Stefano Ciliberti

Recent tax reforms contributed to developing a seemingly tax-free agricultural sector in Italy. The purpose of this article is to investigate inconsistencies of the cadastral system and analyse whether it contributes to distancing taxation in agriculture from general principles of fairness and economic efficiency. Data from official sources are analysed using a composite research design with four methodological steps, aimed to: i) investigate differences between cadastral holders and farms; ii) highlight impacts of structural changes in agriculture; iii) contrast determination procedures for cadastral and capital incomes; and iv) evaluate farmland income as a measure of income and land value. Findings reveal several limitations of the Italian cadastral system as an instrument for measuring land and business income, highlighting a mismatch between property and business income taxation, which makes the distinction between farmland and agrarian income anachronistic.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has incorporated climate change action and environmental care in addition to traditional goals aimed at enhancing farmers’ incomes. However, such a policy is not free from drawbacks and limitations, which limit its internal coherence and external credibility. In this paper, we focus on decoupled direct payments (DDP) investigating whether and how the choice of the criteria for their allocation across European farmers can impact on their targeting and on CAP coherence, that is, the ability to jointly contribute to redistributive and environmental goals. Based on a Spearman correlation analysis performed on the FADN dataset including farms from 28 European countries in the period 2015–2017, the present paper sheds lights on the disputed role of land as criterion of allocation of DDP. Despite a high level of heterogeneity of farms characteristics across the EU, quantitative evidence reveals the existence of alternative criteria to land for better allocating direct payments and improve their targeting, with positive consequence in terms of policy coherence.

This note examines the state of carbon farming (CF) policies in the European Union (EU), highlighting their potential to deliver significant public benefits, such as improved soil health, air quality, and climate mitigation. The existing mechanisms for encouraging carbon sequestration and evaluating alternative support scenarios are assessed, starting from analysing the regulation on carbon sequestration certification adopted by the European Parliament and the Council following a proposal from the European Commission. This note analyses the integration of CF into the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) through cross-compliance measures, eco-schemes, and Rural Development programmes. Additionally, it explores potential CF support frameworks, including exclusive reliance on the first CAP pillar, the voluntary carbon market, and mixed approaches. The analysis highlights several trade-offs: balancing CAP budget limitations with the need for stronger environmental measures, mitigating market uncertainty in the voluntary carbon market, and ensuring that certification costs do not deter farmer participation. Despite these challenges, the findings suggest that including CF within CAP, either as an alternative or complement to the voluntary carbon credit market, could enhance carbon sequestration and align EU agriculture with climate neutrality goals, particularly when supported by a structured certification system.

The environmental impact of beef cattle production varies significantly across farming systems, influenced by factors like feed, management practices, and land use. By applying the LCA perspective with “from cradle to farm gate” boundaries and using the CAP’2ER^® tool, this study evaluates the carbon footprint of two farming models in Italy: a semi-extensive cow-calf beef production and an intensive farm for calf fattening. The carbon footprint was calculated using two functional units: kilograms of live meat gross production (LMGP), and a monetary unit. The first model showed a lower carbon footprint, with 13.4 kg CO₂eq/kg LMGP and 1.96 kg CO₂eq/EUR, compared to the second one 19.2 kg CO₂eq/kg LMGP and 5.20 kg CO₂eq/EUR. The use of monetary value as a functional unit is rarely explored in the literature, since most studies have focused on weight-based metrics, favoring intensive systems with longer lifecycles compared to extensive farming. Furthermore, contrary to findings in the literature for semi-extensive systems like adaptive multi-paddock grazing, the tool used for the calculation did not detect any carbon sequestration. These findings highlight the need for further investigation into diverse functional units to assess the environmental and economic performance of farming systems. Expanding this approach could inform policies and consumer decisions, promoting sustainable beef production aligned with climate goals and the European Green Deal agenda.

It is usually believed that the position of farmers along the agro-food supply chains is weak, and this circumstance leads farms to achieve modest prices for their products and, in turn, capture only a small share of the added value. Such a situation substantially limits farms’ efforts to adequately remunerate the resources employed, including contract and hired labor. This article argues that, while the unfavorable position of farms is a valid concern, it is also crucial to consider how the efficient use of resources employed in agriculture impacts their remuneration, by means of price mechanisms. An empirical analysis conducted on a FADN sample of farms producing processing tomatoes over the years 2014–2018 reveals that the product price which allows for adequate compensation of hired agricultural labor decreases with increasing efficiency. At the same time, all other things being equal, for price levels above the theoretical one, the profit of the farms increases and the possibility for fairer wages as well.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has incorporated environmental sustainability in addition to traditional goals aimed at enhancing farmers’ incomes. However, such a policy intervention is not free from drawbacks and limitations. We focus on decoupled direct payments (DDP) investigating whether and how the choice of the criteria for their allocation across farmers can impact on CAP coherence and effectiveness, that is the ability to jointly achieve redistributive and environmental goals. Based on a Spearman correlation analysis performed on the FADN dataset including farms from 28 European countries in the period 2015-2017, the present paper sheds lights on the disputed role of land as criterion of allocation of DDP. Despite a high level of heterogeneity of farms characteristics across the EU, quantitative evidence reveals the existence of alternative criteria of allocation of these public aids which can robustly improve policy coherence and therefore CAP effectiveness in matching equity and sustainability.

Governance mechanisms along the agri-food supply chains are increasingly important in a scenario of ecological transition. Under the conceptual and analytical lens of the Transaction Cost Economics, we explored farmers’ preferences towards a variety of clauses usually adopted in production contracts. To this purpose, a discrete choice experiment among 190 durum wheat producers in Italy was conducted. Results from a latent class model showed that producers were mainly interested in fixed prices formula and to join shared rules of production but revealed little or no interest for compelling sustainable cultivation techniques and the provision of technical assistance. However, these preferences are heterogeneous across farmers and vary depending on their level of education and previous use of contractual arrangements, with relevant implications for contract design and management. Governance mechanisms along the agri-food supply chains are increasingly important in a scenario of ecological transition. Under the conceptual and analytical lens of the Neo Institutional Economics, we explored farmers’ preferences towards a variety of clauses usually adopted in production contracts. To this purpose, a discrete choice experiment among 190 durum wheat producers in Italy was conducted. Results from a latent class model showed that that producers were mainly interested in fixed prices formula and to join shared rules of production but revealed little or no interest for compelling sustainable cultivation techniques and the provision of technical assistance. However, these preferences are heterogenous across farmers and vary depending on their level of education and previous use of contractual arrangements, with relevant implications for contract design and management.

Introduction: Under an increasing demand from citizen and public institutions, agri-food supply chains are requested to comply with stringent environmental requirements. Moreover, new sources of uncertainty related to pandemic and geo-political turbulences put further pressures on economic agents, calling for proper and resilient governance mechanisms. Under the lens of the Neo Institutional Economics, we focus on production contracts and their clauses which, in turn, perform different functions and contribute to allocate property and decision rights, in the attempt to conciliate sustainability and food security.Methods: In this framework, contract design assumes a key importance. Thus, we analyze farmers' preferences for different contractual clauses in the cereal sector. A choice experiment is carried out among durum wheat producers in Italy and mixed logit estimations assuming heterogeneous preferences are performed.Results and discussion: Findings provide interesting indications, revealing a strong farmers' willingness to adhere production contracts in exchange for price stability and knowledge transfer offered by technical assistance services. However, producers are not available to limit their decisional autonomy in unilateral agreement with buyers and they reveal a certain indifference to costly production techniques aimed to improve environmental sustainability.