ATTEMPTING TO MEASURE SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION OF AGRICULTURE IN COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

摘要

In the paper, a new approach to assessing sustainable agriculture intensification in the European Union is proposed. The Malmquist TFP index and DEA are used to calculate the economic and ecological productivity of agriculture. These indicators showed that during the 2004-2013 period, the agricultural sector in 27 EU Member States developed in line with the concept of sustainable intensification. Dividing the Member States into two clusters according to the time they joined the EU showed that the sustainable intensification path was different in EU-12 and EU-15. For old Member States, SI meant mostly increasing environmental agriculture productivity without diminishing economic productivity, while in 'new' Member States it was more focused on improving economic productivity, but without depleting natural resources.