Development policies for social farming in the EU-2020 strategy

Recent progress of EU Rural Development Policy has definitely paved the way for the achievement of multifunctional farming and acknowledgement for its civil society role, as an activity to integrate sector’s operators’ sources of income. Despite its spreading in Europe, Social Farming is still today not supported by an adequate legislative and operative definition. In fact, it includes social services in rural areas concerning education, health care and work inclusion, that offer products to meet modern society demand. This research aimed at defining and analyzing this phenomenon, involving stakeholders, in the perspective of a renewed public intervention and support by the Policy for Rural Development and that of social economic cohesion 2014-2020.