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Endogenous agricultural development is needed to improve food productivity and address the socioeconomic and environmental challenges facing Africa in the near future. Considering the failure of past top-down development policies, the integral development of Africa’s agricultural sector, requires tailoring technological and technical improvements to the local rural realities while respecting their cultural identities and social norms. This paper focuses on the “Good Farmer” concept in a framework of symbolic interactionism, social capital production and shared identity. The study analyzes how the “Good Farmer” concept is perceived in rural Africa through textual analysis of a 2019 survey conducted in Mozambique. The results are compared with the definition of the “Good Farmer” in Western Countries from a Structured Literature Review. The analysis reveals that there is a key difference in Western and rural African conceptions of what is considered being a “Good Farmer”. In rural Africa, there is strong emphasis on community aspects and knowledge transfer, which can be of great importance in influencing the diffusion of innovation processes for its rural development.

Aquaculture and waste valorization have the potential to show solid achievements toward food security and improvements in the circularity of resources, which are crucial aspects of achieving a sustainable lifestyle in agreeance with Agenda 2030 goals. This study aims to optimize and simplify the decision-making processes for the valorization of marine wastes (natural and from aquaculture) as secondary raw materials to produce high-value-added market goods. However, significant concentrations of pollutants may be present within wastes, compromising overall quality, and social dynamics can hinder their usage further. Goro’s lagoon was chosen as a case study, where the relations between the ecosystem services, a thriving bivalve economy, and social dynamics are deeply rooted and intertwined. Therefore, in the manuscript cost–benefit and foresight analyses are conducted to determine the best usage for algal biomass considering pollution, social acceptance, and profitability. These analyses are virtually conducted on bio-refineries that could be operating in the case study’s area: briefly, for a thirty-year running bio-plant, the CBA indicates the two best alternatives with an income of 5 billion euros (NPV, with a 5% discount rate) for a biofuel-only production facility, and a half for a multiproduct one, leading to the conclusion that the first is the best alternative. The foresight, instead, suggests a more cautious approach by considering external factors such as the environment and local inhabitants. Hence, the main innovation of this work consists of the decision-maker’s holistic enlightenment toward the complexities and the hidden threats bound to this kind of closed-loop efficiency-boosting process, which eventually leads to optimized decision-making processes.

We estimated the water demand elasticity through an econometric approach applied to a large dataset of water demand observations for an irrigation water district in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy). Elasticity has been estimated also by considering subsamples of crops and irrigation technologies. The results show water demand inelastic to price, with heterogeneity among crops and irrigation systems. More precisely, we find higher levels of water demand responsiveness for efficient irrigation systems (drip and sprinkler) than for traditional irrigation technologies such as furrow systems. In the paper we provide various potential interpretations to this heterogeneity among crops and irrigation systems.

The implementation process of the European Green Deal Strategic Framework (EGDSF) and its many legislation provisions was slowed down during the last two years. In some areas, like climate and energy, most of the policy initiatives have been implemented whereas in other areas, like pollution and chemicals, the process is lagging behind. All the official and non-official estimates of the investments needed to achieve the key EGD-related targets and objectives as well as the sustainability transition in general, bring to very high figures. In spite of the uncertainties affecting the different estimates, the additional investment need is about €520 billion per year in the present decade with respect to the average level of the last decade, of which €392 billion/year for climate and energy. The investment gaps, as the difference between the estimated needs and the present level of investments, are very large in key transition sectors, like clean energy and mobility. At the same time, the picture on European domestic manufacturing capacity in selected clean tech for energy and mobility - compared to the deployment of those same technologies in EU countries - shows a mixed picture. Resources from the private sector, and in particular private industrial investments, are called into the fore as a force that is necessary to complement public funding. An often-disregarded but key factor for mobilizing investments is the cost of capital. The cost of capital is very different across Member States and regions. This difference can favour the companies located in certain countries in accessing finance to make investments, thus possibly contributing to an industrial divergence in key transition areas like clean tech. The difficulties faced by the EGD-triggered transition in the EU suggest to look at the space it can have within the evolution of the EU macro policies. A preferred pathways requires redesigning the EGD as an EU-level industrial strategy. Among the ingredients of a tru

