Assessing the level of organic farming development in the European countries

Abstract

Organic farming is an essential approach to agriculture that seeks to reduce the negative impact of human activities on the environment and ensure the sustainability of food production. The study aims to determine the integral index of the development of organic farming and to create a clustering model of organic farming in European countries. As a research methodology, additive-multiplicative convolution was used to determine the integral index of organic farming development. Cluster analysis (the Ward method and the k-means clustering method) identified respective clusters. The integrated index is based on eight indicators of organic farming from the Eurostat database, 2012–2020, and ranges from zero to one. The following countries have the highest value of the integral index: Italy (0.57), France (0.54), Spain (0.54), Germany (0.45), and Turkey (0.47). Three clusters were identified according to eight indicators of organic agriculture. The first cluster includes countries-leaders in agricultural territories (about 2.1 million hectare) with the highest state financial support for agricultural research and development (1.1 billion euros). The second cluster includes countries with the most minor organic farming operators (50-100 operators). The third cluster includes countries with the highest index of annual income from the sale of farm products (200-220 points) but with the highest level of usage of dangerous pesticides (250 points). The heterogeneity of clusters allows one to determine the strengths and weaknesses of organic farming in European countries.