Farming Efficiency and the Survival of Valuable Agro-Ecosystems: A Case Study of Rice Farming in European Mediterranean Wetlands

Abstract

Beyond the conventional role of providing food, rice farming in European Mediterranean wetlands performs a valuable non-marketable function related to the provision of environmental services. Rice and biodiversity are jointly produced, so that provision of flooded-ricefields based environmental services depends crucially on private profitability of rice farming. Recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and increasing access of third party countries to the domestic European market are challenging the competitiveness of European rice growers. This paper combines conventional competitiveness indicators and non-parametric efficiency analysis to ascertain the economic profitability of rice cultivation in the Albufera Natural Park (Eastern Spain). Our main results are as follows. First, the current competitiveness of rice farming in this highly valued agro-ecosystem depends crucially on CAP support. Second, if rice growers were performing efficiently, short-run competitiveness could be achieved without CAP support. Third, the current scheme of environmental payments would be sufficient to bring about the long run competitiveness of efficient farmers, thus guaranteeing the survival of a wealth of biodiversity associated to the Albufera wetlands. Finally, we also find that outsourcing certain growing tasks to external service firms improves the chances of rice farms working efficiently.

Assessing farming eco-efficiency: A Data Envelopment Analysis approach

“…All these potential explanatory variables of farm eco-efficiency, listed below, were selected taking into account the previous literature (particularly the works of Van Passel et al, 2007;Basset-Mens et al, 2007;Meul et al, 2007;Pelletier et al, 2008;Reig-Martínez et al, 2008;Van Passel et al, 2009;Ribal et al, 2009;Picazo-Tadeo et al, 2009;and Gómez-Limón and Sanchez-Fernandez, 2010): a. Farmer features: age, percentage of income derived from farming, level of education (level of studies reached: schoolleaving certificate, primary, secondary and university), and specific professional training (type of agricultural instruction: non-specialised agricultural training, extension courses, professional degrees and university agricultural studies).…”

Characteristics of rodent outbreaks in the Low San Francisco Sergipano (Sergipe, Brazil) and influence of anomalies on sea surface temperature on temperatures in this region

“…The BIP was a floodplain and it is characterised as a "Agreste" zone in Sergipe; meanwhile, Propriá is a semi-arid micro-region. Rice fields serve as a habitat for wild species and other animals, and rivers and floodplains as systems which cannot be separated [38,39].…”

STICS crop model and Sentinel-2 images for monitoring rice growth and yield in the Camargue region

“…Although rice is not a staple food in Europe, this crop plays an important sociocultural (Picazo-Tadeo et al 2009) and ecological (Longoni 2010) role in several Mediterranean countries. Timely and accurate estimations of the area of rice production and the associated yields can provide invaluable information for governments, planners, and decision-makers that need to formulate agricultural and environmental policies (Mosleh et al 2015).…”