Since the late 1980s, agriculture in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) has been under considerable adjustment pressure due to changing political, economic and institutional environments. These changes have been linked to the transition process, as well as the ongoing integration...

This volume of proceedings, available as both a hard copy and a pdf file, is an edited compilation of selected contributions to the MACE Conference 2009, held in Berlin, Germany, at the ICC from 14 to 15 January 2009. We would like to thank all those persons and organisations who contributed to...

Since the seminal work of Adam Smith, markets have been considered an efficient tool for co-ordinating the behaviour of economic agents. The basic characteristic of a market economy is that the complex system of interaction among individuals is not centrally coordinated. Under the assumption of...

Land reform and farm restructuring have always been a major component of the transition from plan to market in all formerly socialist countries, and especially in the 12 former Soviet republics forming the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Ukraine, the second most populous country in CIS...

Polskie obszary wiejskie nadal wykazują wysoki stopieÅ zatrudnienia w rolnictwie w porównaniu z pozostaÅymi krajami Unii Europejskiej, co wynika z braku możliwoÅci zatrudnienia w innych sektorach gospodarki na wsi. Szczególnie zamkniÄcie zakÅadów przemysÅu ciÄżkiego we...

Agriculture’s impact on climate change is unambiguous although its role is multifaceted as it is a source of greenhouse gases but also a sink. It’s feasibility to mitigate climate change has raised interest, but thorough studies about the net benefits of the mitigation practices are needed....

In modern agriculture, pesticides feature so prominently in growers’ arsenal to reduce crop damage caused by various pests and diseases. But their indiscriminate use can harm human health and the environment and, eventually, impact agricultural productivity negatively. In an era of an...

Pig farming is one of the strongest polluters of water resources due to its intensive production techniques and slurry rejection. Several European countries have already introduced environmental regulations aiming at reducing the pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources, but not...

Integrated land use models (ILM) are increasingly applied tools for the joint assessment of complex economic-environmental farming system interactions. We present an ILM that consists of the crop rotation model CropRota, the bio-physical process model EPIC, and the farm optimization model...

Nitrate pollution from agriculture is an important environmental problem, caused by the excessive use of inorganic fertilizers. The internalization of this externality, via a tax on mineral nitrogen, could lead to a second best solution, reducing nitrate emissions. Several authors suggest that a...