pgs. 559–574, Via online journal, The aim of this paper is to assess the eco-efficiency of dairy farms in Spain. To do so, we use data from a survey carried out in 2010 for the specific purpose of analysing the environmental performance of 50 dairy farms in the Spanish region of Asturias. The survey contains information on nutrients balances and greenhouse gas emissions which is used to calculate environmental pressure indicators. Eco-efficiency is measured using data envelopment analysis. We analyse the influence of farmers’ socio-economic characteristics and attitudes in explaining these eco-efficiency scores using truncated regression and bootstrapping procedures. On average, the dairy farms are found to be highly eco-inefficient. Among our results, farmers that are younger, that plan to continue in operation in the foreseeable future and that participate more in training schemes are found to be more eco-efficient. Self-reported positive environmental habits are also reflected in actual eco-efficient performance. We quantify these potential gains in eco-efficiency through a simulation analysis based on the estimated model’s coefficients.
13 pages, Participatory action research involving farmers and researchers is crucial to enhance the adoption of farming innovations and ensure the long term sustainability of agroecosystem restoration. However, the factors for successful participatory research for agroecosystem restoration are not always clear and have been rarely evaluated from the perspective of the subjects from whom change is expected. Despite the increasing call for agroecosystem Living Labs, farmers are still seldom involved in structured and shared co-monitoring and co-evaluation of farming innovations as part of participatory monitoring programs. Therefore, we developed a participatory monitoring and evaluation project to evaluate the impacts of regenerative agriculture between farmers and researchers in the Mediterranean drylands of Spain. Here we present and evaluate the project outcomes by reporting farmers’ monitoring results using a co-developed visual soil assessment (VSA) manual, and by documenting farmers’ evaluation of the VSA and other key aspects of the participatory monitoring and evaluation in the third year since the beginning of the project. Farmers’ VSA results pointed out regenerative agriculture as a promising solution to restore degraded agroecosystems in Mediterranean drylands with insights that are complementary to the scientific monitoring. Farmers’ evaluation of the participatory monitoring process revealed the need to enhance farmers’ support for implementation of VSA tools in initial stages, and to include farmers in the design of VSA tools to adjust them to farmers’ priorities, possibilities and needs. Farmers highlighted the importance of the participatory monitoring and evaluation process to enhance knowledge exchange, learning, and capacity building regarding soil quality management to adapt and adopt regenerative agriculture. Our results confirm that including farmers in the design, decision-making and evaluation of research projects for agroecosystem restoration is imperative to enhance efficient, sound and inclusive transitions towards long term sustainable agroecosystems.
Stewart-Knox, B.J. (author), Markovina, J. (author), Rankin, A. (author), Bunting, B.P. (author), Kuznesof, S. (author), Fischer, A.R.H. (author), Van der Lans, L.A. (author), Poinhos, R. (author), de Almeida, M.D.V. (author), Panzone, L. (author), Gibney, M. (author), and Frewer, L.J. (author)
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2016
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 137 Document Number: D11461
11 pages., Via UI online subscription, Researchers examined the degree to which factors which determine uptake of personalised nutrition vary between EU countries to better target policies to encourage uptake, and optimise the health benefits of personalised nutrition technology.