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This article investigates non-financial factors affecting performance of livestock farms in the meat supply chain in Albania. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data in three main regions of Albania (Tirana, Korça and Lushnje). Confirmatory factor analysis is used to develop measures for the non-financial factors (i.e. trust, contracts, opportunistic behavior, information sharing and information quality) and Structural Equation Modelling is employed to test study hypotheses. The result shows that trust is positively associated with farm’s performance. On the other hand, communication (i.e. resulting from the merge of information sharing and information quality) is negatively associated with performance. However, communication appears to have a positive association with farm’s performance indirectly through its effect on trust. Thus, it can be deducted that communication builds trust and trading relationship based on trust show higher levels of farm’s performance. Lastly, contracts and opportunistic behavior do not show any significant association with farm’s performance.

This research examined livestock farmers' intention to move manure waste to an allocated landfill and the impact of financial support by municipalities on farmer's behavior. The theoretical framework was developed using the Theory of Planned Behavior and tested the validity of the model. The survey was carried out with 336 farmers in Bursa, Turkey, where animal husbandry is the primary source of livelihood. Research results have shown that the developed model proved to be satisfactory in predicting farmers' intentions. The attitude (β=0.38; p

This study was conducted to determine sheep farmers' selection of marketing channels in livestock sales and the factors affecting their choices. The research data were generated from the survey data of 53 enterprises selected via simple random sampling method in Samsun province in 2019. In this research, descriptive statistics were used to determine some characteristics of the sheep farmers, and the chi-square test was employed to compare the farmers' characteristics according to the selection of the marketing channels. According to the results of the study, four marketing channels were identified to be efficient in livestock marketing. These were final consumers, brokers, retailers, and mixed channels. Besides, it was determined that the variables of selling additional products (milk, cheese, fleece) in the enterprise other than livestock, being a member of the Sheep and Goat Breeders Association, and the reason of choosing marketing channels had an impact (P

Agriculture is a sector that is widely known to be impacted not only by the natural conditions of a country but also by other economic and political sectors. Turkish agriculture, in a context marked in recent years by a rural exodus of young people, marks the vagueness of the current state of the agricultural sector and its future. It is with this in mind that this research was carried out, based on a questionnaire survey of 312 producers in 5 provinces of Turkey, to assess the impact of the ageing of the rural population on the agricultural sector. The results of this study show that with age, producers invest less in agricultural activity, altogether abandoning productions requiring more labour. The possibility of taking over the family farm by descendants plays an important role in the degree of involvement of producers. Through these findings, this study makes it possible to address targeted agricultural policies according to age stages.

Olive oil is one of the main agricultural products of the countries that make up the Mediterranean basin. The low profitability of this sector of activity and the growing challenges of an increasingly turbulent market force the sector to search for more efficient organization. The aim of this paper is to determine the organisational and technological factors associated with the most economically efficient Tunisian olive-growing organisations. To this end, firstly the Data Envelopment Analysis method has been used to establish a hierarchy of the most efficient organizations. Secondly, the Qualitative Comparative Analysis method has been used, which allows us to establish the relationships of variables that explain the highest levels of economic efficiency. The results obtained show that the academic training of the top manager, training in information technology, the age of the organisation and the existence of plans and budget items for the adoption of information and communication technologies are variables that explain this greater efficiency.

This paper presents a livelihood vulnerability assessment and compares the levels of exposure, sensitivity and adaptation to climate change of the local populations in mountains area and coastal plains in Tunisian arid regions. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change vulnerability index (LVI-IPCC) has been adapted and applied to assess this livelihood vulnerability, based on socio-economic surveys and semi-structured interviews with the local populations. Findings show that households in coastal plains are more vulnerable in terms of socio demographic profile, food security, social networks, access to water and climate variability. This territory is much more exposed to climate change, despite being slightly less sensitive. On the other hand, households in mountainous territory are more vulnerable in terms of livelihood strategies, land tenure and health, despite their adaptation capacity, which reduces their vulnerability to climate change. Based on this vulnerability assessment, this work suggests specific adaptation strategies and measures for livelihoods sustainability in each territory.

Whereas population is showing increasing distrust rates in the regular agri-food system, Alternative Food Networks (AFN) are gradually gaining space. This paper analyses the role of a specific kind of AFN, Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) and its contribution to the restoration of consumers’ trust in Spain. An online survey (n= 423) focus on trust and concern over food safety was conducted. The survey was addressed to very concerned and active consumers, which are interesting because they represent a powerful consumers’ profile from the policies point of view. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) studied consumers’ preferences on the different SFSC categories. This paper draws a map that signals which of SFSC attributes (such as labelling, common values or direct contact with producers) are more relevant in order to build consumers’ trust. In addition, this paper offers a classification of SFSC consumers according to their priorities. The information provided by the article offers ideas to policy makers and producers for designing their marketing strategies according to different consumers’ demands.

