DOI: n/a
Abstract
This article investigates the issue of sustainability of agricultural holdings based on the example of holdings employing the Norfolk crop rotation system. Hence, this study, focussed on agricultural holdings employing crop rotation as an example of holdings that are potentially environmentally sustainable and ensuring a constant level of agricultural land productivity, as compared to conventional holdings, will allow the establishing of the characteristic features of such holdings and will contribute to the effort aimed at answering the question of whether holdings which utilise environmentally sustainable production techniques are also economically sustainable. The analysis utilised data on the separate groups, i.e. concerning their share, total area of agricultural land at their disposal, average production value in the holdings, and information on the Standard Gross Margin. At the economic level, the balance ratio was based on the data concerning the average income from agricultural holdings per full-time employed member of the family, and average labour input expressed in AWU. The analysis examined data from holdings employing FADN accounting across the four subsequent years 2006-2009, which formed the foundation for drawing conclusions. Distinguishing between Norfolk and “conventional” holdings facilitated the performance of a comparative analysis of their economic performance. The findings were presented in the form of tables and figures.