Farm eco-efficiency: Can sustainable intensification make the difference?

Arbeitspapier

Sustainable intensification measures promise ecological improvements of farming while maintaining profitability. That is, farms should be able to produce at a higher ecological efficiency without losses in economic efficiency. Based on a theoretical framework, we investigate this promise empirically by analysing the environmental improvement potential of sustainable intensification. We thereby focus on quantifying biodiversity gains using a directional meta-frontier approach and farm survey data from the northern German Plain. We compare eco-efficiency scores in an ecological direction between adopters and matched non-adopters to identify the causal relationship between these gains and sustainable intensification. We find that adopters determine the system frontier. Despite higher mean eco-efficiency scores, most adopters do not yet fully exploit the potential of ecological improvements through sustainable intensification.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: FORLand-Working Paper ; No. 10 (2019)

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets ; Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment ; Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services; Biodiversity Conservation; Bioeconomics; Industrial Ecology
• Subject: environmental sustainability ; eco-efficiency ; directional data envelopment analysis ; matching

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Weltin, Meike ; Hüttel, Silke
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DFG Research Unit 2569 FORLand "Agricultural Land Markets - Efficiency and Regulation"
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2019

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.18452/20221
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/213064
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET