Suchergebnisse

The "bioeconomy" is the idea of economic activity involving the sustainable exploitation of biological resources. This book illustrates state of the art perspectives in the development of the bioeconomy across the world, taking an economic and policy perspective, and identifies potential future pathways and issues.

"The transition from a mineral dependent economy to one in which biogenic resources form the basis of biobased products and production processes relies both on scientific innovative knowledge and on the capacity of agricultural, aquacultural, and forestry ecosystems to deliver biomass for food and non-food uses. Agricultural policy is expected to play a critical role in facilitating such a transition, being one of the few highly harmonized EU policies, with a substantial budget and a strong experience base. Within the EU, the question often raised is twofold: to what extent the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) shapes alternative pathways to sustainable bioeconomy transition, and conversely how bioeconomy development is paving the way for new potential areas for reform of the CAP and related research challenges. This also brings in the topic of coordination between the CAP and the EU bioeconomy strategy. The demand of biomass for non-food uses further intensifies agricultural activity. The need to reduce land footprints strengthens the call for smart and innovative approaches, beyond the traditional ways of producing and consuming biomass, and therefore beyond traditional land use patterns. Targeting sustainable bioeconomy development is the object of a multi-policy landscape. In this landscape, policy coherence is a key topic; its achievement is attempted through strategic documents encompassing the main relevant policy areas and authorities. Built on the original strategic guidelines and experience acquired since 2012, the updated European Bioeconomy Strategy (European Commission [EC], 2018) advocates the deployment of circular and sustainable supply chains. Integral to this is the adoption of the cascading principle, defined as using biomass as an input first, then recovering its energy content at its end-of life, and promoting the development of biorefineries that focus on high value products and organic waste re-use."--First page. ; Stelios Rozakis (Technical University of Crete, Greece, Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation (IUNG-PIB), Poland), Davide Viaggi (University of Bologna, Italy), Wieslaw Oleszek (Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation (IUNG-PIB), Poland) ; Includes bibliographical references

Literature on innovation adoption mechanism has emphasised the positive effect of Single FarmPayments (SFP) and Rural Development Payments on adoption of new technologies. In thiscontext, the expected process of CAP reforming after 2013 is likely to strengthen the role ofinnovation in the European Union (EU). The objective of this paper is to identify thedeterminants of the adoption of future innovation, in particular in connection to pastinnovation, and to assess the role of agricultural policy in the promotion of innovationadoption. The analysis is applied to two regions (Centre and Midi-Pyrénées) in France. Twoseparate Count models are developed in order to explain famers' stated intention concerningdifferent intensities of innovation adoption under two different policy scenarios. Preliminaryresults highlight that the CAP strongly affects the decision to innovate and the innovationintensity, even if there is no statistical significance for the variable connected to the amount ofpayments or the level of payment per hectare.

L'adozione di nuove tecnologie e la diffusione dell'innovazione rappresentano due elementi centrali nel processo di sviluppo di tutti i settori dell'economia e sono tra i maggiori drivers della crescita economica. Il settore agro-industriale ed il suo ruolo sono oggetto di forte attenzione nel dibattito scientifico e politico. Gli obiettivi comunitari previsti dalla futura Politica agricola comune (PAC), e quelli dalla strategia programmatica della nascente bio-economia (Commissione europea 2010a; Commissione europea 2010b) puntano ad aumentare la competitività delle imprese che operano nel settore e ad incrementare l'offerta di beni alimentari, di energia da fonti rinnovabili e dei beni con funzioni positive sulla salute umana (per esempio i cosiddetti nutraceutici). Gli stessi documenti programmatici pongono una forte attenzione al problema dalla minimizzazione degli impatti sull'ambiente e all'uso efficiente delle risorse naturali, principalmente cercando di ottimizzare l'uso e il riuso dei substrati biologici (OECD 2009).

CAP-IRE. Assessing the Multiple Impacts of the Common Agricultural Policies on Rural Economies (European Commission FP7) ; Grant 216672 ; L'adozione di nuove tecnologie e la diffusione dell'innovazione rappresentano due elementi centrali nel processo di sviluppo di tutti i settori dell'economia e sono tra i maggiori drivers della crescita economica. Il settore agro-industriale ed il suo ruolo sono oggetto di forte attenzione nel dibattito scientifico e politico. Gli obiettivi comunitari previsti dalla futura Politica agricola comune (PAC), e quelli dalla strategia programmatica della nascente bio-economia (Commissione europea 2010a; Commissione europea 2010b) puntano ad aumentare la competitività delle imprese che operano nel settore e ad incrementare l'offerta di beni alimentari, di energia da fonti rinnovabili e dei beni con funzioni positive sulla salute umana (per esempio i cosiddetti nutraceutici). Gli stessi documenti programmatici pongono una forte attenzione al problema dalla minimizzazione degli impatti sull'ambiente e all'uso efficiente delle risorse naturali, principalmente cercando di ottimizzare l'uso e il riuso dei substrati biologici (OECD 2009).

Literature on innovation adoption mechanism has emphasised the positive effect of Single FarmPayments (SFP) and Rural Development Payments on adoption of new technologies. In thiscontext, the expected process of CAP reforming after 2013 is likely to strengthen the role ofinnovation in the European Union (EU). The objective of this paper is to identify thedeterminants of the adoption of future innovation, in particular in connection to pastinnovation, and to assess the role of agricultural policy in the promotion of innovationadoption. The analysis is applied to two regions (Centre and Midi-Pyrénées) in France. Twoseparate Count models are developed in order to explain famers' stated intention concerningdifferent intensities of innovation adoption under two different policy scenarios. Preliminaryresults highlight that the CAP strongly affects the decision to innovate and the innovationintensity, even if there is no statistical significance for the variable connected to the amount ofpayments or the level of payment per hectare.

Agriculture is the main water-using sector in Southern European Countries, such as Spain and Italy. Innovative institutional solutions for reducing water use or increasing its efficiency are pursued by recent legislation concerning water, in particular by the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Even if not explicitly considered by the directive, water markets may be seen as a kind of instrument responding to the guiding principles of the upcoming water regulation. The issue of water markets is very much debated in the water economics literature and particularly in the agricultural water literature. Water markets refer to a mechanism of water allocation based on the exchange of rights on water use. Water markets are proposed and supported by economic theory on the ground that they produce an efficient allocation of water resources. Criticisms to water markets may derive both on the ground of economic efficiency itself (for example due to higher transaction costs and expenditure for wider water transport systems) and on equity considerations (for example the concentration of water on the more efficient farms that would specialise in intensive production, while the others would retain less intensive crops). The objective of this paper is to test to what extent water markets may contribute to the improvement of the efficiency of water use. The analysis is based on a linear programming model applied at basin level, comparing the situation with and without market and including transaction costs proportional to the amount of water exchanged. The model simulates the behaviour of different farm types, derived from cluster analysis on a sample of farms in each area. The model is tested in two areas in Southern Italy and Spain. The paper confirms that water markets have the possibility to improve water use efficiency. However, the exchanges are very much affected by the amount of transaction costs, even for transaction costs relatively low. In the case of Lower Ter, gross margin increase due to markets may be as high as 30% which is rather a considerable amount. Instead, the highest increase in Foggia is only about 10%, a result that may be regarded as hardly relevant. In Foggia the benefits of the water market collapse only when transaction costs are between 0,1 and 0,2 EUR/m3 (that may be regarded as a fairly high amount). On the contrary, Lower Ter is more sensitive to transaction costs and 0,075 EUR/m3 are enough to cause the market to shut down whatever the water quota. When potential improvements occur, an additional issue arises, i.e. the institutional acceptance of market criteria for water allocation purposes. The general attitude in Europe still appears against such a solution. However, the changing economic context (agricultural markets, demographic trends) tend to decrease rigidities about water exchange, particularly among farmers