Today, people are therefore looking for sustainable agricultural production methods that produce sufficient quantities of food without further increasing the burden on the environment. This paradoxical challenge can be addressed with the concept of eco-efficiency, which is defined as the relationship between the output, i.e. the value of a product, and its environmental impact.
In addition to the goal of producing enough food for the ever-growing world population, agriculture also fulfills various other functions for society, such as: B. generating income for farmers and maintaining an attractive cultural landscape and maintaining or improving biodiversity. These diverse functions of agriculture were taken into account in a novel concept for assessing the eco-efficiency of agricultural operations and published internationally as part of a dissertation.
Results
The results of the dissertation show that the eco-efficiency of the companies under consideration depends on the individual performance in the various functions of agriculture. With regard to the various production systems, it was found that organic dairy farms have, on average, significantly higher eco-efficiency than their conventional counterparts. A comparison of the different farm types showed a slightly higher eco-efficiency of arable and wine-growing farms compared to livestock farms, which is related to the use of energy and protein fractions suitable for human nutrition as concentrated feed in livestock farms. With a view to improving eco-efficiency, specific management options for promoting eco-efficiency were identified. The management options identified showed great diversity, as eco-efficiency can be improved either by reducing environmental impacts or by increasing output (i.e. the performance indicators of the agricultural functions considered).
Increasing eco-efficiency must therefore always be carried out on a company-specific basis and can certainly involve conflicting objectives. It was also found that purchased inputs such as fertilizer and concentrated feed cause a high proportion of environmental impacts and thus have a significant influence on eco-efficiency. This shows the importance of efficient use of the farm's resources and location-adapted agriculture to promote eco-efficiency.
The scientific articles that were created in the course of the dissertation can be found under the following links:
Article I : Eco-efficiency of farms considering multiple functions of agriculture: Concept and results from Austrian farms
Article II : Assessing and improving eco-efficiency of multifunctional dairy farming: The need to address farms' diversity
