RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
CONTAGRAF is engaged in collecting, processing, and disseminating accounting data regarding agriculture and forestry, to provide financial reports and indices for management purposes, as well as for studies and research on agricultural and forestry economics, and on rural environment. The research focuses on the most representative arable crops and tree crops, and livestock (especially dairy), including organic production, and on forestry sector analysis and the study of economic-environmental externalities.
From 1999 to 2005, CONTAGRAF provided technical-economic assistance to Veneto Agricoltura’s agricultural and forestry farms. The activities involved: collection of farms accounting data, developing income statements and balance sheets, and other management and environmental information, jointly with the Department of Economics and Agricultural Engineering of the University of Bologna and the CNR Center for Accounting and Management.
In addition to the above mentioned technical-economic assistance to agricultural and forestry farms, nowadays, CONTAGRAF provides other advisory and assistance services through the research staff, e.g., to develop the Veneto Region’s agricultural, energy and environmental policy programs.
Over the years, new experimental schemes have been developed, aimed at achieving the environmental accounting of agricultural and forestry farms, thus integrating the externalities from agricultural and forestry activities. This is an extremely sensitive and important issue to inform agricultural and environmental policy.
Other research activities relate the updating and dissemination of new production opportunities and the related financial supports resulting from the Rural Development Policy (RDP), which allows farms investments to promote multifunctionality and environmental quality, as well as the opportunity to remunerate the public services farms provide to society.
RESEARCH TOPICS
CONTAGRAF scientific research activity covers the following topics:
This includes strategy development support for agricultural and forestry policies at local, regional (e.g., Rural Development Programs), national (e.g., National Strategic Plan), and community level. Qualitative and quantitative approaches in ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of policies.
This involves the traditional economic analysis of farms to be extended to the food industry with a supply chain (value chain) approach, through the application of tools for monitoring the income results and business model innovation, among others.
This addresses the issues of agro-ecology as well as multifunctionality and public goods provision related to natural, forest and agricultural resource management, climate change, circular economy, and bioeconomy, also assessing agriculture and forestry’s ecosystem services and natural capital.
This refers to the integrated development of rural areas, the relationship between urban and agricultural/forest areas, food policy planning related to urban areas (urban food planning), the relationship between the use of natural resource and agricultural production, and social agriculture.
This is a cross-cutting theme, including both the agricultural sector, with strategies and tools for managing production risk, production, price and income, and forestry and natural resources, in light of the impact of climate change.
