Vincent de Leijster

61 Almond farm profitability under agroecological management 4 and Rodríguez Pleguezuelo, 2008). Alternative practices might result in lower externalities; however, they may also be less profitable than the conventional approach. When this is the case, the difference in economic net benefits, referred to as opportunity costs (European Commission, 2014), can serve as a metric to evaluate conventional and alternative practices. To overcome these opportunity costs and facilitate the adoption of improved agricultural practices by farmers, practice-based financial compensation can be provided (Kurkalova et al., 2004; Luo et al., 2014). Price premiums (e.g. coupled to certification schemes) and green subsidies are two examples of widespread incentive mechanisms aiming to internalize opportunity costs (Wiesmeth, 2012), yet to be applied to agroecological management in woody crops in Mediterranean regions. In this study we aim to gain insight in the economic performance of agroecological management develops compared to conventional management and the relevance of different economic and policy options. First, we determine the long-term economic performance of three agroecological practices (no tillage, green manure and compost) and compare it to conventional management in European Mediterranean almond orchards. We develop a stochastic model of economic performance to project the net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and discounted payback time (DPBT) of the farms over 30 years. We use input data obtained from 3 yearlong field experiments in almond orchards in the South East of Spain. Second, we apply the economic model to compare economic performance of agroecological with conventional management when 1) externality costs are internalized through payments for erosion control and carbon sequestration services, and 2) opportunity costs are compensated for by private or public incentive-based policy systems. Through our results, we expect to gain a better understanding of the economic performance of agroecological and conventional management, and be able to identify the most suitable policy instruments to overcome financial barriers for agroecological management adoption, a needed step to accelerate the transition towards environmentally friendly agricultural landscapes.