Exploring the main characteristics of urban/rural systems, and of their agricultures

The importance of spatial differentiation of agricultural policies is underlined by the European Union in its Pillar II of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), that aims at promoting “the diversification of economic activity and quality of life in rural areas” as well as finding means “to allow for structural diversity in the farming systems, improve the conditions for small farms and develop local markets”. It is widely known that there exist different agricultures in Lombardy, as well as in Italy and in Europe, and that identifying and characterising them is the fundamental basis for the development of appropriate sectorial policies and the growth of the agricultural and non-agricultural economy. Traditional classification systems in the EU or its application in Italy however are often focused on the more urbanized areas or do not capture the diversity within and between the complex urban and rural systems on a spatial basis. In Italy, and more specifically in Lombardy, there is a history of research institutions have worked towards a classification of agricultural systems. The Lombardy region itself has included a classification of rural areas in its most recent Rural Development Program 2007-2012. None of these studies however examine the characteristics of the linkages between urban and rural. A recent work uses a simple methodology based on the OECD method, but including additional variables at the municipality level in order to classify different rural systems, but again, does not take into account the linkages between urban and rural areas. Our objective is then to explore how to implement an adequate and representative classification of territorial systems for the development of regional policies, with a particular attention to the agricultural/rural dimension in the Lombardy region, which represents an excellent case-study because of its complexity.