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Agri-environmental schemes (AES) play a key role in promoting the production of environmental public goods by European Union agriculture. Although extensive literature has analyzed AES, some important issues remain understudied. This paper performs an ex-ante assessment of AES in permanent cropping, analyzing several issues that have received little attention from researchers, such as ecological focus areas (EFA) and collective participation. For this purpose, a choice experiment was used to assess farmers’ preferences towards AES in a case study of olive groves in southern Spain. Results show high heterogeneity among farmers, with different classes being identified, from potential participants to non-participants. As regards EFA, almost half of the farmers would be willing to accept it for low monetary incentives (€8-9/ha per additional 1% of the farmland devoted to EFA) while the rest would do it for moderate-to-high monetary incentives (€41-151/ha per additional 1% of EFA). However, for a high share of EFA (e.g., 5-7%) higher incentives would presumably be required due to the intrinsic spatial restrictions of olive groves. With regard to collective participation, we find that it is unlikely that farmers would participate collectively with the incentive of the up-to-30% EU-wide bonus. These results are relevant for policy-making now when new AES are being designed for the next programming period 2014-2020. Los programas medioambientales son un instrumento clave para la provisión de bienes públicos de carácter ambiental. En este trabajo utilizando los experimentos de elección se determina el grado de adopción según el tipo de sistema de olivar. Los resultados indican que casi la mitad de los olivareros estarían dispuestos a dedicar el 2% a Superficie de Interés Ecológico (SIE) por reducidos incentivos monetarios. Para una adopción entre 5-7% se requerirían elevados incentivos.

The adoption of Soil Conservation Practices (SCP) in olive groves in Andalusia, such as not burning olive-desuckering debris, shredding olive-pruning debris for use as soil cover and using cover crops under mower control, constitutes a huge advance towards sustainable olive growing. By adopting such SCP, olive growers can reduce the worrying level of erosion this activity causes, combat climate change and increase biodiversity. In this sense, the negative spillovers associated to the foregoing processes are highly significant both in qualitative and quantitative terms regarding the degradation of agricultural ecosystems. This paper seeks to identify the main factors that affect these SCP in olive groves in Andalusia. In order to do so, we use a trivariate probit model, therefore considering that the reasons behind adopting SCP may be interrelated. The results show how the factors that determine the adoption of such practices are related to the socio-demographic characteristics of olive growers, some of the characteristics of the olive grove itself and how it is managed and the role of social capital. This research has been financed by the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund through the Operative Programme of Andalusia 2007-2013 (project P10-AGR-5892). It is also co-financed by the IFAPA – Andalusian Institute of Agriculural Research and Training and the European Social Fund Operative Programme of Andalusia 2007-2013 through a post-doctoral training program supporting the first author. La adopción de prácticas de conservación del suelo en olivar en Andalucía, como la no quema de restos de poda, picado de los restos y uso de cubierta vegetal constituye un gran avance hacia la sostenibilidad del olivar. Estas prácticas reducen el riesgo de erosión, contribuyen a la mitigación del cambio climático e incrementan la biodiversidad. El artículo analiza qué factores determinan la adopción de estas prácticas por parte de los olivicultores. Los resultados indican que hay factores socioeconómicos del productor y físicos de la explotación que influyen en dicha adopción.This research has been financed by the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund through the Operative Programme of Andalusia 2007-2013 (project P10-AGR-5892). It is also co-financed by the IFAPA – Andalusian Institute of Agriculural Research and Training and the European Social Fund Operative Programme of Andalusia 2007-2013 through a post-doctoral training program supporting the first author.