IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v13y2023i9p1778-d1235356.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of the Nexus between Structural and Climate Changes in EU Pig Farming

Author

Listed:
  • Nelė Jurkėnaitė

    (Institute of Economics and Rural Development, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, A. Vivulskio Str. 4A-13, LT 03220 Vilnius, Lithuania)

Abstract

The EU’s ambition to establish economy-wide climate neutrality by 2050 requires challenging transformations in many economic activities. This paper aims to investigate the nexus of structural changes and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) in an important sector of the livestock system, namely pig farming, during the period of 2010–2020 and to discuss the main directions of GHGE reduction. The academic novelty of this contribution is characterised by a combination of the shift-share and cluster analysis that allows for the investigation of the evolution phenomenon, applying the sustainability prism in order to understand the nexus between pig farming and the livestock system, as well as combining the national and EU levels. Results suggest that the steep decline in the number of holdings and a moderate reduction in livestock units (LSUs) on farms do not bring tangible GHGE reduction results. The cluster analysis confirms that pig farming systems in pre-2004 member states, except for Finland and Greece, demonstrated positive developments or a lower decline in holdings with pigs and live swine LSUs compared to other countries, while in the dominant share of post-2003 member states, the GHGE reduction rate was higher. This research identifies a reduction in the pig population, improvement in feed production and the development of related supply chains, and changes in manure management and utilisation as the main directions of GHGE reduction; however, the identified clusters are related with different potentials of GHGE reduction when applying the aforementioned measures. Recommendations include the development and support of actions that focus on GHGE reduction from swine manure and contribute to the establishment of a circular economy in the EU.

