The economic drivers and consequences of agricultural specialization
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
Standard
Agroecosystem Diversity: Reconciling Contemporary Agriculture and Environmental Quality. ed. / Gilles Lemaire; Paulo Carvalho; Scott Kronberg; Sylvie Recous. Academic Press Inc., 2018. p. 301-315.
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - CHAP
T1 - The economic drivers and consequences of agricultural specialization
AU - Abson, David J.
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - Agricultural specialization is a complex multidimensional process, with multiple drivers and consequences. In this chapter specialization-focusing largely on an “Eastern European/North American” perspective-is discussed in the context of the related notions of agricultural intensification and agricultural concentration. The primary drivers of agroecosystem specialization, including mechanization, economies of size and scale, technological innovations, comparative advantage, market forces and “productionist” agricultural policies are described. Next, agricultural specialization is related to farms and farmland characteristics, notions of efficiency, and the geographic scale of specialization. The relations between multiscalar specialization and multiscalar ecologic simplification are outlined. Finally the consequences of specialization are assessed in terms of their potential ecologic and economic impacts on four key agroecosystem system properties: productivity, stability, persistence, and justice.
AB - Agricultural specialization is a complex multidimensional process, with multiple drivers and consequences. In this chapter specialization-focusing largely on an “Eastern European/North American” perspective-is discussed in the context of the related notions of agricultural intensification and agricultural concentration. The primary drivers of agroecosystem specialization, including mechanization, economies of size and scale, technological innovations, comparative advantage, market forces and “productionist” agricultural policies are described. Next, agricultural specialization is related to farms and farmland characteristics, notions of efficiency, and the geographic scale of specialization. The relations between multiscalar specialization and multiscalar ecologic simplification are outlined. Finally the consequences of specialization are assessed in terms of their potential ecologic and economic impacts on four key agroecosystem system properties: productivity, stability, persistence, and justice.
KW - Agroecosystem
KW - Drivers
KW - Economic impacts
KW - Farmland
KW - Productionist
KW - Simplification
KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066798330&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/B978-0-12-811050-8.00019-4
DO - 10.1016/B978-0-12-811050-8.00019-4
M3 - Contributions to collected editions/anthologies
AN - SCOPUS:85066798330
SN - 9780128110508
SP - 301
EP - 315
BT - Agroecosystem Diversity
A2 - Lemaire, Gilles
A2 - Carvalho, Paulo
A2 - Kronberg, Scott
A2 - Recous, Sylvie
PB - Academic Press Inc.
ER -