Farm succession, occupational choice and farm adaptation at the rural-urban interface: The case of Italian horticultural farms

Published Date
30 November 2016, Vol.57:739–748, doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.07.002

Author 

Danilo Bertoni 

Daniele Cavicchioli ^,

Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, The University of Milan, Via G. Celoria, 2-20133, Milano, Italy

Received 24 March 2016. Revised 21 June 2016. Accepted 1 July 2016. Available online 17 July 2016.

Highlights

• Family farming succession and survival has implications for land allocation.
• •
  We test surrounding conditions and labour market effects on family farm transfer.
• •
  Local labour market has non-linear effect on farm succession.
• •
  Higher succession probabilities in more wealth and populated areas.
• •
  Peri-urban areas are a thriving context for both diversified and specialised farms.

Abstract 

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 rural-urban 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 specialised horticultural farms, as well as multifunctional and de-specialised 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.

Keywords

Farm transfer

Farm migration

Young farmers

Peri-urban agriculture

Horticulture

---

 Table 1

Table 1.

 Table 2

Table 2.

 Table 3

Table 3.

Figs. 1–4.

• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author.
  
  

For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S110468991630037X