A spatial analysis of terrain features and farming styles in a disadvantaged area of Tuscany (Mugello): implications for the evaluation and the design of CAP payments

A Spatial Integrated Database for the Enhancement of the Agricultural Custodianship Role (SIDECAR)—Some preliminary tests using Tuscany as a case-study Region

“…Vice versa, previous studies on Less Favored Areas (Cooper et al, 2006) had also analyzed how financial resources had been distributed according to type of territory or farm typologies. Results of the ex-post analyses performed using SIDECAR (Fastelli et al, 2017) showed that aid distribution in one Tuscany LFA was not consistent either with the degree of natural constraints or with farm typologies. Indeed, farms that were able to intercept the higher share of financial resources were not those more in need of aid or with a higher degree of multifunctionality.…”

“…coming from on-field survey, to promote a more participative approach. Technical aspect on how SIDECAR has been built can be found on Fastelli et al (2017). SIDECAR includes the georeferenced cadastral parcels belonging to 67,293 Tuscany farms, i.e.…”

“…SIDECAR was used also in an ex-post analysis of the efficiency in the distribution of aid to Less Favored Areas, where also farm strategies and attitudes were taken into account. The results of this analysis are described in Fastelli et al (2017) and will be partly commented in the discussion of SIDECAR performances. Section 3.2 presents the second case-study, which aroused from a specific need expressed by the Tuscany Region.…”

“…In this case, the analysis allowed us to determine the areas that, for territorial and farm characteristics, require specific intervention to counteract the negative effects of greening. SIDECAR has also been used to assess programming instruments ex-post, in the specific Less Favored Areas (LFA) measures within Pillar II (Fastelli et al, 2017). Lately, the scientific debate has focused on the new criteria for the delimitation of areas with natural constraints (van Orshoven et al, 2014).…”