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The Effects of Cloud Approach in Short Chain Administration

This work aims at analyzing the characteristics of supply chain, focusing in particular on the short chain. Further, it highlights the weaknesses and strengths of this form of business organization and industry. This analysis will proceed by explaining the new forms of management of the organization by means of the latest IT innovations focusing on the “cloud†and the role that they can play in improving processes and market information. It will also highlight how the use of these technologies can reduce the organizational gap as strategically illustrated in the first part and how they can help in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the supply chain processes that are already positive.

The Role of Innovation in the Integration Processes of Integrated Projects of Food Chain: The Case of the Cherry Cultivation Chain in Apulia Region

Innovation is one of the key strategies proposed in the literature and economic policies as a crucial driver of the agro-food sector. Innovation, especially in the agricultural sector, is not manifested only as an adoption of new technologies, but also requires a balance between new practices, techniques and alternative ways to organize and manage markets, labour, land tenure and distribution of benefits. In this context, the Economic Conventions (EC) have found fertile ground for coordination in the agro-food sector. Starting from a recent work by Malafaia et al. (2010) on the EC and the mechanisms of coordination, the paper analyzes the Integrated Projects of Food Chain (IPFs) approved by the Apulia region. The data collection was carried out through interviews and meetings with various actors in the supply chain and via Territory Listening Plane analysis, in order to identify the types of formalized or non formalized coordination, practiced by the agents. Further challenges are the definition and the identification of the forms of coordination set up by agents of the supply chains of IPFs via the implementation of the economic/computer/management model, which leads to the development of new business processes and to the validation of a prototype model of knowledge transfer and check-ups. In the end of the paper, conclusions are drawn.

Which strategic orientation for systemic integration? A study on the organic olive oil industry

In the agro-food industry, a hard constraint to farms development is the business dimension: the strategy of horizontal aggregation among producers could represent a way to overcome this problem. A condition for the effectiveness of the systemic firms integration is the inter-firms consonance. The paper aims at verifying the consonance among farms for their systemic integration feasibility assessment. Few studies on the topic can be found in the academic literature. For this purpose, an exploratory survey in the organic olive oil industry, based on multiple case studies, is presented: data are collected through a web-based survey submitted to a population of 200 firms and analysed by comparing their market positioning with their strategic orientation. The understanding of the systemic integration enhancing factors in the agro-food supply chain, such as the strategic orientation, can help farms in formulating and implementing the strategy of horizontal aggregation among producers, called producers organisation (PO).

BI4IPM: A Business Intelligence System for the Analysis of Olive Tree's Integrated Pest Management

TheAgri-Foodsectorisfacingglobalchallenges.Thefirstchallengeisfeedingaworldpopulation thatwill reach9.3billionpeople in2050,according toUNprojections.Thesecondchallenge is thedemandfromconsumersforhigh-qualityproductsobtainedthroughmoresustainable,safeand clear agri-food chains. Integratedpestmanagement (IPM) couldbe an important instrument for helpingfarmersfacethesechallenges.IPMrequiresthesimultaneoususeofdifferentcropprotection techniquestocontrolpeststhroughanecologicalandeconomicapproach.Thisworkexploresthe possibilityofdevelopingaframeworkthatcombinesbusinessintelligence(BI)technologieswith IPMprinciplestosupportfarmersinthedecisionalprocess,therebydecreasingenvironmentalcost andimprovingproductionperformance.TheproposedBIsystemiscalledBI4IPM,anditcombines on-linetransactionprocessing(OLTP)withon-lineanalyticalprocessing(OLAP)toverifyadherence totheIPMtechnicalspecifications. KEywORdS Business Intelligence, Data Models, Integrated Pest Management, OLAP, Olive Tree, OLTP

OLAP Analysis of Integrated Pest Management’s Defense Rules: Application to Olive Crop in Apulia Region

The Agri-Food sector is facing global challenges. The first concerns feeding a world population that in 2050, according to UN projections, will reach 9.3 billion people. The second challenge is the request by consumers for high quality products obtained by more sustainable, safely and clear agri-food chains. The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) could be an important instrument to help farmers to face these challenges. The IPM requires the simultaneous use of different crop protection techniques for the control of pests through an ecological and economic approach. This work explores the possibility to develop a framework that combines the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) with the IPM principles, in order to support the farmers in the decisional process, improving environmental and production performances. The proposed ICT tool is On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP), which allows performing analysis in the domain of time and space verifying for a single farm the respect of the IPM technical specifications.

