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- Machine Learning Methodologies, Wages Paid and the Most Relevant PredictorsPublication . Martinho, VítorThe agricultural sector worldwide has an economic dimension related to the remuneration of the production factors applied in the sector, an environmental contribution associated with the sustainability of rural places and a social dimension related to the employment creation and the consequent level of remuneration of the labour. The question here is about the level of wages paid in the agricultural sector across the European Union countries and about the main factors that may be taken into account to predict the level of these wages paid to agricultural workers. This research intends to select the models with better precision to predict the wages paid in the European Union agriculture and to suggest important predictors from the enormous number of indicators that may be identified in the farms. The findings obtained may be considered relevant support for the design of social and agricultural policies in the European framework.
- Characteristics of Farms in the European Union: Relationships Between Energy Costs and Other VariablesPublication . Martinho, VítorThe very characteristics of agriculture call for specific attention when it comes to the evolution of this sector across the globe. In fact, this is a sector which produces essential products to meet basic human needs, but usually requires public intervention, through agricultural policies, to avoid an unbalanced evolution between demand and supply having consequences on market prices. This is because agricultural policies are so famous across the world and specifically in the European Union, in the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy. On the other hand, the great diversity of agricultural realities among regions calls for specific strategies to be adjusted to local particularities. In addition, climate change and global warming bring new challenges, namely in the use of critical resources (because of their scarcity and environmental impacts), such as energy and water. In this context, it would seem pertinent to assess the interrelationships between energy use in European Union farms and other farming variables, namely to identify how the energy consumption is affected by other dimensions in the sector. For this purpose, data from the European Union Farm Accountancy Data Network were considered for the period 2013–2018. This statistical information was first explored through descriptive analysis and then with matrices of correlation. As main insights, it is important to note that energy costs increased, on average over the period considered, by 2.7%. On the other hand, farms with a higher level of intensification and higher energy costs are those that receive more subsidies.
- Relationships between agricultural energy and farming indicatorsPublication . Martinho, VítorCutting costs in farms is the main concern for several stakeholders, specifically for farmers. Reducing energy costs allows for, at the very least, two relevant outcomes, one concerning increases in the net farm income and the other relating to the environment and the promotion of more sustainable farming and rural development. In turn, the agricultural sector may itself be a relevant source of renewable and clean energies. Considering these motivations, this research/study has intended to explore the concept of agricultural energy, highlighting the main insights from literature, and to stress the relationships between this concept and relevant farming indicators. The findings obtained may provide interesting support for the several related stakeholders, namely, policymakers, farmers and researchers. To achieve these objectives, literature available on scientific platforms was explored and statistical relationships were established, through econometric approaches (allowing for spatial effects), between structural characteristics from farms in the European Union. The findings reveal that the several instruments within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should further address the relationships between financial support and sustainability. For example, it could be interesting to index the direct payments from the 1st CAP Pillar with farm indicators that consider dimensions related with the efficiency and savings in costs. In the current context, it is possible to increase the output and area with energy cost growths of 0.423 and 0.375% points, respectively, and increase the total crops output/ha growth and the utilised agricultural area with energy costs/ha growth of 0.243 and −0.225% points, respectively.
- Relationships between agricultural energy and farming indicatorsPublication . Martinho, VítorCutting costs in farms is the main concern for several stakeholders, specifically for farmers. Reducing energy costs allows for, at the very least, two relevant outcomes, one concerning increases in the net farm income and the other relating to the environment and the promotion of more sustainable farming and rural development. In turn, the agricultural sector may itself be a relevant source of renewable and clean energies. Considering these motivations, this research/study has intended to explore the concept of agricultural energy, highlighting the main insights from literature, and to stress the relationships between this concept and relevant farming in- dicators. The findings obtained may provide interesting support for the several related stakeholders, namely, policymakers, farmers and researchers. To achieve these objectives, literature available on scientific platforms was explored and statistical relationships were established, through econometric approaches (allowing for spatial effects), between structural characteristics from farms in the European Union. The findings reveal that the several instruments within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should further address the relationships between financial support and sustainability. For example, it could be interesting to index the direct payments from the 1st CAP Pillar with farm indicators that consider dimensions related with the efficiency and savings in costs. In the current context, it is possible to increase the output and area with energy cost growths of 0.423 and 0.375% points, respectively, and increase the total crops output/ha growth and the utilised agricultural area with energy costs/ha growth of 0.243 and 0.225% points, respectively.