In this paper we analyze the effect of institutional quality on the so-called Twin transition at provincial level in Italy. To carry out the analysis, we use two proxies for the ecological transition, namely waste management and air pollution, and two proxies for the digital transition, namely ultra-wide band connections and provincial innovative start-ups. All the models are estimated on a panel of 103 provinces with a time dimension that varies for the different dependent variables. We employ Spatial Durbin Model estimator to take into account spatial dependence across provinces. Our findings indicate that the quality of local institutions may have an important role for the ecological transition, but not for the digital transition. Higher levels of institutional quality increase the performance in waste management and reduce the level of local air pollution. Conversely, the estimated coefficient of institutional quality is not statistically significant neither for ultra-wide band nor for innovative start-ups. Institutional quality turns to be significant but negative for the digital transition when dummy variable controlling for the presence of science-oriented university is added in the model specification. These results confirm that the green transition is largely policy-driven and the local ‘institutional environment’ is an essential ingredient for its effectiveness. The driving forces of the digital transition, instead, can be better found in socioeconomic factors that depend on the ‘economic quality’ of the local system and its propensity to innovate within larger-scale innovation trajectories.

This paper reports on the instrumentation and expertise developed within the INFN-CHNet network for X-ray and neutron imaging, which enable non-invasive identification of materials and production processes in the field of cultural heritage. INFN-CHNet is the network of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics specifically dedicated to the development and application of scientific methods and technologies to cultural heritage. This article focuses on portable MA-XRF scanners, often complemented by additional techniques, PIXE imaging on a newly developed portable accelerator, X-ray radiography and tomography, exploited to their full potential also through the use of portable systems, and neutron radiography and tomography, which require large-scale facilities. In many respects, the information obtained from X-ray and neutron-based methods is complementary, facilitating a comprehensive characterisation of materials, structures, and manufacturing techniques.

This paper analyses the drivers for adopting irrigation systems with water conservation and saving technologies (WCSTs) by Italian farmers. The agricultural sector in Italy, like in other Mediterranean countries, suffers from water scarcity and water endowment variability. Water resources play a decisive role in agricultural production and in implementing large-scale WCSTs capable of improving the resilience of the whole agricultural sector. This study uses a microeconomic panel data approach to estimate farmers’ decisions in adopting (inter-farm) sustainable irrigation technologies and assesses the intensity of (intrafarm) water-saving practices. Our analysis identifies the main determinants of adopting WCSTs for Italian farmers based on different socio-economic, physical, environmental and climatic variables.

The agro-export boom is threatening the sustainability of water resources in many regions around the world. This is the case of the Ica valley in Peru, where in the last decades traditional agriculture has been replaced by big agricultural businesses to meet the growing international food demand. This has led to increasing land concentration by large exporting farms jointly with an increase in groundwater exploitation for irrigation. In this paper, we analyze the effect of land concentration, exporting crop specialization and irrigation intensity on groundwater sustainability using an econometric approach. Our findings highlighted an inverse relation between groundwater sustainability in terms of water withdrawal in the Ica Valley and the intensity of irrigation (drip technology), commodity specialization and concentration of large farms. More research is needed to fully understand the impacts of this very important economic activity on Peru’s natural resources, to ensure its sustainability in the long term.

This paper analyses factors that determine the adoption of photovoltaic systems (PV) in Italy. We employ a spatial econometric approach applied to province-level data for 2015-2021 to identify the main determinants of PV adoption and to gauge both the potential bias deriving from spatial dependence and the spillover effects affecting neighboring areas in PV diffusion. We test different spatial econometric models and different types of economic, social and demographic variables. We add new regressors to consider the role of housing market dynamics (volume of sales and price of transaction) as a possible driver of PV adoption. We find that the housing market and electricity consumption are important positive determinants of PV adoption, whereas social capital and socio-demographic indicators do not provide statistical evidence of being major drivers of PV adoption. We confirm that other economic factors, like average income, can explain PV diffusion, whereas solar irradiation does not show to play a critical role. We do not find an important role of policies on energy efficiency and renewable energy in the housing sector, but our data timeframe covers a period after the very high incentives from the ‘Conto Energia’ and, at the same time, prevents us from observing the possible effects of the ‘Superbonus 110’ introduced in 2021. Moreover, our findings indicate that spatial dependence exists between neighboring areas in PV adoption, suggesting that spatial econometric models can be robust empirical approaches for interpreting PV deployment in studies at the regional or sub-regional level.

