Evaluating the trade-off between machinery efficiency and loss of biodiversity-friendly habitats in arable landscapes: The role of field size

Agricultural intensification has occurred in much of Europe since the middle of the 20th century implying profound changes in arable landscapes, and being the main cause of biodiversity erosion in farmed ecosystems. Because current public demands also include non-market goods such as biodiversity, landscape, historic environment, and natural resources, it is necessary to evaluate the trade-off between agriculture production and biodiversity conservation associated to agricultural practices. In this paper we examine one of the most important structural changes in arable landscapes: field enlargement. We evaluate its contribution to increase machinery efficiency, but also the associated erosion of biodiversity-friendly habitats such as field margins. We found a threshold in field size around 1–2 ha above which machinery efficiency increases very little, indicating that there is no need for bigger fields from the production point of view. We suggest to use this threshold as criterion for sowing in-field strips and restoring field margins, which are measures thought to enhance biodiversity in arable landscapes.