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In recent decades, farmland markets have risen sharply due to their attractiveness as safe investment and savings allocation instruments. This growth has occurred globally at different rates due to the uneven expected returns, and potential land uses in different regions. This paper provides evidence of the convergence of Italian farmland markets between 1990 and 2019 by using data on average land prices with a geographically detailed resolution that considers both administrative and altitude aspects of territories. The analysis combines traditional economic convergence approaches with spatial data exploration techniques. The results are consistent and show that territorial disparities in Italian farmland markets tend to increase over the study period. This proves that divergence patterns reflect the well-established North-South dualism and disparities in socio-economic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scaling up supply chains in the interest of cost-effectiveness has led to an increasing disconnection between producers and consumers in today's 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the factors that affect the intention to adopt web marketing (WM) at farm level as an innovation for business purposes. Data were collected from a direct survey among Italian farmers. The paper applies the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework. Among the variables considered, the results mainly show that a higher perceived usefulness of WM leads to a greater intention to adopt it from farmers. Similarly, the intention to adopt WM is positively influenced by the customers' readiness to use this technology and the perceived ease of use. Moreover, the intention to adopt is lower for the farms showing a greater size. Surprisingly, the perception of customers' positive expectation about WM adoption by the farm shows a negative effect, suggesting that external pressures can inhibit farmers' intention. Findings are valuable to understand how to develop policies to support WM adoption among farmers, that is important to gain access to the market especially for smallholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European farmers face an increasing income uncertainty. The debate is growing on the role of the insurance schemes and on the support provided by the CAP in this field. Therefore, there is a need for the empirical analysis and the tools aimed at providing empirical evidences on this subject. This paper develops an innovative Positive Mathematical Programming model that takes into explicit consideration the risk aversion behaviour. This is used to investigate the implications of participating in the crop revenue insurance scheme. in particular, a quadratic mix integer program has been developed on a small group of crop farms in italy and it has been used to simulate the impact of changes in the level of the insurance premium. The objective of this paper is to assess the soundness of the proposed approach and to identify its limitations. The obtained results suggest that this could be a useful tool to investigate the impact of participating in insurance schemes on production patterns, farm profitability and the role of public support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italian farms have an average surface lower than 10 hectares and they are predominately scattered in the upland rural areas. The most important aspect of small family farms is to protect the rural environment against the socio-economic marginalization of rural territories and reducing the out-migration from the countryside as well. Since the 1960s, the European Union has arranged a microeconomic survey on a sample of farms aimed at estimating the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy strategies on farmers called the Farm Accountancy Data Network or the FADN. The purpose of the analysis was to assess by a quantitative approach using the FADN dataset the technical, economic and allocative efficiency in Italian family farms over the time 2000-2012. In particular, the aim of the paper has been to investigate if the legal typology of property has influenced the efficiency of Italian farms. Some findings have pointed out that the co-operatives and family farms during the five year time 2008-2012 have had the same level of efficiency. Italian small farms smaller than 5 hectares need adequate financial supports allocated by the II. pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy and these subsides are pivotal in particular towards family farms located in the upland and hilly areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precision agriculture is increasingly relying on tractor auto-steer systems to boost productivity and optimize crop inputs. Identifying field variations and performance, on the other hand, is necessary for giving site-specific recommendations. This study reports the field operating performance indicators of manual (MG), semi-automatic (SG), and automatic (AG) tractor guidance for weed control in wheat production in Southern Italy. Performance indicators include effective worked area, overall working time, effective field capacity, field efficiency, fuel consumption, and product usage. The SG tractor guidance working times were similar to the MG, but with significant savings in the herbicide spray solution and work quality. In terms of all parameters examined, the AG outperformed the SG and MG. The AG was 54% faster than the MG, resulting in an increased area worked and effective field capacity of 5 and 46%, respectively. The total time (effective time plus non-productive time) was reduced by 28%, while overlapped areas by 88.9%. Herbicide and fuel input was reduced by 30 and 11.5%, respectively. A streamlined environmental analysis indicated that AG could reduce the energy and carbon intensity of the one-time weed control process by 25 and 27% for each hectare. Our results confirm that auto guidance provides numerous benefits (e.g., machining uniformity, increased work quality, reduced resource use, and reduced environmental burdens), supporting the larger goal of agricultural production sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bio-based and biodegradable plastics produced from wood residues can have a positive impact on the environment by replacing conventional plastics. However, the current bioplastics market is held back by a lack of available information and weak marketing activities aimed at final consumers. To increase the available information, the present study investigated the consumers’ attitudes and behaviours towards bioplastic products. A web-based survey was conducted on a sample of potential consumers in Italy. 