Olive Farmers Research Articles

Eco-Efficiency of Olive Farms across Diversified Ecological Farming Approaches

Eco-efficiency is commonly used as an indicator of sustainability since it expresses the efficiency with which natural resources are utilized to meet people’s needs. Agriculture relies heavily on these ecological resources and by-produces significant environmental burdens, shifting the interest of researchers and policymakers toward the promotion of ecological practices. However, limited evidence exists regarding eco-efficiency across various ecological approaches like low input, conservation, and organic farming. This paper contributes to the existing literature and provides insight into the eco-efficiency of Cretan olive farms managed under different ecological approaches. Olive oil production is vital for the socio-economic sustainability of Mediterranean agriculture, a significant element of the region’s culture, and the basis of the well-known “Mediterranean diet”; therefore, it is crucial to investigate eco-efficient management options for olive farmers. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a second-stage statistical analysis are employed to estimate the eco-efficiency of olive farms and investigate factors affecting it. Composite indicators for biodiversity, soil, and input management are incorporated in the eco-efficiency model. The results indicate that organic farms achieve the highest eco-efficiency scores, followed by other ecological approaches. Additionally, eco-efficiency seems to be explained by farmers’ dependency on subsidies, commitment to farming activity, and environmental awareness.

The Impact of Improving the Value Chain on the Assets of Olive Farmers with a Sustainable Livelihood Approach (case study of Iran)

The Impact of Improving the Value Chain on the Assets of Olive Farmers with a Sustainable Livelihood Approach (case study of Iran)

Characterisation of Organic Olive Farmers in the Framework of M11 of the Common Agricultural Policy

During the last decade, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has prioritised measures focused on sustainability and quality over production. The purpose of the AGRICORE project is to develop a tool based on agent-based modelling to assist policymakers in the design of improved policies. The present study belongs to a use case of this project that measures the environmental and climate impact of Measure 11—Organic agriculture—from the 2014–2020 Rural Development Programme of the Andalusian olive sector. As part of this study, a survey campaign was conducted, which collected data from 189 organic olive farmers in Andalusia. The data were analysed in order to characterise organic olive farmers and their farms. This paper presents the resulting characterisation, covering some information gaps detected as part of the AGRICORE project, such as their acceptance of M11 and willingness to innovate and take risks. The results highlight that most of the respondents are unaware of important aspects, such as exploitation costs and their belonging to environmentally protected areas. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that most farmers are approximately 60 years old, and more than 35% are women. Furthermore, most of those studied do not intend to return to conventional production methods. These results help to provide a current perspective of the organic olive sector in Andalusia, which can be used by policymakers to design improved policies that entail an increase in organic olive production.

Towards a comparative analysis of olive farmers’ technical efficiency: Lessons from Data Envelopment analysis and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis on small olive farms in Tunisia

Towards a comparative analysis of olive farmers’ technical efficiency: Lessons from Data Envelopment analysis and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis on small olive farms in Tunisia

A novel approach for image-based olive leaf diseases classification using a deep hybrid model

The olive tree is affected by a variety of diseases. To identify these diseases, many farmers typically use traditional methods that require a lot of effort and specialization. These methods include visually observing the tree or conducting tests in a laboratory. Fortunately, recent progress in machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) has demonstrated promising potential to automatically classify diseases with both high accuracy and speed. However, as indicated by the literature, only a few studies are utilizing ML and DL techniques for identifying and categorizing diseases that affect olive trees. Therefore, in this study, we collected a dataset containing 4138 images of olive leaves from various sources. The dataset comprises four categories: three representing diseases and one denoting a healthy category. We also introduced an innovative approach to classify olive leaf diseases by combining deep learning architectures, specifically convolutional neural networks (CNNs), with machine learning classifiers. In this approach, we developed a total of 30 distinct deep hybrid models (DHMs), utilizing six pre-trained convolutional neural network architectures (VGG19, ResNet50, MobileNetV2, InceptionV3, DenseNet201, and EfficientNetB0) as feature extractors, along with five machine learning classifiers (MLP, LR, RF, SVM, and DT). To assess the performance of the DHMs, we used performance evaluation metrics (Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1-score) and we conducted an assessment to validate the reliability rating of the DHMs using a cross-validation technique. Additionally, we employed the Non-Parametric ScottKnott ESD (NPSK) test to assess the ranking of the best DHMs. The study’s findings revealed that the most efficient deep hybrid model was achieved by using the EfficientNetB0 model in combination with a logistic regression classifier, achieving an impressive accuracy score of 96.14%. Our approach has the potential to significantly assist olive farmers in rapidly and accurately identifying diseases, thereby potentially reducing economic losses.

