IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/eaa111/53964.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Diversification strategies in small farms in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Salvioni, Cristina
  • Esposito, Laura
  • Henke, Roberto
  • Rondinelli, V.

Abstract

Using the data gathered by the Business Survey on Agriculture survey on a stratified random sample of Italian farm businesses below 4 European economic size units as a case study, this paper explores the diffusion of diversification strategies among small farms. The analysis has shown that more than a half of small farms is adopting some form of diversification. Small farms are more strongly involved in pluriactivity, while their involvement in broadening and deepening strategies appears only marginal. This latter result is partly due to the underevaluation of diversification caused by the lack of detailed statistical information about diversified activities used by farms, and, partly, due to the structural characteristics of small farms. Smaller farms are usually characterized by a lack of capital; as a consequence they can often redeploy only their labour off the farm. The characteristics associated with the targeted group of farms show that small farms using broadening strategies present much better economic results than conventional small farms. More specifically, farms using broadening strategies appear to be the winning ones in terms of net farm income per family working unit.

Suggested Citation

  • Salvioni, Cristina & Esposito, Laura & Henke, Roberto & Rondinelli, V., 2009. "Diversification strategies in small farms in Italy," 111th Seminar, June 26-27, 2009, Canterbury, UK 53964, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:eaa111:53964
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.53964
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/53964/files/060.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.53964?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wilmer M. Harper & Clyde Eastman, 1980. "An Evaluation of Goal Hierarchies for Small Farm Operators," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 62(4), pages 742-747.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dries, Liesbeth & Pascucci, Stefano & Gardebroek, Cornelis, 2011. "Pluriactivity in Italian Agriculture: Are Farmers Using Interlinked Strategies?," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114429, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Butinya, Lluis & Velazco, Jackeline & Rigall-I-Torrent, Ricard, 2014. "Determinants of on-farm diversification: The case of farmers in Catalonia," Revista Espanola de Estudios Agrosociales y Pesqueros, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Rural y Marino (formerly Ministry of Agriculture), issue 238, pages 1-28.
    3. Bonfiglio, Andrea & Abitabile, Carla & Henke, Roberto, 2022. "A choice model-based analysis of diversification in organic and conventional farms," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 11(2), July.
    4. Aditya R. Khanal & Ashok K. Mishra, 2014. "Agritourism and off-farm work: survival strategies for small farms," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(S1), pages 65-76, November.
    5. Concetta Cardillo & Orlando Cimino, 2022. "Small Farms in Italy: What Is Their Impact on the Sustainability of Rural Areas?," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-25, November.
    6. Franco Rosa & Mario Taverna & Federico Nassivera & Luca Iseppi, 2019. "Farm/crop portfolio simulations under variable risk: a case study from Italy," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Pauline Lécole, 2015. "Paysage des petites exploitationsagricoles en France:Typologie et analyse statistique," Post-Print hal-01417734, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gómez-Limón, José A. & Gutiérrez-Martín, Carlos & Riesgo, Laura, 2016. "Modeling at farm level: Positive Multi-Attribute Utility Programming," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 17-27.
    2. Costa, F. P. & Rehman, T., 1999. "Exploring the link between farmers' objectives and the phenomenon of pasture degradation in the beef production systems of Central Brazil," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 135-146, August.
    3. Tanaka, John A. & Torell, L. Allen & Rimbey, Neil R., 2005. "Who Are Public Land Ranchers and Why Are They Out There?," Western Economics Forum, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 4(2), pages 1-7.
    4. Jeffrey Gillespie & Ashok Mishra, 2011. "Off‐farm employment and reasons for entering farming as determinants of production enterprise selection in US agriculture," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 55(3), pages 411-428, July.
    5. Chiara Calabrese1 & Stefan Mann1 & Michel Dumondel, 2012. "Patterns of occupational choice in the Swiss alpine labor market," Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, vol. 5(1), pages 31-54.
    6. Zenebe Gebreegziabher & Kooten, G. Cornelis van, 2016. "Single versus Multiple Objective(s) Decision Making: An Application to Subsistence Farms in Northern Ethiopia," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 24(2), August.
    7. Cary, John W. & Holmes, Bill, 1982. "Relationships Among Farmers' Goals And Farm Adjustment Strategies: Some Empirics Of A Multidimensional Approach," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 26(2), pages 1-17, August.
    8. Sumpsi, JoseMaria & Amador, Francisco & Romero, Carlos, 1997. "On farmers' objectives: A multi-criteria approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 64-71, January.
    9. Graskemper, Viktoria & Meine, Karolin & Feil, Jan-Henning, 2020. "Values of Farmers in the Context of Entrepreneurship – Evidence from Germany," 60th Annual Conference, Halle/ Saale, Germany, September 23-25, 2020 305603, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    10. Skaggs, Rhonda K. & Kirksey, R.E. & Harper, Wilmer M., 1994. "Determinants And Implication Of Post-Crp Land Use Decisions," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Mishra, Ashok K. & Gillespie, Jeffrey M., 2007. "The Role of Goal Structure in Enterprise Selection in U.S. Agriculture," 2007 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2007, Mobile, Alabama 34965, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    12. Julio Berbel & Julio Gallego & Horacio Sagues, 1991. "Marketing goals vs. business profitability: An interactive multiple criteria decision-making approach," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(6), pages 537-549.
    13. Graskemper, Viktoria & Meine, Karolin & Feil, Jan-Henning, 2020. "Values of Farmers in the Context of Entrepreneurship – Evidence from Germany," 60th Annual Conference, Halle/ Saale, Germany, September 23-25, 2020 305603, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    14. Sitienei, Isaac & Gillespie, Jeffrey & Scaglia, Guillermo, 2016. "Goal Structure of U.S. Grass-Fed Beef Producers," 2016 Annual Meeting, February 6-9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas 229565, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    15. Jeffrey Gillespie & Narayan Nyaupane & Brittany Dunn & Kenneth McMillin, 2016. "Why do farmers decide to produce meat goats? Evidence from the United States," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 911-927, December.
    16. Berbel, J. & Rodriguez-Ocana, A., 1998. "An MCDM approach to production analysis: An application to irrigated farms in Southern Spain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 107(1), pages 108-118, May.
    17. Andrés Weintraub & Carlos Romero, 2006. "Operations Research Models and the Management of Agricultural and Forestry Resources: A Review and Comparison," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 36(5), pages 446-457, October.
    18. Luciano Pilati & Mario Prestamburgo, 2016. "Sequential Relationship between Profitability and Sustainability: The Case of Migratory Beekeeping," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, January.
    19. Gomez-Limon, Jose A. & Martinez, Yolanda, 2006. "Multi-criteria modelling of irrigation water market at basin level: A Spanish case study," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(1), pages 313-336, August.
    20. Graskemper, Viktoria & Feil, Jan-Henning, 2021. "Values of farmers: Evidence from Germany," DARE Discussion Papers 2101, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (DARE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:eaa111:53964. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.