Imprese e non-imprese nell’agricoltura italiana

A basic ambiguity characterizes the Italian agriculture of the new millennium: the ambiguity between “agricultural holding” and “agricultural enterprise”. The agricultural Census in the year 2000 has counted more than 2.5 million exploitations in the country. But only a minor part of them have a minimum economic dimension to be considered as an agricultural enterprise properly. More than 80% of the holdings in fact have less than 8 ESU and only less than 10% more than 16 ESU, which can be considered a comparable income in alternative activities for the farmer. The former have a marginal economic role for its owner and, frequently, is farmed for self consumption and leisure. The latter are market-oriented and managed in a professional way. Moreover, despite their relatively small number, they produce a large part of the Italian agricultural GDP. Based on the importance of this dualism in the Italian agriculture between “non-enterprise holdings” and “enterprise holdings”, the paper argues that an agricultural policy oriented to improve the competitivity of the Italian agriculture should be more selective and targeted to the “enterprise-holding”, being other policies suitable for the large number of “non-enterprise holdings”, such as the environmental policy, the social policy, etc.