There is an abundance of actions that could positively change the way food systems operate in the Mediterranean region. However, the uptake of these actions at local level has proven to be slow and often limited in their scope and impact. Considering the diverse nature of agri-food systems challenges in the region, trade-offs in interventions and the diversity of stakeholders, a radical shift from focusing on top-down, global solutions for sustainable food systems, to adapting demand driven, country-led actions is required. This review uses a food systems lens to identify four levers which are essential to “enable” and accelerate the adoption of game changing solutions to food systems challenges by local actors in the Mediterranean region. These are namely: 1) Multi-stakeholder collaboration; 2) Data and evidence; 3) Technological innovation; and 4) Coherent policies and investment. We recognize that each of these enablers is a powerful mean of change, but the evidence suggests that a sustainable and inclusive transformation is only possible when they are deployed together in an integrated and inten-tional way. Results of this review outline some of the barriers to unlocking the potential of enablers and provide insights on how to use their power to transform Mediterranean food systems.

Community supported agriculture (CSA), an innovative food distribution model that encourages environ-mentally sound agricultural production, has been embraced in Turkey since the early 2000s. Although the model has been widely studied within the framework of ethical consumption, environmentalism and social justice, its perspectives as a domain of economic exchange in Turkey has yet to be explored. The present study attempts to investigate the viability of CSAs in Turkey as domains of economic exchange by looking at the interaction between their performance and their main resource, namely their social capital. Following an exploratory approach, we, first, examined the characteristics of the operational, organizational and sup-port models to determine the performance factors indispensable for CSAs in Turkey to survive as domains of economic exchange. We then expanded this understanding by looking into the relationship between these performance factors and social capital indicators of three CSAs in Turkey. The findings reveal that each CSA adopts different support, operational and organizational models that result in different levels of risk shar-ing. In all three CSAs, the character of the social capital that interacts with the performance indicators is bonding rather than bridging. Therefore, investing in bridging social capital can be a potentially beneficial strategy for CSAs in order to become more sustainable as domains of economic exchange.

Despite the recurring discourse on food systems and their sustainability in the Mediterranean region, compre-hensive studies are hard to find. Therefore, this article provides an overview on the challenges and perspectives of food systems in the Mediterranean. In particular, the paper addresses the main challenges (environmental, economic, socio-cultural and nutrition-health) facing Mediterranean food systems; analyses the multifaceted relations between sustainable food systems (SFS) and sustainable diets by exploring the example of the Medi-terranean diet; and briefly presents the relevance of the innovation for Mediterranean food systems. The paper highlights the urgency of action to move towards sustainable and resilient food systems in the Mediterranean area. This is particularly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. For that, there is a need for shared policy, governance, practice and research agenda. In this respect, the contribution of CIHEAM results fundamental. The paper concludes by highlighting the disruptive potential of the SFS-Med Platform – under co-development by CIHEAM, FAO and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) – to foster food systems trans-formation towards sustainability and accelerate the achievement of SDGs in the region.

Demand for animal products is expected to increase due to human population growth, resulting in a need for increased production. At the same time, climate change poses a major threat to the viability and sustainability of livestock production systems. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the sus-tainability of dairy cattle farms belonging to three farming systems (rainfed, irrigated, and mixed) at the northeast zone of Tunisia using the IDEA method (version 3). Collected data of 102 farms were subjected to an analysis of variance using the GLM procedure of SAS software (version 9.4). Results showed that the socio-territorial scale was the limiting factor for all systems and that the irrigated sys-tem had the lowest scores of agro-ecological and socio-territorial scales, compared to the other ones, but it recorded the highest score for the economic scale. The best agro-ecological and socio-territorial scores characterized the mixed system. However, it had the lowest score on the economic scale. Finally, the rain-fed system was exhibited medium performances of the three scales. It was concluded a differ-ence between the three farm systems, but there was no disassociation between the three sustainability dimensions; thus, improvements should proceed across all scales simultaneously.

The Social Economy plays a fundamental role in the implementation and development of social innova-tion practices, especially in the field of cooperatives. In the case of agri-food cooperatives in the olive oil producing areas of Spain, a substantial share of the business is based around the social economy, with CIRIEC reporting a cooperativization rate of 70%. As such, there are increasing opportunities for these cooperatives to adopt tools that enable the potential development of social innovation actions. In the present article, we conduct a literature review to explore the definitions of social innovation provided in the last decade. We then analyse the results relating to a proposed model of social innovation applied to the olive oil industry, involving the participation of an expert panel composed of people with a position on the board of directors or managers of olive oil cooperatives and companies in the olive oil industry. From the analysis of the data collected, we identify four dimensions of Social Innovation that are particularly relevant to the olive oil industry: the Economic Dimension, the Cultural Dimension, the Environmental Dimension, and the Technological Dimension. These dimensions give rise to a methodological model for the implementation of Social Innovation actions in the olive oil industry.

