Consumers’ preferences for biodiversity in vineyards: A choice experiment on wine

In recent years consumers\u2019 concerns regarding the environmental impact of food production has significantly increased, also due to food sustainability, food safety and food security issues. A number of certification systems for environmental-friendly products have been created e.g. water-saving labels and fishery sustainable labels. Among various environmental issues, the protection of biodiversity has recently gained popularity both in public opinion and in scientific debate. This paper describes the results of a Choice Experiment on wine consumers to estimate their willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation practices in vineyards. The survey was conducted by direct interviews at a wine tasting event in an Italian winery located at Montefano (Marche). The results show that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for wine certification that takes into account biodiversity not only for medium-high price wines, but also for low-price wines. Finally, quality of wine and organic certification remain important attributes in wine purchasing choices related to expensive wines

Sustainability and Competitiveness of Agriculture in Mountain Areas : a Willingness to Pay (WTP) Approach

One of the most evident elements of the agricultural crisis is farm abandonment in many marginal rural areas, such as mountains. Some traits of mountain agriculture such as remoteness, low productivity, extreme weather and small farm size, can limit the adaptation and the competitiveness of this branch. The analysis aims to assess the consumers\u2019 Willingness to Pay (WTP) for permanence of the upland farms and mountain pastures, by a Contingent Valuation analysis. The main results are that a WTP for the redevelopment of the pastures exists and that the personal characteristics of the sample are more in\ufb02uential than the opinions of the individuals on WTP. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that consumers seem to prefer an agricultural orientation of the upland farms rather than a touristic one. In the conclusion section, some policy guidelines are proposed

Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) : determinants for consumer and farmer participation in Lombardy, Italy

Scaling up supply chains in the interest of cost-effectiveness has led to an increasing disconnection between producers and consumers in today\u2019s globalised food system. This paper assesses the agricultural and territorial drivers that influence the development of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), where consumers and producers act together, by implementing an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. The analysis was carried out at a municipal scale in Lombardy, in northern Italy. The territorial characteristics of the local areas were less important in explaining the level of consumer and producer participation in the alternative food networks, rather than the specific factors related to the agricultural sector

Rural development policies and land use change : the Lombardy case study

Since the second half of last century the land use change has become one of the most important problem linked to territorial policies and governance. In all the Europe farms plays an important role against the increasing urbanization in the urban but also in the rural areas. The Rural Development Program (RDP) is one of the most important tools to support agriculture, as it must support farms through direct funding concerning competitiveness, sustainability, diversification. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the RDP measure for modernizing farms, their permanence on the territory and land consumption in a case study area, by the Propensity score matching technique. The analyse shows a link between agricultural land consumption and presence of the measure 121 of RDP

Land rent values determinants: a Hedonic Pricing approach at local scale

Farmland values are driven by a complex set of factors. Starting from the idea that land rent values may reflect several characteristics both internal and external to agricultural sector, the paper has implemented a hedonic model based on land rent values in the metropolitan area of Milan, Northern Italy, assessing the influence of climate, soil, territorial and farm variables on a sample of farms. The model is based on data at rent contract level, matched with data at farm and municipal scale retrieved from different sources. Results confirm that land rent prices are affected by some climate variables, along with territorial and farm characteristics

Urban Gardeners’ Motivations in a Metropolitan City : The Case of Milan

Urban gardening (UG) as a component of urban agriculture (UA) has reached popularity during the last decades. This growing interest depends on several factors including the different functions that have been attributed to UG over the years, operating from the economic to the social, health and cultural levels. While multifunctionality of UG is well documented, only a few studies investigated individual gardeners\u2019 motivations, which can be subjective and heavily affected by the local context in which it takes place. The paper aims to detect some peculiar features of Milan city gardeners, in order to highlight the motivations of their activity through an innovative and replicable approach based on multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA).TheanalysishasbeenappliedtotheMilancasestudy,intheNorthofItaly;theresultssuggest a great importance of the social component of UG, and trace some different gardeners\u2019 pro\ufb01les

Agricoltura irrigua e ridotta disponbilità idrica: quali compatibilità? Evidenze da un modello di PMP nella pianura lombarda

