La concentrazione delle terre agricole in Italia: un’analisi attraverso la Banca Dati RICA

Abstract

Land concentration and land grabbing have been a reality for many years in Europe. In fact, in the 27-member EU, only 3% of farms already controlled 50% of the land used for farming purposes. This paper investigates the dynamics of land concentration in Italy using the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). Some of the most used concentration measures have been applied to the FADN database in the period 2015-2017 over a total of about 7,000 constant farms. How the above mentioned measure has influenced the probability of expansion of farms is analysed in the second part of the paper through a model that considers, among others, some characteristics of farms, including the size of the farm, the presence of organic methods and the presence of extra-agricultural activities. Preliminary results of the model show a significant effect of farm size on the probability of expansion of farms; larger farms are therefore more likely to expand by acquiring new agricultural land. This paper offers the starting point for discussing the theme of the concentration of land market through an empirical interpretation.