Comparative socio-economic analysis of bean farms under conventional and integrated crop management
¹ Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Box 232, Aristotle UniversityofThessaloniki,541.24,ThessalonikiGreece;e-mail: kseniakar14@yahoo.gr 2 Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Box 232, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541.24, Thessaloniki Greece; e-mail: oxouzi@gmail.com 3 Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Box 232, Aristotle UniversityofThessaloniki,541.24,ThessalonikiGreece;e-mail: papanag@agro.auth.gr Abstract. The purpose of this study is to analyze the social features of the producers and to compare the expenses, revenues and income from bean farms under conventional and integrated management. A comparison was made between average farms under integrated management and those under conventional management as to the techno-economic data and their economic results. The research was conducted in Western Macedonia, in Florina Prefecture, during 2009–10, and was based on questionnaires, which were filled in during personal interviews. The results of this research showed that the average bean farm under integrated management has slightly lower production cost and lower gross revenues compared to the average bean farm under conventional management; as a result, all the additional economic results of the farms under integrated management are lower than those of conventional management. Key words: beans, integrated management, techno-economic analysisINTRODUCTION
Abstract:
The problems created by conventional agriculture that uses pesticides andfertilizers exhausting farmlands through management systems that fail to maintain environmental balance has led to international research for alternative forms of agriculture, friendly to the environment. Consumers, too, are now searching for new quality features of products, in addition to the traditional ones, which also respect as well as environmental concerns. An alternative form of agriculture that could replace the conventional agriculture is integrated crop management (Parra-Lopez et al., 2007).Within the European Union 5.4 million hectares are cultivated under theintegrated management system (European Commission, 2008). In Greece, significant efforts have been made towards integrated crop management over the past few years. Nevertheless, integrated agriculture prevails in only a small percentage of the total farmland of approximately 29,300 hectares (Ministry of Rural Development and Food, 2010).295
Key words:
Integrated crop management is a cultivation system based upon the rational and