Rural tourism is relatively new product in the process of diversification of the rural economy in Republic of Macedonia. This study used desk research and life story interviews of rural tourism entrepreneurs as qualitative research method to identify prevalent success influential factors. Further quantitative analysis was applied in order to measure the strength of influence of identified success factors. The primary data for the quantitative research was gathered using telephone questionnaire composed of 37 questions with 5-points Likert scale. The data was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) by SmartPLS 3.1.6. Results indicated that human capital, social capital, entrepreneurial personality and external business environment are predominant influential success factors. However, human capital has non-significant direct effect on success (p 0.493) nonetheless the effect was indirect with high level of partial mediation through entrepreneurial personality as mediator (VAF 73%). Personality of the entrepreneur, social capital and business environment have direct positive affect on entrepreneurial success (p 0.001, 0.003 and 0.045 respectably). Personality also mediates the positive effect of social capital on entrepreneurial success (VAF 28%). Opposite to the theory the data showed no interaction between social and human capital on the entrepreneurial success. This research suggests that rural tourism accommodation entrepreneurs could be more successful if there is increased support in development of social capital in form of conservation of cultural heritage and natural attractions. Priority should be finding the form to encourage and support the establishment of formal and informal associations of entrepreneurs in order to improve the conditions for management and marketing of the sector. Special support of family businesses in the early stages of the operation would have a particularly positive impact on the success of rural tourism. Local infrastructure, access to financial instruments, destination marketing and entrepreneurial personality have positive effect on success.

Ogni anno in Europa milioni di tonnellate di cibo vengono gettate via. Una stima pubblicata dalla Commissione europea afferma che, nei 27 Stati membri, 89 milioni di tonnellate di cibo, o di 179 kg pro capite, vengono scartati. Lo spreco si verifica lungo tutta la catena di agro alimentare; la riduzione dei rifiuti alimentari è diventata una delle priorità dell'agenda europea. La ricerca si concentra su un caso studio, Last Minute Market, un progetto di recupero di sprechi alimentari. L'impatto di questo progetto dal punto di vista economico e ambientale è già stato calcolato. Quello che verrà analizzato è l'impatto di questa iniziativa sulla comunità e in particolare sul capitale sociale, definito come "l'insieme di norme e reti che consentono l'azione collettiva". Obiettivo del presente lavoro è, quindi, quello di eseguire, attraverso la somministrazione di un questionario a diversi stakeholder del progetto, un’analisi confrontabile con quella del 2009 e di verificare a distanza di cinque anni, se l'iniziativa Last Minute Market abbia prodotto una crescita di capitale sociale nella comunità interessata da questa iniziativa. Per riassumere l’influenza del progetto sul capitale sociale in un indice sintetico, viene calcolato quello che verrà chiamato indice di "affidabilità del progetto" (definito in statistica, la "capacità di un prodotto, un sistema o un servizio di fornire le prestazioni richieste, per un certo periodo di tempo in condizioni predeterminate"). / Every year in Europe million tons of food are thrown away. An estimation published by the European Commission states that, in the 27 Member States, 89 million tons of food, or 179 kg per capita, are discarded. Waste occurs all along food supply chain; reducing food waste has thus become one of the priorities on the European agenda. The research focuses on a case study, Last Minute Market, a project of recovery of food waste. The impact of this project from an economical and environmental point of view has already been calculated. What is going to be analyzed is the impact of this initiative on the community and specifically on social capital, defined as "the set of norms and networks that enable collective action". The objective of the work is to carry out an analysis on social capital dimensions through interviews to the different stakeholders involved in Last Minute Market project. The results of the analysis will be compared to the results of an analysis made in 2009 on the same project in order to check if it has produced a growth on social capital dimensions. Than, in order to summarize the influence of the project on social capital in a synthetic index, is calculated what we can called the index of “reliability of the project” (defined in statistics, the “ability of a product, a system or a service to provide the performance required, for a certain period of time under predetermined conditions”).

The dependence of industrial agricolture on fossil fuels has been assessed in two comparative case studies between Italy (Emilia-Romagna and Piemonte)and Missouri. The first is related to dairy farming; 15 different farms were surveyed, divided into three different groups: grain based, pasture based and organic. The second is devoted to rice cropping; 12 holdings were examined divided into two groups: conventional and organic. Energy footprint was determined for structures, machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, fuel, electricity, feed and seeds. Possible scenarios of transition to a more sustainable agricolture based on renewable energy sources were analized in detail for all the farms analized.

Questa ricerca analizza le implicazioni derivanti dall’introduzione della procedura di co-decisione come procedura legislativa ordinaria nel processo di riforma della politica agricola comune. La diversa distribuzione dei poteri tra le istituzioni europee modifica gli assetti istituzionali e fornisce al Parlamento il ruolo di colegislatore in materia agricola. La forma assunta dalla nuova politica agricola europea scaturisce dalla configurazione dei poteri di contrattazione che ciascun attore ha mostrato nella sede dei triloghi negoziali. La ricerca tenta di verificare la accuratezza predittiva di diversi modelli di contrattazione legislativa attraverso il confronto e la verifica degli errori di predizione sui risultati finali di alcune questioni salienti della riforma della Politica Agricola Comune e allo stesso tempo, cerca di identificare il peso del potere del Parlamento europeo in veste di co-legislatore nel processo di riforma della PAC post-2013. / This research analyzes the implications of the introduction of the codecision procedure as the ordinary legislative procedure in the process Common Agricultural Policy reform. The different distribution of powers between the European institutions modified the institutional structure and give to the European Parliament the role of colegislator in agricultural matters. The form taken by the new European agricultural policy derives from the configuration of the bargaining power that each actor has shown in the seat of the trialogue negotiations. The research attempts to verify the predictive accuracy of different models of legislative bargaining through the comparison and verification of prediction errors on the final results of some salient issues emerged during the Common Agricultural Policy reform process, and at the same time, try to identify the weight of the power of European Parliament as colegislator in the of CAP reform process post-2013.

Negli ultimi anni lo spreco alimentare ha assunto un’importanza crescente nel dibattito internazionale, politico ed accademico, nel contesto delle tematiche sulla sostenibilità dei modelli di produzione e consumo, sull’uso efficiente delle risorse e la gestione dei rifiuti. Nei prossimi anni gli Stati Membri dell’Unione Europea saranno chiamati ad adottare specifiche strategie di prevenzione degli sprechi alimentari all’interno di una cornice di riferimento comune. Tale cornice è quella che si va delineando nel corso del progetto Europeo di ricerca “FUSIONS” (7FP) che, nel 2014, ha elaborato un framework di riferimento per la definizione di “food waste” allo scopo di armonizzare le diverse metodologie di quantificazione adottate dai paesi membri. In questo scenario, ai fini della predisposizione di un Piano Nazionale di Prevenzione degli Sprechi Alimentari per l’Italia, il presente lavoro applica per la prima volta il “definitional framework” FUSIONS per l’analisi dei dati e l’identificazione dei principali flussi nei diversi anelli della filiera e svolge un estesa consultazione degli stakeholder (e della letteratura) per identificare le possibili misure di prevenzione e le priorità di azione. I risultati ottenuti evedenziano (tra le altre cose) la necessità di predisporre e promuovere a livello nazionale l’adozione di misure uniformi di quantificazione e reporting; l’importanza del coinvolgimento degli stakeholder nel contesto di una campagna nazionale di prevenzione degli sprechi alimentari; l’esigenza di garantire una adeguata copertura economica per le attività di pianificazione e implementazione delle misure di prevenzione da parte degli enti locali e di un coordinamento a livello nazionale della programmazione regionale; la necessità di una armonizzazione/semplificazione del quadro di riferimento normativo (fiscale, igienico-sanitario, procedurale) che disciplina la donazione delle eccedenze alimentari; l’urgenza di approfondire il fenomeno degli sprechi alimentari attraverso la realizzazione di studi di settore negli stadi a valle della filiera. / In recent years, food waste prevention is assuming a pivotal role within international, European and national strategies addressing waste prevention, resource efficiency and sustainability of production and consumption patterns. In the coming years the European Union Member States will be asked to adopt specific strategies to prevent food waste within a common reference framework. This framework is being developed within the “FUSIONS” research project (7FP) which, in 2014, released the “FUSIONS definitional framework for food waste”. The main aim of the FUSIONS’s framework is to provide Member States with a common definition to be used as a reference point in National strategies targeting food waste reduction. In this scenario, this study applies for the first time the "FUSIONS definitional framework" to identify and quantify the main streams generated along the food supply chain and to identify, with the support of an extensive stakeholder’s consultation, the priorities for action in the view of developing a National Plan for Food Waste Prevention in Italy. The results highlight (among others) the following priorities: to define and adopt at national level common quantification and reporting methodologies for food waste streams; to engage stakeholders within the framework of a national food waste prevention campaign; to set a national coordination for planning and financing regional intervention on food waste prevention; to harmonise and simplify the regulatory framework relating to food donation; to improve knowledge on food waste generated along the supply chain by strengthening the research activities.

