping data with 1704 observations in the years 2003 to 2005. Para-agricultural diversification activities have a significant effect on both productivity and technical efficiency of organic farms: The farm output in Austria and Switzerland is positively influenced by diversification, whereas we observe a rather small effect in Southern Germany. On the other hand, diversification can reduce farms’ technical efficiency, as it is the case in Switzerland and Germany. Furthermore, our study confirms previous results that agricultural subsidies significantly influence the technical efficiency of organic farms. We also show expected changes of input use driven by increased farm diversification.

The diversification of farms can be a result of multifunctional farming, however, in some cases at the cost of lower farm efficiency. In our paper we investigate the influence of para-agricultural diversification on productivity and the technical efficiency of organic farms in Austria, Switzerland, and Southern Germany. We show the benefits and drawbacks of diversification for organic farms, which go beyond the core agricultural production (para-agriculture). We do this by estimating a Stochastic Frontier (SF) combined with a metafrontier model. The data-set consists of bookkeeping data with 1704 observations in the years 2003 to 2005. Para-agricultural diversification activities have a significant effect on both productivity and technical efficiency of organic farms: The farm output in Austria and Switzerland is positively influenced by diversification, whereas we observe a rather small effect in Southern Germany. On the other hand, diversification can reduce farms’ technical efficiency, as it is the case in Switzerland and Germany. Furthermore, our study confirms previous results that agricultural subsidies significantly influence the technical efficiency of organic farms. We also show expected changes of input use driven by increased farm diversification.

Organic agriculture, which produces commodities that can be qualitatively differentiated from conventional food products, has grown into an important market in many countries. The dynamics of commodity prices in both sectors are partly interdependent, but are also shaped by independent determinants and have rarely been studied. We analyze organic food markets and their interdependencies with conventional markets in the context of wheat markets in Germany, which have been subject to a number of fundamental changes during the last two decades. Based on institutional market characteristics, we suggest a flexible Markov-switching asymmetric time series model. We find a pronounced temporal sequence of market phases that differ in their asymmetric dynamics and the extent to which the organic price is influenced by the conventional price. Organic wheat prices tend to be increasingly connected to prices of conventional wheat.

Designation of Natura 2000 areas is a major cornerstone in the EU's biodiversity policy. However, it has triggered resistance from land users due to increased regulations on land use and related value change. This study first develops a theoretical model for rent change due to land regulation, and then empirically investigates whether farmland rents in Germany are affected by Natura 2000 designation. We use a matching procedure based on a zero-inflated beta generalized propensity score on German district level agricultural census data. Our results suggest that rental prices of grassland, arable land, and on average are affected negatively by Natura 2000.

Derzeit diskutiert die Europäische Union über die Reform der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik (GAP). Anlass sind Reformvorschläge der Europäischen Kommission, die unter anderem auf eine gerechtere Verteilung der Fördergel der und eine umweltverträglichere Bewirtschaftung der Agrarflächen zielen. Doch es ist fraglich, ob die Reform mit den vorgeschlagenen Instrumenten ihr Ökologisierungs- und Umverteilungs versprechen halten kann. Mit Maßnahmen auf freiwilliger Basis, die zudem regional ausgerichtet sind, könnten Umweltziele effizienter erreicht werden.