農業政策與環境政策之調和

Harmonizing Agricultural and Eevironmental Policies

本文討論三個課題，此三個課題主要是由經濟理論與改善農業生產對環境保護及資源保育之歷史經驗歸納而來。首先，為了使農業生產與環境品質之整合是可行的，由政府發展出對環境友善和資源保育之科技，同時，由政府帶引投資於人力資源之改善是相當關鍵的。再者，由於新科技帶來之影響，一般而言是難以預料的，因此有必要對環境保護與資源保育維持適當的誘因（比如，對可能產生污染之要素投入課稅，將資源價格訂於其社會機會成本之水準或建立清楚的所有權制度）。最後，目前許多國家農業部門之政策，比如價格支持、生產投入補貼、進口限制及社會福利獎勵政策等，是造成環境與資源惡化的原因。因此，農業部門政策之革新對改善農業之環境保護與資源保育是有必要的。

I discuss three general lessons drawn from economic theory and historical experience for improving the performance of agriculture with respect to environmental protection and resource conservation. First, government development of environment-friendly, resource-conserving technologies and government investment in improvements in human capital are critical for making it feasible to reconcile agricultural productivity with environmental quality. Second, because new technologies evoke responses that are difficult to anticipate, it is essential to maintain proper incentives for environmental protection and resource conservation (e.g., taxes on the use of polluting inputs, setting prices of resources at their social opportunity costs, establishing clear property rights). Third, agriculture sector policies like price supports, input subsidies, limitations on imports, and settlement promotion policices are important causes of environmental and resource degradation in many countries; thus, agriculture sector policy reform is necessary to improve environmental protection and resource conservation in agriculture.