https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2023.2215

On-farm experimentation in agronomic research: an Italian perspective

Vol. 18 No. 4 (2023): Special issue on "Co-designing sustainable cropping systems’ with stakeholders"
Published: 29 February 2024
Co-innovation, agronomy, on-farm experimentation, SWOT analysis
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Authors

  • Vittoria Giannini • vittoria.giannini@unipd.it Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), and Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padua, Legnaro, Italy.
  • Elisa Marraccini Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences (DI4A), University of Udine, Italy.

On-farm experimentation (OFE) renovates agronomic research since it brings researchers out of their experimental field stations to the farms, shaping the direction of research in collaboration with farmers. In the context of increasing interest in OFE, this paper aims to map the current picture of agronomic research articles published on OFE in Italy. We observe that few articles are published on OFE in Italy. Moreover, among these articles, only a few explicitly mentioned farmers’ opinions or involvement, while none of them mentioned digital technologies as enablers of OFE. Therefore, we started a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to identify the main weaknesses and threats limiting OFE developing in Italy, along with the opportunities and strengths enabling OFE development. Despite the time-consuming research underpinning OFE, the lack of recognition by the academic community, the risk of not robust statistic, and difficulties in publishing, there are a series of opportunities emerging at the national level for which the implementation of OFE could be crucial to properly target the scopes set by the EU concerning agricultural research and innovation.

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How to Cite

Giannini, V., & Marraccini, E. (2024). On-farm experimentation in agronomic research: an Italian perspective. Italian Journal of Agronomy, 18(4). https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2023.2215
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