The interactive approach implies that a heterogeneous group of actors cooperates to identify, develop, and introduce innovative solutions on the ground. Twenty-year studies have shown this approach to be the most suitable to support innovation and knowledge sharing in the agri-food system. The present study aims to analyse how the interaction process works in the implementation of OGs in Italy, and its effectiveness, given the relevance assigned to EIP AGRI as a driver for innovation in the past and the current CAP programming periods. An online survey submitted to 270 OGs and 10 in-depth case studies were used to analyse the interaction process and verify whether a common implementation pattern can be identified. The results show that the implementation of OGs in Italy helped capture the real issues of farmers/rural entrepreneurs and support the creation and strengthening of relationships between partners. However, low levels of internal and external communications and the lack of efforts to disseminate the results reduced the effectiveness of the groups. The study showed how complex it is to describe the processes triggered by the interactive approach, being that it is influenced by the type of relationships existing between partners and by other external factors. The implementation of the next generation of OGs could be strengthened by improving their capacity to address the issues of large groups of farmers, promoting the presence of intermediaries to dialogue between partners and facilitating the active participation of advisors.

Irrigation plays a pivotal role in Southern Europe, and its importance is expected to further increase due to rising climatic variability. Concurrently, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) mandates the safeguarding of water bodies and the implementation of incentive pricing strategies to promote efficient water management. Within this context, Irrigation Scheduling Decision Support Systems (IS-DSS) could contribute to the achievement of these objectives, although there are still obstacles to their adoption due to uncertainties regarding their potential benefits. This paper aims to derive a pricing model that reflects actual water use through the adoption of an IS-DSS. The innovation of this study lies in showing that adopting an IS-DSS to reduce irrigation volumes can potentially lower concession fees in collective irrigation systems. Thus, it contributes to the fulfilment of the WFD’s objectives regarding incentive water pricing. Notably, the tool is evaluated using the case study of a farm located in the Mediterranean region. The results demonstrate the dual benefits of IS-DSS adoption: on the one hand, it helps preserve water resources with a 24% reduction in irrigation volumes; on the other, it decreases irrigation costs by 20% at the farm level and by 9.4% at the irrigation district level. Therefore, the presented study provides insights into the potential of IS-DSS to enhance water pricing policies to promote efficient water management in Southern European agriculture in alignment with the WFD requirements.

Bio-based fertilizers (BBFs) can be a solution for converting agricultural waste into new products useful for increasing organic matter in the soil, thus reducing the consumption of mineral fertilizers. This can contribute to the ecological transition launched by the European Commission for the coming decades. Scenario analysis is an effective tool to assess the factors that can affect the development of the agri-food supply chain, evaluating the effects of their possible evolutions. The aim of this work is to draw plausible future scenarios for the BBF supply chain and to strengthen the consistency evaluation process of these scenarios. We built the scenarios considering both the literature and findings from stakeholder consultations. We then verified their consistency by adopting the Cross-Impact Balances (CIB) method, along with other techniques to better evaluate the consistency and plausibility of the narratives. The analysis provides stakeholders with information to evaluate possible future trends in the BBF supply chain. Monitoring the evolution of the identified drivers and maintaining constant and periodic discussions among stakeholders constitute the prerequisites for supporting the desirable future development of BBFs.

This paper analyses the prevailing entrepreneurial profiles within Italy’s professional agricultural sector, using data from the 7th Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) Agricultural Census, 2020. Access to micro-data from the complete spectrum of Italian farms allowed us to perform to an extensive analysis of the entrepreneurial profiles. Moving from market-oriented farms with stable market relationships and a minimum threshold of economic production, we identified nine distinct profiles by using hierarchical cluster analysis and a set of structural and managerial indicators supported by the current literature. These profiles vary significantly in terms of the age of farmers, the economic size of farms, the type of farming, human capital, and strategic orientation. The age of farmers is a particularly powerful variable to discriminate among the entrepreneurial profiles. Although young farmers are often more innovative than older ones, the spectrum of entrepreneurship is wide and diverse, especially regarding the diversification of activities. Our results confirm a complex picture of farm management in Italy, where corporate businesses integrated into the agro-food system coexist with small farms and part-time farmers. Such representation calls for more targeted public support policies that address specific needs and potential role of different types of farmers.

Il 6° Censimento Generale dell’Agricoltura del 2010, i cui risultati sono stati resi pubblici recentemente, ha contato in Italia un milione 621 mila aziende agricole con 12 milioni 856 mila ettari di superficie agricola utilizzata (Sau). Nonostante la considerevole contrazione (- 32,4 per cento) del numero di aziende dal precedente Censimento del 2000, la superficie media è ancora pari a 7,9 ettari, a fronte di 490 mila aziende con 55 ettari di Sau in media in Francia e 300 mila aziende con 56 ettari di Sau in media in Germania. Dalla lettura di questi dati, se ne deriva spesso una immagine particolarmente preoccupata: la competitività dell’agricoltura Italiana appare ancora frenata da un pesante gap strutturale. Ma dividendo le aziende censite sulla base della loro dimensione economica (una misura del reddito lordo, basata sulla produzione standard calcolata applicando una metodologia europea), l’agricoltura italiana offre un’immagine di sé molto articolata. Il 67 per cento delle aziende agricole italiane ha una dimensione economica inferiore a 10 mila euro (circa una pensione media). Più della metà di queste aziende (pari al 36,4 dell’intero universo censito) auto-consuma totalmente o in prevalenza la propria produzione. Quelle che restano di questo gruppo, che commercializzano la maggior parte della produzione, hanno una dimensione economica media di appena 3.730 euro l’anno. Queste aziende, secondo lo studio, non possono essere considerate propriamente imprese per il carattere accessorio della propria attività.