Analysis of the interventions aimed to help land property reorganization in the rural territory of Sicily over the 2001-2009 period

Abstract

Italian farming system has always been characterized by structural problems such as the small size of farms and the land property fragmentation. In order to remedy this pathological situation, ISMEA was commissioned to act as an intermediary between sellers and buyers and as an underwriter of compliance of the rules provided for by in force law. The objective of the present study is to analyse the effects of regulatory interventions aimed to help land property reorganization in Sicily - State Aid System no. 110/2001 and Community Tools - in order to reconstruct a general framework and to understand the actual extent and the respective effectiveness of these actions. On the whole 190 purchase transactions by ISMEA and 114 sale transactions with reserved property agreement to third persons were obtained in the 2001-2009 period. The actions for land property reorganization in Sicily have had a modest impact in terms both of areas (just over 11,000 hectares) and of sale prices (around 105 million euro), partially disregarding the aims of the Regional Plan for land property reorganization. On one hand a reduction in the number of landowners (-40%) and on the other hand an increase of the average land area per landowner (from 17.83 to 29.72 hectares) was observed.