Abstract
The paper describes recent changes in pastoral systems in Italy and provides an assessment of current farming systems in marginal areas of the country, where extensive livestock rearing still represents an option. Despite public financial support, rural farming in marginal areas increasingly has to find its place within the wider society, integrate into wider markets, support employment and diversify income generation. Provision of environmental as well as recreational services is increasingly complementing quality food production. The heterogeneous Italian landscape provides important opportunities to better integrate crops, trees and livestock into increasingly sustainable agro-silvo-pastoral systems.
Highlights
The climate of the southern Mediterranean basin (Maghreb and Mashreq regions) is favourable for livestock rearing
There is a difference in the temperate and wetter areas of Mediterranean Europe - including central and southern Italy and its islands - where pastoral systems are more sedentary, and the importance of other farming systems increases
The traditional pattern in the northern Mediterranean basin is an intermediate system based on the integration of forests, tree plantations, and herbaceous crops - with all these resources interlinked by grazing cattle, sheep and goats
Summary
The climate of the southern Mediterranean basin (Maghreb and Mashreq regions) is favourable for livestock rearing. While sheep and secondarily goats are common in the central and southern Apennines (including the Apulia plain and the Matese Massif in Molise) as well as in the islands (like Barbagia in Sardinia), cattle mostly predominate in the northern regions and in the flat and hilly areas of central Italy, including the Tuscan Maremma and the plains of Latium These systems have persisted in the Italian territory for at least 2,000 years and have triggered gradual changes of traditional transhumant communities, which are employed in modern agriculture. Livestock becomes in such cases part of a wider production system which closely integrates the different factors - trees with herbaceous crops and/or animal grazing - with important changes in management skills and patterns. These forests are frequently components of silvo-pastoral systems that integrate several resources
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
