Farm gate level nitrogen balance and use efficiency changes post implementation of the EU Nitrates Directive

Buckley, Cathal; Wall, David P.; Moran, Brian; O’Neill, Stephen; Murphy, Paul

doi:10.1007/s10705-015-9753-y

Cited by 46 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Negative externalities (undesirable outputs) such as nitrogen (N) surplus that accompany agricultural activities and in particular dairy production have been identified as a significant contributor to ground water and surface water pollution, greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions and the build-up in soil of contaminants, such as heavy metals (McLellan et al 2018;Buckley et al 2016). These externalities result mainly from inappropriate manure management and the overuse of external inputs such as fertilizers and concentrates feeds in intensive dairy production systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Efficiency and Pollution Costs of Nitrogen Surplus in Dairy Farms: A Parametric Hyperbolic Technology Distance Function Approach

Adenuga

Davis

Hutchinson

et al. 2019

Environ Resource Econ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Negative externalities such as nitrogen (N) surplus that accompany dairy production activities are not usually accounted for in the market place since they are not costed. Using a parametric hyperbolic environmental technology distance function approach, we estimate the environmental efficiency and farm-specific abatement costs (shadow price) of nitrogen surplus in dairy farms on the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). The methodology, unlike previous approaches (output/input distance functions), allows for asymmetric treatments of production outputs (desirable and undesirable outputs). We also analyse the farm level nitrogen pollution costs ratio and its determinants. The results of our analyses showed that the average environmental technical efficiency estimates for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are 0.89 and 0.92 and the mean abatement costs per kg of N surplus is €4.02 and €6.2 respectively. We found a reasonable degree of variation in the spectrum of abatement costs across the dairy farms with a relative increase observed over the years.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Efficiency and Pollution Costs of Nitrogen Surplus in Dairy Farms: A Parametric Hyperbolic Technology Distance Function Approach

Adenuga

Davis

Hutchinson

et al. 2019

Environ Resource Econ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Farm-or field-level resource use efficiencies are of particular interest to practitioners, especially when they affect economic performance. Typical indicators are productivity (Alam, Humphreys, Sarkar, 2016), water use efficiency (Pascual, Villar, & Rufat, 2016;Wei et al, 2016;Zhao et al, 2010), benefit-cost ratio (Alam et al, 2017;Moreau et al, 2012;Rehman, Farrukh Saleem, Safdar, Hussain, & Akhtar, 2011), nutrient use efficiency (nitrogen: Buckley, Wall, Moran, O'Neill, & Murphy, 2016;Gu, Ju, Chang, Ge, & Chang, 2017;and phosphorous: Gerber, Uwizeye, Schulte, Opio, & de Boer, 2014;Zhang et al, 2016), and energy use efficiency (Arodudu, Helming, Voinov, & Wiggering, 2017;Hill, Nelson, Tilman, Polasky, & Tiffany, 2006). Efficiency assessments with landscape or global implications are relevant to policy makers.…”

Section: Resource Use Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing soil functions for a sustainable bioeconomy—Assessment framework and state of the art

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bioeconomy strategies have been adopted in many countries around the world. Their sustainable implementation requires a management of soils that maintains soil functions and avoids land degradation. Only then, ecosystem services can be maintained and resources used efficiently. We present an analytical framework for impact assessment that links policy and technology driving forces for soil management decisions to soil processes, soil functional changes, and their impacts on ecosystem services and resource use efficiency, both being targets that have been set by society and are anchored in bioeconomy policy strategies and sustainable development goals. Although the resource use efficiency concept has a long-term tradition, most studies of agricultural management do not address the role of soils in their efficiency assessment. The concept of ecosystem services has received increasing attention over the last years; however, its link to soil functions and soil management practices is still not well established. This study is the first to conceptually link the socioeconomic processes of external drivers for soil management with the natural processes of soil functions and connect them back to impacts on the social system. Application of the framework helps strengthen the science-policy interface and to systemically assess and compare the opportunities and threats of soil management practices from the perspective of goals set by society at different spatial and temporal scales. Insights gained in this way can be applied in stakeholder decisionmaking processes and used to inform the design of governance instruments aimed at sustainable soil management within a bioeconomy. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

show abstract

“…Each of the products exported from the farm (e.g. milk, meat, tillage and wool) and the imports (mainly chemical fertilisers and feedstuffs) are converted to kilograms of N using relevant coefficients (Buckley et al, , 2016. Table 2 presents the air quality and risk-to-water measures examined in this paper.…”

Section: Economic Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing farm-level sustainability indicators for Ireland using the Teagasc National Farm Survey

Ryan¹,

Hennessy²,

Buckley³

et al. 2016

Irish Journal of Agricultural and Food Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the context of an expanding, export-dependent agri-food sector, indicators of sustainable development and intensification are necessary to measure, assess and verify the comparative advantage afforded by Ireland's natural pastoral-based food production systems. Such indicators are also necessary to ensure that we produce more food with less adverse impacts on the Irish environment, climate and society. This article outlines the development of farm-level indicators that reflect the multifaceted nature of sustainability, which is encompassed in economic, environmental and social indicators. The role of innovation in farm sustainability was also examined. A comparison of indicators across Irish farm systems showed that dairy farms, followed by tillage farms, tended to be the most economically and socially sustainable farm systems. In relation to greenhouse gas emissions in particular, the top-performing dairy farms, in an economic sense, also tended to be the best-performing farms from an environmental sustainability perspective. This trend was also evident in relation to the adoption of innovative practices on farm, which was found to be strongly correlated with economic performance.

show abstract

Farm gate level nitrogen balance and use efficiency changes post implementation of the EU Nitrates Directive

Cited by 46 publications

References 39 publications

Environmental Efficiency and Pollution Costs of Nitrogen Surplus in Dairy Farms: A Parametric Hyperbolic Technology Distance Function Approach

Environmental Efficiency and Pollution Costs of Nitrogen Surplus in Dairy Farms: A Parametric Hyperbolic Technology Distance Function Approach

Managing soil functions for a sustainable bioeconomy—Assessment framework and state of the art

Developing farm-level sustainability indicators for Ireland using the Teagasc National Farm Survey

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About