The objective of this study was to identify the different irrigators’ strategies and to analyze the economic profitability of irrigated production systems in relation to adaptations to the scarcity of groundwater resources in a context of climate change in the South east of Tunisian. Based on surveys of 190 irrigated farms, this research shows that eighty-five percent (85%) of respondents clearly perceive climate change in southeastern Tunisia. These changes result in a decrease and an increasing irregularity of the rains, a disruption of the winter season, a greater frequency of pockets of drought and the decrease of the piezometric level of the water tables. In response to these changes, irrigators have adopted adaptation strategies, the most common of which are: offensive strategy or “chasing”, defensive strategy and contractive strategy. These strategies include various adaptation measures such as annual cleaning and deepening of wells, the use of water saving, the change of the cropping system and the reduction of irrigated area. These readjustments for most of the measures adopted by the irrigators have an impact on the elements of their operating account. In addition, offensive and defensive strategies appear to be the most economically profitable types of adaptation at the 1% level. Knowledge of different adaptation strategies and their economic returns enables adaptation options to be identified that are both realistic in terms of implementation and ambitious in terms of their objectives, and help develop priorities for adaptation of water resources for irrigation.

This paper deals with “gendering innovation”, with the purpose of exploring the entrepreneurial spaces of innovation among Italian farms managed by women. More precisely, the hypothesis is that entrepre-neurial orientation has to be considered the engine of innovation adoption in different rural contexts, by creating new spaces for innovation. The research is grounded on primary sources using a questionnaire administered to a sample of women farmers in all regions of Italy, with the purpose of investigating complex dimensions behind the decision of innovation uptake, with a special focus on the relevance of entrepreneurial orientation. Empirical analysis lets different “worlds of female innovation” to emerge, which are grounded on both conventional and alternative agrifood networks. Taking on the perspective of entrepreneurial spaces of innovation implies to design a diversified set of policy action with the purpose of affecting these entrepreneurial spaces. This is particularly urgent in the perspective of gender main-streaming of rural development policies of the European Union.

In the context of EU rural development policy, one of the proposed actions is the formation of Operational Groups (OGs). These OGs are part of the framework of the European Innovation Partnership on Agricul-tural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI). The objective of this policy is to promote sustainable and applicable solutions to agricultural problems. OGs can be thought of as innovation intermediaries. Their functions have been addressed in the literature on agricultural innovation systems. To advance the research in this area, the objective of this study is to identify the innovation intermediary functions of Spanish OGs by drawing upon the opinions of their members. An online survey was conducted to collect data from members of Spanish EIP-AGRI OGs. The questionnaire asked members about the characteris-tics and functions of their OGs. More specifically, it also collected evaluations of the performance of OGs in certain innovation activities. The results of an exploratory factor analysis reveal that Spanish OGs perform three main functions: innovation process management, demand articulation, and institutional support and innovation brokering.

This study aimed to determine the factors affecting the technology adaptation of dairy farms. For this purpose, according to the stratified random sampling method, 125 dairy farms were determined as the sample size. In the analysis of the factors affecting the technology adaptation of dairy farms, a “tech-nology usage index” was created according to the current technology usage situations of the producers. Factors affecting the technology adaptation of dairy farms were determined by multiple linear regression analysis. According to the multiple linear regression analysis results, education, experience/age ratio, workforce, credit usage status, participation in extension activities and income were found to be statisti-cally significant at the 5% level. The yield was found to be significant at the 10% significance level. En-terprises using low and high technology follow technologies from other farmers in the village, television and dealers in the district. Lead farmers should be used in agricultural extension activities and mass media should be used.

In recent years, as global food chains have expanded, a wide range of terms has been used in the academic, political, technical or social debate to illustrate innovative re-organisation of food supply chains aiming at re-connecting producers and consumers and re-localising agricultural and food production. These include short supply chains, alternative food networks, local farming systems and direct sales. This paper presents a research carried out during the SMARTCHAIN project (Horizon project within the research line “Innovative agro-food chains: unlocking the potential for competitiveness and sustainability”). The research aims at iden-tifying an assessment model for grasping the level of social innovation in Short Food Supply Chain (SFSC) taking into consideration the social and sustainability indicators. A specific tool, the Social Innovation Assess-ment Template (SIAT) was created for this purpose. The SIAT investigates five dimensions of SFSC: economic, environmental, socio-cultural, governance and influence (positive impact on other sectors & stakeholders) dimensions. The assessment has been tested in 9 European countries and 16th case studies. The findings show both managerial implications for the SFSC and policy implications for strengthening the SFSC ecosystem.

Over the last decades, the European wine industry has been object of increased international competition, which has implications for the dynamics of wine production. This paper examines the underlying factors of wine production in the European Union (EU) from a macroeconomic perspective. We apply an expanded Cobb-Douglas production function, which includes monetary indicators. A dynamic panel data GMM approach along with pooled OLS and fixed effect model for the period from 1999-2014 are applied to estimate the model. We find a positive impact from labour, capital and wine export and a negative impact from interest rate to wine production; however, no robust and significant impact is observed from wine import as well as from inflation and exchange rates. Our results indicate that EU wine production is influenced by monetary policy, which could be a useful instrument for policy makers promoting wine production in this region.

