Assessment of the CAP Payments Impact Using the Index of Berry in some Rural Italian Regions

In Italy there has been after the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) a significant reduction of financial subsidies allocated towards farmers and a new reallocation of payments disbursed by the European Union. In fact, lots of indirect payments have been allocated in order to stimulate investments in farms aimed at reducing the socio-economic marginalization in rural areas. The aim of this research was to assess by a quantitative approach such as the Berry Index the impact of financial subsidies allocated to less favored areas and to the rural development on the total amount of financial subsidies disbursed by the CAP since 2004 to 2015 in all Italian regions. Findings have pointed out as the northern Italian regions have had the highest level of Berry Index in terms of financial subsidies disbursed by the Common Agricultural Policy. Positive has been the role and impact of this methodology in order to compare different Italian regions pointing out the pivotal role of indirect payments in reducing the marginalization in rural areas even if the dichotomy between some Italian regions is increasing over the time.