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In wine grape production, growers decide between alternative management strategies of the vineyard that have direct consequences on competitiveness. Th e aim of this study is to evaluate the impact on economic performance of four management strategies: training system, reserve quality production, irrigation method, and mechanization of labors. The data used in the study comes from face-to-face interviews to 336 wine grape growers of Central Chile, which was complemented with climatic variables retrieved from Geographic Information Systems. A log-log regression model of total value product (TVP) for the main variety grown in the vineyard was estimated, using production factors, vineyards' attributes, management strategies and climaterelated conditions as explanatory variables. An interesting contribution of this study is the identifi cation of TVP functions for land, fertilizers, fungicides, other agrochemicals, labor, and age of vines. Our results show that the training system has the most impact on TVP, where tendone-trained vineyards demonstrated 63% higher TVP than those vertically trained when holding all other variables constant. Reserve quality production also has a positive eff ect on TVP, increasing it by 25% compared to vineyards producing varietal quality grapes. In contrast, the use of pressurized irrigation systems and mechanization in harvesting do not present a significant effect on TVP. The findings of this paper represent an advance in the understanding of the economic performance factors associated with wine grape growing and could serve to guide on-farm decisions and sectoral policies in pursuing the competitive development of wine grape growers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 crisis has severely impacted the wine industry, with producers in different countries affected differently and, therefore, differing in their perceptions toward it. These differing perceptions are assumed to be due to different business models, mainly linked to the distribution system adopted and resulting in varying distances of producers to distributors and consumers. While upstream integration characterizes the Old World, the New World applies a downstream business model, being more closely linked to distributors and consumers and, therefore, more vulnerable to shocks, which should lead to higher perceived impacts of the COVID‐19 crisis. This study analyzes 542 surveys collected from wineries in nine countries, divided into New World, historical Old World, and emerging Old World. Econometric results show statistically significant differences in both the perceived impact of COVID‐19 and wineries' responses in terms of planned investments, with the New World being more affected. A common desire by wineries to direct future investments towards direct‐to‐consumer sales and communication was found, to the detriment of investments in vineyards and cellars. This desire is particularly strong in the New World, in line with their focus on the downstream part of the value chain, underlying their greater reactivity to shocks and capacity to innovate. [EconLit Citations: D22; L21; L66; Q13]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water constraints are becoming a major restriction for different economic sectors. The agricultural sector is one of the most affected, but according to experts, the use of irrigation technologies and scheduling can keep productivity high while diminishing the use of water resources. Although irrigation technology is available, for various reasons the rate of adoption is rather low. This article uses a recursive bivariate probit model to examine the impact of social, human, and physical capital on the adoption of irrigation technology and scheduling. The study was conducted in vineyard farms in the Maule and O'Higgins regions of Chile, from which a sample of 452 large, medium, and smallholders was drawn. The average planted area is 37 hectares, ranging from 0.5 to 810 hectares. The adoption rate of irrigation technology is 43 % and for scheduling instruments, 23 %. Results show that adopting irrigation technology increases the chance of adopting scheduling by 31 % and that these adoption decisions are jointly made. While size of the vineyard is relevant in irrigation technology adoption, it is not for scheduling and, in contrast, the use of the Internet is relevant for adopting scheduling but not for irrigation technology. A relevant result is that networks and trust are important factors in explaining the adoption of both technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing agricultural water use efficiency has the potential to contribute significantly to hydrological sustainability and to coping with increasing water scarcity. This paper focuses on the role of the quantity of irrigation water applied and irrigation method used in explaining output in wine grape farms. We applied propensity score matching to reduce potential selection bias from observables that might mediate in the choice of irrigation system. Stochastic Production Frontier models are then estimated for a sample of 371 Chilean wine grape growers. The results show that pressurized irrigation leads to higher production at all levels of water applied; however, at lower levels the impact on TVP is more pronounced. Shadow values calculated at observed output for pressurized and gravity systems are 0.026 USD m−3 and 0.033 USD m−3, respectively. Significant differences are found between low (0.046 USDm−3), medium (0.027 USD m−3) and high (0.018 USD m−3) levels of water applied. The average technical efficiency for the sample is 70.4% and there is no significant difference between growers using pressurized and gravity methods. Our findings suggest that irrigation water can be saved without compromising output, which has important implications for sustainability given that agriculture is the most water demanding sector in the world. • Pressurized irrigation leads to a significant upward shift in the production frontier. • The effect of pressurized irrigation on output is higher at lower quantities of water. • Average technical efficiency is 70.4% and does not vary by irrigation method. • Significant differences in shadow values are found between low, medium, and high levels of water applied. • Pressurized irrigation in grape farming allows for water savings without compromising output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]