Environmental sustainability in agriculture: Identification of bottlenecks

Jussi Lankoski and Leena Lankoski

Ecological Economics, 2023, vol. 204, issue PA

Abstract: Increasing the environmental sustainability of the agriculture sector is an important policy goal for many governments. This study employs Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) to identify potential necessary conditions (bottlenecks) and to assess their required levels for achieving strong and weak environmental sustainability outcomes in agriculture. Based on data from selected OECD countries, the results show that there are several necessary conditions, including both structural and policy conditions, for achieving high environmental sustainability. More specifically, the results show that low production intensity and low livestock density and cropland share are necessary conditions for high environmental sustainability. These, in turn, are affected by past and present production-coupled agricultural support policies (especially market price support and output payments) that constrain the achievement of high environmental sustainability. It is therefore important to reduce the levels of these support measures to enable higher environmental sustainability in agriculture.

Keywords: Agricultural policy; Greenhouse gas emissions; Nutrient surplus; Strong sustainability; Weak sustainability; Necessary condition analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:204:y:2023:i:pa:s0921800922003172

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107656

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