Suchergebnisse

The issue of &ldquo ; safe working&rdquo ; has received increasing concern in recent years worldwide, especially in Europe. Several European countries developed specific strategies to ensure the safety of operators and the awareness on the potential risks that can emerge from a vast set of activities, including field activity in agriculture. Earlier investigations have lately investigated this topic, proposing quali-quantitative analysis applied to specific economic sectors. The present study focused on the working accidents occurred in agriculture over the last 6 years (2012&ndash ; 2017) in Italy. By exploring where and when injuries occurred, the socio-demographic profile of involved persons (including age, gender, nationality) and correlating these episodes to agricultural practices, the present paper reveals intrinsic patterns of safe (or unsafe) working conditions at a quite detailed spatial scale (administrative provinces) in Italy. Based on these results, training/educational programs should be planned to increase awareness of risks involving workers in agriculture. Future scenarios can be explored based on specific information dealing with risk factors and operating conditions at various working sites with the final objective to establish suitable technical, legislative and operational measures to reduce job accidents.

This paper provides an overview of the Italian water management system, with particular reference to the links between agriculture and water resources, and emphasis on underground resources. Our objective is mainly descriptive at this level; nonetheless, we try to evaluate patterns of interaction between agriculture and water resources policy from the point of view of water sustainability. After a short description of the main hydrologic and institutional aspects, the paper goes into the analysis of the most important issues and ongoing policies. We show that the link between agriculture and groundwater is but very weak in "Mediterranean" Italy. While most of the pollution problems regard Northern Italy - that resembles much more continental Europe than Mediterranean countries with respect to hydrologic and climatic patterns - the use of the water table for irrigation is restricted to only a few areas, since most of the agricultural water is derived from surface resources. On the other side, agriculture remains by far the largest water user in Italy, and one of the primary causes of pollution.

During the last 70 years, since the end of WW II, Italian agriculture has increased its productivity but, despite the national and European financial support to the primary sector, millions of farms have closed their operations, millions of hectares have been abandoned, and millions of farmers have emigrated to towns and abroad. Rural desertification has been aggravated by the closures of public offices and private businesses. Against this grim scenario, this paper illustrates, with the most recent available data, the evolution and growth of two sub-sectors, organic farming and agritourism. Both sub-sectors were initially contrasted and the first farmers adopting these strategies have encountered problems and obstacles, they were fined, and sometimes had to close their operations. In both cases, the pioneers resisted, organized themselves, and—thanks also to the support of consumers and some scientists, were able to lobby local, national, and European law makers for appropriate legislation. The first part of the article contains the data about the evolution and distribution of agritourism and organic farms, while the second part compares several aspects of the two sub-sectors.

Precision agriculture is a reality in agriculture and is playing a key role as the industry comes to terms with the environment, market forces, quality requirements, traceability, vehicle guidance and crop management. Sensors now in use in agriculture are generating 'Big Data' leading to the use of machine learning and AI - an increasing challenge for agriculture. Research continues to be necessary, and needs to be reported and disseminated to a wide audience. These edited proceedings contain peer reviewed papers presented at the 14th European Conference on Precision Agriculture, held in Bologna, Italy. The papers reflect the wide range of disciplines that impinge on precision agriculture - technology, crop science, soil science, agronomy, information technology, decision support, remote sensing, data analysis and others. The broad range of research topics reported will be a valuable resource for researchers, advisors, teachers and professionals in agriculture long after the conference has finished

This article features an archaeobotanical meta-analysis of plant macroremains from the whole of Roman Italy. The aim is to further refine understandings of 'Roman' foodways, and to highlight the ways that Roman expansion impacted the core of the Empire itself. The study builds upon previous regional overviews by expanding the geographical focus, integrating fully quantified data and wild/weed seed analysis, and broadening the topical range so as to consider not only dietary patterns, but also agricultural practices and fuel use throughout Roman Italy.
The majority of the dataset is derived from published archaeobotanical reports, and consists of macroremains from archaeological sites in Italy dating from 500 BC to AD 500. In utilising such a broad chronological framework, changes in the plant repertoire may be better elucidated. The data are further divided according to geographical region and site type, and ancient literary sources are used to contextualise patterns observed in the dataset.
The findings shed light on diverse agricultural practices, as well as trends effecting the distribution of key cash crops, which suggest that imperial expansion may have affected the olive oil and wine industries differently. Other observations include regional variations in consumption patterns and cultural preferences for specific nut varieties. A peak in dietary diversity can be observed in the Roman Imperial period, followed by a decline in the Late Roman period.