Evoluzione dei valori fondiari e politiche Dynamics of land values and agricultural policies

Abstract

The 42nd Meeting of the Research Centre for Appraisal and Land Economics (Ce.S.E.T.) focused its attention on land markets, given that the new Common Agricultural Policy, which has proposed strong reforms that have been much discussed, has arrived at an advanced stage of definition. The land market theme, although little contemplated in economic evaluations of agricultural policies, is an essential topic for the understanding of development processes, especially after the economic crisis linked to real estate appraisal. The hypotheses of totally decoupling direct aid, adopting undifferentiated payments per hectare, and introducing a bonus for "greening", as contemplated in the CAP reform proposal, could significantly modify the present equilibrium in terms of competitiveness between crops and, more in general, the structure of the sector itself. Following an in-depth analysis of the specific elements of the extant CAP reform and those linked to other communautaire measures, such as the liberalization of planting rights for vineyards and further elements of a structural nature where other economic and social activities are competing for land use, it is possible to appreciate the tensions in the market as regards current and future rural funds. The multidisciplinary perspective that characterized the meeting held in Palermo, allowed us to compare and integrate different theoretical and operational approaches, while examining in detail all the aspects dealt with, both from an appraisal and from a territorial economy standpoint. The most important Italian researchers in estimates and legal affairs and the main actors on the territory, like the Natural Resources Agency, the National Institute of Agricultural Economics and a delegate of the Agronomy and Forestry Doctors' Order, attended the meeting. Furthermore the contribution of Professor Giovanni La Via, member of the European Parliament should be emphasized; he is an academic of the appraisal of farmland and a BUDG rapporteur of the European Parliament, who defined the dynamics of land values in the light of the most updated forecasts of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The interesting researches presented during the meeting were organized, as a consequence of the multidisciplinary nature of the meeting, in three parallel sessions, with the aim of promoting a comparison between the various theoretical and operational approaches: "The agricultural policy instruments and their effects on land values"; "The dynamics and the appraisal of land property values"; "The evaluation of public assets in rural areas". During the conference many research ideas were put forward, there was a mutual enrichment of knowledge while issues to be developed emerged. It is the hope of the Centre that the debate and the dialogue between all the parties involved will continue. As the principle of multidisciplinary debate is innate in Ce.S.E.T., it undertakes to promote opportunities for study and discussion that favour this process. Finally, I wish to express, also in the names of the entire Ce.S.E.T. scientific committee, sincere gratitude towards Professor Maria Crescimanno and all the organizers for the quality of the event, for welcoming everyone and, above all, for the scientific level of the contributions formalized through the ISI certification process of the proceedings. It certainly required great commitment and can be considered a reference model for the entire academic sector.