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 EU Member States from 2006 to 2015. In the study, a panel of yearly aggregated data [Eurostat 2018] of the total value 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. The directional 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 decomposition to identify sources of these changes. GHG emission reduction per agricultural output in all EU MS 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 was reached by the Netherlands and Denmark. The most inefficient and eco-inefficient agriculture was noted in the agriculture of Ireland and Finland (OMS). The highest inefficiency among NMS was detected in the agriculture 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 24 EU MS. Agricultural technical eco-efficiency fell in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Portugal and Hungary.