Agriculture in Italy
Agriculture in Italy, one of the economic sectors of the country, has developed since the 5th millennium BC. In the 20th century, Italy transformed from a predominantly agricultural country to an industrial country. As a result, the agricultural sector (including silviculture and fishing) has seen employment drop dramatically, from 43% (in 1860) to 3.8% (in 2000) of the total,[4][5] a minimal percentage in the national economic framework.
According to the last national agricultural census, in 2010 there was 891,000 people employed in agriculture, mostly men (71.3% of the total) and resident in Southern Italy (46.8% of the total).[6] In 2010 the Italian agricultural area was equal to 17,800,000 ha (43,984,758 acres), of which 12,700,000 ha (31,382,383 acres) are used, and is concentrated above all in Southern Italy (63%).[7]
Description
According to the last national agricultural census, there were 1.6 million farms in 2010 (−32.4% since 2000) covering 12,700,000 ha or 31,382,383 acres (63% of which are located in
Italy is the
In fact,
History
Prehistory
Several archaeological finds show that the first agricultural settlements began in Italy around the
Later, after having crossed the Alpine arc, the peasants who came from the Danube built villages with the same characteristics as those of the Neolithic in the Balkans, which, in the space of a millennium, recorded considerable developments.[14]
Ancient history
In the
The Iron Age saw the appearance of brick houses in rural areas, breeding of livestock, cultivation of fabaceae, accumulation of bronze objects, craftsmenship, trade and individualism. The time of the Roman Republic was dominated by the revolution of iron: ploughshares, pick-axes on the fields (enabling the cultivation of heavy soils), sickles and axes for deforestation as well as iron material for harvesting and pruning of grapes. It was the origin of a landscape with mixed cultures and systematic planning of the terrain around the cities. There was a great development of agricultural technology including haymaking, laying fallow of grounds and hydraulic works (cunicoli). And the commercial grape-olive-culture evolved.[16] The East had developed great empires based on the cultivation of cereals, mainly wheat and barley: Rome, which established itself at the center of the peninsula, conquered many of the great plains of the then known world, assigning each of them a specific function based on its plans of economic and military domination.[17]
Countries whose borders were not threatened by powerful enemies were exploited to feed the
To meet the high demand for food from the central areas of the empire, and from Rome itself, especially from the wealthier classes, the first techniques of cultivation, fruit and vegetables, breeding, pigs, sheep, poultry were developed, pre-industrial in nature. Analyzing the characteristics of this agriculture, designed to satisfy the strong demand, both in terms of quantity and quality, the Spaniard
Medieval history
After the end of the Empire, and for almost a thousand years, agriculture and the economy experienced a period of technological regression, closer to that of the Bronze Age both in Greece and in the regions of Roman Italy. Productivity decreased, but the rural population, living in small villages scattered in a territory of woods and swamps, still managed to derive a significant part of their livelihood from natural habitats, such as meadows and swamps: meat, fish, honey, furs, fabrics.[19]
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, when the first craft and trade companies developed in Europe, new agricultural systems appeared in Flanders, in the Po Valley and in the smaller plains of central Italy. In the Po Valley there has been the development of a new system of relations between man and natural resources and of an agriculture based on irrigation.
Of course, in the Middle East, irrigation allowed, thousands of years ago, an enormous production of wheat on land that has since become deserted for climatic reasons. Late medieval Italian agriculture was based on particularly intensive farming, and on the production of textiles, fruit and vegetables on a large scale.[20]
Modern history
Favored by the abundance of food, the
For two centuries, the fertile fields of the peninsula transformed one of the richest countries on the continent into a land of economic and civil misery, of which the chronicles of the seventeenth century bear witness.