This article aims at analyzing Algerian farmers’ choices of marketing channels in the date-palm supply chain. Five main marketing channels were investigated: local market, intermediaries, conditioning structure, processors contracting and complete integration. Primary data collected from a sample of 118 date farmers through a field survey in Biskra region. Beside some basic statistical tools, a multinomial discrete choice model was used to analyze and evaluate the major factors affecting marketing channel choices. From the main results of this study, it was concluded that downstream vertical integration practices are lead by income-related risks minimization, and the upstream vertical integration is favorable for further downstream vertical integration. The research would provide valuable information about the date palm producer’s marketing decision-making process and thus would contribute to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of dates industry in Algeria.

Climate change exacerbates the effects of water scarcity on livelihoods. Governments can intervene by structuring incentives for agricultural adaptations so that farmers can choose the ones that create more benefits for the society as a whole. This requires consideration of a range of different benefits to different groups within the social cost-benefit analysis (CBA). We assess the social and private profitability of two alternative tree-based adaptation techniques that have received state support in the traditional barley cropping/rangeland systems in Central Tunisia: olive tree plantation, and intercropping with cactus. The results showed that society does not benefit from offering incentives for olive production. The production of irrigated olive trees without incentives is profitable for farmers and for society, while rainfed plantation is not profitable at all. However, it is possible for farmers to increase their incomes without increasing agricultural water use if they are encouraged to adopt intercropping with cactus to supplement livestock food and watering. The findings highlight scope for policies to balance between returns both for society, and for farmers, as revealed through the application of quantitative social CBA.

Increasing pressures on water resources are causing many countries in Mediterranean to (re)consider various mechanisms to improve water use efficiency for agricultural like Tunisia country. The price mechanism remains the most appropriate instrument to allocate this water resource, but the search for the optimal price of water that reconciles different aspects economic and environmental is the most important issue to rise. In this paper, we will show that the search for a compromise between farm income and water consumption is possible through an optimal price applying both the entropy maximization approach and the multiobjective optimization. The results show that the use of Generalised Maximum Entropy (GME) approach is able to calibrate the model. Once the model is calibrated, a Multi-Objective Programming (MOP) was used to determine the optimal price using the compromise method. This optimal price determined has resulted to a slight economic decline in agricultural income against an immediate environmental gain of water saving. This compromise is a way to ensure the sustainability of irrigated agriculture and the preservation of water resources in Tunisia.

The use of geo-tagged photographs seems to be a promising alternative to assess Cultural Ecosystem Services CESs in respect to the traditional investigation when focusing on the study of the aesthetic appreciation of a protected area or natural landscape. The aim of this study is integrating the cumulative viewshed calculated from geotagged photo metadata publicly shared on Flickr with raster data on infrastructure, historical sites, and the natural environment, using landscape ecology metrics and RandomForest modelling. Crowdsourced data provided empirical assessments of the covariates associated with visitor distribution, highlighting how changes in infrastructure, crops and environmental factors can affect visitor’s use. These data can help researchers, managers, and public planners to develop projects, and guidelines in the rural landscape for incresing the supply for CESs.

The two channels that explain how migration of a household member affects human capital formation of those left-behind are income and family disruption effects. In this study, remittances and migration impacts on human capital formation in Jordan is researched with respect to preferred migrant destinations and to the originating governorates of migrants. Jordan’s Labour Market Panel Survey-2010 is used to carry out the analyses. Remittances are found to have a positive impact on “schooling”, and findings do not change significantly across households with respect to the host country. There is no solid evidence of family disruption, except in households where both parents are absent; however, this is limited with those who have chosen Arab countries as the host. Heterogeneity in the education level of migrants from different governorates does not play a significant role that effects a schooling decision, except for Mafraq.

The increasing use of internet, especially the proliferation of social networks has offered companies of all sectors the opportunity to keep in contact with their consumers; getting their feedbacks and complains on a daily basis and even to create short online chains enabling consumers to buy their products. This trend is found to be rather limited in the case of food products. The main objective of this article is to deal with consumer’s perceptions towards the potential use of social media to create online short supply chains for food. Projective techniques (Sentence completion tasks) have been used in this study. As, they allow researchers to uncover motivations, emotions and beliefs that drive consumer’s perception and behavior which may not be detected by straightforward questioning. The findings of this study have allowed to obtain insight into those aspects that consumers regard as opportunities or barriers of such potential short food chains. The main aspect is to put food enterprises in the picture about what is going on in consumer’s mind. This might open new possibilities for food businesses to develop a new short food chain.

This study was designed to investigate how dairy farmers of Al-Dhulel Cooperative Dairy Society (ACDS) perceive climate change, the adaptation strategies adopted by farmers to cope with the impact of climate change and the barriers to the adoption of these strategies. A 92 dairy farmers responded to a designed questionnaire that was developed to collect the data and covered farmers perception, adaptation strategies, and the barriers facing them towards adopting the strategies. The personal interviews with the farmers were performed during early January, 2020. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The main result obtained from the study that most of dairy farmers were aware of the climate change impact on dairy cattle performance and health. Furthermore, the adaptation strategies that were suggested have limiting factors according to farmers as a result of governmental and agricultural institutions restriction polices. Therefore, recommendations regarding new polices were suggested to facilitate the way of getting benefit from grants and financial support for improving dairy farms and to mitigate the effect of climate change on dairy cattle.

