The paper discusses an ex ante evaluation of the derogation on the Nitrates Directive for Flanders, Belgium, which is a case of intensive but highly productive livestock areas. The aim is to develop an accurate simulation model to detect small differences in manure surpluses caused by changes of...

This paper reports on the increased volatility in the milk price received by Flemish dairy farmers and its consequence on the risk profile of selected Flemish dairy farms. The volatility of the milk price has doubled since January 2007. It is suggested that this increasing volatility could have...

Although risk management in farming is a well-documented subject in scientific literature, this same literature is usually used only by other scientist and is not aiding individual farmers in their management. Risk perception and risk attitude are well described determinants of risk behaviour...

Risk considerations have become increasingly important in nowadays agriculture, due to a variety of reasons. Surprisingly, the practice of formalized risk management is not widespread despite the huge amount of scientific literature on this topic. This discrepancy between risk science and...

Organic farming and fair trade certified chains have emerged in West-Africa since the 1990s in answer to new alternative markets in developed countries. These chains, involving actors from North and South, are seen as an opportunity to sustainably valorise the small peasants agriculture in...

The ecosystem and the economic subsystem are interlinked. In fact, it is the overconsumption of scarce resources or the overproduction of bad outputs at economic system level that causes a great part of the imbalances at the ecosystem level. Some imbalances do not originate at the economic...

There is a high potential for simultaneously increasing sustainability of the earth system and economic development by removing inefficiencies currently present both at the production input and output side. In this paper a static view on sustainability is employed, by introducing capacity...

This short poster paper presents ongoing research on the informal silage maize trade between specialised dairy farmers in Flanders, Belgium. We investigated the influence of transaction costs on the silage maize trade market. Additionally, we investigated the influence of the establishment of...

In 2015 the quota in the dairy sector will no longer be prolonged, as one of the measures to further liberalize the dairy market. To support farmers in this more volatile market and to increase their negotiation power, the EU has proposed several measures in a Dairy Package, amongst which the...