WCHR Home WCHR 1 WCHR 2 WCHR 3 WCHR 4 WCHR 5 Search
Filadelfio Basile - Giuseppe Timpanaro (1)
DISEAE - Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Agrarie ed Estimative
enze Economico-Agrarie ed Estimative
University of Catania
Via Valdisavoja, 5
95123 CATANIA
ITALY
Key words: melons, economic analysis, Sicily.
Abstract:
On the basis of official statistics in Italy we would have 20 thousands hectares invested in melons, especially concentrated - among forced, semi-forced and full-field cultivations - in Sicily, Apulia, Latium and in Emilia-Romagna.
In Sicily there are about one third of total areas invested in this cultivation and 27% of total national production; this means an increase of relative national importance and remarkable structural changes. This happened particularly in certain provinces of the region (Trapani, Agrigento, Siracusa), where big enterprises show modern procedures of management and great investments in the field of the production of melons.
The positive evolution of this production in Sicily is to be put in relation to a series of facts; among these are:
It is important to precise that this "cucurbitacea" is cultivated in an exact part of the year and that it is associated by the same farmers with other cultivations.
An outline of public intervention is offered by the present contribution, at the sovra-national (European Union), national and regional level, trying to evidentiate which are the perspectives of this cultivation in the future.
From the economic analyses of the production on melons in Sicily,
we obtain interesting results, and especially that some cultural
operations are very peculiar, that some contribution of labour
are very high and that there is the need for some research in
the field, especially oriented to the mechanization of some operations.
1. If we analyse the invested surface and the obtained volumes of production of those cultivated products that have registered - at a national and a sovranational level - a continous positive evolutive movement in the last 8-10 years, we can enclose among these surely the melon.
Also in Sicily this "cucurbitacea" has shown remarkable increases, with a growth of relative importance of regional over national presence and with deep structural changes in the sector.
This cultivation extended itselfin l changes in the sector.
This cultivation extended itselfin the "Island's" territory also because it is capable to make quality's products, which are immediately absorbed by the market at prices tendentially sustained. Furthermore, Sicily is the region that opens the commercialization's season during the year's time, that is the half of April for summer melons and July for winter melons.(2)
The principal elements that must be considered when analysing the important evolutive dynamics of melons in Sicily are in particular:
The realization of a specific preliminary investigation, that has been aimed to the determination of the principal aspects - both the territorial ones and the business ones - of the cultivation of melons has been motivated by the scarce knowledges on the productive structures and by the extended territorial concentration in areas characterized by a limited extension.
For what we have written, it has been judged a good thing to begin
with research in this field from the summer 1995. A specific research's
programme has been carried out until this year on the economics
of production of melons in Sicily, and this within the activities
of the Ph.d. in "Agricultural Economics and Politics"
of the University of Palermo (Department E.S.A.F.).
2. Firstly, we have collected together all the available statistical data of this "cucurbitacea" in our country, with the declared aim of determining the evolution and the amounts of italian surface and production of melons.
Our principal sources were the daroduction of melons.
Our principal sources were the data published in the yearly numbers of the "Annuari di Statistiche dell'Agricoltura, della Zootecnia e dei Mezzi di Produzione" of ISTAT from the agrarian year 1968 until that of 1995. These data have been re-elaborated in order to obtain a suitable historical series.
The re-elaboration of the data relative to melon's surface and production has been realized calculating the average of four following agrarian years every seven years. We had, however, the precaution of evidentiating the evolution in the last years until 1995, during the which the growing phenomena that have been characterized by the major dynamics took place.
The gathered statistical data and information have been elaborated and ordered under the following tables in order to better understand the evolution and the amount of italian surfaces and production of melons.