Numerosi modelli economici sono utilizzati per valutare gli effetti dei cambiamenti climatici e le loro implicazioni sull\u2019economia globale. Tra gli altri, la programmazione matematica riveste un ruolo primario, specialmente dopo lo sviluppo del cosiddetto \u201capproccio positivo\u201d. La Programmazione Matematica Positiva (PMP) viene tipicamente usata per calibrare modelli regionali volti a valutare gli effetti dell\u2019introduzione di politiche settoriali. Nel comparto agricolo questo tipo di approccio \ue8 largamente utilizzato per condurre analisi di scenario in mutate condizioni di disponibilit\ue0 di risorse ed interventi strutturali. In quest'ottica, lo studio condotto si basa sull\u2019utilizzo della PMP in un areale agricolo lombardo, ed ipotizza che una ridotta disponibilit\ue0 d\u2019acqua irrigua costituisca il principale effetto del cambiamento climatico a livello locale; inoltre, assume che ulteriori interventi messi in atto dai decisori politici o dagli utilizzatori finali della risorsa per limitare il consumo idrico costituiscano delle strategie di mitigazione del climate change. Il modello implementato ottimizza la funzione di massimizzazione del profitto dell'agricoltore in corrispondenza di diversi livelli di disponibilit\ue0 d\u2019acqua irrigua, restituendo il pattern colturale che soddisfa le condizioni imposte. I risultati preliminari confermano quanto emerge dalle numerose evidenze di letteratura: ad una maggiore scarsit\ue0 della risorsa corrisponde la coltivazione di colture meno idro-esigenti, anche se non si riscontrano radicali cambiamenti nell'uso del suolo nel suo complesso. Configurazioni alternative comportano, tuttavia, implicazioni negative per l'economia dell\u2019area di studio, con il margine lordo che tende a diminuire al decrescere dei volumi d'acqua disponibili

The Determinants of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A Case Study

The determinants of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) are, in most cases, outside the traditional sales\u2013buying land market, as they are often rented lands for long periods of time or exploitation licenses. Sub-Saharan Africa is among the most affected regions by this phenomenon for reasons related to its land policy, and includes 37% of the total LSLAs cases. The paper develops an econometric model based on a logarithmic OLS regression to identify the determinants of LSLAs in sub-Saharan Africa. As suggested by the literature, this analysis poses the total agricultural area acquired by country as dependent variable. Results show that investors prefer a country offering a sufficiently free trade economic context with a good level of agricultural productivity, thus allowing an easy investment process. Moreover, a country with a formal recognition of land rights is preferred, to have guarantees on their investment. The availability of water is also one of the main LSLAs drivers, as a natural limit of agricultural investment

Endothelin-1[1–31], acting as an ETA-receptor selective agonist, stimulates proliferation of cultured rat zona glomerulosa cells

AbstractEndothelin-1 (ET-1)[1–31] is a novel hypertensive peptide that mimics many of the vascular effects of the classic 21 amino acid peptide ET-1[1–21]. However, at variance with ET-1[1–21] that enhances aldosterone secretion from cultured rat zona glomerulosa (ZG) cells by acting via ETB receptors, ET-1[1–31] did not elicit such effect. Both ET-1[1–21] and ET-1[1–31] raised the proliferation rate of cultured ZG cells, the maximal effective concentration being 10−8 M. This effect was blocked by the ETA-receptor antagonist BQ-123 and unaffected by the ETB-receptor antagonist BQ-788. Quantitative autoradiography showed that ET-1[1–21] displaced both [125I]PD-151242 binding to ETA receptors and [125I]BQ-3020 binding to ETB receptors in both rat ZG and adrenal medulla, while ET-1[1–31] displaced only [125I]BQ-3020 binding. The tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibitor tyrphostin-23 and the p42/p44 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitor PD-98059 abolished the proliferogenic effect of ET-1[1–31], while the protein kinase-C (PKC) inhibitor calphostin-C significantly reduced it. ET-1[1–31] (10−8 M) stimulated TK and MAPK activity of dispersed ZG cells, an effect that was blocked by BQ-123. The stimulatory action of ET-1[1–31] on TK activity was annulled by tyrphostin-23, while that on MAPK activity was reduced by calphostin-C and abolished by either tyrphostin-23 and PD-98059. These data suggest that ET-1[1–31] is a selective agonist of the ETA-receptor subtype, and enhances proliferation of cultured rat ZG cells through the PKC- and TK-dependent activation of p42/p44 MAPK cascade