- Impacts of Agricultural Policies on Structural and Technological Changes in Agricultural Holdings: The Case of the European UnionPublication . Martinho, VítorThe Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) experienced several reforms since the beginning of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the fifties/sixties to deal with the evolution of the realities and to adjust to the adherence of new Member States over the years. If the Great Reform of 1992 promoted important changes in the CAP instruments and measures, the CAP reform of 2003 do not brought fewer transformations with the decoupling of the subsidies from production and activities and the creation of the single farm payment scheme. These reforms had relevant impacts on the European Union (EU) farms. The main objective of this chapter is to assess the impacts of the CAP reforms of 2003, 2009 (“Health Check”) and 2013 on the structural and technological dimensions of the EU farms. For that statistical information from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) was considered for the periods 2004–2006 and 2018–2020. These data were assessed through statistical approaches. As main insights, it is worth highlighting the impacts of the CAP reforms on the decisions of the farmers, to take advantage of the new policy instruments, and on attracting new farmers with subsequent implications on the structural and technological dimensions.
- Reducing Energy Costs in European Union Farms: Analysis of EfficiencyPublication . Martinho, VítorEfficiency in the use of resources is one of the most adjusted approaches towards achieving sustainable development in any economic sector, including agriculture. In fact, the current challenges surrounding the global farming sector are to maintain, or even, in some circumstances, increase production in such a way that it is compatible with the increasingly desirable goals for decarbonisation. Amongst the resources which are critical for sustainability within the agricultural sector, one of the most significant is energy, considering the needs of this resource to generate numerous farming production factors and the energetic requirements for its various activities. This is particularly important in the regions and countries in the European Union, due to the variety of contexts and the framework of the European agricultural policies, where the design of adjusted policy instruments is always a great task. In this way, the main objective of this research is to analyse farming efficiency in European Union agricultural regions, over the period 2013–2018. Considering this objective, data from the European Union Farm Accountancy Data Network were considered and first analysed through factor-cluster assessment, to obtain homogenous decision-making units, and then through data envelopment analysis. For the data envelopment analysis, a model with the inverse of the energy costs as output was considered. The main findings show that the savings in energy costs in European Union farms have impacts on the output as well as on other inputs.
- Predictive Machine Learning Approaches to Agricultural OutputPublication . Martinho, VítorThe agricultural sector needs to increase agricultural production to guarantee food security worldwide, however, to achieve these objectives agriculture must improve the sustainability of its activities and processes, specifically improving the efficiency of the sector. In these frameworks, adjusted agricultural planning and management is crucial, where the availability of information plays a determinant role, as well as the consideration of new technologies and methodologies. In the context of the new approaches of analysis, digital methodologies may bring relevant added value, namely those associated with predictive machine learning technologies. From this perspective, this study intends to identify the most adjusted models to predict the European Union farming output, taking into account machine learning approaches and statistical information from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. The results obtained highlight the most important farming variables that must be taken into account to predict the total output in the European Union farms.
- Comparative analysis of energy costs on farms in the European Union: A nonparametric approachPublication . Martinho, VítorA rational and efficient use of the various sources of energy available to farms allows, not only for cost cutting, but also, a reduction in the environmental impacts bringing positive externalities and contri- butions toward sustainability. Of course, this efficiency depends on several factors that may influence the dynamics and performance of the farms in question which may also change spatially between countries and regions. These questions related to the great diversity of realities in the agricultural sector are especially relevant within the European Union (EU) context. In this framework, the main objective of the research presented here is to make an efficiency analysis of energy costs in farms across EU countries and regions, stressing possibilities of savings and taking into account the several realities. For this purpose, data at farm level from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) was considered for the period 2014 e2016 which were then explored through the nonparametric approach Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). For the nonparametric analysis the Cobb-Douglas model was considered as a base. In this way, the total production (euros) was considered as output. Paid labour (hours), the total fixed assets (euros) and the energy costs (euros) were considered as inputs. In an alternative attempt to take into account the different realities across the EU countries the statistical information in monetary units was corrected by the Price Level Indices and was deflated by the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices. Furthermore, to alternatively consider the diversity of contexts of the farms from the EU, the several regions and countries here were clustered through cluster analysis, after factor analysis so as to avoid problems of collinearity. As main insights, it is worthy of stressing the possibilities of significantly reducing the costs of energy consumption in farms from many EU regions. For example, it is possible to reduce the costs of energy use by about 55% in Pohjanmaa (Finland), 53% in Cyprus, 56% in Makedonia-Thraki (Greece), 52% in Thessalia (Greece), 56% in Puglia (Italy) and 53% in Basilicata (Italy). In these contexts the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should play a determinant role.