This paper focuses on a possible connection between food security and the migrant crisis that began in 2015, which had a tremendous impact on the European Union as well as on the Mediterranean area. The goal of this paper is to determine if there is a correlation between the number of migrants and the levels of food security in both their homeland countries and destination countries. The Promethee method was used to attempt to answer this question. Unfortunately, the analysis is limited due to lack of data for certain countries concerning food security caused by current poor political situations. Nevertheless, the results showed that the best-ranked countries by food security are mostly EU countries. These countries do not have issues with food security, especially in comparison to countries in the Middle East. Also, countries with a high level of food security and political stability have the highest influx of migrants, which suggests there is also an economic motivation for migration. Finally, the analysis confirmed a strong correlation between countries’ achieved level of food security and the number of migrants.

The main objectives of this paper are to assess the production costs and to measure the total factor productivity (TFP) of durum wheat production for a sample of cereal farmers in the North of Tunisia. Our hypothesis is that improvement of these indicators can reduce the production costs and consequently the improvement of producers' incomes. To test this hypothesis, a survey was carried out with 232 cereal farms in the subhumid region in the North of Tunisia cultivating durum wheat. The reconstituted costs approach was used to estimate the production costs. The results obtained show that total costs, production costs and net margins of durum wheat vary according to the farm size. About 67% of surveyed farms make a positive net margin. The empirical results of the regression reveal that productivity is negatively affected by the farm size, the new varieties demanding water and the investments made by the farm while it is affected positively by crop rotations

"Reforms in agriculture have become an integral part in policymaker's agenda. Research on past reforms in various sectors showed their effect on farmer's decision making regarding the continuum of farm work. This research objective is to expand and predict implications of emerging policy reforms on eggs branch farmers economics' viability. The theory presented here aims to analyze the farmer's decision making on income diversification by accounting for socio-demographics, wealth, and peripherality. The study of income diversification that is presented here can throw light on how risky the reforms are for farmers that their income is exclusively based on agriculture. Logistic regression and classification tree were employed in analyzing a sample of eggs producers in Israeli's periphery. The main findings signify that the younger, educated, and wealthier farmers who are more peripheral, prone towards diversifying income. Policymakers should acknowledge this variability in potential risks while designing agricultural reforms."

This article analyzes the adoption of practices face to the ecological and social issues and the constraints perception to agroecological development in the M’Zab Valley. The socioecological approach shows that the current agrosystem is “hybrid”, under the influence of the old oasis model, symbol of ecological balance, and of the conventional model, vector of both a dynamic of innovations and threats on agricultural sustainability. However, the institutional environment is perceived to be very restrictive. The application of multinomial logistic regression to explain the practices adoption and the constraints perception brings out the socio-demographic characteristics (level of education, age, pluriactivity, link with environmental association) which have a positive effect on agroecological practices; the productions (vegetables and breeding) whose effect is ambivalent; and social categories (low level of education, mono-activity, sheep and goat farming) who perceive the institutional environment rather very restrictive to the development of agroecology.

Global expectations are that crowdfunding will be able to unleash the great potential for contributing to sustainable development by providing financial resources for environmentally and socially oriented ven-tures. The purpose of this paper is to estimate which factors, including the orientation to sustainability, foster the likelihood of crowdfunding success in agri-food campaigns. Using a sample of crowdfunding campaigns launched in the Kickstarter platform, this paper employs a binary logistic regression model to investigate factors that motivate investment decisions. The results demonstrate that the campaigns that are rated as sustainable show a positive, statistically relevant relation to the success. In addition, improv-ing the quality and complexity of the project, together with the realistic setting of goal increase the odds of success. In the era of innovative finance, this paper contributes to the growing literature and initiatives to promote and develop crowdfunding in the agri-food industry.

This paper examines irrigation management within the Tunisian Water Users Association (WUA) in Nadhour, a public irrigated area in central Tunisia. How well 14 WUAs operated was evaluated based on surveys and related interviews. The methodology of this study consisted of two main steps: (i) an estimation of the technical efficiency scores of 90 smallholder farmers and the sub-vector of WUE (Water Use Efficiency) using a nonparametric DEA model, and (ii) a regression of a Tobit model to test the hypothesis regarding explanatory variables of differentiated technical efficiency scores. The investigation showed an average technical efficiency of 70.8% and WUE of 64.8%. It highlighted the water turn, state of infrastructure, water supply shortage, corruption and free-riding behaviors as factors tightly correlated with a farm’s productivity. This suggests that there is potential to improve production efficiency by implementing targeted programs and rules for inefficient farmers. The findings of this study show that it is important to fight corruption in the water sector by increased government oversight, reformed regulations that stimulate performance, and increased accountability towards citizens through greater participation in decision making.

