Small farms in Italy between decline and innovative formula: an entrepreneurial model analysis

During the three-year period of our investigation, we found that the weight of family run farms declined and there was an increase in the role of farms integrated in the market and in integrated low-impact farm. This is a partial change which may be an indicator of a greater capacity of the entrepreneurial fabric to come to the market and the ability to capitalise on the relationship between farm and territory. Comparison between the two periods observing the behaviour of common farmers confirmed the substantial stability of the reference framework and offered further scope for interpretation. First, only about 22% changed their strategic profile. Shifts between strategic profiles especially affected family-run farms and light weighted specialised farms (17%). In particular, there was a major shift from the family-run type to the small, specialised farm. By contrast, the shift from the area of specialisation to the family-run type was less marked, and mostly concerned farms situated in marginal areas with less labour employed on the farm. Another element to be taken into consideration is that the second strategic profile, which has a positive balance of some importance, is that of integrated low-impact farms.Farmers strategic profile, enterpreneurial analysis, rural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q18, Q58,

Food security in the Mediterranean countries

We have experienced a period of great agricultural capacity almost on a global scale, called "the Green Revolution". This is a term used to refer to the remarkable increase in the world agricultural production between the early 1960s and the end of the 1980s. The technological progress experienced in the more developed economies and its transfer to other regions, especially Asia and Latin America, led, at that moment, to the doubling of yields for some cereal crops which are basic for the human diet, like rice, wheat and maize, besides the productivity of other plant species and livestock. This real production boom has been able to meet rising food demand in the past 30 years and has also ensured a certain stability to food prices. What has changed? How can we account for an alarming situation that today goes well beyond the ever-neglected issue of hunger in the world's poor areas? What has compromised the reaching of internationally-agreed goals regarding the war against malnutrition? The international markets for agricultural commodities are the stage on which the new scarcity is shown in all its clarity. The rollercoaster ride of commodity prices fully expresses the tensions between demand and supply which are responsible for price rises. Since for many years these changes have not been perceived or have been at the very least underestimated, in this paper we try to address the impact on food security in Mediterranean Countries of this "new paradigm", emphasizing the most critical aspect drawn from major indicators in the field.Entre le d\ue9but des ann\ue9es 1960 et la fin des ann\ue9es 1980, nous avons v\ue9cu une p\ue9riode de grande capacit\ue9 agricole qui a pris une dimension presque plan\ue9taire et est connue comme \uab R\ue9volution verte \ubb. Cette expression est utilis\ue9e pour \ue9voquer un accroissement formidable de la production agricole mondiale. Le progr\ue8s technologique r\ue9alis\ue9 dans les \ue9conomies plus avanc\ue9es et son transfert vers d\u2019autres r\ue9gions, notamment l\u2019Asie et l\u2019Am\ue9rique latine, a abouti, dans cette p\ue9riode, au doublement des rendements de certaines cultures c\ue9r\ue9ali\ue8res qui sont \ue0 la base de l\u2019alimentation humaine, comme le riz, le bl\ue9 et le ma\u457s, et \ue0 l\u2019augmentation de la productivit\ue9 d\u2019autres esp\ue8ces v\ue9g\ue9tales et du b\ue9tail. Ce v\ue9ritable boom de la production a permis de r\ue9pondre \ue0 la demande alimentaire croissante au cours des trente derni\ue8res ann\ue9es et d\u2019assurer une certaine stabilit\ue9 des prix alimentaires. Qu\u2019est-ce qui a chang\ue9 ? Comment pouvons-nous expliquer une situation alarmante qui, aujourd\u2019hui, va bien au-del\ue0 de la question jamais n\ue9glig\ue9e de la faim dans les zones les plus pauvres du monde ? Qu\u2019est ce qui a compromis la r\ue9alisation des objectifs d\ue9finis internationalement pour lutter contre la malnutrition ? Les march\ue9s internationaux des produits agricoles sont la sc\ue8ne o\uf9 cette nouvelle p\ue9nurie se r\ue9v\ue8le d\u2019une mani\ue8re flagrante. Les fortes fluctuations des prix alimentaires refl\ue8tent clairement les tensions entre la demande et l\u2019offre qui provoquent la hausse des prix. Etant donn\ue9 que ces changements sont pass\ue9s inaper\ue7us pendant longtemps ou ont du moins \ue9t\ue9 sous-estim\ue9s, nous essayons dans cet article d\u2019\ue9valuer l\u2019impact de ce \uab nouveau paradigme \ubb sur la s\ue9curit\ue9 alimentaire dans les pays m\ue9diterran\ue9ens, en insistant sur les aspects les plus critiques mis en \ue9vidence \ue0 l\u2019aide des principaux indicateurs sur le terrain

From the AKAP to AKAIE model to assess the uptake of technological innovations in the aquaculture sector

The purpose of this study is to explore the adoption of innovation in the aquaculture sector through the Awareness Knowledge Adoption Implementation Effectiveness (AKAIE) sequence. The AKAIE is an extension of the Awareness Knowledge Adoption Product (AKAP) model in order to better investigate the post-adoption phases. Using the ‘Implementation’ and ‘Effectiveness’ phases, this study aims to further the under- standing of both the different levels of adoption and the impact of innovation in terms of environmental, economic and social benefits produced. The proposed sequence is contextualised in light of the multidimensional scenario of on-farm and off-farm factors acting alongside the adoption of new technologies in the aquaculture sector. In this paper, the perspective of aquaculturists is represented with the con- cept of perceived complexity as the central node of the adoption process. The pro- posed tool could support policy makers in understanding and disseminating innovation in aquaculture

