Evaluating the Effects of Interactive Innovations at Farm Level: The Potential of FADN

Purpose: This study explores the potential of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) to assess the technical, economic and environmental effects of cooperative innovation projects at farm level. Design/Methodology/Approach: The analysis of the FADN potential relies on the classification of innovations and the co-identification, through the Most Significant Change (MSC) approach, of the most relevant indicators for tracking and assessing the performances of innovations and attributing to them the effects of a specific innovation. Findings: The study shows that the FADN has a certain range of useful indicators and that they have a good coverage of the different types of innovation. Furthermore, the farm visits let emerge the importance of participatory approaches to capture the different changes and interplays occurred in farming processes. Practical implications: The paper lays the foundations for the adaptation of the current methodology for data collecting and provides useful insights concerning the overcoming representativeness claims, costs' issues, and problems related to the observation time limit. Theoretical implications: The paper reveals the importance of participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches in helping the collection of more robust and relevant account data on farm, as well as in attributing certain results to a specific innovation and recognising synergies and side-effects of cooperative processes. Originality/Values: The paper provides some recommendations on how to enlarge the scope of the FADN survey in order to be used effectively in the analysis of the performance of cooperative innovations at farm level.