Economic-Environmental Tradeoffs: Methodologies for Analysis of the Agricultural Production-Rural Environment System

Undesirable environmental impacts of agricultural production are becoming more numerous as agricultural production is increased to meet world food demands. The question of environmental controls on agriculture has many implications on both the level of output from agriculture and upon the quality of the environment. The purposes of this paper are to: (1) define a general structure for the agricultural production-rural environment system, (2) define a general analytical framework for management of the system; and (3) describe an empirical management study of water quality and erosion control. The following paper represents the contributions of a group of experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the collaborative study with IIASA's task, "Environmental Problems of Agriculture." The study, culminating in this paper, met one of the Task's research objectives, which as stated in the Research Plan is, "an evaluation of the trade-offs between the intensification of agricultural production and the possible deterioration in environmental quality." The authors further present, in condensed form, an example demonstrating how a highly complex environmental problem can be analyzed. The methodology used for this analysis is not restricted to the study of agricultural-environmental interactions; rather, it can be applied on a wider basis