A long-term analysis of the common agricultural policy financial subsidies towards Italian farms

Abstract

In Italy since 2000 there has been a significant decrease of farms and a notable increase of the usable agricultural areas. In order to reduce the socioeconomic marginalization in rural territories the European Union has supported financially the rural development in a pattern of pluriactivity and productive diversification in farms. The core purpose of this research was to assess by a multiple regression model the impact of financial subsidies allocated by the Common Agricultural Policy on the farmer net income since 2004 to 2016 in Italian farms belonging to the Farm Accountancy Data Network. Findings have pointed out a direct impact of financial supports disbursed by the European Union; by contrast, no impacts have had payments disbursed by the second pillar. Drawing the conclusions, it is fundamental to increase the financial supports of the Common Agricultural Policy aimed at implementing the land capital endowment which is the one of the main bottlenecks in Italian farms.