Economics of organic farming in Slovenia

Proposal for a research project tackles the economics of organic agriculture in a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach. The issue will be discussed with the micro (individual level of production and organic farm), and a macro point of view (level of organic farming on a national level). The proposed project consists of five separate but content-related work packages.  Work Package 1: Data collection  Work Package covers the use of different methods of collecting data for processing in subsequent work packages.  Work Package 2: Development of model calculations  WP2 is based on the development of integrated deterministic technologic economic simulation model (TESM) in the form of complex system of model calculations for organic agriculture. The model will be used to assess the economic viability of organic production (farming) on ??organic farms, using input data obtained in WP1.  Work Package 3: Analysis of economic efficiency of selected representative sample of organic farms  WP3  involves the use of DEA (Data envelopment analysis) to calculate the economic efficiency of a representative sample of farms.  Work Package 4 (WP4): Simulation of scenarios of development of organic farming system dynamics model  Work package 4 incorporates the development of the simulation model of organic farming for the decision support at the national level by the application of the system dynamics. The model will be applied for creation of the scenarios, simulation and solution assessment which will provide the base for the propositions specified by the creators of action plans for the organic agriculture as well as for the evaluation of the actions of agricultural policy for achieving the goals stated in the Action Plan.   Work package 5 (WP5): Qualitative analysis of a selected sample of organic farms  WP 5 will be based on modern scientific approach of qualitative analysis, case studies (Yin, 2009), organic farms, which gives a comparative survey in greater reliability and validity study. With the aim of contributing to the establishment of greater certainty about the economy, organic production will be conducted on the basis of five case studies of organic farms to summarize key findings and recommendations.  The special attention is devoted to the dissemination of the results for relevant target groups in the form of workshops, press conferences and publications.

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