Eco-economic efficiency evaluation of agricultural development projects

Abstract

The article describes an approach to assess the cost-effectiveness of investment into agricultural landscapes amelioration based on the idea of optimizing the environmental capacity of agricultural production and including an ecosystem sustainability support mechanism as its integral part. The methodology of agricultural projects' efficiency evaluation was formed by current views on operation of natural and socioeconomic systems, analysis of ecosystems, and modeling of natural and economic processes. The authors suggest a system of models and methods to forecast the long term changes that occur in key components of natural environment due to human activity (namely, land amelioration), which allows to compensate the structural damage sustained by natural landscapes, and includes a set of amelioration activities using modern farming approaches based on a harmonious balance between public interests and the course of nature.