The collective approach toward natural resource management in agriculture is increasingly gaining attention, by both the literature and policy makers. In the thesis I analyse the implementation of collective approaches in rural policies aimed at natural resource management. More specifically, I analyse how two design elements of this type of policies, collective conditionality constraints and subsidy levels, affect the 1) emergence of cooperation among farmers and 2) the distribution of the benefits. In the analyses I address the effect of these policies in a range of situations, namely in case the action subsidized by policy is a public good, a club good, or only a private cost (and thus cooperation is purely linked to the implementation of the policy). The distributional effect is addressed only in the club good case. The results show that indeed the proper use of collective conditionality constraints associated to subsidies can improve the cooperation of farmers and thus leading to more effective agri-environmental policies. It seems that the collective approach for natural resource management is a strategy that deserves higher attention and policy effort. However, it should not be taken lightly or naively implemented, as the "sophistication" of mechanisms also increases the scope for unexpected policy outcomes. A more aware implementation of such strategy also requires a greater, inter-disciplinary, effort for research, towards a proper understanding of actual effects of real life policy options and coordination mechanisms.

We compare the cost-effectiveness of two simulated auction models (AM1, AM2) with that of classical payment mechanisms as a marginal flat rate payment (MFR) and average flat rate payment (FR). The models follows the one-shot budget constrained auction model first introduced by Latacz-Lohmann and Van Der Hamsvoort (1997), and subsequently by Viaggi et al. (2008) and Glebe (2008). The first model (AM1) deals with one-dimensional bids and it allows farmers to make an offer about a per hectare agri-environmental payment that they would like to receive in order to implement a generic agri-environmental measure on their agricultural land. In the second auction model (AM2) we further extend the analysis, allowing farmers to offer a combination of payment and a measure of their uptake in the agri-environmental program (i.e. a share of their land to commit under the program). Once simulated for AM1 and AM2 the optimal bidding behavior of a population of farmer taken from FADN data of E-R 2010 and 2011, assuming a fixed budget level and the sole objective for the public regulator to maximizes farmers participation to the AEM, we analyzed the total payment, the total cost and the total contracted area comparing the result with MFR and FR payment. The results confirm that the auction has the potential to reduce farmers’ information rent when compared with uniform policy instruments. Though the scale of saving depends crucially on auction design hypotheses and farmers' expectation about the maximum acceptable bid cap. The simulation while reflects a number of plausible assumptions, also remains rather simplified and could be improved in further research. However, it can contribute to feed the debate at EU policy level about the role in considering auction design and bidding behaviour so as to limiting the inefficiency related to the actual agri-environmental payments.

Integrated production (IP) is part of the Brazilian government program to promote sustainable agricultural production. IP ensure minimum food quality standards for domestic market, and export. Furthermore, IP is considered a good option to reduce negative environmental impacts of intensive crops in tropical Savannas, including common beans, as a Brazilian staple food. Although its advantages, and the government’s effort to promote IP, few growers are adopting IP. Maybe, the perception about IP usefulness and/or its ease of use is not too clear. Moreover, the production sector is driven by market signs, and there is few information on the consumer's preferences toward IP certified products in Brazil. In this study, we sought to identify some critical factors that can influence the IP adoption in beans' production. Moreover, we sought to verify the consumers’ perceptions and intention of purchasing IP certified beans (hypothetical product). This report comprises four chapters: (1) an introduction illustrating the context in which the research was based; (2) the results on the study of IP adoption based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM); (3) the choice experiment results applied to identify consumers preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for IP label; (4) the results on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) applied to identify consumers’ perception toward IP certified beans. This research contributes with rich information for the beans’ supply chain, providing several insights to growers, retail and other agents, including policy makers. Beans’ production sector seems to be positively intentioned to adopt IP, but further studies should be conducted to test other adoption indicators using TAM model. Surveyed consumers are willing to pay a premium price for IP labelled beans. They showed a positive attitude toward purchasing IP labelled beans. It is an important information to motivate production sector to offer certified beans to the market.

