What Makes Farmers Aware in Adopting Circular Bioeconomy Practices? Evidence from a Greek Rural Region

Christina-Ioanna Papadopoulou, Efstratios Loizou, Fotios Chatzitheodoridis, Anastasios Michailidis, Christos Karelakis, Yannis Fallas and Aikaterini Paltaki
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Anastasios Michailidis: Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Christos Karelakis: Department of Agricultural Development, Democritus University of Thrace, 68200 Orestiada, Greece
Yannis Fallas: Cluster of Bioeconomy and Environment of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, Greece
Aikaterini Paltaki: Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Action 2 of the European Union’s Updated Bioeconomy Strategy, i.e., “Deploy local bioeconomies rapidly across Europe”, promotes education and training in all member states. It is a fact that Greece has not yet adopted a national bioeconomy strategy, so stakeholders and farmers cannot benefit from its potential. The adoption of bioeconomy practices is now a prerequisite for receiving funding under the Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027. Farmers unknowingly use some bioeconomy practices on their farms, and in this study, an attempt was made to investigate how farmers in the region of Western Macedonia would like to be trained in respect of the bioeconomy, knowing the opportunities it offers. The research was conducted through a structured questionnaire answered by 412 farmers from the region. The findings from the subsequent k-means cluster analysis show that farmers can be classified into three clusters: engaged, restricted, and partially engaged. The perceptions that predominate in each cluster are influenced by age, income, and the regional unit in which the farmers reside. In addition, the decarbonization of the Western Macedonia region influences their views and how they would like to be informed about opportunities arising from the bioeconomy. Limitations in this study include the fact that the sample consists only of farmers living and operating in a particular region. In addition, there is an urgent need for political will to establish a national strategy for the bioeconomy. The importance of the present study lies in the fact that few studies have addressed the training of farmers on bioeconomy issues either in Greece or internationally.

Keywords: bioeconomy; training; farmers; bioeconomy practices; regional approach; k-means cluster analysis; Western Macedonia region (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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