La politique agricole commune et les régions méditerranéennes : un point de vue italien

In Italy, as well as in other Mediterranean countries of the EC, average labour productivity in agriculture is very low often due to insufficient farm size. This inefficient production structure is a consequence of the traditional agricultural policy aiming all keeping a large number of people in the agricultural sector. Special support to small, inefficient farms contributed to keep a production structure permanently in need of public aid. By substantially reducing product price support, the CAP reform could allow the implementation of an efficient structural policy by increasing the intersectoral mobility of resources and favouring domestic and international economic development. In order to reach this objective, the modalities by which the reduction in farm income is compensated become of strategic importance : if compensation is computed every year and only on part of the farmed area, administrative costs and opportunities for fraud will be very high while structural adjustment will be hindered. On the other side, if compensation is computed only once for a pre-defined number of years and paid through bonds salable on the financial markets, administrative costs and frauds will be much lower and farmers would be provided with a means to increase their farm size or to invest in other non farm activities, favouring in such a way a larger occupational flexibility and both agricultural and non-agricultural economic development.