Suggested Citation

  • Nelė Jurkėnaitė, 2023. "Analysis of the Nexus between Structural and Climate Changes in EU Pig Farming," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:9:p:1778-:d:1235356
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/9/1778/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/9/1778/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonia Katharina Ruckli & Stefan Josef Hörtenhuber & Paolo Ferrari & Jonathan Guy & Juliane Helmerichs & Robert Hoste & Carmen Hubbard & Nadja Kasperczyk & Christine Leeb & Agata Malak-Rawlikowska & , 2022. "Integrative Sustainability Analysis of European Pig Farms: Development of a Multi-Criteria Assessment Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-26, May.
    2. Kennedy Ndue & Goda Pál, 2022. "Life Cycle Assessment Perspective for Sectoral Adaptation to Climate Change: Environmental Impact Assessment of Pig Production," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Catherine C. Ivanovich & Tianyi Sun & Doria R. Gordon & Ilissa B. Ocko, 2023. "Future warming from global food consumption," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 13(3), pages 297-302, March.
    4. Arnold Csonka & Štefan Bojnec & Imre Fertő, 2021. "Spatial Transformation of the Pig Sector in Hungary and Slovenia: A Comparative Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Lajos Baráth & Imre Fertő & Jakub Staniszewski, 2021. "Technological Heterogeneity in Pig Farming: A Metafrontier Approach—Perspectives from Hungary and Poland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-13, October.
    6. Stefan J. Hörtenhuber & Verena Größbacher & Lisa Schanz & Werner J. Zollitsch, 2023. "Implementing IPCC 2019 Guidelines into a National Inventory: Impacts of Key Changes in Austrian Cattle and Pig Farming," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Köninger, Julia & Lugato, Emanuele & Panagos, Panos & Kochupillai, Mrinalini & Orgiazzi, Alberto & Briones, Maria J.I., 2021. "Manure management and soil biodiversity: Towards more sustainable food systems in the EU," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    8. Elżbieta Jadwiga Szymańska & Mariusz Dziwulaki, 2022. "Development of African Swine Fever in Poland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Nguyen, Thu Lan T. & Hermansen, John E. & Mogensen, Lisbeth, 2010. "Fossil energy and GHG saving potentials of pig farming in the EU," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2561-2571, May.
    10. Nicholas Davison & Aaron Brown & Andrew Ross, 2023. "Potential Greenhouse Gas Mitigation from Utilising Pig Manure and Grass for Hydrothermal Carbonisation and Anaerobic Digestion in the UK, EU, and China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lefteris Melas & Maria Batsioula & Apostolos Malamakis & Sotiris I. Patsios & Dimitris Geroliolios & Evangelos Alexandropoulos & Stamatia Skoutida & Christos Karkanias & Anna Dedousi & Maria-Zoi Krits, 2023. "Circular Bioeconomy Practices in the Greek Pig Sector: The Environmental Performance of Bakery Meal as Pig Feed Ingredient," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-26, July.
    2. Veronika Fenyves & Tibor Tarnóczi & Zoltán Bács & Dóra Kerezsi & Péter Bajnai & Mihály Szoboszlai, 2022. "Financial efficiency analysis of Hungarian agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 68(11), pages 413-426.
    3. Šimun Lončarević & Petar Ilinčić & Goran Šagi & Zoran Lulić, 2023. "Development of a Spatial Tier 2 Emission Inventory for Agricultural Tractors by Combining Two Large-Scale Datasets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Xiong, Yuyu & Guo, Hongxiang & Nor, Datin Dr Mariani Md & Song, Andong & Dai, Li, 2023. "Mineral resources depletion, environmental degradation, and exploitation of natural resources: COVID-19 aftereffects," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    5. Hassan El-Ramady & Peter Hajdú & Gréta Törős & Khandsuren Badgar & Xhensila Llanaj & Attila Kiss & Neama Abdalla & Alaa El-Dein Omara & Tamer Elsakhawy & Heba Elbasiouny & Fathy Elbehiry & Megahed Ame, 2022. "Plant Nutrition for Human Health: A Pictorial Review on Plant Bioactive Compounds for Sustainable Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-45, July.
    6. Gwendolyn Rudolph & Stefan Hörtenhuber & Davide Bochicchio & Gillian Butler & Roland Brandhofer & Sabine Dippel & Jean Yves Dourmad & Sandra Edwards & Barbara Früh & Matthias Meier & Armelle Prunier &, 2018. "Effect of Three Husbandry Systems on Environmental Impact of Organic Pigs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Jakub Mazurkiewicz, 2023. "The Impact of Manure Use for Energy Purposes on the Economic Balance of a Dairy Farm," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-22, September.
    8. Sgarbossa, Fabio & Russo, Ivan, 2017. "A proactive model in sustainable food supply chain: Insight from a case study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(PB), pages 596-606.
    9. Jakub Mazurkiewicz & Pola Sidoruk & Jacek Dach & Malgorzata Szumacher-Strabel & Dorota Lechniak & Paul Galama & Abele Kuipers & Ireneusz R. Antkowiak & Adam Cieslak, 2023. "Leverage of Essential Oils on Faeces-Based Methane and Biogas Production in Dairy Cows," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-11, October.
    10. Antonia Katharina Ruckli & Sabine Dippel & Nora Durec & Monika Gebska & Jonathan Guy & Juliane Helmerichs & Christine Leeb & Herman Vermeer & Stefan Hörtenhuber, 2021. "Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Pig Farms in Selected European Countries: Combining LCA and Key Performance Indicators for Biodiversity Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.
    11. Bonnet, Céline & Coinon, Marine, 2024. "Environmental co-benefits of health policies to reduce meat consumption: A narrative review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    12. Mahmoud Sharara & Daesoo Kim & Sammy Sadaka & Greg Thoma, 2019. "Consequential Life Cycle Assessment of Swine Manure Management within a Thermal Gasification Scenario," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-15, October.
    13. Joanna Mikusińska & Monika Kuźnia & Klaudia Czerwińska & Małgorzata Wilk, 2023. "Hydrothermal Carbonization of Digestate Produced in the Biogas Production Process," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-18, July.
    14. Bin Yang & Weiguo Jia & Yi Yu & Hui Zhang, 2024. "Sustainability Assessment of Agricultural Waste Biogas Production System in China Based on Emergy and Carbon Evaluation Methods," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, October.
    15. Yvonne Kummer & Christian Fikar & Johanna Burtscher & Martina Strobl & Reinhard Fuchs & Konrad J. Domig & Patrick Hirsch, 2022. "Facilitating Resilience during an African Swine Fever Outbreak in the Austrian Pork Supply Chain through Hybrid Simulation Modelling," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Lehmann, Richard J. & Fritz, Melanie & Schiefer, Gerhard, 2011. "Information Reference Models for European Pork Supply Networks," 2011 International European Forum, February 14-18, 2011, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 122014, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    17. Esteve Nadal-Roig & Adela Pagès-Bernaus & Lluís M. Plà-Aragonès, 2018. "Bi-Objective Optimization Model Based on Profit and CO 2 Emissions for Pig Deliveries to the Abattoir," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-13, May.
    18. Lajos Baráth & Imre Fertő & Jakub Staniszewski, 2024. "Are technological or efficiency differences more pronounced between Hungarian and Polish poultry farms? A stochastic metafrontier analysis," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 70(8), pages 406-413.
    19. Hauke F. Deeken & Alexandra Lengling & Manuel S. Krommweh & Wolfgang Büscher, 2023. "Improvement of Piglet Rearing’s Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Using Air-to-Air Heat Exchangers—A Two-Year Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-30, February.
    20. Salvatore Rapisarda & Giampaolo Di Biase & Martina Mazzon & Claudio Ciavatta & Luciano Cavani, 2022. "Nitrogen Availability in Organic Fertilizers from Tannery and Slaughterhouse By-Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-14, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:9:p:1778-:d:1235356. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.