What explains farmers’ participation in Rural Development Policy in Italian southern region? An empirical analysis

The importance of farming activities in disadvantaged areas is acknowledged by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) within its rural development policy whose significance has grown in the last two decades. In this paper an econometric approach is developed to consider the likelihood of farmers participating in various rural policy measures in disadvantaged areas, e.g. southern regions in Italy. We carried out an empirical analysis by using a bivariate probit model aimed to analyse the main driver factors which lead farmers’ participation in Rural Development Policy in such areas. We used an extensive cross-sectional database related to the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network for 2009. Our results indicate that location and farm(er) socio-economic features are the major factors. Moreover, complementarity was found between different policy schemes.