Corso di Laurea in Scienze e tecnologie agrarie - STA

To provide students with an economic approach to environmental issues in agriculture.

To analyze the main interconnections between agricultural production systems and the environment, with a special emphasis on the effects of the use of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) on water bodies.

The course is fully delivered in English language only

Agro-environmental economics

Students will achieve the analytical tools to interpret agri-environmental issues in an economic perspective; they will be able to discuss in this framework agricultural and agri-environmental policies of the EU.

Environmental agronomy

Students will obtain an understanding of the agronomic techniques that can be applied profitably to mitigate the potential adverse effects of use of PPPs on the environment. Students will be able to perform a diagnosis of the risk of transfer of pesiticides to water bodies due to runoff at water cactchment scale and to propose the correct mitigation measures to be adopted.

 Levels of learning acquired by the students will be evaluated regularly through discussions in class and during practical lessons. 

The subjects, hereafter reported, are included in the learning area of production and management. In particular, the subjects will allow the students to acquire skills in the analysis of the complex interactions among different agricultural systems, and in the evaluation of economic and environmental impacts of agriculture.

Agro-environmental economics

Revision of basic economics. Market as an efficient resource allocation mechanism. Pareto optimum. Efficiency and equity. Kaldor-Hicks compensation principle. Market failures: public goods, externalities, open access resources. Externalities. Externalities as a reason for not reaching a social optimum. Optimal level of externalities. Policy interventions on externalities: property right definition, standards, taxes, subsidies, marketable permits. Public goods. The economic measurement of benefits from public goods. Valuation methods of the benefits of public goods. Agriculture and environment. Positive and negative externalities associated to agricultural production. Structural and technical evolution of agriculture and its impact on environment. Sustainable agriculture and multifunctional agriculture. The Common Agricultural Policy and the environment. Agro-environmental measures and the greening of the CAP.

Environmental agronomy

State of the enivronment in the EU. Factors of human activity that drive the major impacts on the environment. Introduction to environmental status and importance of inland waters in pan-EU region.

A threat to biodiversity: invasive alien plant species (Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed), Sicyos angulatus (burcucumber), Solanum carolinense (carolina horsenettle), Pueraria montana (kudzu).

Environmental effects of agriculture; the DPSIR scheme for the interpretation of the environmental impact.

The water compartment and legislative framework (European Water Framework Directive – WFD – 2000/60/EC; vulnerability indices to nitrates and pesticides; national and local policies).

Definition of PPP according to Regulation (EC) N° 1107/2009 Concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC.

Description and analysis of the Directive 2009/128/EC establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides

Runoff diagnosis on a pilot catchment basin (Tiglione Valley). Territorial data analysis with GIS tools, TOPPS_Prowadis diagnosis guidelines and risk classification. Field validation. Elaboration of proposed mitigation measures.

Agro-environmental economics 

PowerPoint presentations

Materials distributed during classes

A general textbook on Environmental economics, not too technical:
- Pearce D.W, Turner K.R., Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1990

More specific on agriculture:
- Zilberman D., Marra M., Agricultural Externalities, in G.A. Carlson, D. Zilberman and J.A. Miranowski (eds) Agricultural and Environmental Resource Economics, New York, Oxford University Press, 1993

Environmental agronomy

The recommended basic texts for the course are:

PowerPoint presentations, lecture notes and articles for critical readings distributed during the course.

All PowerPoint presentations are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Other suggested literature:

-TOPPS-Prowadis: Best Management Practices to reduce water pollution with plant protection products from run-off and erosion (provided during the course)

- "Think soils" manual (available at http://www.ahdb.org.uk/projects/documents/ThinkSoils.pdf)