| Affiliation: | 1.Farm Management Research Group,Agroscope,Ettenhausen,Switzerland;2.Section Environment, Sustainable Development and Territory,Swiss Federal Statistical Office,Neuchatel,Switzerland |
| Abstract: | This paper investigated the determinants of nitrogen surplus, also denoted as nitrogen balance, at farm level in Swiss agriculture. Our analysis was based on a cross-section of 210 farms from the year 2010. The nitrogen surplus of each farm was estimated according to the OECD soil-surface approach and decomposed in two components—nitrogen intensity and nitrogen inefficiency. The average nitrogen surplus of the farms investigated amounted to 89 kg/ha, resulting from an average nitrogen intensity of 255 kg/ha and an average nitrogen inefficiency of 34%. The determinants of nitrogen surplus and its two components were analyzed by means of a three-equation regression model estimated using a robust seemingly unrelated regression approach. Farm size, part-time farming, organic farming, arable cropping and farmer’s age were found to decrease nitrogen surplus, whereas dairy, pig and poultry farming were associated with an increase in nitrogen surplus. |
