Positive aspects of part-time farming in the development of a professional agriculture: Remarks on the Italian situation

Part-time agriculture is a large, well-developed and persistent phenomenon in Italy. But this is not well known. This paper takes into consideration the Italian literature on part-time farming (PTF) to find a satisfactory definition. The author deals with general problems of rural development, looking at PTF (especially in farm-based households) as a structural phenomenon. The article suggests the farm family instead of the individual farm operator be the unit of analysis and provides new data and estimates based on official statistical sources from 1961 through 1975. There are different typologies of PTF situations according to the internal and external conditions of the family's holdings: transitional PTF, which involves rural and poor families working for domestic production. This type is a form of subsistence farming which attracts State subsidies and public income transfers; accessorial PTF is a form of autoconsumption concerning different families' members. It is generally used to increase family income (sometimes farming is a secondary activity for people employed outside agriculture); professional PTF, based on the family holding's central role, which is a rational way of farming. This last kind of PTF is sometimes more productive, modern (ready of the introduction of innovations) and more competitive than full-time farming: this element could have important implications for the rural development policy in the industrialized countries.