Soil Utilization and Farming

In spite of the variety of morphological conditions and the extent of mountainous terrain, only 12% of Italian territory (buildings, roads, wasteland, waters etc.) is actually unproductive. Apart from the large extent of forest (c. 21%), abandoned and rough ground and service areas (c. 9%), the surface effectively destined for annual or stable permanent cultivation amounts to little more than 58% of the entire national territory. Referring to the organization of agriculture, the last general census of agriculture (24.10.1982) also indicates that of a total relative surface cultivated by more than 3 million farmers (3,270,560, about 78% of national territory), little more than half (about 53%) was effectively utilized. Most of this land is owner-farmed (94%) and less than 2% under the sharecropping system, once common throughout most of the country (especially in Veneto and the central regions). The land is still split up amongst a very large number of small farmers. Since 35% belongs to large farms (over 100 hectares), which in themselves fail to account for 1.1% of the total, Italian agriculture presumably consists of medium-sized farms (5-100 hectares, 23.5% of the total) covering practically half (48%) of all arable land. This is demonstrated by the trend accentuated in the period between the last two agricultural censuses (1970-1982) of the drop in numbers of small farms and the increase of medium to larger holdings (20 hectares and more). This trend has been accompanied by fairly limited changes in land ownership and, in the case of smallholders, by abandonment of the land for the town in order to emigrate and, in any case, taking non-agricultural employment. Between 1970 and 1982 the total number of farms dropped by 10% and the cultivated area by 6%. In spite of these changes in the number and structure of farms, Italian agriculture is, compared to others, a particularly underdeveloped economic sector, both for its organizational weakness and imbalances in production. It has particularly felt the effects of a lack of agricultural policy in orienting selection and reinforcing structures. Consequently, apart from land reclamation, reform of land holding and increased mechanization, the rise in productivity in the postwar years has been relatively modest, and influenced by wide fluctuations in international markets and congenital weakness of the sector (marked by a high degree of traditional individualism) with regard to commercial intermediation and changes in internal consumption which can only be partially met.