Organic agriculture (OA) is a continuously growing global concept that emphasizes the use of sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices. By adopting OA, it is possible to improve ecosystems ...services, increase biodiversity, decrease environmental pollution, reduce carbon footprints and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, generating food that is free from harmful residues of agrochemicals, thereby enhancing food safety and security. This study provides a comprehensive review of the latest insights on the global utilization of land resources in OA, focusing particularly on some EU countries that experienced a notable and rapid progress in organic farming during the past two decades. With negligible 1.6% (75 Mha) of global cropland is currently dedicated to OA, there is ample opportunity to expand the adoption of OA and realize its multi-beneficial potential for farmers (by premium prices), and consumers (by healthier and nutritious food). The importance of OA has been recognized by the most recent EU agro-environmental policies and green strategies, with an ambitious goal to have at least 25% of agroecosystems under organic management by 2030. Despite numerous financial supports and a multifold increase in OA land area, many member states are unlikely to achieve this goal, including Croatia, which currently has a share of only 8% (~109,000 ha) of lands in OA. Furthermore, converting conventional land to organic farming has not always led to an increase in value-added final OA products. EU policies related to OA have been focused on the area of land cultivated organically, rather than overall production performance, and financial subsidies have been essential to achieve this policy. Therefore, some of critical obstacles and challenges for OA under rising pressures due to global climate change, public health and geopolitical crises need to be managed by specifically designed policies and regulations, which would contribute to more sustainable OA, i.e., food safety and security.
This paper aims to present the risks that emerge during the COVID-19 pandemic, their probability of occurrence, and their significance using heat maps. After defining the risks, the objective is to ...outline strategies to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 on the farmer's business. The research was conducted in the area of the City of Zagreb on a vegetable producer. Based on the interview with the vegetable producer, we examined the subjective risk assessment, its significance, and probability of occurrence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that the risks of increment input prices during COVID-19 and weather and natural disasters should be reduced, while the risks that need to be managed have not been determined. The risk of unavailability of inputs and decrement product prices should be minimally controlled. The proposed strategies for risk management on the farm are agricultural insurance, contractual procurement of inputs and sale of products, and education.
We replicate Bocquého et al. (2014), who used multiple price lists to investigate the risk preferences of 107 French farmers. We collected new data from 1430 participants in 11 European farming ...systems. In agreement with the original study, farmers' risk preferences are best described by Cumulative Prospect Theory. Structural model estimates show that farmers in the new samples are, on average, less loss averse and more susceptible to probability distortion than in the original study. Explorative analyses indicate differences between estimation approaches, as well as heterogeneity between and within samples. We discuss challenges in replications of economic experiments with farmers across farming contexts.
Abstract
The income stabilisation tool (IST) is the latest tool proposed by the European Union (EU) to manage agricultural risks. It aims at stabilising farm income by compensating income losses. ...Using a discrete choice experiment, this paper investigates grapevine farmers’ acceptance of the IST in Croatia and tests whether behavioural factors such as risk preferences, probability weighting and subjective probabilities related to future farm income explain acceptance of this new tool. Results suggest that there is demand for the IST. Pessimistic farmers are more likely to participate in the IST than others, suggesting that subjective probabilities influence farmers’ decisions about agricultural risk management.
Purpose Understanding farmer and consumer behavior is essential to the successful implementation of behavior change interventions. The purpose of this study is to summarize existing research, provide ...a comprehensive overview of nudge interventions, and identify important trends in behavioral agricultural economics. Research on nudge interventions can help policymakers encourage farmers and consumers to change their behavior in desired direction like switching to organic agriculture or eco-labeled products and promote innovation in sustainable agriculture. Design/methodology/approach The paper contains a bibliometric analysis of nudge research in general and agricultural economics as well as a literature review of the 53 empirical studies on nudge interventions between 2003 and 2023. Findings The frequency of nudge research in all research fields and in agricultural economics has increased over the years. This study summarizes nudge interventions that can be used by farmers and consumers on a variety of agricultural economic issues. Information, social norms, and social comparison as nudge interventions are most prominent in the publications, while green nudges have not been researched to a greater extent. Originality/value This study provides a comprehensive overview of nudge research in agricultural economics with potential for theoretical and policy implications. It highlights potential nudge interventions among farmers and consumers that can be applied in practices.
