An economic assessment of agricultural brownfield revitalization – A case study of Eastern Slovakia

The presented article points out the possibilities of elimination of agricultural brownfield in the East Slovak region through the resumption of production by growing fast-growing woody plants, specifically Paulownia and apple trees. Based on a detailed analysis of the necessary investment costs associated with the resumption of production and the prediction of sales of produced Paulownia and apple trees, the article presents a quantification of economic payback time from the proposed three options for resumption of crop production in the agricultural brownfield. Based on clearly identified determinants of decision-making on the optimal possibility of the revitalization of agricultural brownfield in interaction with the evaluation of the so-called weighted sum (multicriteria decision-making method), the article concludes by pointing out the effective possibility of resuming crop production in the revitalized area of the agricultural brownfield. The results revealed that the growth of Paulownia for the production of biomass is the best method of agricultural brownfield remediation.