Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) provides bases for comprehensive understanding of Services provided by ecosystems, linking ecosystems and human well-being. As rural landscape is considered provider of multifunction services and is affected by a wide range of land uses several ecosystems are...

The on-farm diversification toward multifunctional activities is perceived as central in the CAP policy reform and in Horizon 2020 strategies, because it strengthen territorial and social cohesion of the rural areas. While relations between farm-household diversification and rural economies are...

In the last decade Italy has experienced a consistent decline in the number of agricultural firms. Beyond the new definition of agricultural firms, this structural change of farms is characterized by exit of small farms and increasing farm size. This paper aims at analyzing the determinants of...

Since introduction with accompanying measures of MacSharry Reform, Agri-Environmental Schemes (AESs) represents the main agricultural policy instrument which address environmental objectives in Common Agricultural Policy. In spite of twenty years application and its high share of RDP budget,...

Since introduction with accompanying measures of MacSharry Reform, Agri-Environmental Schemes (AESs) represents the main agricultural policy instrument which address environmental objectives in Common Agricultural Policy. In spite of twenty years application and its high share of RDP budget,...

Agri-Environmental Schemes (AESs) represent one of the main agricultural policy instruments which address environmental objectives in Common Agricultural Policy. In spite of twenty years of application and its high share of RDP budget, several evaluation reports and scientific literature have...

This paper aims at investigating the factors affecting relative changes in the average farm size over the period 2000-2010. The objective has been pursued applying an empirical investigation in Tuscany region through observation aggregated at municipality level. By applying spatial analysis and...

The rural development plans in Europe, within the provisions of Axis Two of the Common Agricultural Policy, consider the opportunity to protect and enhance “environmental-friendly” farming systems. The present paper describes the role of organic farming measures in the promotion and...

The use and valorisation of landscape services provided in agricultural landscapes are assumed to create socio-economic benefits, which in turn can enhance the competitiveness of rural regions. However, the causal relationships between the valorisation of landscape and the socio-economic...

The 2014 U.S. Farm Act passed into law in early February, 2014, after approximately three years of hearings. Much debate in the negotiations leading to this Farm Act focused on new programs for providing producers with support payments covering “shallow losses” in revenue. We develop an...