Farm family business: the relevance of district-contexts in the consumption of rural development policies

Farm family business is the most relevant of the Italian agriculture. Recent rural development policics of the European Union aim at improving competitiveness of family farms and diversification of their economic activity in rural areas, by offering a set of financial opportunities. These opportunities are not always well exploited by family farms. The purpose of this article is to verify the existence of a "district effect" in the consumption of rural development policies. To this end, the authors analyse demand and funding obtained by fruit and vegetable farms within an Italian region, distinguishing between district and off-district areas. A deepening of farms' socio-demographic characteristics is proposed to emphasize the district dimension in the access to rural development policies. The results confirm the existence of the district effects and call for a strengthening of relational asset within territories to improve policy access.