MOTIVAZIONI, VALUTAZIONE E PROSPETTIVE NELLA PARTECIPAZIONE DEGLI AGRICOLTORI ALLE MISURE AGRO-AMBIENTALI:ANALISI QUALI-QUANTITATIVA SU UN CAMPIONE DI AZIENDE LOMBARDE

Agro-environmental measures (AEMs) are policy instruments in the European Union that pay farmers for voluntary environmental commitments and protection of the European countryside. The first AEMs were introduced by Reg. 2078/1992, thank to the MacSharry Reform. In this time they were “accompanying measures” and they were used to sustain rural income after decoupling and the abolishment of internal price support. In the following programming period it became mandatory to every Member State to consider Agro-environmental measures part of their Rural Developing Programs and they became one of the most important instrument of the EU for rural areas. Investigating literature about AEMs, we understand that the determinants of farmers’ participation were not only to be searched on farm structure and farmers’ characteristics, but also in personal attitudes using the Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (1991). We collect 227 questionnaires of farmers participating in Agro-environmental measures in Lombardy during the last programming period in order to evaluate the perceptions of the respondents on the policy and explore motivations that drive farmers in the participation, evaluating both farm structural factors and their attitudes. The study is composed by two main parts: one is focused on the construction of the identikit of the “standard participant” through a Likert scale survey and a qualitative analysis, and the other one is focused on modeling factors affecting the subscription of agro-environmental contracts. In the first part, farmers answer questions concerning their perceptions about the role of conventional and environmental friendly agriculture, the impact of AEMs in their daily practices and economic aspects associated with them. They identify the reasons that push them to participate, the functions of the farm and the future they imagine for their business. Through a classifications of farmers using personal and farm characteristics, we subdivides the sample and we try to understand how this parameters influence the answers and to typify the AEMs’ participant. In the second part we implemented a logit model in order to answer the question “which are the determinants for the participation in agro-environmental measures in the next programming period?”, matching farm characteristics and farmers’ personal attitudes. Farmers choose to participate in AEMs for environmental reasons and to value their own production on the market. Most of them are interested in increasing their income through the measures. They are strongly aware of agriculture’s role of environmental manager and public goods producer but they aren’t satisfied with the recognition that is given by the decision-maker. In particular farmers criticize the Administration for procedures, bureaucracy and inspection but, finally, they want to continue to participate in AEMs. Factors affecting the participation are linked to farm characteristics, such as its UAA or its membership to organic farms, and to the farmers perceptions on some issues, such as stiffness of control and satisfaction on the environmental performances of the measures.