Soy is one of the most important and fast growing food commodities in the global market. Thanks to the introduction of GM soy varieties, Argentina has become the third producer in the world, what entailed significant impacts at environmental, social and economic level. Objective of the study is to assess the social resilience of the rural communities cultivating soy in Argentina and to evaluate the current sustainability of the soy system. At the same time, the analysis of the expansion of the soy production from Latin America to African countries represents an element of continuity in the evaluation of the phenomenon at global level. The case study of the soy system in Argentina, with its specific focus on rural communities, highlights how strongly social and ecological resilience are intertwined in the identification of mechanisms to guarantee social sustainability, which, in turn, is strictly interrelated with environmental and economic sustainability. The agricultural sector showed a good capacity of adaptation and reorganization demonstrating being economically performing, but social and environmental costs were heavy, consisting in a deep disruption of the original rural communities structure and of the original natural ecosystem. The soy system appears extremely rigid – because of the hyper specialization and the marked dependence on export – what makes it very vulnerable to changes in the international demand for soy. The current system is strongly criticized by the civil society, blaming it to be the cause of environmental problems and of health risks. To effectively contrast the negative consequences of the soy model, a significant role must be played by policy makers, who should define sustainability policies to enhance the resilience of the rural communities and to move towards more sustainable food production systems.

Secondo il Report IFAD sulla povertà rurale, nel 2008, circa due terzi della popolazione africana viveva nelle aree rurali ed era in qualche modo coinvolta in attività agricole commerciali o di sussistenza (IFAD, 2011). L’agricoltura rappresenta il più importante settore economico per la popolazione africana e le donne risultano cruciali per la produzione agricola: rappresentano infatti il 62,8 per cento della forza lavoro (FAO, 2014). Dopo la crisi alimentare del 2007-2008 si è andato intensificando il fenomeno delle acquisizione di terre su larga scala in paesi del Sud del mondo, in particolare nel continente africano, da parte di multinazionali, governi, aziende nazionali e singoli soggetti privati. Questo processo è stato denominato anche land grabbing dalle principali organizzazioni internazionali e della società civile e ha avuto grande impatto mediatico a livello internazionale. L'intensificarsi del fenomeno ha portato a una progressiva perdita di controllo e accesso ad ampie porzioni di territorio da parte delle comunità locali, che non possono più disporre delle risorse naturali collegate alla terra. La cessione di ampi terreni avviene in molti casi senza trasparenza informativa, con violazione dei diritti umani e senza il consenso delle comunità che vi abitano e che coltivano tali aree, e a cui viene imposto un cambio radicale di vita. La terra è una risorsa centrale per l'identità, il sostentamento e la sicurezza alimentare di una comunità, dunque le conseguenze sono molteplici a livello sociale, culturale, economico e politico. Gli impatti sulle relazioni di genere e in particolare sulle donne delle comunità rurali risultano essere cruciali nel discorso sullo sviluppo. L’obiettivo di questo lavoro è indagare come le relazioni di genere, a seguito delle trasformazioni nella gestione della terra, si modificano amplificando squilibri già esistenti e creando conseguenze sulle logiche di potere delle comunità rurali e sulle vite delle persone che ne fanno parte. / According to the IFAD Rural Poverty Report, in 2008 about two thirds of the African population lived in rural areas and were involved in agricultural activities in some form, either for commercial purposes or subsistence (IFAD, 2011). Agriculture is the most important economic sector for the African population and women are crucial within its production, representing 62,8 % of the workforce (FAO, 2014). After the food crisis of 2007-2008, the phenomenon of large-scale land acquisitions in developing countries by national and transnational companies, governments and individuals has been intensifying, particularly seen in Africa. This process, also referred to as land grabbing by the main international organisations and civil society has had a strong media impact at an international level. The intensification of the phenomenon has led to local communities progressively losing control and access to large pieces of land, no longer able to use the natural resources derived from it. As land is fundamental for the identity, the sustenance and the alimentary safety of a community, land grabbing therefore has had a variety of consequences at a social, cultural, economic and political level. The transfer of control often takes place without informative transparency or agreement from the local communities living and working in these areas, who are forced into a radical change of life, often accompanied by human rights violations. The impacts on gender relations are crucial to this narrative, in particular how women from rural communities are affected. The aim of this work is to investigate how these gender relations are changed as a consequence of the shifts in the management of land, where existing imbalances are amplified, with a strong impact on the distribution of power in rural communities and the lives of the people who belong to them.