More than 90 per cent of Italian farms have a usable agricultural area of less than 9 ha, even if over time there has been a growth of the average agricultural area per farm as a consequence of rural out-migration. This paper compares, using a nonparametric model, the technical efficiency of smallholder family (diretto coltivatrice), co-operative and limited company farms during the period 2000-2011. The diretto coltivatrice farms and the co-operative farms had higher levels of scale efficiency than the limited company farms, with a scale efficiency value equal to 100 per cent in ten years out of twelve. The average technical efficiency of diretto coltivatrice farms was higher than those of co-operative and limited company farms. The second part of the quantitative analysis used the self-organising maps (SOM) proposed by Kohonen. The SOMs indicated that the size of the agricultural area has a direct impact on the technical efficiency of farms and on their level of income.
Food price situation in Europe
Food prices in the EU have risen dramatically in 2022 and the first half of 2023. The drivers of this...