1 115 consumers filled out the questionnaire with a dropout rate in compilation of 14%. The results showed that the environmental characteristics of bioplastics (lower impact on climate change and renewable sources used to produce them) are considered more important by respondents than the non-environmental characteristics (technical properties, origin of raw material, potential trade-off between bioplastics and food production). The results highlighted that the most important behavioural factor is the purchase intentions, followed by control of perceived cost and subjective norm. It is interesting to emphasize that the cost of bioplastics compared to conventional plastics is a key variable in the choices of many Italian consumers. The results provided can be useful to the manufacturing industries to better understand the consumers’ attitudes towards bioplastics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biofortification is a strategy to reduce micronutrient deficiency in humans by fortifying food through natural processes, agronomic practices and genetic modification. In this study, we seek to shed light on what consumers understand by the term 'biofortified products' and thus to understand their level of knowledge about these products, as well as the reasons that dictate their purchasing choices and the relationship between consumption choices and lifestyles. The analysis focuses on vegetables and, in particular, on tomatoes with a high lycopene content. Research shows that consumers of biofortified food products are generally confused and uninformed, even though they show a high willingness to pay. This confusion seems to result, moreover, from the lack of a clear definition of a biofortified product, as well as from the lack of clear information on the specifics of biofortified products and the benefits they can bring. The future of biofortified products can, therefore, be improved by the creation of clear standards and reference definitions and better information and transparency that would benefit the consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Europe is becoming a hotspot for climate change. Appropriate mechanisation is necessary for reducing soil compacting in such contexts. The olive tree distribution -- a typical Mediterranean crop -- showed a well--defined latitude gradient with progressive decline moving towards the north. Climate change, however, has supposed to cause a significant shift towards the north in the geographical range of olive trees. Our study analyses the spatial distribution of the olive tree area in Italy, a region within the species' ecological range apart from the Northern region, which is now becoming progressively specialised in this crop because of local warming. Results indicate that olive cultivated area increased in Northern Italy, especially in flat districts and upland areas, while decreasing (more or less rapidly) in central and southern Italy because of land abandonment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, different methods were compared in order to determine the soil hydraulic conductivity at the saturation (Ks) of two heavily anthropized soils in northern Italy: an irrigated field and a landfill cover. In situ, laboratory measurements (falling head and evaporation method) and pedotransfer functions (ROSETTA and HYPRES) were used for the Ks estimation. In accordance with scientific literature, the results have shown that Ks is largely dependent on the type of technique used in taking the measurements. The ROSETTA and HYPRES pedotransfer functions show quite similar performances, while their easiness and convenient use make them potential alternative techniques for the Ks estimation in comparison with the in situ and laboratory measurements. The Ks estimate is sensitive to the selected method and this sensitivity affects the hydrological model simulations. Therefore, none of the tested methods can be considered as a benchmark, but the results found in this study confirm that the applied method for the determination of Ks, may provide a first estimate of Ks to be subsequently optimised after the simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper analyzes the reasons behind the difficulties of the Italian olive oil industry to compete in the world markets. The analysis highlights that these complexities can be related with two core factors: stagnant demand in the main producer/consumer countries and strong competition arising from the Spanish olive oil industry increasingly involved also in processing and trade. In addition, these weakness factors are boosted by the market power exerted by large retail chains that are now the main channel in which olive oil is retailed in the domestic market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in southern Italy assessed the effects of biodegradable mulch on fruit yield and quality of two greenhouse tomato cultivars, 'Coronel F1' and 'Kero F1'. Three mulching types (two MaterBi biodegradable black films, MB N2/12 amnd MB N8; black polyethylene film, low-density polyethylene (LDPE)) and not mulched control were compared. 'Coronel F1' showed higher values of fruit yield, total crop biomass and leaf area index (LAI). MB N8 and LDPE films led to the highest fruit yield and growth indexes, whereas not mulched control to the lowest. Fruit dry residue and soluble solids were highest under MB N2/12 and MB N8, titratable acidity was highest under MB N8. Fruits grown under MB N8 and LDPE mulches attained the highest levels of colour components "L" and "b" respectively, and MB N8 the highest fruit firmness. MB N2/12 and MB N8 showed the highest levels of antioxidants and antioxidant activity. Biodegradable polymers improved root growth conditions and fruit quality, showing suitable features for sustainable vegetable production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth-oriented measures of the EU's rural development policy have been promoted to meet the aims of the Lisbon strategy. This article assesses their impact on performance-related variables of farms. We apply a conditional difference-in-differences approach to the 2003-2007 Italian FADN survey. No evidence emerges to indicate any impact of the measures on farm income, employment or partial productivities. Conversely, participation in the selected policy schemes resulted initially in a productivity increase and, subsequently, in enhanced farm performance. We argue that participation in the growth-oriented measures gave rise to a process of capital deepening that, in turn, elicited a productivity increase and, eventually, positive growth rates in farm performance. The estimated variations in capital intensity signal that the measures resulted in the activation of channels that are expected to positively affect farm performance after a time lag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, citrus fruits farming, at the international level, revealed an upward trend changing the traditional scenarios of the offer, with the exchange of products coming from all areas of the world, thanks to the progressive abrogation of fare barriers. The material exchange is causing spreading of diseases that have caused a severe damage, such as the epidemics and culture extinctions with a high economic, health, environmental and social impact. In such a context, the definition of possible methods to face the emergencies is absolutely necessary. This research suggests the adoption of an evaluation model for phytosanitary emergencies (Citrus Tristeza Virus - CTV), a model that is sustainable from the economic, social, biotic and phytosanitary perspective. It is based on an integrated model that considers the application of a participatory planning technique and of an evaluation method included among the tools of the Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE). The results highlighted that the hypothesis 1 "cohabitation with the Citrus Tristeza virus" is the predominant hypothesis, followed at short distance by the hypothesis 2 "total eradication and re-implantation", while the hypothesis 3 "abandonment or extirpation" gained a marginal meaning. It was possible to assert that the hypothesis 1 was the one that presented the highest sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attacks of adult Apate monachus (Fabricius) on pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) and carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) trees in a plant nursery in southern Italy was described. The adult beetles produce circular holes and large sinuous tunnels on young trees that can involve the trunk and branches. The same plant can be affected by large numbers of such access holes. The adults appear during late June and reach a peak during the first three weeks of July. Given the increase in the spread of cultivation of these trees and, therefore, in the rate of spread of this pest species, further damage to crops is expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]