Assessment of agri-environmental situation in selected EU countries: a multi-criteria decision-making approach for sustainable agricultural development

Namiotko, Virginia; Galnaityte, Aiste; Krisciukaitiene, Irena; Balezentis, Tomas

Assessment of agri-environmental situation in selected EU countries: a multi-criteria decision-making approach for sustainable agricultural development

2022

Namiotko, Virginia | Galnaityte, Aiste | Krisciukaitiene, Irena | Balezentis, Tomas

In recent years, humanity has faced with multiple crises, both of economic and environmental nature. Among the key reasons for such turbulences, the deteriorating agri-environmental situation appears as an important facet. This article evaluates agri-environmental situation of selected European Union (EU) countries using the multi-criteria decision making methods (SAW, TOPSIS, and EDAS) to identify the potential strategies for improvement of agricultural activities and environmental situation in general. The set of indicators, compiled from the database, prepared by the European Commission (EC) was used for this research. The empirical results show that the trends in agri-environmental situation of selected EU countries are similar under all the methods used. The best agri-environmental situation both at the beginning and at the end of the research period was in Finland, Ireland, and Sweden. On contrary, the worst situation was identified in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. The only case of decline in the agri-environmental performance is observed for Lithuania, whereas ascension in ranks is observed for Austria and Poland. The results are of particular importance in the period of development of agri-environment and climate schemes for the European Union Common Agricultural Policy post-2020.

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