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Since the late 1980s, sustainable land management is one of the objectives of the European Commission in Less Favoured Areas. In this paper, we investigate the economic and environmental sustainability of farming systems in two less favoured areas in Centro and Alentejo areas of Portugal. The specific objectives were the following: (i) to characterise the farming systems; (ii) to analyse their development over a 20‐year period (1989–2009); and (iii) to investigate to what extent these farming systems contribute to sustainable land management. The diversity of the farming systems was identified through a survey and cluster analysis and compared with the Farm Accountancy Data Network classification on types of farming. Indicators on the economic and environmental sustainability were estimated, namely, farm net income, return to labour and rotation management, on the basis of a survey, Farm Accountancy Data Network database and Landsat imagery, respectively. Results indicate an increased focus on livestock in the past 20 years (1989–2009). In Centro, rotation management was not affected. The small ruminant farms have been able to retain a positive farm net income but that was only possible with a below average return to labour. In Alentejo, the increased focus on livestock, cattle in particular, led to an intensification of fodder production on certain plots. Mixed crop–livestock farms show a negative farm net income since 1995 and depend heavily on subsidies to remain viable. As other studies in southern Europe have shown, farm strategies have often been directed towards lowering labour inputs, lowering forage deficits through on‐farm produced resources and acquiring subsidies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Varicella is an acute and highly contagious disease produced by the varicella-zoster virus, which leaves lasting immunity. Herpes zoster is produced by reactivation of a latent infection of the same virus. The introduction of systematic and free vaccination against varicella in children of 15 months in Navarre from 2007 onwards can be expected to produce important epidemiological changes. For this reason we describe the previous epidemiological situation in the period from 2005 to 2006. We analysed all cases of varicella and herpes zoster registered in the electronic clinical files of primary care, in the database of hospital discharges and in the mortality register. Between 2005 and 2006, 9,908 cases of varicella were diagnosed (8.29 annually per 1,000 inhabitants), with 90% in children under 15 years old. There were 80 hospital admissions (8 for every 1,000 cases), complications in 2.5 out of every 1,000 cases, and there was one death due to this cause (0.1 per 1,000 cases). In the same period, 4,959 cases of herpes zoster were diagnosed (4.15 cases per 1,000 inhabitants), half in people over 55 years old. There were 179 hospital admissions (36 per 1,000 cases), whose average age was 77, and 83 presented complications (16.7 per 1,000 cases). This epidemiological pattern is similar to that found in other places before the introduction of the vaccine.

Although Portugal registers a large number of protected brand names, its economic turnover is very low when compared to the other southern EU-Member States. To identify and analyze the main reasons of this weak economic significance of the Portuguese quality traditional agrifood products are the main goals of this paper. The main conclusions from the data gathered in step one of the research, which main goal was to understand the main reasons why agricultural firms do not adhere to the PDO/PGI food systems, are related with several issues, namely: the economic and transactions costs of certification, the heavy bureaucracy related to the certification process, the small difference in prices between PDO/PGI products and standard products, within the same reference market, and the preferences of Portuguese consumers. According to the respondents, Portuguese consumers do not know nor socially valorize PDO/PGI products, and privilege (i) traditional/local standard products, instead of PDO/ 1. Study developed under the Rural Natework Project "Observatório de sistemas de produção localizados e valorização de produtos locais; Identificação, análise e divulgação de boas práticas de comercialização e valorização de produtos agro-alimentares tradicionais" (PNRR: PA 0400157-58-59).2. Professora Associada com Agregação, PGI products, and (ii) proximity marketed relationships. These latter findings contribute to highlight, not only why the interviewed firms do not adhere to the PDO/PGI systems, but also why the Portuguese PDO/PGI domestic market is narrow when compared with the ones of southern EU-Member States.

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