0000000000099112
AUTHOR
A. Asciuto
Agriculture in a Sicilian inland area: Strategies and motivations of conversion towards multifunctional activities
The main topic of the paper concerns multifunctional farms, their activities and motivations for starting up, and on the other hand visitor satisfaction. To this purpose, a preliminary sample survey was carried out addressed to 13 farms in 3 Sicilian provinces. The aim was to identify positive and negative aspects of the services offered. The most relevant findings of the survey are the variety of activities and services, a widespread use of internet services, efficient means of communications and a significant growth in labour force. On the other side, long time is generally needed in order to obtain administrative authorizations or to carry out farm plants, as well as excessive pay-back t…
Understanding consumer demand for sustainable beef production in rural communities
In the past two decades, due to the series of crises within the agro-food system, such as BSE, dioxin, and foot and mouth disease, consumer demand for sustainable production has considerably grown in European society. Consumers seem to frame food quality in terms of social and environmental aspects of productions, which may be recognized through a certification labelling or through a system of food quality criteria that give rise to conventions of quality. The aim of our study was to understand how food quality and labelling are assessed by rural population in Southern Italy. Local beef production with sustainable voluntary certification was the focus of our empirical strategy. Our decision…
Land consolidation policies in sicily and their effects on its farmland
The paper deals with the legislative interventions in the field of land consolidation and their effects in improving the Sicilian land property structure. After a preliminary analysis of the legislative framework at national and regional level, a study on the structural evolution of the farming system in Italy and Sicily during the 1961-2010 period was carried out. In order to appreciate the actual impact and the relative efficacy of such interventions, data concerning the actions for land reorganization provided for by the Measure 4.11 contained in the 2000-2006 ROP for Sicily were analysed. On the basis of the data provided by the Regional Board for Agricultural and Food Resources, it has…