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The multifunctionality model is receiving more and more attention from policymakers as a result of recent initiatives to build more resilient and sustainable food systems as well as the potential for increased farm revenue. This paper explores the role of multifunctional farming in the Italian agriculture viewed through the lens of an entrepreneurial strategy grounded on-farm diversification. Farm diversification strategies, which broaden the farm's traditional boundaries to include additional activities at the farm level, help the evolution towards multifunctionality. A policy-driven transition towards multifunctional farming has been noticed in Italy during the past few decades, which has prompted a strategic reconfiguration of the farm's business models. Drawing on the identified activity of portfolio diversification, this study provides an overview of the analyzed 49,429 Italian farms, by articulating diversification strategies into four entrepreneurial activities, which are related to on/off-farm/farm-related or farm-diverse diversification strategies. This article has attempted to verify the presence of farm types that responded to portfolio diversification management strategies through the use of a cluster analysis on data from the general census of Italian agriculture. Supporting new patterns in the adoption of business models focused on multifunctionality should be considered in European rural development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to evaluate how advisory services stimulate the adoption of rural development policies (RDP) aiming at value creation. Design/methodology/approach: By linking the use of agricultural extension services (AES) to policies for value creation, we will put forward an empirical analysis in Italy, with the aim of evaluating the capability of AES in bringing about higher access to rural policies for value creation in geographical indications (GI) contexts. Findings: Results of our analyses evidence, on the one side, higher capability of funds attraction in GI areas. On the other side, path dependency schemes in accessing RDP are evident. Higher rates of access with the support of advisory services emerge, but only in traditional measure to fund farms' investments. On the contrary, the use of AES does not facilitate access to other measures for value creation. Practical implications: Our hypothesis is that AES include the support towards farm strategies of development through the adoption of RDP aiming at value creation in GI areas. Our analysis presents practical implications, in terms of a clear need for upgrading and broadening AES' competencies in the field of projecting farm development and knowledge transfer in the field of funds to be obtained by RDP. Theoretical implications: From a theoretical point of view, the paper may provide a contribution to theoretical debate by offering new insights into the role of advisory services in stimulating innovations and access to support policies. Originality/value: This paper tries to fill a gap in the agricultural extension literature. We posit that the role of AES should comprehend a deeper knowledge (and knowledge transfer) concerning the opportunities provided by RDP.

This paper explores the adoption of digital solutions by Italian farmers. The hypothesis is that digital technology adoption relies on an articulated set of socioeconomic variables that deserve attention. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed data from the last census of Italian agriculture. The analysis showed significant differences in the adoption of digital technologies, which can be viewed from territorial, structural, and sociodemographic points of view. This casts some doubt on the fairness of the digital transition in rural areas, calling for the strengthening of rural policies at the beginning of the new programming period in 2023–2027. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digitalization of agriculture generates a new environment for the actors involved in agrifood production. In such a context, Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKISs) face the challenge of reconsidering their operational paradigms, redefining priorities, and designing strategies to achieve new aims. To do so, the actors participating in AKISs should develop and exploit a set of competencies known as dynamic capabilities, including the aptitude to sense the change in the external environment, the capacity to seize the opportunities that this change creates, and an ability to transform and adapt themselves to the new conditions that digitalization generates. In this study, using as examples the AKISs operating in Greece and Italy, we aimed to uncover if and how actors participating in these systems attempt and manage to deploy such capabilities. Based on a qualitative approach and drawing on data from two workshops, we discovered that seizing the opportunities sensed is a challenging task for AKIS actors. Our results also indicate that knowledge is a pivotal resource for AKISs, allowing actors to enhance their transformative capacity. However, to create a "collective" knowledge base, AKISs should ensure a functional connection between stakeholders and strengthen the roles of actors not actively engaged with the system, like public advisory organizations, universities, and technology providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to analyse the attitude of Italian farms in gaining access to agricultural extension services (AES). Design/methodology/approach: The ways Italian farms use AES are described through the AKAP (Awareness, Knowledge, Adoption, Product) sequence. This article investigated the AKAP sequence by submitting a questionnaire to a sample of Italian farms, providing questions on each step of the sequence. Findings: The results confirm the validity of the model and the necessity to evaluate AES in each phase of the sequence, through an in-depth analysis of the possible motivation for not adopting them. Practical implications: The functional repositioning of agriculture redefines the role of the farm, by introducing new possibilities of production and by fostering multifunctional activities. In this context, new tasks for AES emerge, aiming at sustaining farm development along either sectorial or territorial paths. Difficulties in adopting AES call for both fostering higher levels of access to services on behalf of farms and the adequate supply of services to farms' new needs. Originality/value: AKAP models have been prevailingly used in developing countries to evaluate the efficacy of extension in increasing agricultural productivity. This article demonstrates how this model could be of help in developed agriculture too in performing new lines of development rooted in the new models of multifunctional agriculture.

