Assessing Input Use Efficiency of PGI Potatoes - Abstract
Leonidas Sotirios Kyrgiakos 1, Georgios Kleftodimos 2, Stylianos Kartakis 1,2, Ioannis
Mavridis 3, George Vlontzos 1 and Thanasis Korakis 3
1
  University of Thessaly, Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, Fytoko, Volos,
38446, Greece
2
  Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier (CIHEAM-IAMM), Route de Mende, Montpellier, 34090,
France
3
  University of Thessaly, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sekeri – Cheiden Str, Volos,
38334, Greece


                 Summary
                 Kato Nevrokopi potatoes were characterized in 2002 as Protected Geographical Indication -
                 PGI products, due to their unique qualitative characteristics that rise from the elongated cold
                 period in the cultivation region. Taking into consideration current CAP’s suggestions about
                 economic development, environmental protection, and support of rural communities, IoPotato
                 aims to evaluate inputs’ use efficiency of Kato Nevrokopi potatoes’ cultivation for providing
                 to the point solutions for minimizing the operational and environmental cost of this process.
                 More precisely, special focus was given on acquiring field data related to potato cultivation
                 like temperature, air humidity, leaf humidity and soil moisture which are critical points for
                 decision making from the farmers’ side. In order to achieve this, three meteorological stations
                 have been installed, transferring hourly data for the above-mentioned parameters. Collected
                 data are stored and processed in a cloud system. Through this process, each farmer has access
                 to his profile, while agromanagers can obtain an overview of the region. Furthermore, in
                 cooperation with EAS Dramas farmers’ cooperative, field data regarding to the amount and
                 monetary values of all variable cost expenses (seed potatoes, plant protection products,
                 fertilizers, irrigation, energy and labor), as well as the quantity and price of the final product
                 have been collected. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to assess input use efficiency
                 of the production protocol of Kato Nevrokopi potatoes. It has to be stated that input-oriented
                 approach was used to minimize the environmental impact through the used inputs and to reduce
                 the capital intensity for potato farmers. Particular attention was given to slacks computation,
                 highlighting excessive use of resources for each farmer. In this way, farmers can produce a
                 PGI product with the least environmental impact, which can be key elements for creating a
                 diversified product and entering in premium markets.
                 Results indicate that only few potato farmers achieve high-efficiency scores, while the majority
                 of them have to redesign their production protocol. Acquired results were transferred to local
                 farmers in a simplified version, showing to them their potential for further inputs minimization.
                 Collecting and storing environmental and economic data year by year provides the opportunity
                 to gradually improve the technical efficiency of used resources. In this way, EAS Dramas
                 cooperative can design a resilient production protocol to climate change and sharp price
                 increases. All in all, IoPotato implements an interdisciplinary approach between academics,
                 agromanagers and farmers to promote integrated farming techniques with the use of
                 contemporary agricultural tools, contributing to the achievement of sustainability in the
                 agricultural sector.

                 Keywords
                 Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA, PGI, potato, efficiency, agriculture1



Proceedings of HAICTA 2022, September 22–25, 2022, Athens, Greece
EMAIL: lkyrgiakos@uth.gr (A. 1); kleftodimos@iamm.fr (A. 2); skartakis@uth.gr (A. 3); giamavridis@gmail.com (A. 4);
gvlontzos@uth.gr (A. 5); korakis@uth.gr (A. 6)
ORCID: 0000-0002-5042-6267 (A. 1); 0000-0003-2134-3582 (A. 2); 0000-0002-0735-2274 (A. 5)
              ©️ 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
              Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
              CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)



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Acknowledgements
This research is part of the project «IoPotato» (Project code: ΑΜΘΡ7-0073655) that is co-
funded by Greece and European Union by the Action «Investment Plans of Innovation» in
Central Macedonia under the framework of the Operational Program «Central Macedonia
2014-2020».




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