The study of human behaviour has been cementing its place within economics for decades. The complexity of decisions in family farming, challenging agricultural markets, and climate change have drawn ...attention to human behaviour, namely risk perceptions and the decision-making process, with a focus on agricultural economics. This paper reviews current knowledge on risk management in agriculture from the behavioral perspective, and from the perspective experimental economics in particular, emphasizing a discrete choice experiment approach. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) elicits stated preferences through hypothetical choices and have been extensively applied in research on risk preferences and farmers’ willingness to apply different risk management strategies. The objective of this paper was to determine the frequency at which papers are published and their use in discrete choice experiments in general and in agriculture and emphasizes risk management in agriculture using bibliometric analysis. The PRISMA framework was used for a systematic literature review of the agricultural risk management publications that apply a DCE. The main steps to achieve the aforementioned goals are to define how many publications are primary research versus theoretical publications in the research area of agricultural risk management, which part of risk management in agriculture it covers, and how many attributes were used in each study. The authors reviewed 20 papers based on the following keyword criteria: discrete choice experiment, agriculture, risk management, and the period 2001–2021, using the Web of Science database. The results show an increase in DCE publications over the past 20 years. A comprehensive literature review of risk management in agriculture concluded that publications are primarily research focused, mainly consider on-farm strategies and smaller-scale risk-transfer strategies, and are predominantly conducted among farmers. The average number of attributes per publication is four to five. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed in the paper.
The aim of this paper is to examine the importance and application of risk management strategies among Dalmatian grape and wine producers who are faced with climate change. For research purposes, a ...questionnaire was used on a convenient sample of Dalmatian grape growers and wine producers (N=89). Descriptive statistics, t-test for independent sample, and one-way analysis of variance were used for the data analysis. The importance of risk management strategies was assessed on a five-point Likert scale, and results show that the most important strategies are change-the-harvest-date and irrigation strategies, while cessation of agricultural production is not an option for most producers. The level of education and agricultural area under vineyards had no influence on the importance of the strategies, while gender, age groups of respondents, and type of production had an influence on the importance of several risk management strategies.
Due to the lack of reliable longitudinal data, farm income and income trends haven’t been much analysed in Croatia, specifically among horticultural producers. Based on Croatian Farm Accountancy Data ...Network (FADN), the goal of this paper is to research the income of all farms in comparison to horticultural farms. In addition, paper tests farm’s eligibility for Income Stabilization Tool (IST) compensation. Objectives of the paper are: (1) analysis of farm income in the period 2014-2017 for all farms and specifically for horticultural farms, and (2) analyse how many horticultural farms have potential for IST compensation. For the second objective, we prepared scenarios of annual income drop of 10%, 20%, and 30% of the three-year average income. Scenarios are shown for groups - wine, orchard, and olive farms (calculated group index) and for individual farms (calculated farm index). Results show that horticultural farms’ income is on the similar level to the data for all the farms in FADN. The group index calculation compared to farm index income calculation shows a higher number of farms eligible for IST. The paper might serve as a basis for the introduction of IST in Croatian agriculture.
Cilj rada je ispitati važnost i primjenu strategija za upravljanje rizikom u okruženju klimatskih promjena među vinogradarima i vinarima (VV) s područja Dalmacije. Za potrebe istraživanja korišten je ...anketni upitnik na prigodnom uzorku vinogradara i vinara Dalmacije (N=89). U analizi podataka korištena je deskriptivna statistika, t-test nezavisnih uzoraka i jednosmjerna analiza varijance. Važnost strategija za upravljanje rizikom ocjenjeno je pomoću Likertove skale od pet stupnjeva, a rezultati pokazuju kako su najvažnije strategije promjena vremena berbe i strategija navodnjavanje, dok napuštanje poljoprivredne proizvodnje za većinu poljoprivrednih proizvođača nije opcija. Razina edukacije i poljoprivredne površine pod vinogradima nisu imale utjecaj na ocjenu važnosti strategija, dok su spol, starosne grupe ispitanika i tip proizvodnje imale utjecaj na važnost nekoliko strategija o upravljanju rizikom.
The booming popularity of avocado production has given a poor environmental reputation in various parts of the world. The increase in avocado production has also been observed in Turkiye, where the ...area under cultivation and the production volume of avocados have increased recently. The main objective of the paper is to identify the perceptions of production, environmental and business risks, to study the risk management strategies that farmers consider the most important, and display the gross margin calculation of avocado production in Turkiye. Interviews were conducted with a selected sample of fifteen farms (cases) from the Mediterranean region of Turkiye to determine risk perceptions, risk management strategies and collect data for the rapid calculation of business results of avocado producers. Interview data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and avocado calculation using gross margin. The major production risks were strong winds, fungal attack, and sunburn, while robbery, changes in agricultural policies, and lack of information and uncertain supply for export were the major business risks. The major environmental risks are depletion of water sources. Farmers' most preferable risk management strategies for sustainable avocado production in Turkiye were windbreaks, shade nets and latex coatings, farm insurance, safety and security systems, and strengthening farmer cooperatives. The main environmental risk management strategies were water management, sub-tree irrigation, and the use of technical applications for irrigation. Avocado production in Turkiye is a promising market, but only under the condition of holistic value chain management and an enabling environment that includes national producer associations, sustainable certification systems, and government control of water use and deforestation.
