This paper proposes a classification of Italian farms based on their economic di-mension, taking into account as far as possible both the complex and heterogeneous features of the Italian primary sector and the importance of identifying the more pro-fessional farms. Farm typologies are...

This work offers an interpretation of the role that multifunctionality plays in the policies that sustain rural development. Assuming as a reference the livelihood approach, we analyse multifunctionality within a framework which differs from the usual Wto negotiations. We reappraise its...

In this paper the process of income diversification in agriculture is analysed. In the first part we discuss how the decline of the productivist approach and the emergence of new development trajectories have contributed to widen the range of strategies implemented by farms to reverse income...

Intergenerational farm transmission has been the object of a great many studies in Italy, which, however, have failed to clarify the difference between intra-family and extra-family farm transmission. To demonstrate the non-neutrality of this process, our econometric analysis shows: i) a...

The ageing of farmers and lack of successors are major concerns for the future of the sector. The paper analyses the age structure of family workers with a twofold objective. The ageing dynamics is analyzed in order to seek out its inertial components as well as any new trends there may be. The...

The 2010 agricultural census survey yields a detailed picture of farms and the varied range of organizational, dimensional, and productive types. With a simple methodology of typological classification, the analysis proposes a reading of the census results distinguishing between farm-enterprises...

The article provides an analysis of the multifunctionality of Italian agriculture based on the data of the 6th Agricultural Census (Istat). Exploring the new functions assigned to agriculture according to the post-productivist model of development, the paper focuses on two issues closely...

Zambia is a country embracing (and facilitating) large-scale foreign investments in agriculture as a pathway to economic development. Yet to date no systematic studies on the costs and benefits of such investments for customary land users have been conducted. This paper aims to fill that gap...

The traditional process of farm transmission within the family is threatened by the increasing age of operators and by their children’s preference for other activi-ties. After describing the national patterns of agricultural labour ageing, this es-say aims at quantifying the proportion of...

This paper reviews the main theoretical and empirical contributions analysing production choices of farm households in the developing countries, where the markets are imperfect and incomplete. Recent developments in the micro-economic literature have highlighted the existence of a trade-off...