ISHS Acta Horticulturae 176: International Symposium on Protected Cultivations in the Mediterranean Regions
EVOLUTION ASPECTS OF GREENHOUSE VEGETABLE CROPS IN ITALY AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES ON ECONOMIC RESULTS |
| Author: | G. Maugeri |
| Abstract:
During the last 10 or 12 years, greenhouse agriculture has been continuously developing in Italy; it has stimulated a further increase of surfaces and of production. This is the more surprising when we consider the unfavourable economic conjuncture: the energy crisis and the events in the international money market have in the same years contributed to speed up the well known process by which the prices of the means of production rise faster than product prices. The negative effects of this phenomenon lead to a progressive reduction of revenues from greenhouse crops; producers have faced them through strategies aiming both to contain production costs and to expand or to stabilize the level of returns. On the cost side, one should mention in the first place the adoption of operational solutions and techniques which allow a reduction of the employment of labour in greenhouse agriculture. Rates of farm labour activity have been constantly lowering, particularly in relation to the progressive simplification of certain operations and in relation to the increasing diversification of crops; today those rates are 60–70% of those of a decade ago. In economic terms this has led to a correspondingly lower incidence of labour costs both on total production costs, and on returns: this incidence has lowered, respectively, from 35–40% to 25–30%, and from 25–30% to 20–25%. Among this king of savings, it is almost obvious to mention the employment of various kinds of automatized irrigation systems (drep or hose perforated systems, etc.) in greenhouse agriculture. Their effects are not | |
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