Innovations towards sustainable olive crop management: a new dawn by precision agriculture including endo-therapy.

Olive trees (Olea europaea L.) are deeply interwoven with the past, present and future of Mediterranean civilizations, both as essential economical as well as cultural valuables. Olive horticulture constitutes one of the primary agroecosystems in the Mediterranean regions of today. Being inhabitant of ecological niches, Olea europaea is prone to a peculiar vulnerability towards climatic and socioeconomical transformations that are briskly reshaping regional and global agroecosystems. Because of climatic changes and the biosafety risks of global agricultural trades, olive plants are highly susceptible to newly emerging diseases and pests, and the traditional olive horticultural crop protection practices are under scrutiny towards reducing their ecological impact. Hence there is an eminent demand for a more nature-positive olive tree crop management. Recent innovations in precision agriculture are raising the prospect for innovative crop protection methods that may provide olive farmers the required agility to respond to present and future agricultural challenges. For instance, endo-therapy, which is the systemic delivery of active ingredients via trunk injection, is a technology that holds promise of a true step-change in sustainable olive crop management. Endo-therapy allows reaching vascular diseases inaccessible to foliar treatments and delivers active ingredients in a precise manner with no risks of off-target drifts. Similarly, progresses in biological precision delivery using controlled release of active ingredients based on innovative formulation technologies are showing an exciting potential for more targeted and sustainable crop protection solutions. This review summarizes the latest innovations on both physical and biological precision deliveries in the realm of olive arboriculture in the Mediterranean regions and gives an outlook how these technologies may help orchestrating innovative olive culture practices soon.

Economical Olive Oil Production by Reduction of Post-Harvest Losses in Olive Fruit

The higher cost of oil extraction units and their shortage at the district level results in huge economic losses for olive farmers. Olive fruit harvesting and packing method for temporary storage and transportation cause major losses to the growers due to the reduction in the quality of olive oil. Poor economic returns from lower-quality olive oil result in financial losses to the growers. Fruit harvesting and packing method are major sources of fruit losses; hence the studies were designed to standardize commercial fruit harvesting and packing method to minimize the losses. The study was conducted at Buzdar Agricultural Farm, DG Khan. The fruit was packed in plastic bags (Conventional method) and perforated fruit baskets (Non-conventional method) for transportation from the olive orchard to the Oil Mill (Barani Agricultural Research Institute, Chakwal) for extraction of olive oil. Olive oil extraction machine Model (Pieralisi, Italy) and the first cold extraction were used for data collection. Minimum fruit damage of 1.14% was recorded in hand picking, and maximum fruit damage of 10.65% was recorded in stick beating. Maximum fruit rotting of 4.48% was recorded in stick beating, and minimum damage of 1.10% was recorded in the hand picking method. Oil recovery percentage was not affected by harvesting and packing methods; however, oil quality was highly affected by harvesting and packing methods, which resulted in economic returns from produced olive oil. Poor quality oil fetched minimum price as compared with premium quality olive oil, which resulted in financial losses to the grower.

The Link Between Geographic Indication, Sustainability, and Multifunctionality: The Case of Table Olive Groves in Western Turkey.

