Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
namely from the former countries of the European Economic Community (the first
name for the European Union).
In this way, it seems important to develop this study, which to our knowledge is
the first, by aiming to analyze with time series econometric techniques the deter-
minants (economic, social, and environmental) of the agricultural output for some
countries in the European Union. The countries selected are those which have the
greatest dimension and those which suffered financial problems, such as Portugal,
Ireland, and Greece. The intention is to analyze the influence of these determinants
and the differences between the several countries of Europe using data from the
World Bank ( 2014 ).
2 Background Literature
There are many factors in the European countries selected that influence the
dynamics of agricultural economics. But, the preoccupation with, as referred to
below, sustainability, the environment, renewable energies, the preservation of
rural areas and growing populations is in the order of the day.
Agricultural production in Portugal is dependent upon many factors, such as the
biological condition of several resources and, consequently, from pest and disease
management. In these cases it is necessary to evaluate the costs and the benefits of
such treatments (Gatto et al. 2009 ).
Some projects which were developed in Portuguese rural areas, such as hydro-
electric power plants, need some amount of care, namely because of their impact
upon the socioeconomic performance, agricultural sector, and resources in the
environment (Almeida et al. 2005 ).
There is a tendency for certain regions of Spain, depending on several factors,
such as, among others, the climate and the soil conditions, to become specialized in
specific agricultural production. Southern Spain specializes, among other outputs,
in olive production. Areal and Riesgo ( 2014 ) conducted a study, through a survey,
to understand the future perspectives of these production practices in those regions
and concluded that there are many factors that can determine this continuity,
namely those related with social, economic, environmental, and spatial contexts.
Spain has a good position, within the international context, in olive production, but,
also, in the wine sector, in many indicators (Castillo and Garc´a 2013 ). The
availability of water is one of the most important factors for the production in
agriculture in some regions of Spain (Maestre-Valero et al. 2013 ). Multifunc-
tionality and sustainability in the Spanish agricultural sector are fundamental
areas, where forestry can play an important role (Hoyos et al. 2012 ). The use of
pesticides and fertilizers needs some adjusted approaches in order to avoid prob-
lems with the pollution of water and soil (Pe˜a-Haro et al. 2010 ).
Forestry is a crucial activity in France for the preservation of the environment,
namely through carbon appropriation, but this contribution depends upon some
factors, namely those related to public policies (Caurla et al. 2013 ). For French
Search WWH ::




Custom Search