A MULTIOBJECTIVE APPROACH TO INTEGRATING AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES

Agricultural nonpoint source pollution of soil and water resources is a major societal concern. Because of unabated NPS pollution, and despi te more than a decade of policy, research and intervention, the relati onship between agricultural production and environmental performance i s still the subject of ongoing debate. Invariably, the environmental o bjectives conflict with one another and the policy choices involve sig nificant trade-offs. The trade-off between soil erosion and water qual ity is a typical example of this contradiction. This paper describes a theory and conceptual framework for integrated agricultural economic and environmental modelling using a multicriteria decision-making appr oach grounded in multi-attribute utility theory. The empirical analysi s and policy exercise evaluates policy trade-offs using a watershed-ba sed model. The intent is to develop and implement a framework for poli cy analysis that provides for a better understanding of why some envir onmental problems persist despite evolving policies, technologies and market incentives. The multi-objective decision-making model is empiri cally verified for a specific eastern Iowa watershed. Two key results stand out from empirical analysis. There is a significant trade-off be tween economic and environmental goals, and even between environmental goals; therefore, a comprehensive analysis with reasonable compromise will give an ideal solution. Incorporating environmental objectives e ncouraged more environmentally sound cropping practices. In particular , environmentally sustainable crop rotation practices such as corn-soy beans-hay/oats was chosen more frequently by the model. (C) 1995 Acade mic Press Limited