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<p>Digestate is an effluent residue of anaerobic digestion and has certain potential as a substitute for synthetic fertilisers, yet its uptake across Southern European agriculture remains limited. In Greece, the nascent biogas sector and a still-incomplete regulatory framework for digestate classification, both make the issue of adoption particularly pressing. This research note outlines findings from a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study that combined the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP, n = 17) with follow-up semi-structured interviews (n = 12) to examine what drives (or impedes) acceptance among farmers, agronomists and public-sector stakeholders. Nutritional value and soil fertility emerged as the dominant adoption attribute/criterion, followed by sale price and quality certification and safety; environmental sustainability, local production and organic origin received comparatively lower weights. The interviews added important texture: environmental sustainability was viewed favourably but rarely acted as a decisive factor, while the absence of recognised product standards and the intermediary ‘change-agent’ role of agronomic advisors surfaced repeatedly as structural conditions shaping adoption. The study is exploratory in scope, drawing on small purposive samples concentrated in one agricultural region, and the findings should be read accordingly. Even so, they offer an empirically grounded, user-centred account of digestate adoption in Greece, with implications for certification policy, extension services and bioeconomy market development in comparable Mediterranean settings.</p>

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Determinants of Digestate Adoption as a (bio) Fertiliser in Greek Agriculture: Evidence from an Analytic Hierarchy Process and Semi-Structured Interviews

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月3日

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  • Styliani Fasouli,
  • Antonis Skouloudis

摘要

Digestate is an effluent residue of anaerobic digestion and has certain potential as a substitute for synthetic fertilisers, yet its uptake across Southern European agriculture remains limited. In Greece, the nascent biogas sector and a still-incomplete regulatory framework for digestate classification, both make the issue of adoption particularly pressing. This research note outlines findings from a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study that combined the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP, n = 17) with follow-up semi-structured interviews (n = 12) to examine what drives (or impedes) acceptance among farmers, agronomists and public-sector stakeholders. Nutritional value and soil fertility emerged as the dominant adoption attribute/criterion, followed by sale price and quality certification and safety; environmental sustainability, local production and organic origin received comparatively lower weights. The interviews added important texture: environmental sustainability was viewed favourably but rarely acted as a decisive factor, while the absence of recognised product standards and the intermediary ‘change-agent’ role of agronomic advisors surfaced repeatedly as structural conditions shaping adoption. The study is exploratory in scope, drawing on small purposive samples concentrated in one agricultural region, and the findings should be read accordingly. Even so, they offer an empirically grounded, user-centred account of digestate adoption in Greece, with implications for certification policy, extension services and bioeconomy market development in comparable Mediterranean settings.