{"title":"小型,智能和可持续:在葡萄牙发展药用和芳香植物价值链的网络","authors":"Cristina Sousa, Maria de Fátima Ferreiro","doi":"10.2478/euco-2023-0024","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The paper aims to study the use of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) farmers’ networking activities to overcome challenges in the development of their business. MAPs are mostly cultivated in small farms located in rural territories. This presents many challenges in different dimensions of business development through the value-chain, namely in commercialization. That is why networking and collaboration with other actors may have an important role, by providing the scale and critical resources towards business success and value-chain sustainable development. The paper draws on a purposefully collected set of data on a network of Portuguese producers of MAP, organized under the EPAM project. The data was collected through a questionnaire and quantitatively analyzed in order to understand: i) how MAP farmers perceive the importance of networks for the development of their businesses? ii) How are networks enabling farmers with different profiles to develop their businesses? The results confirm the importance of networks for the development of these businesses, namely with other firms. However, it is possible to identify some diversity in the assessment of the role of those networks, both by taking into consideration the location of the farms and their positioning in the value-chain. The study contributes to a better understanding of how networking contributes to overcome barriers in the sustainable development of an agri-food value-chain, by stressing a variety of networking proposes and partners and the existence of differences across types of firms.","PeriodicalId":45589,"journal":{"name":"European Countryside","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Small, Smart and Sustainable: Networking to Develop the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Value-Chain in Portugal\",\"authors\":\"Cristina Sousa, Maria de Fátima Ferreiro\",\"doi\":\"10.2478/euco-2023-0024\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Abstract The paper aims to study the use of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) farmers’ networking activities to overcome challenges in the development of their business. MAPs are mostly cultivated in small farms located in rural territories. This presents many challenges in different dimensions of business development through the value-chain, namely in commercialization. That is why networking and collaboration with other actors may have an important role, by providing the scale and critical resources towards business success and value-chain sustainable development. The paper draws on a purposefully collected set of data on a network of Portuguese producers of MAP, organized under the EPAM project. The data was collected through a questionnaire and quantitatively analyzed in order to understand: i) how MAP farmers perceive the importance of networks for the development of their businesses? ii) How are networks enabling farmers with different profiles to develop their businesses? The results confirm the importance of networks for the development of these businesses, namely with other firms. However, it is possible to identify some diversity in the assessment of the role of those networks, both by taking into consideration the location of the farms and their positioning in the value-chain. The study contributes to a better understanding of how networking contributes to overcome barriers in the sustainable development of an agri-food value-chain, by stressing a variety of networking proposes and partners and the existence of differences across types of firms.\",\"PeriodicalId\":45589,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"European Countryside\",\"volume\":\"22 1\",\"pages\":\"0\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":1.2000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-09-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"European Countryside\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2023-0024\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"GEOGRAPHY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Countryside","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2023-0024","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
Small, Smart and Sustainable: Networking to Develop the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Value-Chain in Portugal
Abstract The paper aims to study the use of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) farmers’ networking activities to overcome challenges in the development of their business. MAPs are mostly cultivated in small farms located in rural territories. This presents many challenges in different dimensions of business development through the value-chain, namely in commercialization. That is why networking and collaboration with other actors may have an important role, by providing the scale and critical resources towards business success and value-chain sustainable development. The paper draws on a purposefully collected set of data on a network of Portuguese producers of MAP, organized under the EPAM project. The data was collected through a questionnaire and quantitatively analyzed in order to understand: i) how MAP farmers perceive the importance of networks for the development of their businesses? ii) How are networks enabling farmers with different profiles to develop their businesses? The results confirm the importance of networks for the development of these businesses, namely with other firms. However, it is possible to identify some diversity in the assessment of the role of those networks, both by taking into consideration the location of the farms and their positioning in the value-chain. The study contributes to a better understanding of how networking contributes to overcome barriers in the sustainable development of an agri-food value-chain, by stressing a variety of networking proposes and partners and the existence of differences across types of firms.
期刊介绍:
European Countryside scope: ecology of rural landscape, rural sociology, demography and gender, multi-functional rural development, agriculture and other branches, rural geography, rural borderland, rural and agro-tourism, rural settlement, small towns as centers of rural micro-regions, rural planning and architecture.