Multifunctional Impacts of the Olive Farming Practices in Andalusia, Spain: An Analytic Network Approach

Olive agriculture represents one of the most important economic activities in the region of Andalusia, Spain. Additionally to its economic importance the multifunctional character of agriculture and its wide territorial presence entails that it has a high potential incidence in the environmental and social dimensions of the sustainable development of the region. Despite this importance, it is hypothesised and aimed to be contrasted that olive farmers are not implementing the agricultural practices optimal from an economic, environmental and social point of view. Contrasting this hypothesis entails to evaluate with a holistic and systemic approach the multiple impacts of the different technical alternatives to diverse agricultural practices. The use of the Analytic Network Process, a Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis technique, will be illustrated as a useful approach to deal with this kind of problems characterised by complexity, lack of information and risk. The study will focus on the average yield, climatic, environmental, etc., conditions of olive cultivation in Andalusia. The results seem to confirm the initial hypothesis when comparing the current situation with different scenarios of optimal technical alternatives. In particular the technical alternatives implemented nowadays they are far from being environmentally optimal. The multifunctional benefits and the technical costs of a change from the current situation to these optimal scenarios will be analysed.Olive farming practices, Multifunctionality, Analytic Network Process, Farm Management,

Factores de adopcion de la Produccion Integrada en el sector olivarero de Andalucia

La Produccion Integrada (PI) es un Sistema de Calidad Certificada (SCC) que garantiza la implementacion de practicas agrarias que maximizan el uso de los recursos y los mecanismos de produccion y una agricultura sostenible a largo plazo y que puede generar una ventaja competitiva para los agricultores. En este articulo se analiza el nivel de conocimiento y adopcion de un amplio abanuico de SCC en olivar y se identifican los factores, relativos a las caracteristicas de agricultores y sus explotaciones, que han condicionado la adopcion de la PI en el olivar andaluz, el SCC mas difundido. Para ello, se llevo a cabo una encuesta a 400 agricultores de las principales zonas olivareras de Andalucia en 2010/2011. Los resultados indican bajos niveles de conocimiento/adopcion de los SCC, la importancia del 'contagio' de informacion entre olivicultores y con redes profesionales, y la necesidad del sector de mayor profesionalizacion, rejuvenecimiento, formacion y orientacion a los mercados y la proteccion ambiental. Integrated Production (IP) is a Certified Quality System (CQS) that guarantees the implementation of agricultural practices that maximize the use of resources and production mechanisms and long-term sustainable agriculture and can generate a competitive advantage for farmers. This article analyses the knowledge and adoption levels of a wide range of CQS in olive growing and identifies factors related to the characteristics of farmers and their farms, which have conditioned the adoption in Andalusian olive of IP, the most widespread CQS. For this purpose, a survey of 400 farmers in the main olive-growing areas of Andalusia was conducted in 2010/2011. The results indicate low levels of knowledge/adoption of CQS, the importance of the 'contagion' of information among olive growers and professional networks, and the need in the sector for more professionalization, rejuvenation, training and targeting to markets and environmental protection

Certified Quality Systems and Good Practices in the Olive Farming Sector of Andalusia, Spain: Special Focus on Protected Designations of Origin

Producing products of recognised and differentiated quality entails a competitive advantage for agro-food agents since consumers are increasingly demanding high-quality food and control in the production process as a whole in a transparent and verifiable manner. Certification of products and processes through the implementation of Certified Quality Systems (CQS) are voluntary and guarantees standards of quality beyond conventional and mandatory levels. CQS include European, national and regional regulations (such as Protected Designation of Origin – PDO, organic and integrated agriculture), ISO norms (such as 9000, 14001, 19011, and 22000), private protocols (GLOBALGAP, International Food Standard - IFS, Nature’s Choice, etc.), and specific regulations for particular products, among others. This work focuses on the olive growing sector of Andalusia, an agricultural sector of fundamental importance in economic, social and environmental terms in this region of Spain. In fact, Andalusia is the world leading olive region. Although the ‘quality strategy’ is widely recognised as fundamental in the agro-food system, in the Andalusian olive sector it is only based on the implementation of some few CQS while other are scarcely known and adopted. Moreover, the adoption of a particular CQS does not necessarily entail the implementation of the agricultural practices optimal from an environmental, economic and/or agronomic point of view. Given the current situation of globalisation of the markets and advent of new olive producing regions in the world, and of increasing quality demand from consumers, the competitiveness of the Andalusian olive sector could be at risk in the medium to long term. In this context, the aim of this paper is threefold: (1) describing the situation of the knowledge and adoption of diverse CQS in the olive farming sector of Andalusia; (2) analysing the factors related to the adoption of PDO; (3) identifying agricultural practices associated to the adoption of PDO and assessing their goodness from an environmental, economic and/or agronomic point of view. The research is based on a survey carried out in 2010 to 200 farmers of the main olive growing zones of Andalusia. Analysed CQS include the most relevant and potentially implementable systems in olive production, but we will specially focus on PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) because for this CQS the adoption rate is the highest to obtain statistically significant results and conclusions and because it has been less examined in the literature. Analysed variables refer to both (a) characteristics, attitudes and opinions of farmers, such as agricultural training, sources of information about CQS, objectives Ascensión Hinojosa-Rodríguez et al. 329 when producing, objectives when innovating, difficulties to innovate, priorities in R&D, among others; and (b) characteristics of farms, such as location, farm area distribution, yield, type of labour force, destination of the production, slope of the land, among others. Analysed farming practices refer to soil management, irrigation, fertilization, phytosanitary treatments, and harvest

Multifunctional Impacts of the Olive Farming Practices in Andalusia, Spain: An Analytic Network Approach

Olive agriculture represents one of the most important economic activities in the region of Andalusia, Spain. Additionally to its economic importance the multifunctional character of agriculture and its wide territorial presence entails that it has a high potential incidence in the environmental and social dimensions of the sustainable development of the region. Despite this importance, it is hypothesised and aimed to be contrasted that olive farmers are not implementing the agricultural practices optimal from an economic, environmental and social point of view. Contrasting this hypothesis entails to evaluate with a holistic and systemic approach the multiple impacts of the different technical alternatives to diverse agricultural practices. The use of the Analytic Network Process, a Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis technique, will be illustrated as a useful approach to deal with this kind of problems characterised by complexity, lack of information and risk. The study will focus on the average yield, climatic, environmental, etc., conditions of olive cultivation in Andalusia. The results seem to confirm the initial hypothesis when comparing the current situation with different scenarios of optimal technical alternatives. In particular the technical alternatives implemented nowadays they are far from being environmentally optimal. The multifunctional benefits and the technical costs of a change from the current situation to these optimal scenarios will be analysed