Tag: farms

This paper discusses the results of a study on the digitalisation of the agri-food sector in a French region characterised by small- and medium-sized farms. Our results, which rely on a survey comparing digital practices in the agri-food sector with other sectors, reveal a paradox. While digitalisation is mostly perceived as a panacea capable of increasing agricultural productivity while respecting the planet, it is not widespread in the agri-food sector and even less than in other sectors of the same size. At the same time, the perceived impact of digitalisation is also lower than in other sectors. To increase the digitalisation of this sector, two elements emerge from our results: both the implementation of a global digital transformation strategy and membership of a professional association are required. Here, we refer to a broad definition of digitalisation, which includes organisational and social aspects, and does not only address technological dimensions. Our study challenges the technocentric and productive vision of digitalisation. It suggests that farmers’ institutional environments and policies need to take a more holistic view of digitalisation to provide increased sense and generate engagement.

This study analyses the performance of vineyards in Kosovo in terms of their technical, allocative, and economic efficiency. It uses two methods to measure efficiency: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Tobit regression. The data comes from a survey of 165 wine producers through face-to-face interviews in three regions of Kosovo – Rahovec, Suharake and Prizren – between the years 2016 and 2018, each yielding the average of inputs, outputs and prices for the three years. In order to determine the key variables for grape growing efficiency, it was necessary to consider the combined effects of the interactions between inputs, as this has an impact on overall final production. The results show great potential for improving the efficiency of viticulture. The average technical efficiency (TE) is 0.68, the average allocative efficiency (AE) is 0.77 and the average economic efficiency (EE) is 0.52. In general, TE, AE and EE were influenced by the selected variables, suggesting that the selected variables played quite an important role in enabling farmers not to use too many inputs in the production of grapes and instead to use them in appropriate proportions. It also shows how grape growers can improve their productive efficiency by adopting certain practices ...