Social agriculture for life quality and environmental sustainability

Social Agriculture (SA), regulated in Italy by the Law n. 141/2015, is part of a welfare model in which environmental protection, enhancement, as well as people well-being and social integration, are able to find their maximum expression. For older people, the experience in Social Farms is an opportunity for aggregation and improvement of life quality and psychophysical well-being, according to the WHO's definition of active aging as a “process of optimizing health opportunities, partecipation and safety to improve people's quality of life". We conducted a preliminary desk analysis to size the total number, the related sectors of specializa�on and the recipients of companies opera�ng in SA in Italy. Therefore, it was possible to identify a sample of companies located in Calabria and Sicilia available for the case study both to analyse their activities and the psychophysical well-being parameters linked to the stay in natural environments by the over65 people atending them on daily basis or residential mode. For the data selection, we used the ISTAT 2020 National Census, the CREA 2020-2023 Regional Registers, various search engines, and comparisons with trade associations as well as direct telephone contact. In the next months a case study will be conducted on the 45 identified sample companies and the over65 people frequen�ng them, by means of online questionnaires (Google Forms) and face to face interviews. From the desk analysis carried out, emerges, in Italy, an ever-increasing presence and legisla�ve protec�on of SA, but also the necessity to improve the knowledge of the phenomenon, since the information on operators, activities, recipients and above all effects of these practices on people and territorial contexts are, at the moment, poor. The case study will provide further elements of knowledge for the identified sample Regions