ECO-EFFICIENCY IN AGRICULTURE OF EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to estimate efficiency and eco-efficiency of agriculture in 24 EUMember States from 2006 to 2015. In the study, a panel of yearly aggregated data [Eurostat 2018] of the totalvalue 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. Thedirectional 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 decompositionto identify sources of these changes. GHG emission reduction per agricultural output in all EUMS 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 wasreached by the Netherlands and Denmark. The most inefficient and eco-inefficient agriculture was notedin the agriculture of Ireland and Finland (OMS). The highest inefficiency among NMS was detected in theagriculture 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 24EU MS. Agricultural technical eco-efficiency fell in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Portugal and Hungary.

Keywords

• eco-efficiency
• agriculture
• EU member states