Eco-efficiency gap widens in European agriculture: Turkey outperforms wealthier EU nations

A new study reveals stark disparities in agricultural eco-efficiency across the European Union and Türkiye, highlighting both regional performance gaps and surprising frontrunners. Using advanced benchmarking tools, the research offers a comprehensive diagnostic of how countries perform in balancing agricultural productivity with environmental sustainability over a twenty-year span.

Published in Sustainability, the study titled “Eco-Efficiency in the Agricultural Sector: A Cross-Country Comparison Between the European Union and Türkiye” evaluates 26 EU member states alongside Türkiye from 2003 to 2022. By treating each country as a decision-making unit, the study applies Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess how efficiently nations convert agricultural labor, capital, and energy into economic value, while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.

How was agricultural eco-efficiency measured?

To assess national performance, the study deployed an input-oriented DEA model with Variable Returns to Scale (VRS), a technique well-established in operational research for evaluating efficiency under real-world conditions. Inputs included the compensation of agricultural employees, energy consumption, and gross fixed capital formation, each normalized by agricultural land area to ensure comparability. Outputs were divided into one desirable (agricultural GDP) and one undesirable metric (greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture), enabling a holistic view of economic-environmental trade-offs.

This methodological framework was designed to address a critical policy need: the ability to identify where resources are overused relative to output and where gains can be made through optimization rather than expansion. The study’s orientation toward input reduction reflects the practical reality that policymakers typically have more control over reducing inputs than boosting outputs.

A reciprocal transformation was used to account for greenhouse gas emissions, converting them into efficiency-reducing components in the model. Countries were scored on a scale from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating full efficiency. Beyond identifying efficient countries, the model also highlighted those operating under increasing or decreasing returns to scale, providing insights into how sector size influences sustainability.

Which countries are leading or lagging in agricultural eco-efficiency?

The analysis uncovered a deep divergence in eco-efficiency performance across Europe. Four countries, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, and Türkiye, achieved perfect efficiency scores throughout the 20-year period, positioning themselves as consistent frontrunners. Notably, Türkiye’s performance challenges the notion that only high-income, technology-intensive countries lead in sustainability. The country frequently served as a benchmark for less efficient nations, suggesting that its policy frameworks, perhaps including targeted mechanization support and agricultural extension services, deserve closer scrutiny.

By contrast, countries such as Estonia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Luxembourg consistently fell short. Estonia posted one of the lowest average scores at 0.465, followed by Luxembourg at 0.405. These inefficiencies stemmed largely from underperformance in environmental outputs and inefficient use of energy and labor.

The study also observed a temporary decline in efficiency scores around 2015, coinciding with EU-wide reforms under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), particularly the introduction of “greening” measures. This disruption suggests that significant structural policy changes may temporarily impact efficiency as countries adjust to new regulatory landscapes.

Efficiency levels converged slightly in the 2010s, reflecting the potential influence of harmonized EU policy frameworks. However, substantial disparities remain, underscoring that EU membership alone does not guarantee uniform sustainability outcomes.

What policy lessons and improvement paths emerge?

Among the most important takeaways is the identification of inefficient countries' potential to reduce inputs, specifically energy and labor, by substantial margins. For example, Denmark was advised to reduce compensation of employees by 80%, while Poland needed to cut energy consumption by nearly 67% to align with the efficiency frontier.

The DEA model also generated scale efficiency insights. Countries like Spain and Poland were found to be operating under increasing returns to scale, indicating that expansion could yield higher efficiency. Conversely, nations such as Austria, Sweden, and the Netherlands demonstrated decreasing returns to scale, suggesting their agricultural sectors are already operating at or beyond optimal size. These findings underscore the importance of right-sizing national agriculture sectors to improve sustainability outcomes.

Notably, the benchmarking function of DEA identified Türkiye, Ireland, Lithuania, and Greece as common reference countries for underperforming peers. These nations had optimized their input-output configurations in ways that rendered them effective models, not necessarily for direct replication but as starting points for contextual learning. For example, Belgium’s eco-efficiency could be substantially improved by aligning more closely with Türkiye’s resource utilization patterns.

The study recommends targeted reduction strategies for each inefficient country. Belgium, for instance, should reduce energy input by 64% and capital investment by 48%. Similarly, Estonia’s agricultural labor compensation needs to decline by 44% for the country to reach the efficiency frontier. These insights can support national governments in designing more effective agricultural support programs, investment strategies, and emissions reduction policies.

Although the analysis does not establish direct causality or prescribe specific policy actions, it provides a valuable diagnostic tool for high-level policy discussions. The sectoral specificity of the input-output framework enhances its applicability for guiding agricultural reforms aligned with sustainability goals, such as those outlined in the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy.

In a nutshell, the study asserts that improving agricultural eco-efficiency across Europe requires more than increased output or larger-scale operations. Instead, optimizing the use of labor, energy, and capital, particularly in countries with persistently low performance, can yield substantial environmental and economic benefits.