AgriLink - Data Set on Suppliers of farm advice in 7 European countries

This Data Set is derived from the WP4 of the AgriLink project.

It is part of task T4.4 of Work Package (WP) 4 of the H2020 AgriLink project. AgriLink [Agricultural Knowledge: linking farmers, advisors and researchers to boost innovation] aims at better understanding the role of advisory services in farmers’ decision making and at boosting their contribution to innovation for sustainable development of agriculture. WP4 addresses more specifically the governance of farm advisory services. The objective of the research presented in this report is to understand the institutions that influence how farm advisory services function on the ground, and to discuss implications for the support for sustainable development innovation.

Data were collected in seven European countries: the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the UK.

Data were collected for a diversity of types of innovation: Market, Technological, Process, and Social Innovation.

The Data set was built based on interviews with farm advisory suppliers.

In total 170 farm advisory suppliers were interviewed.

The table below provides the distribution of interviews according to countries.

Country

Market innovation (NCRO & RETRO)

Technological innovation (TECH)

Process innovation   (BIOP & SOIL)

Social innovation (LABO & COMM)

TOTAL

Czech Republic

4

16

20

France

14

11

25

Greece

11

10

21

Poland

6

18

24

Portugal

11

20

31

Spain

9

29

38

UK

7

4

11

TOTAL

34

28

75

33

170

The data has two aims.

First, to characterise farm advisory suppliers, in terms of (table below):

what do they provide?

Who is in control of the supplier?

What do they provide
Farmers
NGO
Private
Public
semi-public
Total

Advice and Bookkeeping
8

4
1

13

Advice and Digital tech
1

3

4

Advice and Education
2
4
3
5

14

Advice and Health services

1
2

3

Advice and Inputs
1

14

15

Advice and Inputs and Outputs
15

5

20

Advice and Machinery

7

7

Advice and Outputs
8
1
8
2

19

Advice and Research
2
2
5
12
1
22

Only advice and training
16

26
10
1
53

Total
53
7
76
32
2
170

Second, we have set a series of variables to characterise the services they provide. The main variables are:

Number of advisors of the organisation

Number of advisors
Number of organisations in that group

[0:5]
96

]10:50]
35

]5:10]
16

>50
19

n.a.
4

Total
170

Percentage of advisors in the staff of the organisation

% of advisors
Number of organisations

[0:25[
43

[25:50[
17

[50:75[
30

[75:100]
70

n.a.
10

Total
170

Share of back-office activities in the staff of the organisation

Share of back-office (%)
Number of organisations

[0:25[
41

[25:50[
26

[50:75[
66

[75:100]
24

n.a.
13

Total
170

Number of farmers client of the supplier per advisor

Number of clients per organisation
Number of organisation

[0:25[
31

[25:75[
43

[50:75[
3

[75:175[
28

>175
36

n.a.
29

Total
170

Main advisory method

Main Advisory method
Number of organisations

Group Advice
19

IT tool (app, software…)
2

n.a.
1

One to One Advice
129

Phone or web helpdesk
15

Publications
4

Total
170

Main funding source

Main funding source
Number of organisations

EU funds
15

Fee-for-advice
46

Joint trade
42

Membership
11

Membership fee
6

n.a.
16

Public funding
3

Public funds
4

State budget
27

Total
170

More detailed information about the variables collected can be found in the questionnaire that is available in the appendix of the deliverable D4.2 of AgriLink