Guido Baldoni

Classification of Italian Farms in the FADN Database Combining Climate and Structural Information

ABSTRACT Although describing the primary sector of a given country is a common institutional practice, such studies usually offer aggregated information on holding rather than supplying the information required for farm-level simulations. The present study aimed to identify the main typologies of Italian farms from the 2007 database of RICA (the Italian section of the European Unions Farm Accountancy Data Network). Using a hierarchical strategy driven by climates (5) and slopes (3), farms have been grouped by super-structure, described in terms of the presence and extent of primary activities (livestock, farmland use). The resulting picture of Italian farms is based on 35 farm types, the most common of which grow low-input orchards (e.g., olive trees). On the plains in warm climatic areas, low-input orchards and arable crops dominate; in hilly and mountainous areas, mixed farms with forage crops, meadows, ovines, and cattle prevail. In more temperate areas, the most common farm type is based on intensive...

Sustainability in organic and conventional farm ing: toward s a multicriteria model based on simulated farm indicators

In this paper we report our efforts to develop an inter-temporal model for the evaluation of the impact of organic farming on greenhouse gases emissions, that we called BIOSUS-MAD. The model focuses on the maximization of farmer’s net income though different crops rotations constrained to the use of resource inputs; outputs of this optimization process are numerical values for key variables useful to estimate a set of social, economic and environmental indicators. These indicators will feed a multi-criteria model providing a synthetic and comparable sustainability overall index. This approach makes MAD a potentially useful tool for policy-makers to get an ex-ante assessment of the effects of agro-environmental policies. The model can manage different scenarios and could provide useful information to policy makers by running simulations incorporating European economic and/or environmental policies.