The serious damages of Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) in Euro-Mediterranean countries (e.g. Italy, France, Spain) raise concerns for the Near East and North Africa (NENA). Therefore, a study was performed to a) assess the risk of Xf entry, establishment and spread in target NENA countries (viz. Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia); b) analyze risk perception and preparedness level among agri-food chain stakeholders; c) estimate potential socio-economic impacts for olives, grapes and citrus. Pest risk appraisal suggests that Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria are the most exposed to Xf risk; other target NENA countries, except Algeria, have an intermediate risk. Risk perception analysis shows that governance efficacy and practices application can be improved by involving stakeholders and raising their awareness. Socio-economic impact assessment indicates declining yields, production, profitability, export, employment, and increasing import, with the highest impacts relating to olives, then citrus and grapes. The study suggests that the expected socio-economic impacts are unacceptable and require urgent action against Xf at national and regional levels.

"The new coronavirus (Covid-19), which spread almost the entire world, adversely affected many sectors, both internationally and 30 locally. Households’ panic purchase have rocketed the demand for some food items in the early days. Besides, food safety 31 concerns have increased. This research aimed to uncover how the public perceived the impact of Covid-19 on the agriculture and 32 food sector. The online survey was conducted, and the data from 428 participants were analysed using the SPSS (v.23) program. 33 The third of respondents (30.8%) believed the outbreak would last between six months to one year, during which time food 34 shortages will occur (32.5%). While 27.4% of the respondents reported that they stockpiled food, 44.8% reported that if the 35 outbreak continued, they would stock up on food. Participants were concerned that if planting cannot be done, food shortages will 36 occur (74.6%), basic foodstuffs cannot be produced (67.8%), food imports (69.4%) and exports (74.6%) will be adversely 37 affected by the outbreak. The research found that if farming disturbed, food prices would increase (82.3%) and the government 38 should include agriculture-supporting measures (85%) in its economic measures."

This research aims to examine the existence or not of a relationship between governance and pulse’s food security in Morocco in terms of food availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability and to determine the governance indicators affecting food security. The methodological approach pursued combines ordi-nal logistic regression and qualitative analysis based on perceptions of thirty-four actors representing the value chain links of pulses. The results obtained show a relationship between governance and pulse’s food security in terms of accessibility and stability rather than in terms of food availability and utilization. The most significant governance indicator affecting accessibility is the piloting and control of the sector. While none of the following indicators, affecting stability, are significant: the degree of information shar-ing on the distribution system, the degree of transparency, and the degree of trust between actors. How-ever, the emergence of constraints relating to coordination, commitment, trust, and information sharing between actors are not favorable to a decisive role in food security governance.

To achieve sustainability, agricultural insurance is one of the main tools capable of reducing the vul-nerability of farmers. This is the reason it is important to investigate the different factors that affect the farmers’ agricultural insurance decision-making. The paper, using Regional panel data from Italy Regions and the GMM dynamic panel data model, examines the effect of different group variables on agricultural insurance decision making: risk perception and management, agricultural insurance recognition, trust and affordability. The aim of this paper is: (1) to analyze, through a systematic liter-ature review, which are the main problems regarding agricultural insurance diffusion, (2) to measure which category of variables influences agricultural insurance adoption, (3) to provide different policy solutions to improve the diffusion of agricultural insurance in Italy. The results show that agricultural insurance affordability, risk perception and management are the major influencing factors; a possible solution to improve the agricultural insurance demands would be to raise household net income and find an alternative solution to subsidies.

In the region of M'Sila, a steppe zone and characteristic of a dominant agro-pastoral framework, the local olive sector has certainly grown in terms of area expansion, but the information available indicates that its future in terms of performance is dependent on a series of internal and external factors. The aim of this article is to highlight the main explanatory variables by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the sector, the opportunities and threats linked to its environment. Two methods are used: the first, SWOT, constitutes a structured diagnostic framework and a universal decision-support tool. The second, the causality analysis, according to the Parmenides EIDOS tool, makes it possible to obtain a hierarchy of relations in the sector based on the opinions of the intervening actors. The data used come from the bibliographic summary of a series of studies and the results of a survey carried out in 2017 in the field. The results obtained show that the internal factors are linked to the characteristics of the farms, to the production systems, and to the surrounding conditions of the value chain. External factors are linked to the dynamics of national and global markets.

The article focuses on the identification of connection patterns between socioeconomic characteristics and respondents’ motivation. The research was performed on a sample of 202 shareholders of agricultural cooperatives in five Croatian counties. The correspondence analysis has confirmed the existence of high inertia within groups of economic and social motives as well as the highest importance for financial reasons. Multiple correspondence analysis identifies differences in response patterns of evaluating the influence of motivational factors. Better market placement is the main reason for joining cooperatives among respondents with full ownership rights having fewer than ten years of experience and lower income from agriculture. The respondents with higher income from farming or cooperation were more motivated to reduce production costs unlike the respondents with more moderate income.

