Organic agriculture in Italy: challenges and perspectives

For more than two decades, we have been witnessing a constant global increase of the organic sector. In the international sphere and within the EU, Italy is represented as a leader country. The strategic relevance of Italian organic agriculture has been recognized by the government which, in 2004 and for the following years, has funded the National Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming (PAN-ABPB) for promoting and spreading organic products in the domestic and foreign markets. The organic market expansion calls for innovative solutions along the organic food chain to answer adequately the increasing needs of producers and consumers. In this context, research and innovation play a crucial role. In Italy, as in other countries, organic food and farming research has suffered a setback for several years due to very high fragmentation. In order to overcome this obstacle, in the last few years, two important research and innovation networks have been established, namely the Italian Research Network in Organic Farming (RIRAB--Rete Italiana per la Ricerca in Agricoltura Biologica) and the Italian Technology Platform on Organic Food and Farming (PTBio Italia), a mirror of the European Technology Platform "TP Organics." The first one includes most Italian researchers involved in the different organic research areas, while PTBio Italia is an open forum involving the main organic stakeholders for discussing and defining priorities for organic research and innovation. Future positive perspectives of the Italian organic sector can be envisaged with more emphasis on the organic innovation be put through more effective collaboration with related European platforms.