The accession of ten countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has dramatically increased the rural population and territory of the European Union (EU). The success of EU enlargement will thus depend to a significant extent on the resources of rural areas in the NMS and the ability of...

In this contribution we first present a methodology for integrated assessment of agricultural systems (SEAMLESS Integrated Framework), illustrate its application in an integrated assessment of high commodity prices and then discuss its flexibility and limitations. From there we take a broader...

The impact of the introduction of EU Single Area Payments (SAP) on farm strategy in New Member States is investigated for a sample of Lithuanian farms, utilizing farm accounting and survey data. The application of two investment models demonstrates that the credit market in Lithuania was...

In an environment of low returns to agricultural activities and slow structural change, both employment and enterprise diversification have been presented as possible strategies for raising the incomes of farm households. This paper focuses on the barriers to taking up off-farm employment and...

This paper analyses expert attitudes to managing rural development in both established (EU15) and New Member States (NMS). It draws on case studies of five regions in the EU15 that have undergone, at least in some respects, successful rural development post-accession. Lessons of best practice...

Drawing on Nahapiet and Ghoshal's (1998) distinction between the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital, this paper analyses the performance of Water Communities (WCs) in the Bregalnica region of the Republic of Macedonia. WCs are farmer-managed local irrigation...

Food waste has been started to be recognized as an important factor threatening a sustainable food system. However most of the studies in the literature ignore the costs of reducing food waste. In this study we develop a framework to analyse the effects of food waste reduction on the whole...

Due to their diversity and voluntariness, agri-environmental measures (AEMs) are among the Common Agricultural Policy instruments that are most difficult to assess. We provide an EU-wide analysis of AEM adoption and AEM support received per hectare using a Heckman sample selection approach and...

This paper examines the potential impacts of the post 2013 EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, which aims to improve the environmental performance of agriculture, called “greening” the CAP. Using the well-established CAPRI model, the economic and environmental consequences of the...