As in all branches of agricultural production, it is thought that the concepts of sustainability, geographical indication, and multifunctionality are very important in table olive farming. The main purpose of this study is to examine the holistic and organic link between geographic indication, sustainability, and multifunctionality parameters in table olive cultivation. Table olive production supplied by Manisa has unique attributes. Of the 12varieties of table olives with geographical indication registration in Turkey, two belong to Akhisar district. These cultivars are named 'Akhisar Domat Zeytini' and 'Akhisar Uslu Zeytini'. Therefore, Akhisar district was chosen as the study area. Asurvey was conducted with atotal of 121 olive farmers between February and July 2020. In the survey questions, besides continuous and discrete data, the answers and data obtained from the questions formed with the yes/no options were evaluated. Basic descriptive statistics such as arithmetic mean and percentage rates were used in the analysis. It can be emphasized that table olive farming in the region has become an important habit and culture that has along cultivation experience. The effects of parameters such as marketing possibilities and price advantages are very important. The fertilization and plant protection practices are carried out in acoordinated manner in the region and with as little damage to the environment as possible. It is clarified that geographical indications are an important tool in the sustainability of table olive cultivation and that the principle of multifunctionality in agriculture is ensured by keeping the farmers in table olive farming.

Table Olive Farmers’ Sources of Risk and Risk Management Strategies

Like in all Mediterranean countries, Table olive farming has an important tradition and production potential in western Turkey, and thus it is critical to assess the risk sources and risk management strategies that farmers perceive. This study identifies perceptions of risk sources and managements strategies in the region, clarifying their relative importance, as farmers perceive them, using a survey conducted among 121 selected purposefully farmers. Sociodemographics of farmers and households were identified using basic descriptive statistics, such as arithmetic means and percentages. According to factor loadings, financial and marketing risk sources are most prominent among farmers, and human-induced and production technology issues represent the most important risk management strategies. In table olive production, it will be beneficial to develop strategies such as increasing the number of trees, improving agricultural activities, increasing the awareness level of farmers on issues such as climate change and the use of new technologies.

Identification of Farmers’ Barriers to Implement Sustainable Management Practices in Olive Groves

Current European agriculture policies and strategies are aimed to boost the transition from the predominant conventional to a more environmentally friendly agriculture model. As part of this, it is crucial to identify the barriers that exist to implementing crop-specific management practices so that appropriate mitigating steps to overcome these can be executed. Participatory action research, where farmers are research actors rather than objects, is essential to identify the main barriers farmers have to face. The objective of this study was to identify the main barriers to the adoption of a combination of sustainable management practices in olive cropping in Southern Spain. A 20-item questionnaire was designed and responded to by 200 Spanish olive farmers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the factor structure. The final best fit model included 14 items that were grouped in the following four barriers or facilitators: “lack of training/formation”, and “lack of economic/policy support” as barriers; “wellbeing–nature connection” and “environmental impact awareness” as facilitators. The mean scores on the different factors were higher than the theoretical mean, so the identification of the two barriers and the two facilitators for implementing sustainable practices was robust. Farmers, especially women, are concerned about their knowledge limitation in implementing sustainable management practices, which opens a window of opportunity for specific actions (i.e., training and demonstrative events) to be taken for accomplishing the agriculture sector transformation.

Parameters that Motivate Table Olive Farmers To Buy Agricultural Insurance: The Case of Western Turkey

Defining components that affect agricultural insurance contract decisions is indispensable to the sustainability of table olive cultivation in the region. The Akhisar district is located within the borders of Manisa province, a region in Turkey in which traditional, and the most famous, table olive varieties are grown. This study explores parameters that predict the decisions of farmers in this district to purchase agricultural insurance and identifies perceptions of agricultural insurance in the region. A survey was conducted among 121 purposefully selected farmers. Some farmers’ sociodemographic characteristics and their households were identified using basic descriptive statistics, such as arithmetic means and percentage rates, and factors that affect farmers’ decisions to buy agricultural insurance were defined using binary logistic regression. Although table olive farmers could insure their products against risk by buying full hail and frost packages within the scope of crop insurance, the desired success with agricultural insurance has not been achieved. Although the agricultural insurance that covers farmers who grow table olives remains insufficient, it still plays a role in patterns of agricultural production in the region, results in greater income than other agricultural products, and contributes to the government’s premiums for agricultural insurance. Future studies should expand insurance practices to improve farmers’ perceptions of agricultural insurance, especially regarding drought yield insurance for perennial fruit trees, including table olives.

