The aim of this research was to identify the factors affecting women farmers' participation in agricultural education programmes (AEPs) and to investigate the motives and expectations that influence women's willingness to participate in AEPs. Data were drawn from a random sample of women farmers from northern Greece, while a witness sample of male farmers was used to test the moderating effect of gender on the motivation to participate in AEPs. The results of multivariate analysis indicate that the most crucial parameters in the prediction of women's participation in AEPs are those reflecting their level of involvement in agriculture. Compared with men, women farmers report significantly higher levels of motivation to participate in AEPs deriving from self-actualization needs. Interestingly, the findings reveal that the expectation of gaining economic benefits is a far less important predictor of willingness to attend AEPs. The implications for agricultural education administrators, limitations and future research directions are noted.
Attempts to identify consumer perceptions about wine and wine attributes in Greece. In addition, a brief presentation of the development of wine routes in Greece is considered. According to the results, wine emerges as a staple kind of drink in everyday meals, and seems to be more preferable compared to other alcoholic drinks. Furthermore, taste, clarity, appelation of origin, aroma and label are the most important wine attributes expressed by Greek consumers. Taking into account that Greece is one of the most important wine producing countries in the EU, an effective wine promotion policy needs to be organised. In the light of the interdependence between the new activities introduced by regional wine enterprises and the consumer level of information about “typical wines”, further market research could improve wine promotion both in Greek and the European markets.
The transition to Agriculture 4.0 creates new responsibilities for farm advisors and initiates changes to the professional trajectories. In this work, following a mixed research design, we examine how Greek advisors experience the transition to and anticipate the future of Agriculture 4.0. We also aim at identifying what elements they are changing in their professional identities to respond to the challenges associated with Agriculture 4.0, which are the new responsibility‐related competency needs that this transition generates, and how conceptions of the future of farming impact upon these needs. Our findings suggest that the transition to Agriculture 4.0 urges the emergence of a new culture, in which data and technology are considered more reliable than human advice, and creates new responsibility gaps. To cope with these changes, advisors add new roles in their professional identities, emphasising the principle of beneficence and paying limited attention to the societal externalities of transition. Advisors view Agriculture 4.0 as a threat or disruption more than as evolution or promise. In parallel, they prioritise different sets of competencies needed to responsibly facilitate agricultural digitalisation, depending on how they grasp the future of Agriculture 4.0.
Agricultural digitalization emerged as a radical innovation, punctuating the gradual evolution of the agrifood sector and having the potential to fundamentally restructure the context within which extension and advisory organizations operate. Digital technologies are expected to alter the practice and culture of animal farming in the future. To suit the changing environmental conditions, organizations can make minor adjustments or can call into question their purposes, belief systems, and operating paradigms. Each pattern of change is associated with different types of organizational learning. In this conceptual article, adopting an organizational learning perspective and building upon organizational change models, we present two potential change and learning pathways that extension and advisory organizations can follow to cope with digitalization: morphostasis and morphogenesis. Morphostatic change has a transitional nature and helps organizations survive by adapting to the new environmental conditions. Organizations that follow this pathway learn by recognizing and correcting errors. This way, they increase their competence in specific services and activities. Morphogenetic change, on the other hand, occurs when organizations acknowledge the need to move beyond existing operating paradigms, redefine their purposes, and explore new possibilities. By transforming themselves, organizations learn new ways to understand and interpret contextual cues. We conclude by presenting some factors that explain extension and advisory organizations’ tendency to morphostasis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.