Agri-environmental schemes are one of the main tools public administrations have to incentivise more environmentally friendly agricultural practices. However, their effectiveness and efficiency have been subject to criticism mainly due to the lack of provision guarantee for their environmental benefits and adverse selection of participants. In order to solve these issues output based payments and selection of participants via auctions have been put forward. This paper reports the results of a pilot experience carried out in Guipúzcoa to evaluate the acceptance of farmers of these alternatives to implement three agri-environmetal measures and the efficiency gains associated with their implementation. The results obtained show that all the environmental measures studied are accepted by farmers and that there are potential savings compared to the way in which agri-environmental measures are currently implemented.