Measuring the risk of non-compliance in Italian organic farms with parametric and non parametric models

Certification is an essential feature for organic products, and is based on controls/inspections to verify compliance with EU Reg. CE 834/07. Implementing a risk based inspection system can contribute to an effective and efficient organic control system, hence improving organic farming relative competitiveness. This study is part of the CERCOST EU project, and analyses data from inspections on a sample of Italian organic farms, aiming at the identification of management and structural risk factors contributing to the occurrence of non-compliances. Risk analysis is based on the estimation of both parametric and non-parametric models using negative binomial panel estimators and Bayesian network modelling.