Firm typologies and support policies in Italian agriculture

This paper proposes a classification of Italian farms based on their economic di-mension, taking into account as far as possible both the complex and heterogeneous features of the Italian primary sector and the importance of identifying the more pro-fessional farms. Farm typologies are considered in relation to the set of agricultural policies offered by the European Union, to verify whether and if so to what extent policies demand and supply meet. The co-existence of farms showing highly diversi-fied economic scales as well as different structural, territorial and social characteris-tics implies the need for choices by the legislator in order to select the “ideal” benefi-ciaries of the set of instruments proposed at the sector and territory level.