soybean production in italy: agronomy, economics, and policy · 2019. 3. 14. · soybean production...

SoybeanproductioninItaly:agronomy,economics,andpolicyTizianaCentofanti

Dept.ofEnvironmentalSciencesandPolicy,CentralEuropeanUniversity(centofantit@spp.ceu.edu)

WhyItalyisthelargestproducerofsoyainEU?Since1940therehavebeenattemptstointroducethesoybeaninItalybuttheresultshavebeendisappointing.In1980thesituationchangeddramatically.TheEEChadbecomecompletelydependentonimportsofplant-basedproteinflourofwhichsoybeanrepresentedabout60%.Inaddition,asurplusofgrainwasbeingproducedwithconsequencesonprices.Inthiscontext,promotingsoybeanproductionbecamenotonlydesirablebutvital.Inaddition,Italianfarmerswerelookingforanalternativecropforrotationsthatwouldgeneraterevenues(traditionalbeet-wheatrotation);alfalfawasbecominglessprofitable.Moreimportantly,theItalianprocessingindustry,capableofprocessingmorethan2milliontonsofseeds,wasinterestedinnationalsoybeanproduction(Ferruzzi-Montedison).Thealignmentoftheseinterestscreatedtheconditionsnecessaryforthetesting,introduction,andpopularizationofsoybeaninItaly.

WhyisItalythelargestproducerofsoybeaninEurope?

Agronomyofthefarm(croprotationand

diversification,improvedvarieties)

Europeanandnational

agriculturalpolicy(CAP,economicincentives)

Environmentalconditions

(Temperature,rainfall,soiltype)

Historicalcontextknow-how(processingindustry,

technologicaladvancements)

Figure1.Second-harvestedsoybeanseededonwheatstubblewiththeKvernelandOptimaHDe-driveseeder.Source:http://www.ilnuovoagricoltore.it/.

Figure2.Soybeanproduction(1000t)inItalianregionsfrom2012to2017.Source:Eurostat.

Table1.HarvestedproductionandcultivationareaofsoyainEuropeancountries(average2015-2017).Source:Eurostat.

Harvestedproduction(1000tonnes)

Cultivationarea(1000ha)

EU-28 2440,1 892,9Bulgaria 40,3 34,5CzechRepublic 20,2 12,3Germany 19,2 8,0Greece 4,4 2,0Spain 4,1 1,3France 334,2 122,0Croatia 196,4 88,9Italy 11170,0 309,0Lithuania 1,8 2,6Hungary 145,9 72,0Austria 136,2 56,9Poland 8,8 6,2Romania 262,0 128,1Slovenia 4,7 1,7Slovakia 62,1 43,4Switzerland 4,1 1,7Albania 0,5 0,2Serbia 454,4 184,8Turkey 150,0 37,0BosniaandHerzegovina

10,4 7,0

HowissoybeanincludedintheCAP?Greeningpayment+rotation(cropdiversification)=pairedpaymentabout54-97€ha-1.Asarule,adiversifyingcropispresentinthefieldfromApril1sttoJune9th;soybeanfitstheschedule.ThepaymentforsoyaisdestinedtonorthernItaly,southernItalyreceivesgreeningpaymentsforvegetableproteinsotherthansoybean(Fig2).Thereisanincreaseddemandfornon-GMOsoyaintheEU.

Agronomyofthefarm.Improvedvarieties,clearagronomicadvantagesofsoybeanbecauseofNfixation,rotationcroponstriptilling(Fig.1)forcostreductionandreducedneedofplanthealthinterventions.InNorthernItalysoyaisirrigated.BreedingfornewimprovedvarietiesoccursinFriuliandLombardia.

Italianprocessingindustry.1980-GruppoFerruzziprovidedtechnicalassistancetofarmersandpurchasedsoybeanataguaranteedfixedpricepriortoseeding.Soybeanproductionareaincreasednearlytenfoldin1983andthenby37%in1984.Since2008-SipcamandCortalExtrasoyfunded“SoiaItalia”anon-profittoorganizeandsupportfarmersandtoguidethemthroughagronomicandmarketdecisions.

TheEuropeansoyadeclarationisaveryimportantpolicyactionfortheincreaseofsoybeanproduction.