Abstract

Over the past two decades Italian agricultural systems have recorded an extraordinary change in their structural foundations partially due also to the contradictory CAP regulations. The most significant factors that have produced the accelerated evolution in our countryside are two: on the one hand, the recognition and acquisition by the primary sector of new economic, social, environmental and cultural functions, on the other hand, the renewed interest in the beauty of rural areas, the importance of technical sustainable agricultural production and the quality of the food supply sources. To all these aspects, researchers and the general public attribute today the fundamental role of guarantors for the quality of life and human health, animal health and environmental protection. It is a new awareness that, breaking the traditional delay with which the primary sector responds to the cultural activities, with unexpected timing, has translated into concrete, conspicuous forms of land corporate reorganization. Applying the qualitative and quantitative methodology of the Interuniversity Research Group GECOAGRI LANDITALY to the latest census data of the agriculture in 2010, the contribution considers the recent evolution of Italian agricultural systems to evidence landscape outcomes and territorial issues.