Organic food and farming research in Italy: A review by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Policies (MIPAF)

In Italy, as in other countries, Organic Food and Farming (OFF) research suffers from a very high fragmentation as it is carried out by many public research institutes, universities and private centres. In recent years, due to the increasing relevance of OFF within national rural development programmes, strong efforts have been addressed towards an improvement of the efficiency of the distribution of funds, the research system and the reorganization of its activities, and a reduction of overlapping initiatives. This paper presents projects and institutions currently working on OFF research in Italy, focusing on the available public financial instruments and the main projects funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry MIPAF. Most of the Italian research projects investigate plant production subjects, some actions involve animal production, animal health and welfare and environmental aspects. In order to facilitate the dissemination of research, the “National Information System on organic farming” (www.sinab.it) was established. It is financed by MIPAF. Furthermore, recognizing the need to coordinate research efforts also at transnational level, MIPAF is one of the 11 partners of the CORE-Organic ERA-net project, which started in October 2004, co-financed by the European Commission. This network could represent a very powerful tool to strengthen future national and international research actions and cooperation.