Technical and economic efficiency analysis on Italian smallholder family farms using Farm Accountancy Data Network dataset

An analysis of technical efficiency in Icelandic dairy and sheep farms

“…tries, comparing the impact of financial subsidies with the levels of technical efficiency found in different countries (Laurinavičius and Rimkuvienė, 2017;Galluzzo, 2013;2015;Latruffe et al, 2017;Gorton et al, 2008;Bojnec and Latruffe, 2008). At the same time, various authors have focused their research on assessing the levels of crop specialisation (Gorton et al, 2008;Galluzzo, 2015;2017;Latruffe et al, 2017;Bojnec and Latruffe, 2008). In many European countries, technical efficiency in farms has been assessed using non-parametric and deterministic methods such as the DEA, but it seems that studies of technical efficiency in farms in Iceland using a non-parametric approach for comparing two different types of livestock farming are not so common in the literature.…”

Efficiency analysis in different typologies of farming in Italian FADN dataset

“…These farms are predominately scattered in upland and in less favored rural areas hence, in these territories farmers are the main tile in the complex mosaic of multifunctionality such as a priority factor in the holistic rural development process able to reduce partially environmental degradation in a perspective of multifunctionality (Galluzzo, 2015b). As previously mentioned, findings on the analysis of efficiency and on the agricultural property have emphasized the role and function of smallholder farmers, that have got tiny units of production, mostly fragmented and located dispersedly in the Italian countryside considered wrongly because of their dimension, inefficient as assessed and argued in other European countries (Galluzzo, 2013;2015a;Camelia, Vasile, 2016).…”

“…This value is far low to the European average of agrarian area equal to 12.6 hectares EP 2017 (64) 2 (451-465) (Greco and Di Cristofaro, 2011) and it arose significantly over the time due to the rural depopulation and emigration from the countryside. In order to contrast these downsides, the diversification in farm's activities has been one of the most useful action both to get better the farmer's income and also to restructure socio-economic relationships inside rural communities (Galluzzo, 2014; Van der Ploeg et al, 2000; Stockdale, 2006;2004; Van der Ploeg, Renting, 2000; Shucksmith, Chapman, 1998) Focusing the attention on Italy, ninety-five percent of Italian farms are owned by a sole agrarian entrepreneur, who has got both the absolute ownership of the farm and also the management of it with the same level of technical efficiency than the medium size farms as well as of other agrarian enterprises managed by limited companies (Galluzzo, 2013;2015a). The typical context and features of the Italian agrarian socioeconomic fabric is made by small family farms, whose ownership is in the hands of a single person, who is the householder.…”

“…In literature many scholars have investigated before and after the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 the technical and economic efficiency, addressing their research attention on the nexus between efficiency and some variables such as level of farm net income, dimension of farm, crop specialization and financial subsidies allocated by the Common Agricultural Policy (Galluzzo, 2015a;2016 Latruffe, 2009;Bielik, Rajcaniova, 2004). Some of these latter authors have argued as a critical downside of smallholder farms is intrinsic in their small fragmentized poor plots of land which does not allow an efficient use of productive factors such as capital land and labor capital with no opportunities in reducing the cost of inputs by new investments.…”

Precision Farming in Hilly Areas: The Use of Network RTK in GNSS Technology

“…This method is essential as it is able to manage the wide variability of usage conditions in typical Italian farms, which are characterized by their (often highly fragmented) land capital [15][16][17][18][19]. The diffusion of highly-innovative techniques, favored by their adaptability to each agricultural reality, would substantially contribute to the modern transformation of productive processes in the Italian primary sector [20].…”