Agriculture in Italy, one of theeconomic sectors of the country, has developed since the5th millennium BC. In the 20th century,Italy transformed from a predominantlyagricultural country to anindustrial country. As a result, the agricultural sector (includingsilviculture andfishing) 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 inSouthern 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]
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 inSouthern Italy).[8] The vast majority (99%) are family-operated and small, averaging only 8 ha (20 acres) in size.[8] Of the total surface area in agricultural use (forestry excluded), grain fields take up 31%,olive tree orchards 8.2%,vineyards 5.4%,citrus orchards 3.8%,sugar beets 1.7%, and horticulture 2.4%. The remainder is primarily dedicated to pastures (25.9%) and feed grains (11.6%).[8] The northern part of Italy produces primarily Maize corn, rice,sugar beets,soybeans, meat, fruits anddairy products, while the South specializes in wheat andcitrus fruits. Livestock includes 6 million head of cattle, 8.6 million head ofswine, 6.8 million head of sheep, and 0.9 million head of goats.[8] The total annual production of thefishing industry in Italy from capture andaquaculture, includingcrustaceans andmolluscs, is around 480,000 tons.
Italy is thelargest producer of wine in the world, and one of the leading producers ofolive oil, fruits (apples, olives, grapes, oranges, lemons, pears, apricots, hazelnuts, peaches, cherries, plums, strawberries, and kiwifruits), and vegetables (especially artichokes and tomatoes). The most famousItalian wines are probably theTuscanChianti and thePiedmonteseBarolo. Other famous wines areBarbaresco,Barbera d'Asti,Brunello di Montalcino,Frascati,Montepulciano d'Abruzzo,Morellino di Scansano,Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG and thesparkling winesFranciacorta andProsecco. Quality goods in which Italy specialises, particularly the already mentioned wines andregional cheeses, are often protected under the quality assurance labelsDOC/DOP. Thisgeographical indication certificate, which is attributed by the European Union, is considered important to avoid confusion with low-quality mass-producedersatz products.
In fact,Italian cuisine is one of the most popular and copied around the world.[9] The lack or total unavailability of some of its most characteristic ingredients outside of Italy, also and above all to falsifications (or food fraud), leads to the complete denaturalization of Italian ingredients.[10] This phenomenon, widespread in all continents, is better known asItalian Sounding, consisting in the use of words as well as images, colour combinations (theItalian tricolour), geographical references, brands evocative of Italy to promote and market agri-food products which in reality have nothing to do with Italian cuisine.[11]
Several archaeological finds show that the first agricultural settlements began in Italy around the5th millennium BC. Archaeologists have clearly identified the paths followed by the firstAnatolian peasants who spread theNeolithic Revolution across theEuropean continent, primarily on theMediterranean coast and along theDanube. Initially they arrived inSicily by sea, where they founded agricultural villages similar to those of theFertile Crescent (Anatolia,Syria,Palestine, the valleys of theTigris andEuphrates).[13]
Later, after having crossed theAlpine arc, the peasants who came from the Danube built villages with the same characteristics as those of theNeolithic in theBalkans, which, in the space of a millennium, recorded considerable developments.[14]
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In theBronze Age, the entirePo plain was colonized thanks to the so-called "terramare", dwellings similar to stilts. These inhabitants had perfected the methods of cultivation and breeding adopted in theNeolithic Period, which remained substantially the same until theMiddle Ages.[15] Also in Central Italy it is the starting period to a peasant society with increasing agricultural diversity. But locations were dominantly in hilly terrain using aslash-and-burn method. Mediterranean type ploughs with convertible wooden ploughshares were used. In South Italy first evidence of olive cultivation can be observed in this time.
TheIron Age saw the appearance of brick houses in rural areas, breeding of livestock, cultivation offabaceae, accumulation of bronze objects, craftsmenship, trade and individualism. The time of theRoman 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] TheEast had developed great empires based on the cultivation of cereals, mainly wheat and barley: Rome, which established itself at the center of thepeninsula, conquered many of the great plains of the then known world, assigning each of them a specific function based on its plans ofeconomic andmilitary domination.[17]
Countries whose borders were not threatened by powerful enemies were exploited to feed thepopulation of Rome, the "womb" of theEmpire, where hundreds of thousands of former warrior peasants, stripped of their land by the aristocracy and the mercantile class, claimed their right to receive bread andcircuses (panem et circences) as citizens of the state. Countries close to threatened borders, such as theRhine and theDanube, were responsible for producing the grain needed to feed the legions encamped on the edge, as in the case of France.
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 SpaniardLucio Giunio Moderato Columella, owner of the vineyards between the "Castelli Romani", wrote the first scientific treatise concerning the techniques of agriculture in the western world.[18]
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 ofRoman 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.
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, when the first craft and trade companies developed in Europe, new agricultural systems appeared inFlanders, in thePo Valley and in the smaller plains ofcentral 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 particularlyintensive farming, and on the production of textiles, fruit and vegetables on a large scale.[19]
Favored by the abundance of food, theItalian cities became the area of greatest export of all the most sought-after products of the moment: wool, weapons, glass, cheese of an inimitable quality, and able to be preserved for long periods. Unfortunately, this extraordinary wealth of the Italian cities was not adequately protected by apolitical andmilitary force proportionate to their opulence, so it stimulated the envy of the two major powers of the time, France and Spain, who sent their armies.
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.[20] During the Enlightenment,Lombard agriculture resumed its growth by increasing the wealth of the countryside surroundingMilan, with products such as cheese and silk, making this city one of the richest in Europe, becoming one of the great cultural capitals of this extraordinary period ofEuropean History.[21]
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The 19th century was the period of the "Risorgimento", a movement in which the peasant classes did not take part. This movement resulted in a form of government in which landowners, the beneficiaries of backward agriculture, were the majority, so they took the opportunity to exploit the condition of the peasantry to their advantage to strengthen their privileges. At the end of the century, we can say that offloading the costs of the agrarian crisis on farmers was the only concern of the first unitary parliaments.[22]
The extraordinary period that began at the end of the century, with the governments ofGiovanni Giolitti, that opened Italy to new horizons of economic and social progress, progress interrupted too soon by theGreat War and followed by a long period of political stagnation. This convinced the ever powerful families of large landowners to resort tofascism, with an agricultural policy aimed at increasing the production of wheat to provide the energy necessary for the resurrection of the splendors ofancient Rome. All other aspects of agricultural progress were completely ignored.[23]
At the end of theSecond World War, food production in the country could only count on a more backward agriculture, also hampered by the damage caused by the war. In that periodGiuseppe Medici, a famous agronomist and statesman of international standing, becameMinister of Agriculture. Also thanks to his interventions, Italy was the first country to host an international conference of agricultural researchers, a conference that allowed the creation of links between research programs capable of increasing interactions and exchanges, to increase the production efficiency in agriculture.[19]
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 theAmerican model, based on the cultivation of hybrid maize, a completely new production framework was outlined in the fruit and viticulture sector, which will then be able to compete, in the following decades, withFrench agriculture.
This "golden age" ends abruptly in 1980: the radical changes in the agricultural policy of theEuropean Community were the first blow. Subsequently, half of the agricultural land disappeared, abandoned due to overbuilding, the production potential of one of the most fertile plains on the continent was considerably reduced. More recently, the environmental movement, the most radical in Europe, called on the political class to end cutting edge agricultural research. Italy finds itself forced to produce on a small surface, with increasingly obsolete means. In Rome, the debate on the future of national agriculture became confused and incomprehensible.[24]
The data relating to the surface of agricultural holdings for theItalian regions and macroregions are shown below.[25]
| 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) |
| 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) |
