The agro-environmental policy and its role in supporting farm incomes: a local case study

The common political framework concerning rural development and the division between the first and the second pillars have, obviously, clarified the scenario for farm support: a progressive reduction of market support measures (I pillar) and a strong increase of structural and competitive measures for farms support (II pillar) both identified by the term "conditionality". The wine sector with its Common Market Organization (CMO) system has been partially treated in a different way, due to lobby pressure and market structural characteristics. The recent reforms EC 1493/99 and 479/2008 have driven the wine regulation to the direction of a unique EU CMO restricted by conditionality. For this reason in the last ten years the interest in evaluating farm support has grown. This paper analyses the EU financial support of 422 wine farms in a local Italian region (Verona-Veneto region) during the period 2002-09, divided by income class and the percentage of support concerning the environmental support and conditionality.