From the official statistics (see table 1), it would result that the melon's cultivation in the country's territory would have known from the second half of the sixties until nowadays an expansion - in terms of invested surface - of about 55%, going from 13,000 hectares (average of the four years during the period 1968-71) to about 20,200 hectares (average of the four years 1992-95). As it is possible to turn out from table 2 we would have an increase in terms of production in reactionave an increase in terms of production in reaction to the growth in invested areas more or less the same, equal to around 55%; in fact we registered an increase in the volume of production from 286,7 thousands of tonnes (1968-71) to around 443,0 thousands (1992-95).
In particular, among the different regions of the Italian Mezzogiorno, Sicily has shown a durable tendency to expand areas interested to the cultivation of melon. This happened in all the differentiated expression present in our country, with particular respect to the different typologies of cultivation (in full field, semi-forced and forced cultivation), with growth's rhythms clearly higher to those that we have found for Italy in total. During the seventies we found a substantial stationarity; in fact, we encountered no significant change in surfaces and a light decrease (- 6%) for productions. Beginning from the first half of eighties we note (table 1) an investments explosion with an increase of 228% of surfaces (from 1,8 thousands of hectares in the four years 1968-71 to around 5,9 thousands in the period 1992-95) and an increase of 153% of production (respectively, in the same four years, from 37,3 thousands of tonnes to about 94,5 thousands).
If we examine the cultivation of melons in Sicily, we can remark from tables 1 and 2 that the relative importance with respect to national figures, has grown.nce with respect to national figures, has grown. In the Island nowadays we have 29% and 21% of surface and production, that have grown respectively of 112% and 64% in the period 1968-71 / 1992-95.
The analysis that has been conducted on the present situation of the cultivation of melons in Sicily and its relative importance in relation with the national situation has been guided on the basis of all the information and statistical records that it has been possible to have through the official way and it has shown phenomena of strong concentration of supply in some provinces of the "Island". In spite of these last things we have found, since the beginning of the research, remarkable differences especially in the territorial characteristics and in the productive structures of the cultivation of melons, and this in relation with the physical environment, the land system, the availability of water resources, the more or less recent development of this cultivation, the utilized varieties, the cultivation's cycle, the cultural techniques, the quality and quantities of obtained productions. Consequentily, it is possible to note different typologies of cultivation, and in particular in full field, semi-forced or forced; in correspondence to these, we obtained different types or varieties of melons with different future perspectives (for example winter or summer melons).
At the same time we made a very ample bibliographical resee time we made a very ample bibliographical research, and the results are that there is a dearth of sufficiently deepen contributions on the economics of production of melons, notwithstanding some attempts on this argument. Most of the scientific contributions are above all of a technical-agronomic nature and some of the contributions are informative and/or divulgative.
For what we wrote it was necessary to predispose and execute "ad hoc" territorial surveys, useful to collect informations on the characteristics of this cultivation, in order to know and interpret them.
The research was concentred above all on three specific production's areas, namely the "Trapanese", the "Agrigentino" and the "Siracusano". The delimitation of these well-individuated areas has been sufficiently laborious and it must be clear that not alvays this cultivation has shown a sufficient spatial concentration.
The first area of cultivation (the "Trapanese") intercepts the territories adjacent to the com the territories adjacent to the common of Paceco, from where the process of development of cultivation of the melon has begun. From Paceco this phenomenon has expanded and nowadays a large zone inside the province of Trapani is relevant at this aim (especially the commones of Fulgatore, Ummari, Valderice, Buseto Palizzolo, Salemi, Alcamo, etc.). The second area, the "Agrigentino", extend itself along the coastal zone going from Ravanusa to Campobello di Licata, and is comprehensive of also these communes: Licata, Palma di Montechiaro e Favara. The third area (the "Siracusano") collects the invested surface in the following commons: Ispica, Pachino, Portopalo di Capo Passero and the south area of Noto between the provinces of Ragusa and Siracusa.
