Introduction to «Dieci Anni di politica agraria» by Manlio Rossi-Doria

After a quick review of prevailing conditions of agriculture in the Italian Mez-zogiorno in the Fifties, a general sketch of Rossi-Doria’s work is presented. His main areas of interest were land property, institutional problems, soil conserva-tion, the problems of rural areas in the hills and farm production in general. The book “Dieci anni di politica agraria nel Mezzogiorno” contains a very good description of rural problems of that time, together with the discussion of political instruments that may be apt to solve them. European societies and agri-culture have changed quite a bit in recent years. Farming in areas such as the Mezzogiorno has changed its role and has acquired new perspectives. A renewed discussion of both must begin from the analysis of the past and may profit quite a lot from Rossi-Doria’s approach. For this reason his work is far from been obso-lete, but should still be considered a necessary step towards modern economic and policy analysis of Mezzogiorno’s agriculture.