Crop diversification and sustainability: early results from a sample of Italian experiences

The questionnaire asked actors to assess the success of the diversification initiative they were involved in, referring to a number of set objectives. Such objectives may refer to one or all of the following broad macro-goals:

• Reduction of the environmental impact
• Improvement of farmers’ income
• Creation of new value chains
• Stability of production.

The results presented in this paper are still preliminary, more analysis and the interviews will be carried on later on. Nevertheless, referring to the macro-goals listed above, all the actors viewed their diversification initiative as successful or moderately successful. The more detailed results are as follows:

• Reduction of the environmental impact: 65 % successful, 29 % moderately successful.
• Farmers’ income: 50 % successful, 39 % moderately successful.
• Creation of new value chains: 75 % successful, 13 % moderately successful.
• Stability of production: 95 % successful.

In the actors’ opinion, many elements played a role in achieving the objectives, indicating the necessity to involve all the actors of the agri-food chains when developing diversification initiatives. From the survey, nevertheless, two elements seem to stand up, namely: assuring sufficient economic resources in order to undertake the projects, and the necessity to operate within an agri-food chain involving retailers too, in order to assure a market for the produce.          

The study is available in Italian on Zenodo (see link below).

Further information

Contact

Luca Colombo, FIRAB

Link

zenodo.org: Article "Diversificazione e sostenibilita dei sistemi colturali: I primi resulati di un Monitoraggio di un campione di esüperienze italiane"