Italian Review of Agricultural Economics

Editorial

2022-08-01T11:15:11+00:00

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Editoriale

2022-08-01T11:15:06+00:00

Long-term land cover changes and ecosystem services variation: have the anthropogenic transformations degraded human well-being in Italy?

2022-08-01T11:15:03+00:00

Landscape composition has a crucial role in determining ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Human activities (e.g. urban expansion or agricultural intensification) have strongly modified the natural environment and ecosystem integrity. This paper presents an exemplary application of the ecosystem service (ES) concept to the whole Italian territory. A GIS-based analysis of the long-term dynamics (1960-2018) between land cover changes and landscapes’ capacities to provide ecosystem services was conducted in order to achieve a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the supply and demand of ES. The applied methodology considers a matrix linking spatially explicit biophysical landscape units to ecosystem services supply, which was united in a GIS framework. We set the analysis considering national scales and 3 time periods (1960-1990, 1990-2018, 1960-2018). As main results we found a great impact of intensification and urbanization on the decline of ES supply, while forest expansion and forest permanence determined the most important increases. The analysis detected several variations of ES supply that have direct impact on humans and can provide information about the importance of preserving the environment and the benefits we derive from nature.

The role of diversification in the revenue composition of Italian farms

2022-08-01T11:15:28+00:00

The main aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution, patterns and models of revenue diversification in Italian agriculture in different contexts and for different typologies of farms. The analysis is based on the calculation of the inverse of Herfindahl index, by using different variables available in the Italian FADN database (years 2008, 2013 and 2018), followed by a multiple regression model to analyse the relationship between the diversification index and other variables, in order to highlight both the internal and external factors affecting on-farm diversification processes. The article shows that Italian farms have increasingly adopted non-agricultural revenue diversification strategies to reduce risk and maximize factors’ productivity. Among these, agritourism is by far the most relevant; however, in the last few years the production of renewable energy has been growing relatively rapidly. Overall, the study shows that on-farm diversification activities can be either an opportunity for a new entrepreneurship in agriculture or a survival strategy for small and marginal farms that are not sufficiently integrated in the national agri-food system.

A definition of social farming using the DELPHI method and automatic text analysis

2022-08-01T11:15:30+00:00

There are different meanings of Social Farming (SF) both in the scientific, operational and administrative world, often linked to the different contexts in which the experiences have matured. The aim of the work, carried out with the Delphi method, is to reach a definition of SF as shared as possible, through an organized discussion between selected experts, allowing the use of common languages in explaining the activities related to the SF.

Do Agricultural Imports and Exports Cointegrate? Evidence from 13 OECD Countries

2022-08-01T11:15:22+00:00

Previous studies have investigated the behaviour of trade flows at the aggregate level, thus they suffer from aggregation bias. In this paper, we use the sectoral data on agricultural exports and imports to examine whether they cointegrate. The likelihood-based panel cointegration technique is applied to investigate the long-run convergence between the variables for 13 industrialized countries. The results indicate that a long-run steady-state relationship exists between the variables for most countries in the sample. The policy implications of our findings are that agricultural trade does not lead to the violation of international budget constraints and, more importantly, there is no productivity gap in the agriculture sector between the domestic economy and the rest of the world, implying a lack of permanent technological shocks to the domestic economy. The results also provide support for intra-industry trade in the agriculture sector.

An inquiry on north-eastern Italian farmers’ perception of climate change and related risks to agriculture

2022-08-01T11:15:24+00:00

Even though agricultural activities have always had to face systemic risk, increasing uncertainty linked to market conditions, policy revision and climate change require the adoption of extensive, functional and informed risk management strategies. Our study aims to investigate north-eastern Italian farmers’ perception of climate change-related risks and attitudes towards adaptation strategies, in order to promote the adoption of effective communication strategies and the development of more attractive insurance schemes to widen famers’ interests. Cross-sectional survey data were analysed using structural equation modelling to explore concerns over the impact of climate change on agricultural activities and identify the factors that promote the adoption of coping strategies. According to the results, the actual experience of negative consequences linked to specific extreme meteorological events is the main driver for the adoption of mitigation strategies. Further efforts on awareness of climate change and its consequences, coupled with the provision of simpler and more tailored insurance schemes, are required to support a widespread diffusion of adaptation strategies among farmers.