The Egyptian food subsidy system plays an important role in providing basic goods at low prices, to households, especially the poorest ones. However, the system has been through different reforms to decrease its cost and improve its targeting efficiency. This paper studies the impact of removing the rationed subsidized products and replacing it by cash transfers. Using the Egyptian Integrated Household Survey (HEICS – 2010/2011), a mixed demand model is used to estimate the own price, cross price and income elasticities. The estimated elasticities are used to compute the impact of the suggested reforms on households’ welfare, measured by their food expenditures. The results show that the removal of subsidies will lead to an increase in the expenditures on free market goods for all income groups at both urban and rural areas, especially for the two lowest quintiles.

The mountain olive grove is an agroecosystem that, despite low yields and high costs, is recognised for its marked multifunctionality and its significant potential to provide ecosystem services. Due to the close relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being, advancement in the identification and assessment of potential benefits is of great interest. Thus, by using the multi-criteria decision-making technique Analytic Network Process (ANP), this study offers an approach to assessing mountain olive grove ecosystem services provision. Based on three possible scenarios or alternatives, ANP provides data to determine the management system that has the most impact to provide ecosystem services. The results could supply technical data to support policy decision-making for the development of rural areas.

Soil and water conservation technologies (SWCT) are important to farmers, to the research community, as well as to the policy makers, given that declining soil health, and increasing erosion and moisture stress have implications for agricultural livelihoods, national food security, and more generally for well-being within rural communities. Yet, despite Tunisia was at forefront of introducing them, the uptake of SWCT by farmers has been less broad than desired. This study aims to identify and analyze those factors that have affected the rate of adoption of SWCT within the Sidi Bouzid governorate of Central Tunisia; a region that is representative of resource-poor environments within the country, and one where land degradation is of both historical and contemporary concern. Employing a binary logistic regression model, with data obtained from a survey of 250 farmers, our results suggest that socio-economic and institutional factors play an important role in the adoption of SWCT. Membership within an agricultural cooperative was positively correlated with adoption. Surprisingly, however, participation in organized trainings for SWCT was negatively correlated with adoption, similarly to livestock holdings. We provide plausible explanations for this counterintuitive finding, together with an argument that conventional processes for knowledge transfer and dissemination are in need of reform.

Wine is a complex and highly differentiated product of a very wide and heterogeneous compartment, where quality plays an important role in determining demand. Wine production in Italy is unique in the world and important for all of its regions and its vineyards are placed in extremely different environments, from coastal plains to considerable altitudes and slopes. The Italian level of quality can be considered very high, since approximately 69% of wine production is characterized by Appellation of Origin (AO). The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential efficiency in production of Italian wines with Appellation of Origin, in terms of quality, prices and vine yields. Results of this study highlight the economic value generated annually by each declared hectare of vineyard, showing the “Top five wines”, allowing reflections that underline the strategic role of some factors, useful to create a high value production process.

The paper investigates the determinants of farmers’ participation in contract farming (CF) in the context of a transition country, namely Albania. The focus is on intermediaries’ bargaining power effect on farmers’ engagement in CF. Exploratory factor analysis is used to develop measures for the latent variables, while a logit regression model is employed to test the hypothesized relationship. The results show that intermediaries’ bargaining power moderates negatively the relationship between farmers’ specific investments and CF participation. Farmers’ with high specific investment are reluctant to contract with buyers who have power because contracting with such a buyer implies that they can extract higher values from farmers’ specific investments. Other strong predictors of contracting decision are farmers’ trust on the intermediary, intermediary’s advice to the farmer and intermediary’s specific investment.

EU agricultural integrated policies among the EU and the southern Mediterranean countries are more evidently distilled through the EU-Mediterranean process (EUROMED). After 10 years of the Agadir agreement entry into force, this paper attempts to assess the agriculture trade integration among countries signed under the agreement, namely Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, by evaluating firstly the degree of sectorial and geographical dispersion of the four countries agricultural exports and secondly appraising the extent of agricultural trade complementarity towards EU countries. In this study, using the available agricultural trade data for the period 2007-2016 and the twenty-four agricultural sectors classification (CN codes 01-24), we will build three trade indices; Regional Hirschman, Sectorial Hirschman and the Trade Complementarity Index. And, finally, we will discuss the result and highlight the limitation and the challenges that hinder agricultural trade integration among southern and northern Mediterranean countries.

The speed the present world changes, is at least impressive. During the last decade the global socio-economic environment faced major adjustments dictated by globalisation, technological progress and political interests. The European Union seems to fail in keeping up with the changing environment. Thus, if in 2007 the European Union represented 30.7% of the global nominal GDP, then in 2016 it accounted only for 21.7% (World Bank). The economic positions of the European Union have declined much as compared to the rest of the world the fact which inevitably leads to the decrease of the community’s political and economic strength. The main scope of the present paper is to assess the extent to which the economic security of the European Union has changed in the period of 2007-2017. At the same time, it has been proposed to identify the main subversive factors which affected the economic security of the European Union in the period of 2007-2017 and threaten the future perspectives of the Union. The results reached by the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis explicitly point out that economic security is decreasing and the identified threats menace the future existence of the European Union.