This paper analyzes the relevance of green public procurement (GPP) in boosting the transition to more sustainable and innovative regional and localized agrifood systems. Many scholars have emphasized the importance of the GPP in stimulating various positive effects and impacts on the sustainability of agrifood systems. Framed within the context of the sustainable competitiveness of localized agrifood systems, the GPP represents an excellent opportunity for a more sustainable farming sector. If well exploited, it may relaunch smallholder farms' competitiveness on a regional scale. Moreover, the GPP effectively addresses sustainability issues like fighting food insecurity and reducing food waste. The possibility of adhering to these localized modes of food provisioning engenders constrained rural entrepreneurship due to the regulatory system which mandates compliance by the farming sector. The paper provides an empirical analysis of the region Lazio of Italy to evidence the eventual propensity of regional farms and eventual entry barriers. The results of the analysis show, on the one side, high interest primarily within regional organic farms; on the other side, the results evidence that compliance with mandatory regulation and organizational and logistic assets represent the principal limit to exploit this opportunity fully. Consequently, reduced exploitation of this opportunity is translated into a rate of transition to more sustainable regional farming systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the role of geographical indications (GI) in the dairy sector of Italy, with the purpose of highlighting eventual negative dynamics in the adhesion to the GI by the potential operators of Italy. A negative adhesion to the GI circuit shows a "disaffection effect," and has relevant implications on sustainability on account of the role of a GI in boosting various dimensions of sustainability (economic, social, environmental). In order to verify the presence of a disaffection effect, an empirical analysis of the actors adhering to the GI dairy sector is carried out. Through the collection of secondary sources from official databases, the paper emphasises a negative trend in the adhesion to the GI dairy sector, which also reveals diversified territorial impacts. More precisely, unlike other sectors, the dairy sector reveals negative dynamics in the operators choosing to adhere to the GI circuits. The results of the analysis address some policy issues and solicit policy action to limit the disaffection effect on GI in the dairy sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to provide an analysis of the role of supportive institutions in fostering entrepreneurial access to rural development policies (RDP) in Italy, namely dedicated measures for boosting farm investments. Access to RDP is considered the outcome of either the farmer's individual disposal or a supportive environment mediated by actors conducive to rural entrepreneurship (ACRE). An empirical analysis has been carried out based on a survey of farms enrolled in the most important Italian farmers' organization, Coldiretti. Quantitative analysis has been integrated through direct interviews with expert witnesses with the purpose of exploring how the farmer organization acts as a supportive institution and how permeability of farmers may differ on the one hand, on the basis of personal and business characteristics of the farm and on the other hand, in the institutional context of raising transaction costs in accessing RDP. The results confirm the fundamental role of ACRE in performing entrepreneurial access to RDP, but, at the same time, it calls for renewed tools to remove the barriers impeding access to RDP, above all for small-sized farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study aims to analyse patterns of innovation adoption among Italian female-owned farms, by evaluating the impact of innovation support services and entrepreneurial orientation on innovation adoption. Design/methodology/approach: To explore both the entrepreneurial identity of women farmers and the role of innovation support services in boosting innovation, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of Italian women farmers. A multivariate analysis lets to classify the farms under the previous two perspectives. Findings: The analysis reveals various patterns of innovation adoption, heavily depending on both the effectiveness of innovation support services and farmers' entrepreneurial orientation. Research limitations/implications: The research analyses a sample of women farmers to excavate worlds of innovation among female-owned farms. Cross-gender comparisons can offer a more complete picture of the ways gender catalyses innovation adoption. Practical implications: At a policy level, the results of our empirical analysis point out the need for gendering innovation analysis and for tailoring policy interventions to the different worlds of innovation that exist in rural Italy. Social implications: The paper confirms the importance of deepening research on gender issues, with the purpose of fulfilling gender mainstreaming underlined in numerous policy documents at both the European and international levels. Originality/value: The analysis represents a first attempt to join both the entrepreneurial identity of women farmers and the role of innovation support services in boosting innovation. Therefore, the paper fills a gap in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fay-Herriot area-level model for correlated response data is augmented with a between-groups-of-domains effect. Correlated-response parameters of small-area estimates no longer need the assumption of spatial contiguity. A simulation shows that area-level correlated-response observations increase the efficiency of the estimates, but do not reduce the biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Italian agrifood sector, one observes heterogeneity in the types of quality certification processes. This heterogeneity cannot be explained by standard governance theories like transaction costs economics (TCE). We use the governance value analysis (GVA) perspective that synthesizes TCE and a resources-based view (RBV), to suggest that the observed heterogeneity in organizational forms is a result of heterogeneous differentiating strategies that farms have pursued in the face of competitive pricing pressures. To empirically test GVA, data are obtained using a survey methodology on lamb meat produced by local farms in the Abruzzo region of Italy, challenged by price-costs squeeze. Our empirical test evidences the relevance of the adopted approach, enlightening different organizational arrangements, strictly linked to both the strategic positioning and to the farms' resources and core competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]