Abstract
Over the last decades, in many rural areas in Southern Europe, farmers have abandoned agricultural activity, especially on small-sized farms, leading to an exodus from rural areas towards urbanized ones. In this context, in the early 1980s, some Sicilian farmers introduced mango on their small-sized farms, as certain areas of Sicily are well suited to tropical and subtropical crops, but also to meet increasing consumer interest for these fruits, as they are perceived as functional foods. This paper aimed to evaluate the economic sustainability of mango and to determine whether its introduction could be considered as an alternative to traditional crops. In particular, an economic-financial analysis of mango orchards on small-sized Sicilian farms was performed by adopting a discounted cash flow approach. In order to provide as comprehensive information as possible, mango was compared with two traditional crops that have always played an important socio-economic role in Southern Italy: wine grape and orange. Results showed a clear economic convenience for mango orchards, denoting an annual gross margin of 14,617.03 €/ha, on average 20 times higher than orange orchards and just less than 40 times higher in respect to vineyards. The higher profitability of mango was also confirmed without considering public grants for the planting phase, and by varying current sales prices and costs. However, it should be considered that the cultivation of mango could represent an opportunity for sustainable development only for certain Sicilian areas, as it is closely related to favorable pedo-climatic conditions.
Highlights
The most widely used definition of the term “sustainable development” is by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987, according to which it is “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [1] (p. 43)
Given that some Sicilian environments are well adapted to tropical and subtropical crops, this paper aimed to evaluate the economic sustainability of mango cultivation in Sicily, and whether its introduction could be considered an alternative to traditional crops in certain agricultural areas
The selected farms were representative of Sicilian farms cultivating mango, only in terms of average size, and in terms of utilized agricultural area (UAA), since in the four farms, the overall UAA cultivated with mango was about six hectares, corresponding to 10.9% of the total Sicilian mango UAA [27]
Summary
The most widely used definition of the term “sustainable development” is by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987, according to which it is “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [1] (p. 43). The Europe 2020 Strategy, launched at the European level, set economic growth based on the coexistence of both competitiveness and sustainable development as an objective [2]. Sustainable development is linked to an economic point of view, but it should lead to an increase in the quality of the environment and/or social equity [5]. In rural areas, where agriculture is the main economic activity, the re-launch of the primary sector plays a key role in the sustainable development of entire territories, avoiding the phenomenon of rural exodus [6]. Agricultural activity, thanks to its multifunctional role, has always contributed to the creation of rural landscapes, provided a range of benefits that are vital to human well-being, maintained farmers in areas that are otherwise exposed to degradation, and determined and preserved social values [7,8,9]
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