Exploring knowledge management in the farm biogas sector in Tuscany

The diffusion of biogas helps the distributed generation, while allowing a sustainable agrifood sector, given increased and more reliable farmer incomes, reduced waste, avoided costs for waste disposal, and income from waste. Feed-in tariffs for electricity production from biomass have boosted biogas diffusion in Italy, including Tuscany, where, however, plants are less frequent than in northern regions and show an uneven geographical distribution over region’s surface. The methodology lies on social network analysis of primary data, considering centrality measures, such as degree centrality, Bonacich centrality, and betweenness centrality. Preliminary results pinpoint two types of farm plant managers, namely energy service companies (ESCos) and standard arable farmers, both being highly educated. Both type of managers heavily relied on self-education at the adoption-decision stage, but needed build a support network at the daily management-stage, to solve plant operations and farming issues. Research centres and universities produce and disseminate knowledge, while providing education to prospective adopters, but their role after plant installation is lower compared to private enterprises