Until now, organic farming in Austria saw its largest growth in the period between 1994 and 1998. The following factors all contributed to Austria achieving the highest percentage of organic farms in Europe: the early addition of guidelines for organic crop production and animal husbandry to the...

Organic farming is promoted financially in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1989. The entire segment shows a very dynamic development since that time. In the past eleven years, the organically managed land area has increased more than ten-fold. Now, a large bouquet of measures are offered...

Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious problem in many developing countries. Recently, agricultural technologies have been discussed as a complement to other intervention programs. Plant breeding, targeted at developing staple foods with higher contents of essential vitamins and trace minerals,...

The objective of this paper is to explore the potential of the real options approach for analyzing farmers’ choice to switch from conventional to organic farming. Understanding the determinants of this decision is relevant in particular for agricultural policy makers when predicting the...

This paper describes the concept of E-commerce portals, so called E-hubs, in its basic characteristics and analyses their potential impacts on agribusiness enterprises and agricultural markets. Since these impacts depend on the level of market penetration of this new type of organisation, it is...

We examine the factors affecting the willingness of German farmers to adopt genetically modified (GM) oilseed rape after the pending commercial release of GM varieties. The analysis is based mainly on a web-based Discrete Choice Experiment with 217 oilseed rape growers in Germany. The...

The conversion to organic farming has proven to be an economically interesting alternative for a large portion of the converted farms in the past. This contribution will consider the question of which factors influence the success of organic farming. The basis for the study is a series of data...

The introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops in the mid 1990s appeared to be the latest in a string of technological innovations in agriculture. However, consumer resistance, particularly in Europe has limited the sector’s enthusiasm. One response to the limited enthusiasm has been...

The paper reviews the development of the organic sector and the institutional conditions in European countries. On the basis of three case studies the interrelationship between organisations of organic and conventional agriculture in the areas of farming community, agricultural policy and food...