Analiza energije različitih sistema gajenja masline u semiaridnom regionu

The objective of this study was to determine the input-output energy of olive cultivation in a semiarid region of Çanakkale, Republic of Turkey. Data were collected from olive farmers by a questionnaire for traditional-flat/sloping and intensive-flat systems in last growing season. The results revealed that net energy gain was higher in intensive system than in traditional flat and sloping ones. Similarly, energy ratio was higher in intensive by 1.46 MJ ha-1 than in sloping and flat of traditional by 1.42 and 1.38 MJ ha-1 , respectively. The highest energy productivity was recorded in the intensive (0.93 MJ ha-1), but the lowest was in the traditional-sloping (0.75 MJ ha-1), and then in the traditional-flat (0.92 MJ ha-1). Indeed, the intensive system produced higher olive yields which allow using a higher level of fertilizer, water and mechanization, but also the energy analysis revealed that its efficiency in the energy was higher than two traditional systems. The results suggested that intensive system could be a better cultivation system in flat areas for the region farmers in an increasingly competitive without worsening environmental sustainability.

Preserving wintering frugivorous birds in agro‐ecosystems under land use change: Lessons from intensive and super‐intensive olive orchards

Abstract Fleshy fruit production is becoming more intensive worldwide, but how this affects frugivorous birds is poorly known. In the Mediterranean region, intensive and super‐intensive olive orchards are fast expanding, potentially affecting millions of wintering songbirds. Here, we test the idea that intensification may benefit frugivorous birds, at least locally, due to increased fruit availability, while negatively affecting the wider wintering bird community due to intensive management, structural simplification and landscape homogenisation. We estimated olive abundance and surveyed birds in early, mid‐ and late winter, at traditional, intensive and super‐intensive orchards in southern Portugal. We used Hierarchical Modelling of Species Communities to relate species richness, prevalence and abundance to management intensity, winter period, olive availability and landscape context, and evaluated the role of frugivory in modulating observed responses. Olive availability was much higher throughout the winter in more intensive than in traditional orchards, both in trees and on the ground. Frugivorous bird abundance was higher in more intensive orchards, and the most abundant frugivorous species (blackcap, song thrush, robin) were positively affected by olive availability and/or increasing landscape cover by olive orchards, while intensification level had relatively minor effects after accounting for other variables. Non‐frugivorous richness and abundance were higher in traditional orchards, and many non‐frugivorous species had lower prevalence in more intensive orchards or were negatively affected by landscapes dominated by olive cultivation. Synthesis and applications. While negatively affecting the wider bird community, our results suggest that olive farming intensification can contribute to sustaining large numbers of frugivorous birds in the Mediterranean region. As frugivorous birds are not seen as damaging by olive farmers, there is an opportunity to promote their conservation in intensive and super‐intensive orchards, which requires management to increase habitat heterogeneity, and to reduce risks such as mortality associated with mechanical harvest and contamination with pesticide residues. Overall, we recommend that efforts to manage farmland biodiversity should consider the impacts and conservation opportunities of fruit crop intensification.

Long-term changes in rainfed olive production, rainfall and farmer\u2019s income in Bail\xe9n (Ja\xe9n, Spain)

Economic, social, and climatic conditions affect agricultural production. Those changes are relevant to the rainfed agricultural areas of the Mediterranean Belt, including Spain—the largest producer of olive oil in the world. However, little is known about the effect of the climate on olive production and farmer income. In this study, the correlation between changes in rainfall and total olive production was examined using a long-term dataset (28 years) on conventional rainfed production and tillage soil management. The dataset focused on different olive groves in the municipality of Bailén (Jaén, Andalusia) that have been owned by the same farmer since 1966. The province of Jaén is the region of Spain with the highest production of olive oil and the largest area of olive groves. The data included annual rainfall, production per plot and the price of olives. After calculating missing data to complete the rainfall series, pairwise correlation analysis with nonparametric Spearman's rank coefficients and principal component analysis were used to process the data. The results showed that higher production coincided with increased rainfall during August and December. Therefore, we concluded that the impact of rainfall on olive production is variable and depends on drought intensity and the monthly rainfall distribution. An economic study showed that farmer income was highly dependent on the seasonal distribution of the rainfall among other factors such as the price of olives. Farmer income was low during drought periods, indicating that rainfed agriculture is perceived by farmers as unsustainable due to the resulting highly variable income. This study could help to prevent risks to food security in the future. We recognise that other key factors have also been important influences on the fluctuations in olive production over the years, such as soil properties and plant status. However, cultivating olives without irrigation—depending only on the total rainfall amount and rainfall intensity to supply all of the water consumed by the plants—is very risky too. This research demonstrates that the subsistence of Mediterranean rainfed olive farmers can be highly dependent on the rainfall conditions.

