Who Remains When Professional Farmers Give up? Some Insights on Hobby Farming in an Olive Groves-Oriented Terraced Mediterranean Area

Sabine Gennai-Schott,Davide Rizzo,Tiziana Sabbatini,Elisa Marraccini

doi:10.3390/land9050168

Abstract

Many land use systems in Mediterranean sloping areas risk abandonment because of nonprofitability, while their hydro-geological stability depends on an appropriate management. However, who are the land managers? What are their practices? Our research on the traditional olive groves of the Monte Pisano (Tuscany, Italy) reveals for the first time the quantitatively important role of hobby farmers as land managers in the area. We used a three-step-method: first, a database was constructed using several data sources to identify and map the population of olive growers; then, 35 semi-structured interviews were conducted, and finally, the data were analyzed to highlight the contribution of olive growers to the land management, along with their motivations and constraints. Our results found that hobby farmers constitute about 90% of all land managers in the study area and manage more than half of the agricultural land. They are a very uneven group, and there are no clear categories detectable by analyzing sociodemographic factors, practices and farm characteristics. They are the “same but different”, not following any market rules, as they are not profit-oriented. Their farming practices are quite homogeneous and mainly in-line with professional farming practices of that area, oriented versus a minimum input management.

Highlights

Agriculture in the Mediterranean has faced many changes in the last decades [1]
The study area was chosen as representative of the Mediterranean olive groves, those located on terraced grounds and peri-urban areas
We realized after the interviews that there is a continuum between hobby farmers and professional farmers, on small farms that can be olive grove farms, and this is consistent with the results of the authors of [43] on small farming in Europe

Summary

Introduction

Recent research focusing on Mediterranean land systems [2,3,4] underlined the importance of permanent crops all over the Mediterranean basin, often associated with rangelands or annual crops. Among these permanent crops, olive groves are an important part of the Mediterranean agricultural economy [5] and of the traditional Mediterranean cultural landscapes [1,6]. Most of the olive groves in the Mediterranean are located in hilly and mountainous areas and have been described as Sloping and Mountainous Olive Production Systems or SMOPS [8].

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Discussion

Conclusion