The Impact of Land Use on the Rural Landscape Mosaic

Social functions of agriculture (multi-functionality) rewarded by the Common Agricultural Policy have long been known. The concept of joint production is useful to interpret the relationships between agriculture and environment. Among agriculture functions, we find the maintenance of the landscape as a common public good. Since 1970 the total area of active agricultural holdings decreased conspicuously. Moreover, the so-called soil sealing achieved the 7.3% of the total territory, compared to the 4.3% of UE-23 average. Italian Department of Agriculture has proposed to contain soil consumption and to protect the agricultural areas. The aim of this work is to develop a methodology to assess the articulation on the territory of specialized and mixed farming systems and their evolution. The results prove that the process of transformation in the Italian rural landscape mosaic has led to an increase in land use diversification and to a prevalence of mixed farms. A large part of the territory went out from the official management of farms, but the phenomenon is reducing. We must not overlook hidden employment in agriculture where retirement is only nominal. There are also 2 other overestimations about the loss of land due to: a) specialized farms not surveyed by the Census (Arboriculture and Woods); b) non-statistical attribution of different land uses left to set-aside. However, the restraint of sprawl in the construction of buildings and infrastructure would be desirable. Many of the adjustments in land use due to various reasons, including the strategic modification of the CAP, should not be viewed negatively. They have been implemented with regard to structural association of land among different uses typical of traditional Italian landscape mosaic, so anticipating the greening policy.