Understanding the role of the Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation System in the Italian agroenergy sector: the case of biogas adoption in Tuscany

The European energy strategy towards 2020 involves increasing the production of renewable energy by agriculture (agroenergy) for moving towards a bio-based economy. The climate deal reached at the COP 21 conference in Paris (2015) supports the position of the EU concerning the sustainable promotion of agroenergy, as it allows save greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil-based energy. However, the diffusion of agroenery in the Mediterranean area is modest and uneven, compared to northern European countries, may be due to the low endowment of productive factors. Besides policy, the debate around the diffusion of agroenergy is particularly lively within the academy. To date, agricultural economists have mainly approached the process of agroenergy adoption on farm through econometric or mathematical programming models. The former aim at explaining the underlying determinants of farmers’ investment choices (revealed or stated). The latter simulate the choices of profit-maximising farmers under different policy or market conditions. Beside rational behaviour, both methodologies assume that farmers can access perfect information, thus missing to investigate knowledge transfer and the role of research and extension services in technology adoption and diffusion. Against this background, this paper deals with knowledge transfer in the agroenergy sector and focuses on the role of networks in that transfer. We also consider the impact of those networks on the transaction costs associated with agroenergy adoption. The aim of this study is understanding the process of biogas diffusion in a region of the Mediterranean area. The paper would add to the literature on innovation in agriculture by depicting the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System behind the diffusion of agroenergy and by identifying the structural components of that system. With this objective in mind, we consider the diffusion of biogas in Tuscany, a NUTS3 region in Italy. We selected Tuscany because prospective biogas adopters should radically change the structure of their farms and because geography and farming systems of Tuscany allow use that region as a proxy for northern areas of the Mediterranean basin. The methodology involves social network analysis, which allows pinpoint the role of the different interest groups in knowledge transfer and the extent to which knowledge management has shaped the biogas sector in Tuscany. Preliminary results highlight the central position of few major knowledge producers from the research sector, which, however, poorly interact among them and with intermediary organisations. In turn, knowledge transfer downstream seems a weakness of the network. Apparently, adopters are self-sufficient in terms of knowledge gathering during the innovation-decision phase. Missing significant intermediaries, adopters may become reliant on technical support and face high transaction costs. Given the irreversibility of biogas adoption, disconnection could significantly affect the costs for daily management. When evenly distributed, small biogas-to-electricity plants may help the distributed generation, while allowing comply with EU’s Renewables Directive. However, the lack of coordination among the components of the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System may hinder the sustainable diffusion of biogas, with the rise of intensive entrepreneurial agro energy farming.