Examining Farmers’ Adoption Decisions towards Precision-Agricultural Practices in Greek Dairy Cattle Farms

Georgios Kleftodimos,Aristotelis C Tagarakis,Dionysis Bochtis,Leonidas Sotirios Kyrgiakos,Christina Kleisiari

doi:10.3390/su14010411

Abstract

Nowadays, the sustainability of Greek dairy cattle farms is questionable due to low competitiveness and high GHG emissions. In this context, the BIOCIRCULAR project, funded by the EYDE ETAK, developed a series of alternative practices focusing on precision agriculture principles. However, the adoption of any practice from farmers is not a given, and depends on several determinants. Hence, the objective of this study is to examine farmers’ adoption decisions regarding precision-agricultural practices in Greek dairy production systems, as well as the economic and environmental impacts of this adoption. In order to achieve this, a bio-economic model was developed based on mathematical programming methods. The proposed model simulates a large number of dairy cattle farms with or without crop production, including different management strategies and their relevant costs, and provides an environmental assessment of the adopted practices based on GHG emissions. Moreover, in order to analyze farmers’ adoption decisions, different policy measures, linked to various environmental outcomes, were examined. The results highlighted that the adoption of precision-agricultural practices led to significantly better economic and environmental outcomes. Furthermore, it was found that different levels of incentives can be efficiently targeted to encourage the adoption of new feeds and, more broadly, to secure the sustainability of the sector.

Highlights

The dairy sector is of paramount importance for the Greek economy, as it is responsible for more than the 19% of the total economic welfare of the national agricultural sector [1].The main areas of dairy production are located in Central and Northern Greece
More than the 80% of cow production systems are located in the regions of Macedonia, Thrace, and Thessaly
The Greek dairy production systems suffer from low competitiveness due to inefficient management [3,4]

Summary

Introduction

The dairy sector is of paramount importance for the Greek economy, as it is responsible for more than the 19% of the total economic welfare of the national agricultural sector [1]. The main areas of dairy production are located in Central and Northern Greece. In recent years, a significant amount of investment in dairy production systems has taken place in Greece in order to strengthen the sector and benefit the impacted stakeholders [3]. Despite these investments, there is a structural imbalance between the supply and the demand of cow milk, as the national supply can cover only 40% of the demand [4]. The Greek dairy production systems suffer from low competitiveness due to inefficient management [3,4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion