Abstract
The paper focuses on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on some Italian farms. In particular, the aim is to investigate the consequences of the health emergency on diversified farms, their reactions, and their agricultural and rural policy needs in order to overcome the crisis. The research path investigates five farms of central Italy through semi-structured interviews. The identified case studies are characterized by the heterogeneity of features and farms’ activities. These activities include agritourism, on-farm processing of plant and animal products (mainly olive oils, fruits, and cheese), bio-energy production, tastings and leisure activities, educational farms, and contracting of farm equipment. A qualitative–quantitative analysis based on textual analysis techniques, particularly content and sentiment analysis, was performed. The results highlight the importance of farm diversification and networks in farms’ strategies in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. Furthermore, the presence of both synergies and trade-offs in different types of diversification is found. These results have interesting policy implications that should be more explicitly taken into account to target the next rural development measures.
Highlights
The paper deals with the first qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the consequences of the Covid-19 emergency on a small sample of Italian diversified farms.In September 2019, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), an independent monitoring and advocacy body chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, publishes its first report [1], urging political action to mitigate the effects of global health emergencies.Pandemic episodes have always been part of the human experience, but in the last years, a combination of global trends, including climate change and urbanization, has sped up their reappearance
The first comment concerns the sign of the semantic orientations: It is possible to see that only three answers have a negative sentiment, two of which relate to the first question about the effects of the crisis. Maybe this result, which was obtained by Respondents 1 and 2, is due to the presence of agritourism and educational farms, the activities they had to stop during the lockdown
The food supply chain is a complex network of interactions and actors: Producers, inputs, transport, processing plants, shipping, and more
Summary
The paper deals with the first qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the consequences of the Covid-19 emergency on a small sample of Italian diversified farms.In September 2019, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), an independent monitoring and advocacy body chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, publishes its first report [1], urging political action to mitigate the effects of global health emergencies.Pandemic episodes have always been part of the human experience, but in the last years, a combination of global trends, including climate change and urbanization, has sped up their reappearance. The paper deals with the first qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the consequences of the Covid-19 emergency on a small sample of Italian diversified farms. In September 2019, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), an independent monitoring and advocacy body chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, publishes its first report [1], urging political action to mitigate the effects of global health emergencies. Pandemic episodes have always been part of the human experience, but in the last years, a combination of global trends, including climate change and urbanization, has sped up their reappearance. Population growth and the resulting strains on the environment, climate change, urbanization, and exponential increases in international travel increase the risk everywhere
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