• Energy Research

The specialisation and intensification in agriculture have increased the productivity but have also led to the spread of monocultural systems, simplifying production and reducing genetic diversity. The purpose of this study was to propose crop diversification as a tool to increase biodiversity and achieve sustainable and resilient intensive agriculture, particularly in areas with water scarcity. In this paper, a combined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) was applied to evaluate the environmental and economic sustainability of a differentiated system of cultivation (pomegranate, almond and olive), according to modern intensive and superintensive cropping systems. Based upon the results obtained, it is deduced that pomegranate cultivation generated the highest environmental load, followed by almond and olive. From the financial analysis, it emerged that almond is the most profitable, followed by pomegranate and olive.

The relationship between wind energy and rural areas leads to the controversial debate on the effects declared by rural communities after wind farms or single turbines are operative. The literature on this topic lacks dedicated studies analysing how the behaviour of rural communities towards wind turbines can affect the market value of farmlands. This research aims to examine to the extent to which the easement of wind turbines can influence the market value of farmlands in terms of willingness to pay (WTP) by a small rural community, and to identify the main factors affecting the WTP. Starting from data collected via face-to-face interviews, a decision tree is then applied to investigate the WTP for seven types of farmland in a rural town of Puglia Region (Southern Italy) hosting a wind farm. Results of the interviews show a broad acceptance of the wind farm, while the decision tree classification shows a significant reduction of WTP for all farmlands. The main factors influencing the WTP are the education level, the possibility to increase the income, the concerns for impacts on human health and for maintenance workmen. National and local policy measures have to be put in place to inform rural communities about the ‘magnitude’ of the effects they identified as crucial, so that policy-makers and private bodies will contribute to make the farmland market more equitable.

Consumers’ preferences are important drivers for strategic firm choices and for policy. Grape table consumption in the last years showed a drastic preference towards seedless varieties, most of them imported, negatively affected the demand for local varieties. Policy instruments improving local firms’ competitiveness have the aims to implement certified quality system based on advanced integrated and organic methods. This paper presents former results of a wider study on sustainability of innovation in grape sector starting from the stakeholder’s opinions, analysed by a swot analysis. Results from an economic and environmental analysis put in evidence sector needs that regional policy instruments have to solve to improve sector integration.

In this study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) principle was performed to estimate the environmental impact of three dairy farms that operate using different farming systems, namely, conventional (CON), organic (ORG), and high-quality (HQ) modes. In Italy, the typical style of high-quality (HQ) farming is commonly included in the conventional system but is more strictly regulated by the Decree of the Italian Ministry of Health N° 185/1991. Although the farms are not fully representative of each conduct, they showed intrinsic peculiarities, e.g., the cow-culling rate of each system. This rate requires a quantification as it may be related to loss of income. Allocation criteria were applied to attribute the quantities of pollutants to the co-products: wheat, involved in the congruence and number of cows culled, the latter being undesirable and therefore necessary to quantify. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) highlighted that the no-dairy products significantly mitigated (p < 0.05) some of the impacts’ categories. The allocation of culled cows decreased the impacts of the CON and particularly those of the ORG farms when the mass mode was adopted. HQ showed values similar to the results without allocation. Overall, the objective of identifying a “marker” of undesirable products, estimated by the culling rate, was partially achieved.

Pulses are widely acknowledged for their high nutritional value due to high protein content, low content in calories, and low glycemic index; they are a good alternative to animal proteins thus offering a considerable number of social, environmental, and health benefits. Despite pulses being widely acknowledged as healthy and sustainable food, in mainly European countries, consumption is growing but still lower than the recommended level, production is unprofitable in comparison to the current market prices level, and a reduction in harvested area has led to a strong dependence on import for pulses supply. Pulses are particularly fitting to the feature of local food because they can be suitably grown in any context, even in the most complex areas, and consumer interest and awareness of food origin has strongly increased in recent years. Lentils were selected as a case study in this paper that aims to define which features are effective on market price and, in particular, the role of origin declaration on label plays in defining the market price and how the origin attributes may enhance market price and farms competitiveness. The methodological tool for this investigation is the hedonic price model, useful to explain the effects of attributes of pulses affecting the market price. Results contribute to a better understanding of the pulse market, emphasizing that the “origin declaration” on label may have a positive effect on market price.

This article investigates the applicability of combined Life Cycle Assessment and market analysis, to support efficiency evaluation of rural development strategies developed by the Apulian Rural Development Plan 2007�2013 (BURP n 93 26/05/2010). Measure 122 �Improving the economic value of forest� had the aim to improve of forestry farms technological resources addressing them toward the biomass production. As an example pellet production from sawmill residues (PSR) and firewood productions have been compared both under environmental and economic performances. The functional unit (FU) is 1 kWh of residential thermal energy. Environmental impacts of both fuels have been evaluated through the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, considering the most relevant impact categories: the damages on human health, the ecosystems qualities, the kg of CO2 eq. produced (GWP100) and the balance between energy requests and consumed (Cumulative Energy Demand � CED). About the economic analysis, data on pellet and firewood local market prices have been collected and consumer's expenditure for FU calculated. Results supplied relevant suggestions to improve efficiency and farmer's subscription to Apulia Regional Development Plan forestry measures.

The problem of waste management continues to grow as landfilling and incineration face both environmental, social, and economic concerns. In this study, the implementation of community composting plant in a municipality is presented evaluating the effectiveness of participatory processes and practices of community composting to solve a common demand of bio-waste management. In a multidisciplinary approach, different methodologies to analyse the environmental and economic impacts, institutional feasibility and social acceptability of the process are applied. As in this municipal composting plant local communities and citizens are directly involved in generating socio-economic and ecological benefits for themselves, these benefits are quantified and made comprehensible to the local stakeholders and citizenship through Life Cycle Assessment and Cost Benefit Analysis. The Delphi method was applied for exploring the institutional feasibility of the community composting plant and a direct inquiry to citizens was performed to evaluate their social acceptability. Results showed that the proposed model reduces the environmental impact, expressed as carbon footprint, respect to alternative landfill or incinerator scenarios, ensures the economic sustainability, also taking into account the possibility to obtain a compost appreciated by the market, meanwhile the social acceptability resulted strongly influenced by the level of information and knowledge of community.