Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 16 ISSUE 4
Written by Ilias KOUFIOTIS, Nikolaos GYFTOPOULOS, Athanasios ANDREOU, Foivos PISIMISIS, Ilias TRAVLOS, Dimitrios BILALIS, George VLAHOS

Agriculture is one of the main axis of our national economy, but it can get further improvement not only in environmental level but also for the human resources who consist it. The main purpose of this study was to examine the behavior of organic farms managers. Specifically producers’ demographics were investigated through a questionnaire. The results of this study indicates, that the majority (87.76 %) of the organic farmer managers are male. As for the educational level, the majority of farmers were high school graduates and their age comes close to an average of approximately 43 years old. Furthermore the main source of income (83.67 %) for organic farm managers proves to be agriculture. In addition we examine the farmers’ opinion on the necessity of subsidies and potential obstacles acquiring organic certification. The recorded percent of the organic farmers responded positively to the necessity of the subsidies is 42.9 %. The study also presents the main given products in organic open farmers’ markets and the cultivation characteristics such as land, fertilization and distribution of the cultivated products. The majority of the products that sold in organic open markets are vegetables followed by olive oil and legumes. An important feature of this study, also linked to the attempt to convert the current mode of production into a closed farm management system, corresponds to the percentage of organic farm managers who rear farm animals in an organic way as well (32.65%).

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