Adoption of Olive Farmers to the Integrated Pest Management Techniques in the Syrian Coastal Region

Sakr, L.M., M.J. Al-Abdallah and A.N.M. Bashir. 2021. Adoption of Olive Farmers to the Integrated Pest Management Techniques in the Syrian Coastal Region. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 39(1): 69-78. A survey was conducted to investigate adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) approaches by olive farmers, through determining their knowledge about the most important olive pests in the Syrian Coastal Area, and the relationship between growers’ personal traits and their adoption of IPM approaches. This evaluation was carried out in 42 villages in Tartus and Lattakia governorates along the Syrian coast in 2017 and 2018 growing seasons. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with a random sample of 420 olive growers by using a questionnaire designed for the purpose of this study. Collected data on frequencies, percentages, averages, standard deviations, relative importance index, in addition to correlation coefficients, were used for data analysis. Results showed that: the Spilocaea oleagina (Cast.), Bactrocera oleae (Rossi), Prays oleae (Bernard) and Euphyllura olivina (Costa) were the most prevalent pests in the researched area, whereas Margaronia unionalis (Hubner), Leveillula taurica (Lév.), and Phloeotribus scarabaeoides (Bernard) were less common. Almost 57.78 and 32.8% of farmers had medium level of IPM adoption in Tartus and Lattakia governorates, respectively. Positive significant correlation was found between adoption levels and each of degree of participation in extension activities and knowledge levels, whereas negative significant correlation was found between adoption levels and each of land property fragmentation and constraints of IPM implementation. Based on this findings it can be concluded that extension activities need to be intensified and more emphasis should be placed on training programs to improve growers’ knowledge and adoption of the concepts and applications of IPM practices. Keywords: Integrated pest management, olive growers, Syrian coast, knowledge diffusion level, adoption.

In-depth analysis of soil management and farmers’ perceptions of related risks in two olive grove areas in southern Spain

This manuscript presents a questionnaire-based study aimed to provide a detailed analysis on the different soil management carried out by olive farmers in two representative olive-growing areas in southern Spain (Cordoba and Estepa), their perceptions on cover crop use and the possible influence of the different types of farms and farmers’ typologies on these perceptions. Our results show a relatively large variability of soil management, with fourteen options, as a result of a combination of different alternatives for bare soil and cover crops with the use or not of pruning residues, but with a great similarity between both areas. The results indicate a high adoption of soil conservation measures in the two study areas, with 63% of farmers using cover crops and 80% a mulch of pruning residues, higher than that reported in previous studies in Southern Spain, and a trend of lower use of these techniques by less experienced and younger farmers. This high penetration of soil conservation measures resulted in a significant reduction of soil erosion risk, as indicated by the relatively low values for the cover and management factor (C) of RUSLE, also calculated and presented in this study, but also the possibility of focusing further efforts on farmers with less experience. Our results indicate the persistence of a minor, but relevant, percentage of farmers using bare soil management (37%) and no mulching (20%), with a moderate concern on the impact of soil erosion on soil degradation and provision of ecosystem services. This suggests the need to concentrate efforts also on this cluster of farmers to enhance the success of what seems to be a remarkable expansion of the use of soil conservation measures in recent decades in Southern Spain, but also in similar areas in the Mediterranean basin.

