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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 4

Publication Date: April 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.84.10016. Santucci, F. M., & Ascani, M. (2021). A Strategy for Rural development: The Didactic Farms in Italy. Advances in Social Sciences

Research Journal, 8(4). 218-229.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

A Strategy for Rural development: The Didactic Farms in Italy

Fabio Maria Santucci

Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali

Perugia, Italy

Michela Ascani

Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'Analisi dell'Economia Agraria

Perugia, Italy

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the recent development and the main features of the Didactic

farms in Italy, where this type of on-farm activities is recognized by Law since 1985,

as one of the diversification strategies for rural development. It is a sort of informal

education, where the farmers, their family members and other collaborators act as

teachers, mainly for organized groups of kids and teenagers. In Italy, this type of

farms and their didactic programs, which last from a few hours to several days, can

be formally recognized by the Regional Governments and this recognition opens the

door to a) formal collaborations with the kindergardens and schools, and b)

possibility to apply for grants to improve structures and purchase equipments. In

the last two decades, the number of didactic farms has increased from 276 in year

2000 to 3,120 in 2020, scattered all over the country, whereas in the same period

the total number of farms has fallen by 32 percent. Didactic schools should be

considered and supported during the next EU programming period 2021-2026, as

they were in the past.

Keywords: Diversification; Rural development; Informal education; Agritourism; Social

farms.

INTRODUCTION

Multifunctionality of agriculture has been one of the keywords which have defined the path of

European agriculture in the last decades [1]. It is nowadays well understood that the farmers

are not only producing goods for the market, but also services, some of which for the markets,

whereas other ones are not subject to market forces [2] [3]. Within this concept, didactic farms

have represented in Italy one of the many initiatives implemented by the farmers and by the

Institutions, to achieve several goals: better farmers’ livelihood, rural development in favoured

and less favoured areas, and to bridge the distance between producers and consumers,

especially with the younger generations, increasingly urbanized. In Italy, didactic farms operate

nowadays within a formalized system, that on one side guarantees the quality of the didactic

experiences, and on the other side facilitates the access to important resources, for investments

and operating costs. The organization and management of didactic activities has an economic

impact for the farmers who enter into this type of activity, which can be profitable, but requires

investments and new soft skills [4]. It increases the resilience of the firm, because diversifies

the portfolio and adds new sources of income to pre-existing ones. From an educational point

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Santucci, F. M., & Ascani, M. (2021). A Strategy for Rural development: The Didactic Farms in Italy. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal,

8(4). 218-229.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.84.10016

of view, it facilitates the awareness of consumers, increasingly living in towns, kids, teenagers

and adults, about the many aspects of nature, rural life and about the origins of food, but the

farmers must learn how to communicate with, and how to involve different typologies of

participants. It demands collaboration and co-organization among many stakeholders: farmers,

parents, teachers, school managers and policy makers. Didactic farms can be studied from the

supply side: what are the farmers offering to the public? Or they could be studied from the

demand side: what do the “clients” expect from a visit to a didactic farm?

Didactic farms are a relatively recent new entry in the agricultural services’ scenario, and they

coexist and overlap with other concepts and experiences, like agritourism and social farms. In

Italy, there is an abundant literature about agritourism (see [5] and [6] for full list of references)

and about social farms [7] [8] [9] [10] [11], but not much has been investigated and written

about didactic farms. These three terms, i.e., agritourism, social farms and didactic farms are

not synonyms. Each one includes several types of experiences, which may occasionally overlap

(Figure 1). All three concepts however represent different facets of multifunctionality, codified

since the Cork Conference [1]. and represent viable strategies of diversification for younger

generations of farmers [12] who look for novel approaches to survive and prosper in difficult

and competitive environments [13] [14].

Figure 1 – Three overlapping concepts

Agritourism farms can be defined as firms where most of the income comes from the

traditional agricultural activities, integrated, and complemented with the income derived from

the offer of hospitality and various services. This hospitality can be declined in several different

forms: independent apartments, rooms without breakfast, bed and breakfast, on-farm

restaurants, sports, excursions, and, last but not least, a variety of educational activities for

adults and kids. In Italy, the presence of educational activities does not automatically qualify

the farm as a didactic farm, because this recognition is given only after the verification of several

conditions, that will be exposed in a next paragraph. As a matter of fact, only a minority of the

registered agritourism farms are recognized as didactic farms. In 2019, 24,500 agritourism

farms operated in Italy, but only 1,715 were also formally recognized as didactic farms, about

seven percent [15]. Agritourism farms are private operations, managed by family farmers, with

or without employees, and by companies of various types. In all cases, the profit is one of the

many goals of the decision makers. In the relatively frequent cases of agricultural cooperatives,