Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Economics (AFO)

Management...

.. in agriculture and in forestry
Sustainability...

... we develop and evaluate concepts for the sustainable production of biological resources
Crops and animals

Our research covers both crop production and animal husbandry, both in conventional and organic systems
Multifunctionality

We analyse and assess the diverse functions of agriculture and forestry
Renewable energy

We analyse the economic aspects of the production of renewable energy (e.g. biogas, Silphium production)
Environmenal protection

The balance between ecology and economy is at the core of our research

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Prof. Kantelhardt is the Austrian representative for agricultural research at the EU CAP Network

The European Commission has set up the EU CAP Network to optimise the flow of information about agriculture and rural policy within the EU is.

Impact of functional crop diversity

H. Schaak published a paper on the link between functional diversification, farm economic performance, and input self-sufficiency on Swedish Farms.

MOOC on care-full scholarship

In the framework of the RECOMS project, we developed an open online course that invites researchers to critically and reflexively engage with care-full scholarship

At AFO we believe..

Thank you to sibecol.org for this wonderful visualisation welcoming diversity and promoting inclusion

Under-adaptation to climate change

J. Zeilinger, A. Niedermayr and J. Kantelhardt published a paper in which they develop and test a framework to relax the assumption of fully adapted farms

Showcasing synergies between agriculture, biodiversity and Ecosystem services to help farmers capitalising on native biodiversity | EU H2020 (Dec. 2020 - Dec. 2025)

Providing knowledge for the transition to agroecological farming by identifying appropriate digital tools and technologies | Horizon Europe (Sept. 2022 - Aug. 2025)

Innovationen für bestehende Aufzucht- und Mastställe für Schweine, zum Wohl von Tier und Mensch | BML (Dez. 2021 - Dez. 2025)

Low-Input Farming and Territories: Integrating knowledge for improving ecosystem-based farming | H2020 (May 2018 - Apr. 2022)

Contract solutions for effective and lasting delivery of agri-environmental-climate public goods by EU agriculture and forestry | H2020 (May 2019 - April 2022)

Building resourceful and resilient communities through adaptive and transformative environmental practice | MSCA - ITN (Mar. 2018 - Aug. 2022).

Our research focus

We combine basic and applied research, quantitative and qualitative methods, while building on a strong involvement of stakeholders in our research process. This makes our research relevant not only to the scientific community, but also to farmers and forest enterprise managers, policy makers and other key stakeholders in the agricultural and forestry sector.

In agricultural economics, our work focuses on...

In the field of agricultural economics, our research foci include:
(i) developing and evaluating concepts for sustainable production of agricultural (public) goods with a focus on the balance between ecology, economy and social aspects,
(ii) farm level assessment of broader changes (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, policies, crises, changes in diet);
(iii) appraisal of new technologies in terms of feasibility/added value for the agricultural sector;
(iv) theoretical developments towards a process-relational approach to farming resilience.

Particularly through our European research projects, we established two international strategic research clusters. The first focuses on the valorisation of public good and ecosystem service provision by agriculture (EU projects CLAIM, PROVIDE, CONSOLE) and the second on interdisciplinary (economics, natural sciences, engineering) research on agriculture and the environment, particularly with respect to agroecology (EU projects SHOWCASE, LIFT, D4AgEcol).

In forestry economics, we focus on:

In the field of forestry economics, research focuses on analysing the economic performance of larger forest enterprises and small-scale farm holdings. The long-term, transdisciplinary research (since the 1960s!) is based on two highly developed forest accountancy data networks, in which we claim almost unique expertise. These networks are a most valuable research infrastructure and serve as interfaces to practice and policy alike.

In particular, we focus on:

Efficiency analysis of forest enterprises and forest related processes
Development of management tools for forest enterprises
Forestry in the context of national accounting
Monitoring of profitability of forestry in Austria by means of forest accountancy networks
Valuation of forest services in terms of welfare economics
Marketing of non-wood goods and forest services