This paper addresses the role of institutional quality and trust in institutions for the performance in waste recycling of the EU27 countries. While survey-based works have highlighted the role of these factors for waste recycling attitudes and performance at the micro level, econometric analyses of recycling in Europe at country and regional levels have mostly looked into the role of waste policies, and not the role of institutional factors, in driving progresses in waste recycling. This paper tries to fill this gap through a panel econometrics analysis of recycling rates of municipal solid waste at the national level for the EU27 countries for the period 2005–2020. The proxies for institutional quality and trust in institutions, as the variables of interest, are introduced into a model that includes controls on a set of socio-economic variables, and on a set of EU waste policy variables, in particular the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) and its revision, and the first Circular Economy Action Plan of 2015 (CEAP 2015). Our results support the hypothesis that the quality of institutions can influence waste recycling performance. Moreover, our results provide evidence on the negative role of institutional trust on recycling rate at country level. Similarly, we find that the EU WFD and CEAP 2015 have been significant in driving recycling performances; the latter finding, however, is a necessary condition in appropriate institutional and socio-economic environments at the national level.

In Europe, micro-firms contribute significantly to both the economy and the environmental impact on ecosystems. Helping them become greener and stimulating innovation toward new sustainable and circular solutions could substantially contribute to the European goal of achieving carbon neutrality and environmental sustainability, as promoted by the European Green Deal and Next Generation EU programs. Nevertheless, eco-innovation (EI) by micro-firms is studied little in the literature. In this paper, we analyze the main determinants of conventional and EI adoption by microfirms. We used an ad-hoc survey developed for enterprises in Emilia-Romagna (Italy), an important region in terms of innovation where micro-firms play a significant role in the economy. The paper analyzes whether human capital, training, R&D activities, collaboration activities to improve learning, and the environmental culture within the firm act as main determinants of innovation adoption, in addition to other standard drivers and barriers to innovation adoption studied in the extant literature. Moreover, we compare innovation adoption strategies between micro-firms and SMEs. While our results highlight differences in the determinants of EI and conventional innovation adoption, there are important heterogeneities when it comes to innovation adoption strategies.

This work explores the transition process towards a circular economic model in the European context. By placing the role of policies and waste as a focus of the debate, it first examines the possible effects that a stringent policy can generate and, secondly, how much waste and its management can influence the goodness of the transition process. By analyzing European data on major indicators of circularity, waste generation, and management, this paper attempts to provide a snapshot of the European situation and its different speeds along the transition path. In light of the recent development programs established by European institutions in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic that strained the world economy, the trends show how program resources should be directed towards key sustainability sectors that can stimulate European countries towards a common circular pathway.

Efficient water management in agricultural activities can improve local water resource conditions while enhancing farms’ economic performance. This paper analyses how farmers’ decisions to adopt innovative and sustainable irrigation systems, such as Water Conservation and Saving Technologies (WCSTs), would shape Italian farms’ economic resilience by improving land productivity. Using a Panel Endogenous Switching Regression Model, our results confirm that the WCST adoption is an endogenous and self-selective process and land value is endogenously determined. Seasonal aridity indices are important factors in the choice of WCST adoption, with different effects on non-adopters and adopters. Farmers who adopt WCSTs are more productive than those who do not.

The 2020 monsoon floods in Bangladesh were among the most severe and protracted in decades. Instead of waiting for disaster to strike, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society used impact-based forecast data to reach nearly 3,800 vulnerable households along the Jamuna River with a one-off unconditional cash transfer of BDT 4,500 (about $53) before peak flooding in July 2020. Anticipatory action to help at-risk populations avoid or mitigate extreme weather event impacts has become widely used by governments and humanitarian organisations worldwide. However, robust evaluations of the effectiveness of forecast-based assistance are limited. This assessment follows a quasi-experimental approach, drawing on survey data from a sample of cash recipients and equally vulnerable and flood-affected households that were not reached by BDRCS before the flood. Our analysis finds robust statistical evidence that the intervention was effective in helping households evacuate the flood-affected area, protecting personal health and well-being, and safeguarding people’s productive assets and livestock. It was also effective in enabling beneficiaries to avoid taking on high-interest loans and selling valuable assets during and after the flood. The intervention does not appear to have helped cash recipients avoid food-based coping mechanisms or regain their productive capacity sooner after the flood.