Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2017, 65(4), 1195-1204 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201765041195

Agricultural Land Evaluation Considering the Czech Less Favoured Areas Delineation

Jakub Kučera, Tomáš Hlavsa
Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information, Prague, Mánesova 1453/75, 120 56 Praha 2, Czech Republic

This paper analyses the impact of the common European criteria on the Less Favoured Areas (LFA) delineation in the Czech Republic (CR) and compares it with currently used point evaluation system. Further, it compares the advantages and disadvantages of both delineation systems from various points of view and concerning the needs of common agricultural policies.
In the Czech Republic, a system of point evaluation of the agricultural land productivity based on the Evaluated soil-ecological units (ESEU) is used for delineation of the other than mountain LFA since 2001. Within the programme period 2014-2020, the European Commission proposes to delineate the other than mountain LFA using a single set of criteria, common for all the member states. Some criteria of the natural handicap proposed by the European Commission (EC) can be derived directly from the ESEU five-cipher code and from the soil maps. The comparison clearly shows that the current Czech system of point evaluation of the productivity of agricultural land can express better the influence of worse soil and climatic conditions on the limitations of the agricultural use of the land than the system proposed by the EC.
Additionally, the ESEU point evaluation can express also the effect of simultaneous influence of more factors, which may thus increase or decrease the final ESEU point values. Conversely, it is necessary to remark that the land quality evaluation based on ESEU is rather complicated and not easily understandable for the wide public. Also, it cannot be applied in all the EU countries.

Keywords: EC criteria, ESEU, delineation, differentiation, LFA, land evaluation

Published: September 1, 2017  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Kučera, J., & Hlavsa, T. (2017). Agricultural Land Evaluation Considering the Czech Less Favoured Areas Delineation. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 65(4), 1195-1204. doi: 10.11118/actaun201765041195
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. BŐTTCHER, K. et al. 2009. Guidelines for Application of Common Criteria to Identify Agricultural Areas with Natural Handicaps. Technical report. European Commission- Joint Research Centre Institute for Environment and Sustainability European Communities. [On-line] Available at: http://agrienv.jrc.ec.europa.eu/activities/lfa.html [Accessed: 2013, May 12].
    2. ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA. 2004. Nařízení vlády č. 241/2004 Sb., o podmínkách provádění pomoci méně příznivým oblastem a oblastem s ekologickými omezeními Příl.1. [Online]. Available at: http://eagri.cz/public/web/mze/dotace/legislativa/legislativa-cr/dobihajici-a-ukoncene-dotace/horizontalni-plan-rozvoje-venkova-2004/100048776.html [Accessed: 2016, January 21].
    3. ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA. 2010. Government Directive 372/2010 Coll [in Czech: Nařízení vlády 372/2010]. [Online]. Available at http://eagri.cz/public/web/mze/legislativa/pravni-predpisy-mze/tematicky-prehled/Legislativa-MZe_uplna-zneni_narizeni-vlady-2010-372.html [Accessed: 2015, December 10].
    4. COOPER, T. et al. 2006. An Evaluation of the Less Favoured Area Measure in the 25 Member States of the European Union. A report prepared by the Institute for European Environmental Policy for DG Agriculture. Institute for European Environmental Policy.
    5. COOPER, T. et al. 2006. An evaluation of the Less Favoured Area measure in the 25 member states of the European Union. Report for DG AGRI. Institute for European Environmental Policy London. [On-line]. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/eval/reports/lfa/full_text_en.pdf [Accessed: 2015, December 10]
    6. DAX, T. 2005. The on-going CAP - reform - incentives for a shift towards rural development activities? In: XI. Congress of EAAE "The future of rural Europe in the Global Agrifood system". Copenhagen, Denmark, August 23 - 27, 2005.
    7. DORAN, J. W. and PARKIN, T. B. 1994. Defining and assessing soil quality. In: Defining soil quality for a sustainable environment. Soil Science Society of America. Division A-5 of the American Society of Agronomy and the North Central region Committee on Soil Organic Matter (NCR-59) Spec. Publ. No: 35., Madison, WI., p.3 - 21.
    8. EC. 2011. Results of testing the biophysical criteria for the delimitation of intermediate areas with natural handicaps. Presentation. Brussels - RDC 13. 4. 2011
    9. EC. 2011. Results of testing the biophysical criteria for the delimitation of intermediate areas with natural handicaps-follow up issues. Presentation. Brussels - RDC 15. 6. 2011
    10. ELIASSON, Å. et al. 2010. Common criteria for the redefinition of Intermediate Less Favoured Areas in the European Union. Environmental Science and Policy, 13(8): 766-777. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2010.08.003 Go to original source...
    11. ELIASSON, Å., TERRES, J. and BAMPS, C. 2007. Common Biophysical Criteria for Defining Areas which are Less Favourable for Agriculture in Europe. European Commission- Joint Research Centre Institute for Environment and Sustainability European Communities.
    12. EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS. 2003. Support for Less-favoured areas, together with the Commission's replies. Special Report No 4/2003 concerning Rural Development. Luxemburg: Court of Auditors: Official Journal of European Union - C151.
    13. HORRIGAN, L., LAWRENCE, R. S. and WALKER, P. 2002. How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environment and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(5): 445-456. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.02110445 Go to original source...
    14. KARLEN, D. L. et al. 1997. Soil quality. A concept definition and framework for evaluation. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. Journal, 61(1): 4-10. DOI: 10.2136/sssaj1997.03615995006100010001x Go to original source...
    15. KLEČKA, M. et al. 1979. Principals of evaluation of agricultural land and the system of evaluated soil-ecological units of the Czech Socialistic Republic. Praha: Crop production 25/LII.
    16. KLEČKA, M. et al. 1984. Evaluation of agricultural land and ways of their use. Part 1 - Identification and mapping of evaluated soil-ecological units in the Czechoslovakia. Handbook with maps of ESEU. Praha-Bratislava: Ministry of agriculture.
    17. LARSON, W. E. and PIERCE, F. J. 1994. The dynamics of soil quality as a measure of sustainable management. In: Defining soil quality for a sustainable environment. SSSA, spec. Publ. vol. 35. Madison, WI.: Am. Soc. Agron., p. 37-51. Go to original source...
    18. NĚMEC, J. 2001. Evaluation and appraisement of agricultural land in the Czech Republic [in Czech: Hodnocení a oceňování zemědělské půdy v České republice]. Praha: Research Institute of Agricultural Economics.
    19. PURDON, M. 2003. The nature of ecosystem management: postmodernism and plurality in the sustainable management of the boreal forest. Environmental Science and Policy, 6: 377-388. DOI: 10.1016/S1462-9011(03)00064-9 Go to original source...
    20. SHUCKSMITH, M., THOMSON, K. J. and ROBERTS, D. 2005. The CAP and the regions: the territorieal impact at the Common Agricultural Policy. Wllingford UK: CABI Publishing, p. 232. Go to original source...
    21. ŠTOLBOVÁ, M. 2007. Comparative analysis of less-favoured areas payments in the EU states. Agricultural Economics, 53(10): 455-465. Go to original source...
    22. ŠTOLBOVÁ, M., KUČERA, J., HLAVSA, T., et al. 2010. Elaboration and analysis of data for the less favoured areas delimitation and assessment of the delimitation (eligible area, payment calculation). Research for Ministry of Agriculture Nr. 4213. Prague: Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content