Contemporary history
The 19th century was the period of the "
The extraordinary period that began at the end of the century, with the governments of
At the end of the
In the thirty years that followed the war there was the birth, in the peninsula, of a generation of great agronomists, scientists engaged in the territory outside the traditional schemes. In Europe, agricultural techniques were completely renewed and the first livestock farms were created on the
This "golden age" ends abruptly in 1980: the radical changes in the agricultural policy of the
Statistics
The data relating to the surface of agricultural holdings for the Italian regions and macroregions are shown below.[26]
Regions
Region | 1999 | 2003 | 2005 | 2007 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Piedmont | 1,533,894 ha (3,790,335 acres) | 1,467,267 ha (3,625,696 acres) | 1,459,843 ha (3,607,351 acres) | 1,403,893 ha (3,469,095 acres) |
Aosta Valley | 135,927 ha (335,883 acres) | 127,458 ha (314,956 acres) | 159,842 ha (394,978 acres) | 147,741 ha (365,076 acres) |
Lombardy | 1,392,331 ha (3,440,525 acres) | 1,235,447 ha (3,052,856 acres) | 1,355,039 ha (3,348,374 acres) | 1,258,471 ha (3,109,750 acres) |
Liguria | 184,884 ha (456,858 acres) | 138,509 ha (342,263 acres) | 153,851 ha (380,174 acres) | 135,065 ha (333,753 acres) |
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol | 999,714 ha (2,470,347 acres) | 991,674 ha (2,450,480 acres) | 987,294 ha (2,439,657 acres) | 983,005 ha (2,429,058 acres) |
Veneto | 1,067,788 ha (2,638,562 acres) | 1,171,604 ha (2,895,097 acres) | 1,170,343 ha (2,891,981 acres) | 1,121,386 ha (2,771,005 acres) |
Friuli Venezia Giulia | 386,922 ha (956,105 acres) | 299,603 ha (740,335 acres) | 392,692 ha (970,363 acres) | 361,868 ha (894,195 acres) |
Emilia-Romagna | 1,576,967 ha (3,896,770 acres) | 1,368,911 ha (3,382,653 acres) | 1,440,156 ha (3,558,703 acres) | 1,340,654 ha (3,312,828 acres) |
Tuscany | 1,664,674 ha (4,113,499 acres) | 1,495,329 ha (3,695,038 acres) | 1,543,548 ha (3,814,190 acres) | 1,458,301 ha (3,603,540 acres) |
Umbria | 588,372 ha (1,453,899 acres) | 634,615 ha (1,568,168 acres) | 622,100 ha (1,537,243 acres) | 585,144 ha (1,445,922 acres) |
Marche | 818,809 ha (2,023,321 acres) | 686,552 ha (1,696,507 acres) | 694,702 ha (1,716,646 acres) | 671,481 ha (1,659,266 acres) |
Lazio | 1,128,164 ha (2,787,754 acres) | 1,024,701 ha (2,532,091 acres) | 1,020,391 ha (2,521,441 acres) | 940,447 ha (2,323,895 acres) |
Abruzzo | 753,945 ha (1,863,039 acres) | 623,341 ha (1,540,309 acres) | 640,545 ha (1,582,821 acres) | 657,272 ha (1,624,154 acres) |
Molise | 316,797 ha (782,822 acres) | 261,876 ha (647,110 acres) | 281,762 ha (696,249 acres) | 265,463 ha (655,973 acres) |
Campania | 839,235 ha (2,073,795 acres) | 769,198 ha (1,900,730 acres) | 822,277 ha (2,031,891 acres) | 777,493 ha (1,921,227 acres) |
Apulia | 1,547,972 ha (3,825,122 acres) | 1,377,721 ha (3,404,423 acres) | 1,342,587 ha (3,317,605 acres) | 1,317,444 ha (3,255,475 acres) |
Basilicata | 748,278 ha (1,849,035 acres) | 702,417 ha (1,735,710 acres) | 694,127 ha (1,715,225 acres) | 715,784 ha (1,768,741 acres) |
Calabria | 837,877 ha (2,070,439 acres) | 781,893 ha (1,932,100 acres) | 822,403 ha (2,032,202 acres) | 757,943 ha (1,872,918 acres) |
Sicily | 1,739,829 ha (4,299,211 acres) | 1,459,612 ha (3,606,780 acres) | 1,426,513 ha (3,524,990 acres) | 1,415,233 ha (3,497,117 acres) |
Sardinia | 1,901,397 ha (4,698,454 acres) | 1,614,842 ha (3,990,361 acres) | 1,586,844 ha (3,921,177 acres) | 1,527,457 ha (3,774,428 acres) |
Italy | 20,163,776 ha (49,825,776 acres) | 18,232,570 ha (45,053,662 acres) | 18,616,859 ha (46,003,260 acres) | 17,841,544 ha (44,087,415 acres) |
Macroregions
Territory | 1999 | 2003 | 2005 | 2007 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Northwest Italy | 3,247,036 ha (8,023,601 acres) | 2,968,681 ha (7,335,771 acres) | 3,128,575 ha (7,730,877 acres) | 2,945,170 ha (7,277,674 acres) |
Northeast Italy | 4,031,391 ha (9,961,784 acres) | 3,831,791 ha (9,468,562 acres) | 3,990,485 ha (9,860,703 acres) | 3,806,913 ha (9,407,087 acres) |
