The Role Played by Agriculture in Inland Areas

Dear Colleagues,

Inland areas reflect local cultures and are the product of the accumulation of social, political, and economic practices. They frequently coexist with rural territories, which frequently exhibit the characteristics of marginal areas. Inland regions have experienced depopulation and the abandonment of agricultural land throughout the years. In the context of the policies that must be adopted to ensure a cohesive and sustainable development of such territories, the theme of depopulation is becoming an increasingly significant issue to be addressed and resolved.

Depopulation has also engendered an extensive, multidisciplinary scientific discussion that considers its social, economic, and political ramifications and works to build analytical, interpretive, and practical tools that can address related issues.

Attitudes toward marginal areas, especially rural and mountainous areas, have recently changed, as these areas play an important role in sustainable economic development. Therefore, political decision-makers pay great attention to inland areas. They are characterized by conditions of hardship connected with depopulation, as well as with the abandonment of inland residential centers, mostly in those characterized by small demographics and/or mountain sizes. These territories suffer serious discomfort due to the difficulty of connecting with distant urban centers for the provision of basic services (health, education, and mobility).

Despite these issues, inland regions have a significant amount of untapped potential for eco-system services, environmental services, landscape and cultural services, tourism, etc. Such a significant potential paradoxically results from the fact that inland regions have historically been on the margin of the most extreme development, which has shielded them from anthropogenic pressures. This trajectory has caused the existence of ecosystem, environmental, landscape, and cultural services to remain relatively unchanged, with the addition of specific development potential in terms of energy, water, and tourism.

Considering the internal areas in their multidimensional aspect, and therefore as production systems where close integrations between agriculture and other economic activities can be achieved, they represent ecosystems to be protected and valued. They are places where economic and social inclusion is the result of relational networks that involve the active participation of all the inhabitants, they become places to concentrate resources and experiment with new development paradigms. In these areas, agriculture represents the only barrier against the abandonment of territories and their environmental and landscape impoverishment.

In fact, inland areas can enable the creation and preservation of environmental resources (water, air, and soil), the generation of renewable energy, etc. if they are properly valorized. This is especially true for places with low growth rates that are the poorest and whose economic and social development cannot neglect the engagement of these areas’ potentials for development. The availability of ecosystem products and services (water, air, territories, forests, biological diversity, landscape, complex ecological systems, etc.) for the agri-food chain and for the generation of renewable energy depend on these regions. Despite this, throughout the years, a sizable portion of these communities has seen a gradual process of marginalization that is defined by population loss, a drop in the availability of public services, a decline in employment, and hydrogeological instability.

In this Special Issue, we will examine the role that agriculture plays in inland regions in an effort to emphasize how it might help to reverse (or at least slow down) this process of marginalization. Additionally, we want to comprehend which agricultural policies should be implemented in order to ensure the survival of farms in these regions and enhance their productivity. In fact, agriculture offers a chance to ensure the long-term presence of people and agricultural workers in rural areas, therefore fostering the economic development of these regions and generating revenue for peasant families.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Orlando Cimino
Dr. Concetta Cardillo
Dr. Giuseppe Gaudio
Guest Editors

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