MANAGEMENT OF PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC PRODUCTS. THE CASE OF ORGANIC FARM MANAGERS AND DISTRIBUTORS IN ATHENS’ ORGANIC OPEN FARMERS’ MARKETS

摘要

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