Effect of Mandatory Agro‐Environmental Policy on Farm Fertiliser and Pesticide Expenditure

EU farmers are subject to mandatory cross‐compliance measures, requiring them to meet environmental conditions to be eligible for public support. These obligations reinforce incentives for farmers to change their behaviour towards the environment. We apply quasi‐experimental methods to measure the c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of agricultural economics 2012-09, Vol.63 (3), p.656-676
Main Authors: Jaraité, Jurate, Kazukauskas, Andrius
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural economics
agricultural policy
Agriculture
behavior change
common agriculture policy
cross-compliance
environment
environmental factors
environmental performance
Environmental policy
Europe
European Union
Expenditure
farm
Farmers
farms
fertiliser and pesticide use
Fertilizers
Pesticides
Q12
Q18
Q58
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Summary:EU farmers are subject to mandatory cross‐compliance measures, requiring them to meet environmental conditions to be eligible for public support. These obligations reinforce incentives for farmers to change their behaviour towards the environment. We apply quasi‐experimental methods to measure the causal relationship between cross‐compliance and some specific farm environmental performance. We find that cross‐compliance reduced farm fertiliser and pesticide expenditure. This result also holds for farmers who participated in other voluntary agro‐environmental schemes. However, the results do not support our expectations that farmers who relied on larger shares of public payments had a stronger motivation to improve their environmental performance.
ISSN:0021-857X
1477-9552
1477-9552
DOI:10.1111/j.1477-9552.2012.00346.x