Apple production sector in Albania is growing very fast in Albania but research about apple production efficiency is almost absent. This research aims at assessing the technical efficiency and factors affecting it for the Albanian apple farms. Data of 150 randomly selected farmers in the area of Korça region are analyzed with the Stochastic Frontier Approach. The average level of technical efficiency results 88%, with 12% potential for improvement. The efficiency gap is about 21%. Major factors with positive effect on technical efficiency result the access to advisory services, average plots size, number of apple plots; education and proportion of orchards under modern technology have negative effects; age, and farmer’s experience are not significant. Measures to support planting of apples should take into account the size of plots. There is much space to improve extension services to farmers, so adequate policies are needed to support farmers with training, information to improve their skills and knowledge, to ensure they are supplied with quality inputs and technologies at reasonable prices, and policies to improve farmers access to markets.

In Turkey, Agricultural Development Cooperatives are very important for bringing the resources in rural area to the economy, establishment of agro-industrial facilities for processing agricultural products and preventing migration from rural area to cities. While the number of Agricultural Development Cooperatives in Turkey was 6000 in 1974, it rose to 7196 in 2017. Total number of partners of these cooperatives is 775255.The aim of the study is to reveal financial structures of Agricultural Development Cooperatives within the scope of the research by using ratio analyses. Data in this study were retrieved from income statement and balance sheets belonging to 2016 of 70 Agricultural Development Cooperatives in the Western Mediterranean Region. Ratio analyses were classified as financial structure ratios, activity efficiency ratios and profitability ratios in this study. Financial analysis was conducted for Agricultural Development Cooperatives by comparing the values obtained as a result of analysis with the standard values. Findings obtained from this study and other similar studies suggest that one of the most significant problems of agricultural development cooperatives is finance. As a result of the study, it was determined that the cooperatives studied were not in financial sufficient level. The financial weaknesses of the cooperatives examined mean that they can face financial problems in the long run. Financial insufficiency poses a risk in terms of the continuity of the surveyed cooperatives.

Our work consists in finding, through the application of the cost-effectiveness analysis method, the optimal investment sequence, that would cover, with a lower cost, the future water demand in the Algerian coastal basin 02a, by the horizon 2030. Eight supply management and demand management measures were studied and the results show that demand management measures, which promote water saving and the rational use of this resource, have better cost effectiveness ratios than supply management measures. The ranking of these cost-effectiveness ratios allows us to stagger and prioritize the different investment projects in the water sector, with the aim of achieving the dual objective, social (meeting the water demand) and economic (minimize public spending).

This paper aimed at the socioeconomic appraisal of two cropping systems namely no-till and tilled wheat in Sétif region (Algeria). The study based on a sample of 28 adherent farms in an international project of Conservation Agriculture adoption for smallholders in North Africa. Economic diagnosis showed that no-till system performed best with a gross margin difference of $ 84/ha in comparison with conventional tilled wheat. Moreover, no-till recorded less work time and fuel consumption, with 241minutes/ha and 42 liters/ha against 624 minutes/ha and 99 liters/ha for conventional tillage. Though, no-till still faced some local social and technical constraints that are relatively easy to overcome. If Algeria put forward its best efforts through increasing no-till in the suitable zones, many objectives could be achieved in the context of preserving natural resources and building up farming sustainability. It could be also a key solution for “Intended Nationally Determined Contribution” (INDCs) schemes to meet Algerian commitments regarding “Paris Agreement” on climate change.

This is the first study which explores the impact of climate change in Sicily, a small Mediterranean region of Southern Europe. According to research, Mediterranean area has shown large climate shifts in the last century and it has been identified as one of the most prominent “Hot-Spots” in future climate change projections. Since agriculture is an economic activity which strongly depends on climate setting and is particularly responsive to climate changes, it is important to understand how such changes may affect agricultural profitability in the Mediterranean region. The aim of the present study is to assess the expected impact of climate change on permanent crops cultivated in Sicilian region (Southern Italy). By using data from Farm Accountancy Data Network and Ensembles climatic projections for 2021-2050 period, we showed that the impact of climate change is prominent in this region. However, crops respond to climatic variations in a different manner, highlighting that unlike the strong reduction in profitability of grapevine and citrus tree, the predicted average Net Revenue of olive tree is almost the same as in the reference period (1961-1990).

This work aims to assess, in a comparative way, the sustainability of organic and conventional olive growing systems in the Sfax region (Tunisia). This assessment will be undertaken based on I) a multidimensional perspective considering the three classical dimensions of sustainability – environmental, economic and socio-territorial – and II) on an experts’ knowledge approach selecting the adequate criteria of sustainability to compare both systems. The Analytic Hierarchy Process methodology (AHP) was applied as the adequate framework to fulfil the study objectives based on a survey directed with a panel of 20 Experts. Results suggest the need to reinforce the economic performance of organic olive growing production system through political strategies focusing on I) the improvement of the productivity by the implementation of good practices II) the increase of the demand of organic products in the local market, essentially by the improvement of the consumer’s purchase capacity and III) the adoption of a strategic plan to explore new markets.