Exploring the relationship between agricultural productivity and land degradation in a dry region of southern Europe

This paper explores the possible relationship between Agricultural Productivity (AP) and Land Degradation (LD) in Italy by addressing the importance of socio-environmental conditions on sub-regional scale. Multivariate analyses were carried out in the early 1990s and early 2000s on 784 Local Labour System (LLS) districts exposed to different levels of land vulnerability to degradation. In the early 1990s, AP in northern Italy was positively correlated with labour productivity in agriculture, share of agriculture in total product, and land vulnerability to degradation. During the following years, however, the increase in AP resulted not to be correlated to LD. A reverse pattern was observed in southern Italy, thus suggesting that the growth in AP was accompanied by an increasing level of land vulnerability. Based on these results, specific agro-environmental measures aimed at mitigating LD are discussed.