Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
euro per hectare. Agricultural output per hectare depends on a large number of
factors, like the type of crops or animals, the input of labour, the use of machinery,
fertilizers and chemicals, price ratios and soil conditions. Agricultural output per
hectare could be used as an indicator for land productivity (economic performance),
and as such it reflects also the intensity of farming (environmental performance).
A relatively low land productivity could be said to denote a rather extensive way
of farming, whereas a relatively high land productivity reveals a more intensive
type of farming. Our analysis covers 100 regions in the EU15 and is based on
2 years: 1990 and 2003.
The focus of the chapter is first on the methodological approach of our
analysis. Successively we discuss our hypotheses, our definition of farming
intensity, the use of data and the design of regional typologies. We will then
elaborate on the results of the testing of the hypotheses. In the final section we
make some concluding remarks.
Methodological Approach
In order to explore whether the intensity of farming is related to socio-economic
and physical characteristics of EU regions, we consider a number of hypotheses,
that are explained below.
Hypothesis 1
Farming in rural regions tends to be less intensive than farming in
urban regions.
This hypothesis assumes a positive relationship between farming intensity and
the degree of urbanization. Von Thünen already put forward this idea in the study
'Der isolierte Staat in Beziehung auf Landwirtschaft und Nationalökonomie' in
1826. In this study, Von Thünen tried to explain the location of agricultural production
(van den Noort
1980)
. He assumed a situation with a central city surrounded by a
homogeneous plain. Prices for agricultural products depend on transport costs to the
city. According to Von Thünen, agricultural production is organized in a series of
concentric zones around the city. These concentric zones or rings correspond
with the intensity of production. In the first ring around the city, horticulture and
milk production take place. In the next rings, cereals are produced. These rings are
distinguished by their mode of cultivation: two-crop rotation, pastoral rotation and
three-crop rotation. The outer ring is used for extensive cattle breeding. In order to
translate Von Thünen's theory to our hypothesis, we could assume that the city and
its first ring correspond to an urban region, and that the subsequent rings are more
or less similar to rural regions.
A more recent underpinning of the hypothesis was given by Hayami and Ruttan
(1985)
. It could be said that their induced technological innovation model is derived
from two premises: in the process of agricultural development an inelastic supply
of land may be offset by advances in biological and chemical technology, whereas
constraints imposed by an inelastic supply of labour may be offset by advances in
