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Abstract
Agriculture is the production field, which depends on the condition of the natural environment
because it uses the natural processes of growth and reproduction of living organisms. The
agriculture itself also affects the environment. The effects of this interaction, both positive
and negative, are additionally shaped by the social, political, economic, technical and
technological surroundings. The factors determining the agriculture’s impact on a macro
scale on the environment may, however, by brought down and subordinated to the main
constituents, namely: the size of human population, demand for agricultural raw materials,
the applied production technology (classical IPAT equation) and agro-climatic conditions.
Based on the available forecasts and materials the potential directions and effects of
constituents of the equation were analysed at the global level. However, establishing the
environmental performance of a given agricultural holding and agriculture at the local level
requires a different methodological approach. The article presents the method for measuring
an agricultural holding’s individual impact on the environment in the form of one indicator
synthetic measure.