Indicators for the economic dimension of sustainable agriculture in the European Union

Abstract

Over the past decade, the concept of sustaina-ble development became inevitable on as-sessing economic, social, and environmental processes. Although the concept of sustainable agriculture also includes environmental and so-cial aspects, the economic facet is still im-portant for decision makers and researchers because of the increasing needs of the world-wide growing population. Moreover, the eco-nomic dimension of agriculture is also im-portant because agriculture viability and com-patibility are key determinants of its future. Consequently, we compiled an indicator system on the agricultural sustainability based on statis-tical data, which describes four dimensions of agriculture sustainability (food supply, envi-ronment, economy, and society). The indicator system consists of 44 indicators and can serve as a basis for developing composite indicators. Based on the indicator system and the compo-site indicators of the performance of EU coun-tries, this study analyses economic dimension of EU agriculture (12 indicators). The results allow spatial comparisons and monitoring de-velopment over time. The performance of Hungary in terms of the economic dimension of sustainable agriculture is then analysed in comparison with its regional competitors.