This data article provides a data description on article entitled “Assessing farmers׳ willingness to supply biomass as energy feedstock: Cereal straw in Apulia (Italy)” (G. Giannoccaro, C.B. de ...Gennaro, E. DeMeo, M. Prosperi, 2017). This DiB consists of data obtained through a survey to farmers in Foggia Province, Italy. The survey was carried out by means of a structured questionnaire administrated to about 200 local wheat producers. Face to face interviews were carried out by professionals. From the hard copy of questionnaire, data were firstly transferred into an excel sheet, than exported to STATA.14 software. The file contains text, dummy and metric variables with reference to a number of variables such as on-farm structural features (land size, crops, livestock units, grain and straw yields, etc.), socio-economic (straw price, willingness to accept, off-farm job, income, membership of farm union, etc.) and personal (farmer׳s age, family members, educational level, etc.). Data has not been uploaded to a public repository.
Agriculture and farming worldwide are responsible for numerous environmental threats, including degradation of land and water resource depletion. Underlining the dynamic interaction between ...bio-physical and socio-economic drivers is the key towards a more sustainable land and water management. With regard to a highly-developed agricultural area in Southern Italy, multi-regression models were developed to provide an ex-post interpretation of the observed inter-annual variability of cropped land. The main drivers related to Common Agricultural Policy support, product market prices, crop yield, and irrigation water availability were investigated. The adopted models revealed the different weights of each driver. The findings reported the role that direct payments played in supporting the extension of irrigated crops, such as processing tomato. Likewise, the models pointed out the decoupled payment scheme as the most important driver of change in the crop pattern over the last years.
Economic evaluation of farmland is an important issue in the agricultural sector. The aim of this study was to quantify the economic value of land in the farmland area of the Reclamation and ...Irrigation Board of Capitanata (Apulia region), differentiating by irrigation water service type (collective or self-supplied). The analysis involved a heuristic evaluation using the hedonic pricing method of the sales comparison approach. The data was gathered through a survey on a group of 75 farmers. The results showed higher capitalization values in the case of lands served by self-supplied sources from groundwater. Actually, in the long-term, an enhanced reliability was found for the self-supplied rather than collective services. The findings highlight the importance for collective water associations of differentiating water rights allocations on the basis of a volume guarantee. In future, water user associations of collective services could consider a different water right system along with price discrimination to efficiently allocate the resource among farmers and improve the sustainability of current water management.
In recent years, agroecology has gained prominence as one of the innovative approaches to agriculture that could positively contribute to achieving sustainable food systems. As a transdisciplinary ...science, agroecology could benefit from the contribution of socio-economic sciences. This study aims to give an overview of how scholars have approached socio-economic issues in the field of agroecology. A scoping review was conducted by using the PRISMA-ScR method, searching both Scopus and Web of Sciences databases. The selected body of literature (183 articles) provides an overview of the key socio-economic dimensions analysed in the literature on agroecology and the results achieved by scholars. The findings allowed drawing the research gaps and the future research directions in this domain.
While the paradigm of circular economy (CE) and the processes of socio-technical transition have been broadly investigated at the theoretical level, understanding how the transition toward circular ...models can be implemented in practice is still limited. This contribution aims to provide in-depth and evidence-based insights on an emerging pathway for the operability of CE into the olive oil supply chain. A case study from the Apulia region (the leading olive oil producing area in Italy) is presented to show how an existing business model can be transformed into a circular one, and to what extent it can be replicated. The study focuses on a vertically integrated firm, in which a new industrial process has been introduced to manage olive pomace, which is one of the most important by-products obtained from olive oil extraction. The empirical analysis is built on the Circular Business Model Canvas (CBMC), which is conceived as a suitable theoretical and methodological tool to speed up the transition process toward CE at a micro-economic level. This analytical framework allows us to identify the interplaying elements that the firm combines to capture, create, and deliver value, as well as the relationships with the broader economic system. Particular attention is paid to two distinctive components of CBMC: material loops and adoption factors. Also, internal and external factors affecting the adoption of the new circular business model have been discussed by separating drivers and barriers of the transition process.
Direct reuse of treated wastewater can offer a realistic supply alternative for irrigation in Mediterranean areas. In this study, we conducted a spatial cost-benefit analysis to quantify and locate ...the volume of technically and economically feasible and readily available reclaimed urban wastewater. We considered the case of Puglia (Italy) and the results are discussed in terms of the implications for policy-making and pointing out future research needs. The results showed that the main technical barrier is the shortness of the irrigation season. On the other hand, the main economic concern is related to filtration followed by lack of conveyance systems. While our results are based on estimates, future research should try to include practical experiments based on actual data. Further research should also address the issue of transaction costs by establishing the obligations of wastewater treatment plants to deliver reclaimed water to farmers.
Circular Economy (CE) might be the paradigm to re-conceptualize future agri-food industries and recreate a balanced co-existence of ecological and economic systems. Research is then called to find ...solutions for transitioning into CE. The current paper will apply the theory of sociotechnical transitions as a framework to build a step by step procedure to analyze and manage agri-food circular economy transitions and support stakeholders involved. The agro-ecological (cultivation and harvesting), agro-industrial (food processing) and consumption (food purchase) subsystems of agri-food supply chains are analysed to address the main challenges for the transition into CE. The current paper final goal is to generate an analytical framework, for practitioners and policy makers, to identify suitable technological, market, coordination and regulative solutions to orient future CE trajectories.
During the last years ongoing research has moved towards the valorisation of organic waste by the identification of possible products with a good market perspective. In this paper we consider the ...possibility of using the organic fraction of municipal waste to produce biodegradable mulching films for agricultural purposes. The aim of this research was to estimate the potential demand of horticultural farms located in the province of Foggia (Italy) for biodegradable films derived from organic waste. We carried out a survey of 107 producers in the area. Findings showed that the adoption of the innovative films does not depend on the nature of the raw material used and that the willingness to pay for such films is higher with respect to the price of similar products already available in the market. In addition, farmers’ preferences towards mulching films’ attributes (strength, durability, mechanical harvesting, transparency, etc.) are identified.
A comprehensive economic analysis of the associated costs and benefits derived from wastewater treatment is a prerequisite for ensuring long-term economic, environmental, and social sustainability. ...This study aims to improve the economic evaluation of wastewater reuse. A methodological framework is presented for the application of cost-benefit analysis to wastewater project plants. The method considers two alternative scenarios for the irrigation use of treated water: (i) for newly irrigated land; and (ii) as an alternative to current groundwater sources. A case study is carried out in Puglia, Southern Italy, where two thirds of irrigation water comes from groundwater. The results show that improved urban wastewater treatment would increase the regional availability of irrigation water by 60 million m3 per year, about 10% of the overall irrigation water demand. While treatment costs are highly dependent on the incoming effluent quality and plant size, the benefits are quite stable. These results point to a case-specific analysis, whereby the economic convenience of wastewater reuse could be assessed against the local context.
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