European Union Agro-Environmental Policy Impact for Agricultural Landscape Conservation: the Case of Lemon Cultivation in North-Eastern Sicily

This study analyses the efficacy of the agri-environmental policies provided for in the European norms towards North-Eastern Sicily (Messina Province) where lemons have been harvested on terraces for hundreds of years. Since the later 80s, there has been a gradual decline due to a drop in the value of lemons, an increase in labour costs and the spread of citrus ‘mal secco’. The abandonment of farms has gradually brought about a decline in the agricultural landscape and given rise to erosion due principally to the destruction of dry stone walls. The analyses are based on GIS photo-interpretations of the variations in cultivated surface areas and the consequent mutations of the agricultural landscape in a sub-area of Messina Province which was the subject of similar analyses in 1963. The study’s results have highlighted that in the study area there has been a drastic reduction in lemon farming surface. This ongoing regression would be difficult to reverse in the coming years because of negative average farm incomes. This negative profit trend has occurred despite the many legislative incentives for lemon farms. The results seem to suggest a revision of current strategies to protect agricultural landscape in specific areas of European Union.