Uptake of agri-environmental schemes in the Less-Favoured Areas of Greece: The role of corruption and farmers’ responses to the financial crisis

Abstract

a b s t r a c tVine-growing in the Less-Favoured Areas of Greece is facing multiple challenges that might lead to its abandonment. In an attempt to maintain rural populations, Rural Development Schemes have been created that offer the opportunity to rural households to maintain or expand their farming businesses including vine-growing. This paper stems from a study that used data from a cross-sectional survey of 204 farmers to investigate how farming systems and farmers' perception of corruption, amongst other socio-economic factors, affected their decisions to continue vine-growing through participation in Rural Development Schemes, in three remote Less-Favoured Areas of Greece. The Theory of Planned Behaviour was used to frame the research problem with the assumption being that an individual's intention to participate in a Scheme is based on their prior beliefs about it. Data from the survey were reduced and simplified by the use of non-linear principal component analysis. The ensuing variables were used in selectivity corrected ordered probit models to reveal farmers' attitudes towards viticulture and rural development. It was found that economic factors, perceived corruption and farmers' attitudes were significant determinants on whether to participate in the Schemes. The research findings highlight the important role of perceived corruption and the need for policies that facilitate farmers' access to decision making centres.

Which factors influence farmers' intentions to adopt nutrient management planning?

“…Yet, the TPB has been criticised for not accounting for such variables explicitly (Beedell and Rehman, 1999). A number of authors have addressed this limitation by explicity inclduing socioeconomic and background variables in their extended model of the TPB to explain farmer intentions (Area et al, 2012;Micha et al, 2015;Borges and Lansink, 2015). Based on previous research, discussed below, we also include a number of additional variables in our conceptual model to explain farmer intentions to apply fertiliser on the basis of soil test results.…”

The Role of Factors Affecting the Adoption of Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices: Can Geographical Context and Time Explain the Differences Emerging from Literature?

“…Localisation: In NE and SE, where rural development policies define target areas for many EFFPs, this factor plays a positive role as expected [77,89,90,[98][99][100][101][102]. Farm localisation within less-favoured areas has a predominantly positive effect in NE [89,103] and SE [24,100,[104][105][106][107][108][109][110]; however, some papers highlight negative results in SE [76,99,100,110,111], due to the fact that the scarcity of infrastructures and services-which characterises marginal areas-increases transaction costs and discourages the adoption of EFFPs [95]. • Farm specialisation and type of farming: The effect of a high level of specialisation has been analysed particularly in NE and SE.…”

Evaluation of promising technologies for soil salinity amelioration in Timpaki (Crete): a participatory approach

“…Findings also have to be interpreted in the context of the current socio-economic conditions that have augmented financial uncertainty. Recent research by Micha et al (2015) has highlighted the role of the financial crisis along with a range of social factors in decision making of Greek farmers.…”