The survival of family farming in Europe is a crucial issue, as it assures landscape maintenance in marginal areas and provides transmission and accumulation of site-specific knowledge in agricultural activity. Using data from a sample of Italian horticultural farms, we explored the multiple forces driving farm succession in a high value added sector. In addition to the traditional factors examined in the literature (farm, farmer and family features), we treated the farm transfer choice as the complement of the decision to migrate out of the agricultural sector, testing the effects of local labour market conditions (employment, income gap between farm and non-farm sector) and population density around the farm, as a proxy of rural-urban interface relationships. It has been shown that both traditional factors and territorial and labour market conditions influence the probability of farm succession. Interestingly labour market conditions exerted an effect in line with occupational choice theory only in less inhabited areas; in more densely populated regions a ruralurban linkage effect seems to prevail, creating an environment that fosters succession of young horticultural farmers. Peri-urban areas may thus be a favourable location for professional and specialized horticultural farms, as well as multifunctional and de-specialized ones, if their assets are properly protected against farmland subtraction. More generally, these findings confirm the validity of a more comprehensive approach toward farm succession, which takes occupational choice theory and rural-urban farm adaptation strategies into account.

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Farm succession is a relevant issue, as it is related to rural and youth migration, sustainability and the ageing of the agricultural sector. Understanding the factors behind the willingness of potential successors to take over the family business is crucial for farm continuity. We examine the factors affecting children's likelihood of carrying on the family business in a sample of 216 potential heirs of Italian horticultural farms. Using local labour market conditions (income gap and employment rate) and surrounding context variables (population density), we plug the farm labour migration/occupational choice theory into farm succession analysis. This approach allows us to treat child succession as the opposite of the choice to migrate out of the farm sector. While farm labour migration theory predicts linear negative effects of labour market/contextual variables on farm transfer, we find that the income gap, employment rates and population density exert both negative and positive effects on child succession, according to their intensity. The pro-succession effects we find suggest that, despite potential threats, the proximity to wealthy areas may represent an opportunity for farm continuity and thriving. We also examine explicitly the effect of child characteristics (gender and birth order), finding that male and first-born potential successors are more likely to take over the family farm, in accordance with results from previous firm succession studies. This finding suggests a persistence of traditional normative beliefs in the agricultural sector.

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The growing demand of green maize for biogas production in Northern Italy

Applying a circular economy approach, this research explores the use of cheese whey permeate (CWP), by-product of whey ultrafiltration, as cheap substrate for the production of bacterial cellulose (BC) and Sakacin-A, to be used in an antimicrobial packaging material. BC from the acetic acid bacterium Komagataeibacter xylinus was boosted up to 6.77 g/L by supplementing CWP with β-galactosidase. BC was then reduced to nanocrystals (BCNCs, 70% conversion yield), which were then conjugated with Sakacin-A, an anti-Listeria bacteriocin produced by Lactobacillus sakei in a CWP based broth. Active conjugates (75 Activity Units (AU)/mg), an innovative solution for bacteriocin delivery, were then included in a coating mixture applied onto paper sheets at 25 AU/cm2. The obtained antimicrobial food package was found effective in reducing Listeria population in storage trials carried out on a fresh Italian soft cheese (named “stracchino”) intentionally inoculated with Listeria. Production costs of the active material have been mainly found to be associated (90%) to the purification steps. Setting a maximum prudential 50% cost reduction during process up-scaling, conjugates coating formulation would cost around 0.89 €/A4 sheet. Results represent a practical example of a circular economy production procedure by using a food industry by-product to produce antimicrobials for food preservation.

Abstract:In the last decade, increased environmental awareness has prompted the adoption of incentives for exploiting renewable energy sources. Among these, biogas production has received a certain attention in developed countries. Nonetheless, the subsidies provided have posed the problem of an activity (the production of bioenergy) that engages in direct competition with food and feed production for limited resources, like agricultural land. Even if this competition may be softened by allocating marginal land and/or using dedicated non-agricultural crops, empirical evidence shows that biogas plants have been developed in highly-productive agricultural areas, using increasing amounts of maize silage as feedstock. Thus, studies aimed at measuring the effect of biogas production on agricultural activities are needed in order to avoid this socially undesirable outcome. The paper presents an econometric estimation of the impact of biogas plants on farmland rental values of a Northern Italian rural area. Results show that biogas has a non-linear effect on rental prices, suggesting that incentive schemes specifically accounting for plants' dimensions and technologies would improve the social sustainability of the bioenergy sector and its coexistence with agricultural activity.