Predicting consumer healthy choices regarding type 1 wheat flour

Purpose Healthy and safety food issues are more and more becoming the purchasing process core of conscious consumer. “Type 1” wheat flour means higher protein and ash content. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the attributes usually referred to the characteristics of wheat flour known to consumers and at implementing a predictive model of purchasing that allows to make correct decisions without the necessary experience of a real human expert. Design/methodology/approach In order to investigate the research aims of the paper, an online survey was carried out and conducted by means of the Google Forms in the detection time January-April 2016. The online survey collected responses from 467 Italian respondents asked to give feedback about their buying habits of various types of flour. The responses were analyzed through a data mining approach. This paper implements predictive analytics to create a statistical model of future behavior by means of a machine learning algorithms. Findings In line with recent healthy and dynamic trends in the food industry, conscious consumer seems to be willing to pay a price for “type 1” wheat flour that is four times higher than the price related to the basic types of wheat flour. Social implications Consumer seems not to know well the “type 1” wheat flour and its healthy characteristics; then, it should be crucial to implement promotional strategies and marketing hand in hand. Promotion can be a key element in putting across the health benefits of special kinds of wheat flour. Originality/value Highlighting health issues about the “type 1” wheat flour gives insights and sheds some light on the crucial need of changing eating and purchasing behavior. Then, originality of this paper can be found in the used predictive algorithm of the artificial intelligence.

A new decision-support system for the historical analysis of integrated pest management activities on olive crops based on climatic data

Abstract Olive tree is one of the most important crop at global scale. Apulia is the first olive-producing region in Italy, with a huge amount of farms that generate Integrated Pest Management (IPM) data. IPM requires the simultaneous use of different crop protection techniques to control pests through an ecological and economic approach. The crop protection strategies are correlated to the climate condition considering the very important relation among climate, crops and pests. Therefore, in this work is presented a new advanced On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) model integrating the Growing Season Index (GSI), a phenology model, to compare indirectly the farms by a climatic point of view. The proposed system allows analysing IPM data of different farms having the same phenological conditions over a year to understand some best practices and to highlight and explain different practices adopted by farms working in different climatic conditions.

Economia circolare e scarti nelle filiere agroalimentari: prima indagine esplorativa sullo stato dell'arte

The management and exploitation of waste and waste from production processes is one of the most important challenges for the modern agri-food chains. The chain competitiveness factors will be measured also by the way that it will succeed in enhancing these elements and transforming them from management costs to income opportunities. This work aims to provide a first analysis of the possible re-use of waste and waste in a circular and re-use optics aimed at increasing the profitability of supply chains and reducing their environmental impact.

Le capacità relazionali quali risorse critiche per la creazione di valore nella filiera vitivinicola lucana

The study, analyzing the wine supply chain of Basilicata region, investigates the influence of relational approach winery-grape grower on the perception of services’ value, through a Pearson’s correlation. Results show that relations winery-grape grower, characterized by a buyer’s approach to rationalization, development, and focus on value creation for customer, affect the perception of services’ value.

RFID sensor for agri-food supply chain management and control

This paper explores an opportunity for technology transfer related to the monitoring and control of agri-food products, based on the use of miniaturised, smart and innovative sensors. The information concerning to the state of the product is transferred in real-time in a wireless way, according to the RFID technology. The aim is to improve the quality and the logistics of the chain and offer therefore, environmental friendly and cost-effective solutions to optimise production flows, by networking the existing Italian hubs. In particular, two technical solutions involving RFID are provided, highlighting the advantages and critical points referred to the normal system used to ensure the traceability and the quality of the agri-food products.