Central Italy | 4,200,019 ha (10,378,473 acres) | 3,841,197 ha (9,491,804 acres) | 3,880,742 ha (9,589,522 acres) | 3,655,373 ha (9,032,623 acres) |
South Italy | 5,044,104 ha (12,464,252 acres) | 4,516,447 ha (11,160,384 acres) | 4,603,701 ha (11,375,993 acres) | 4,491,399 ha (11,098,489 acres) |
Insular Italy | 3,641,226 ha (8,997,665 acres) | 3,074,455 ha (7,597,144 acres) | 3,013,356 ha (7,446,165 acres) | 2,942,690 ha (7,271,545 acres) |
Italy | 20,163,776 ha (49,825,776 acres) | 18,232,570 ha (45,053,662 acres) | 18,616,859 ha (46,003,260 acres) | 17,841,544 ha (44,087,415 acres) |
See also
- Agriculture in ancient Rome
- Cascina a corte
- Dairy farming in Italy
- Economy of Italy
- Italian wine
- Traditional Italian maize varieties
References
- ^ Woodard, Richard (19 March 2013). "Italian wine now 22% of global market". Decanter. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
- ^ "L'Italia è il maggiore produttore di vino" (in Italian). Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ^ "L'Italia è il paese con più vitigni autoctoni al mondo" (in Italian). 3 June 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ^ "Il sistema agroalimentare" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 October 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- ^ INEA 2011, p. 16.
- ^ INEA 2011, p. 15.
- ^ INEA 2011, p. 10.
- ^ ISTAT. 24 October 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- ^ "How pasta became the world's favourite food". bbc. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
- ^ "I finti prodotti italiani? Anche in Italia!" (in Italian). Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ "In cosa consiste l'Italian Sounding" (in Italian). Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- S2CID 13350469.
- ^ Nanni, Paolo. "HISTORY OF ITALIAN AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES" (PDF). http://rsa.storiaagricoltura.it1. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ Curtotti, Michael (28 September 2018). "Ancient Italy: The Arrival of Agriculture and the People from the Sea: 6000BC". Beyond Foreignness. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ Nanni, Paolo. "History of Italian Agriculture and Agricultural Landscapes in the Late Middle Ages" (PDF). ONW. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ Joolen, Ester. "Parco Nazionale del Circeo" (PDF). Parco Nazionale del Circeo. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
- ^ Nanni, Paolo (22 January 2016). "History of Italian agriculture and agricultural landscapes in the late Middle ages". www.georgofili.world. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ "On Agriculture, Volume I — Columella". www.hup.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ Hays, Jeffrey. "AGRICULTURE IN ANCIENT ROME | Facts and Details". factsanddetails.com. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ a b "Italy – Agriculture, forestry, and fishing". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ Corrado, Alessandra (June 2017). "Migrant crop pickers in Italy and Spain – Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung" (PDF). www.boell.de. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ISSN 2039-6805.
- ^ Vinciguerra, Salvatore (2014). "Mercantile routes and agriculture transformation in Southern Italy and Sicily between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries". Rivista di storia economica (3): 281–324.
- JSTOR 2595966.
- ^ "Agricultural extension and farm women in the 1980s" (PDF). FAO. Rome. 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ "Istat". siqual.istat.it. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
Bibliography
- Emilio Sereni (1997). History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape. ISBN 978-06-9101-215-5.
- Istituto nazionale di economia agraria (2011). L'agricoltura italiana conta 2011 (in Italian). ISBN 978-88-8145-324-5.
Externals links
- "Confagricoltura" (in Italian).
- "L'agricoltura in Italia" (in Italian).
- "L'agricoltura italiana conta" (in Italian).