Automatic Olive Peacock Spot Disease Recognition System Development by Using Single Shot Detector

Among the artificial intelligence based studies conducted in the field of agriculture, disease recognition methods founded on deep learning are observed to become widespread. Due to the diversity and regional specificity of many plant species, studies performed in this field are not at the desired level. Olive peacock spot disease of the olive plant which grows only in certain regions in the world is a widely encountered disease particularly in Turkey. The aim of this research is to develop an olive peacock spot disease detection system using a Single Shot Detector (SSD) which is one the popular deep learning architectures to support olive farmers. This study presents a data set consisting of 1460 olive leaves samples for the detection of olive peacock spot disease. All of the images of the olive leaves which produced under controlled conditions were collected from Aegean region of Turkey during spring and summer. The data set was trained with different intersection over union (IoU) threshold values using SSD architecture. A 96 % average precision (AP) value was obtained with IoU=0.5. As IOU value goes up from 0.5, erroneously classified olive peacock spot disease symptoms growed larger as well. The AP curve becomes flat when between 0.1 and 0.5, and it decreases when greater than 0.5. This analysis showed that the IoU significantly influenced the performance of SSD based model in detection of olive peacock spot disease. In addition to, trainings were performed by employing Pytorch library and a GUI was developed for the SSD based application using PyQt5 which is one of Pyhton's libraries. Results showed that the SSD was a robust tool for recognizing the olive peacock spot disease.

Difusión de prácticas de lucha contra la erosión en el olivar de la cuenca del Alto Genil Granadino

Este trabajo analiza el proceso de difusión de prácticas de lucha contra la erosión en el olivar de la provincia de Granada utilizando información de un sondeo a agricultores. Las prácticas más extendidas son el no laboreo y el uso de restos triturados de poda, mientras que otras más tradicionales son minoritarias. Pese a su efectividad contra la erosión y a su inclusión en las exigencias de varios programas agroambientales, el uso de cubiertas vegetales es muy reducido. El motor de los procesos de difusión de las principales prácticas analizadas ha sido la interacción y la comunicación directa entre los agricultores.

Investigation of olive farmers’ knowledge level about integrated pest management (IPM) techniques in Al-sheikh Badr district along the Syrian coast

Investigation of olive farmers’ knowledge level about integrated pest management (IPM) techniques in Al-sheikh Badr district along the Syrian coast

Production and marketing problems facing olive farmers in North Sinai Governorate, Egypt

BackgroundAlthough North Sinai Governorate has a comparative advantage in the production of some crops as olive crop, which generates a distinct economic return, whether marketed locally or exported. This governorate occupies the twentieth place for the productivity of this crop in Egypt. The research aimed to identify the most important production and marketing problems facing olive farmers in North Sinai Governorate. Research data were collected through personal interviewing questionnaire with 100 respondents representing 25% of the total olive farmers at Meriah village from October to December 2015.ResultsResults showed that there are many production and marketing problems faced by farmers. The most frequent of the production problems were the problem of increasing fertilizer prices (64% of the surveyed farmers), and the problem of irrigation water high salinity (52% of the respondents). Where the majority of the respondents mentioned that these problems are the most important productive problems they are facing, followed by problems of poor level of extension services (48%), high cost of irrigation wells (47%), difficulty in owning land (46%), and lack of agricultural mechanization (39%), while the most important marketing problems were the problem of the exploitation of traders (62%), the absence of agricultural marketing extension (59%), the high prices of trained labor to collect the crop (59%), and lack of olive presses present in the area (57%).ConclusionsIn spite of the efforts exerted by the Agricultural Extension Agency in the Governorate of North Sinai to assist olive farmers and raise their knowledge and skills level in relation to this crop, and despite the fact that this Governorate has a comparative advantage in terms of cultivated area and the quality of the final product, olive farmers face many production and marketing problems such as increasing fertilizer prices, irrigation water high salinity, poor level of extension services, high cost of irrigation wells, absence of agricultural marketing extension, and lack of agricultural mechanization. So that agricultural extension as a free educational service should assist farmers through targeted extension programs aimed at guiding them in the best way to address and overcome these problems.