Analysis of Consumer Attitudes and Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Functional Foods

The objective of this study is to analyze consumer behaviour in relation to functional foods by a direct survey. To this end, the proposal is an analysis of the reasons for choosing to consume this type of food or not, accompanied by a supplementary investigation, mostly to assess the relationship between consumption patterns and willingness to pay (WTP) for the most common categories of functional foods, such as milk fortified with CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). Our research shows that a proportion of the population is unaware of the existence of functional foods and their properties. Moreover, it shows that when the concept of functional foods is explained to consumers, this creates a greater willingness to pay for such food, which is strongly linked to type of product carrier but not greatly to income. So the knowledge and transparency of information appear to be decisive variables in the process of choice, with significant implications in terms of policies for classification, labelling of food and public health

The Income Stabilization Tool: Assessing the Hypothesis of a National Mutual Fund in Italy

With the gradual phasing out of guarantees provided by the CAP to European farmers in terms of the stabilization of markets, the issue of risk management tools has gradually acquired an ever-higher profile that has resulted in a series of innovations that initially enlivened the 2009 Health Check followed by the proposed Commission regulation for rural development policy 2014-2020. In particular, the latter introduces a new measure, called the Income Stabilization Tool (IST), aimed at supporting income risk management for agricultural enterprises through the use of mutual funds. The aim of this work is twofold; to emphasize the need of new regulation aimed to foster the implementation of the IST and to assess the public cost associated by estimates the farmer demand for the tool

Negative externalities of crop insurance subsidies: a case study in Italy

This study evaluates the impacts of risk management policies on the environment. The effects of public risk management programmes, such as subsidised crop insurance on optimal nitrogen fertilizer use and land allocation to crops, were examined empirically by developing a mathematical programming model of a representative wheat-tomato farm in Puglia, a region in southern Italy. The results show that with current crop insurance programmes, for tomato the optimal nitrogen fertilizer rate slighty increases and the optimal acreage substantially increases, whereas for wheat they both decrease. Hence, this type of public intervention could lead to an increase in surface and groundwater pollution by nitrates

Do Rural Development Policies Really Help Small Farms? A Reflection from Italy

Although research and political intentions both recognise the crucial role of small farms in Rural Development (RD) strategies, in actual practice they are left out of the benefits of agricultural policies. This is not established by legislative or regulatory prescriptions. It is the result of consolidated practices driven by the productivist approach to agricultural development, overtaken by the concept of multifunctionality, which has inspired European intervention in the agricultural sector and rural areas for more than twenty years. This is particularly evident in Italy, where the weight of small farms is extremely significant in terms of numbers, farmland area and work generated. The continuity of small farms in Italy is of fundamental importance due to their economic, environmental and social relevance to the objective of reconnecting agriculture and territories in a circular vision of RD. Despite this crucial role, these farms have historically had great difficulty accessing RD programmes due to the national or regional implementation of these plans, which set access thresholds and procedural constraints that effectively exclude small farmers. The construction of a national strategy for rural areas requires specific attention to the universe of small farms, which should be included within the perimeter of the potential beneficiaries of RD policies

Gender differences in farm entrepreneurship: comparing farming performance of women and men in Italy

Gender differences in rural enterprise are a relevant field of analysis which calls for a deeper investiga- tion concerning key variables affecting farm\u2019s performance and on the basis of gender. This paper tries to explore eventual gender gaps in the farms of Italy. Two variables are investigated: \u201cWho\u201d variable discriminate farm\u2019s manager on the basis of gender under a constituent perspective of female entrepre- neurship. \u201cWhere\u201d context is articulated in business, social and spatial context, with the aim of excavat- ing the multiple dimensions of farm entrepreneurship. In order to bring out the differences between male and female condominium farms in Italy, an econometric model was applied, with the aim of identifying context-related differences. The results confirm gender gaps related to farm performance, networking, diversification strategies and access to rural policies, by enlightening diverse paths of development in rural enterprises on the basis of explanatory variables. Therefore, adopted methodology reveals its utility in explaining gender gaps and addressing targeted policy implication at the beginning of a new program- ming era for the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU

Molecular marketing, personalised information and willingness‐to‐pay for functional foods: Vitamin D enriched eggs

Increasingly, the health claims made by food products focus on the marketing of specific molecular enrichments. Research exploring consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for health claims assumes that individuals hold perfect information on the benefits of the enrichment, and that their valuations depend solely on whether or not they need to improve their health. While health interventions are aimed at individuals at higher health risk, consumers may be unaware of the health risks that they face, limiting the effectiveness of a generic targeting strategy. Using an orthogonal experimental design, we explore the impact of two factors on the WTP for vitamin D enrichment in eggs: whether the information is person-specific or generic; and the presence of a health claim explaining the vitamin D enrichment. Results indicate that it is the provision of information, not the health claim, that influences WTP. Both generic and personalised information lead to similar increases in the WTP for vitamin D enrichment. While we only observe a direct effect of generic information on the WTP for vitamin D enrichment, personal informa- tion may also operate by increasing the perceived risk of vitamin D deficiency. Our results support the use of personalised health information during the choice task as a means of increasing the sales of healthy products