Figure 1 shows the localization of the three zones in which in Sicily the cultivation of melon is concentrated at the 31st december 1996. This has been the result of our direct research, that has aimed at determining the territory in which there is this cultivation and not the exact location of the invested surfaces. This last operation is practically impossible because of the great spatial dispersion of the invested areas and because of they appear very often divided by other farming system.
The very first results of the direct research have immediately shown the presence of substantial differences with respect to the data coming froifferences with respect to the data coming from the official statistics. This is valid not much for the localization of this cultivation as much as for the dimension of surfaces and productions of melons in Sicily.
Furthermore, the need for "ad hoc" direct research was coming not only from the fact that ISTAT statistics were not an adequate expression of the real trend but also from the fact that there was the necessity to better precise the principal differentiation existing in the typologies of cultivation. The shown evaluative process has ascertained the success of intensive from of cultivation of melon in protected environment (tunnel and various ground covers) that are in the future destined to progressively extend themselves in both the case of winter and summer melons.
It is probable that, in the framework of its work, ISTAT is not capable neither to follow the territorial mobility of the cultivation of melon nor the evolution of the organization and management of the same cultivation. In fact, we assist to consistent differences of surfaces and productions with respect to those really present in Sicily.
On the basis of the results of direct research and of our estimates and evaluations we have elaborated tables 3 and 4, on which we have a synthesis of surfaces and production of melons in the different areas of Sicily and for the different tyfferent areas of Sicily and for the different typologies of cultivation. From tables 3 and 4 we have the exact perception of the indagated phenomenon in our region; they have been organized in order to collect indirect informations and indications an the territorial distribution of the different varieties of melons, and especially winter melons (cultivated exclusively in full field) and summer melons (more and more cultivated in hothouses or in tunnel). These research's results are sufficiently reliable because of the scale of controls, that have been done at the level of the single common and of the single district, and because of the pluri-ripetitions of the examinations that have been made.
For what concerns invested surfaces, we must refer to table 3 and to figure 2, where useful comparisons between data from official statistics (ISTAT) and the results of direct research are made. We can easily say that there is a large underestimate of ISTAT data, equal about to 76%, and if we refer ISTAT analysis to Sicily in total and to the period 1992-95, we found less than 6.000 hectares, while at the end of 1996 direct research has found the presence of 10,410 hectares. Although there is a temporal difference in the two sources, the degree of the underestimate of the surfaces is so relevant to oblige ISTAT's services to make adequate corrections to theiervices to make adequate corrections to their analyses.
If we consider the different typologies of the cultivation of melon the diversities grow; in fact the results of direct research show for Sicily that ISTAT data for the period 1992-95 are overestimated by 32% with respect to the cultivation in hothouse and they are underestimated by 82% in relation with the cultivation in full field. Absolute values for the two typologies are respectively 307 and 5,617 hectares according to ISTAT figures for the period 1992-95 while the direct research has registered 210 and 10,200 hectares.
Table 4 and figure 3 show a comparison of melons' production and the situation does not differ too much from that of surfaces. We have an underestimation from the official data equal more or less to 70%, since data of ISTAT for the period 1992-95 show in Sicily a total production of about 94,5 thousands of tonnes against the evaluation of 160,4 thousands of tonnes for 1996 made by direct research. Consequently, also the data of ISTAT on production, with respect to the different typologies, show the same trend: an overestimation of cultivation in hothouse (of about 25%) and an underestimation of cultivation in full field (more than 80%).
When we consider the cultivation of melons in the different provinces of the Island, we must conclude that ISTAT is not capable to follow the real trend. This TAT is not capable to follow the real trend. This happened probably because of the fact that it is a very recent phenomenon that the cultivation of melons concentrates just outside the boundaries of the most important provinces. From the direct research we remark this fact: we have had progressive centrifugal movements of this kind of cultivation from the original areas to those adjacent zones that are potentially good to host melons, and this happened when it was possible to find new or leased land. This is valid for Palermo and Agrigento, two provinces that have invested from the province of Trapani the diffusion of melons, for Caltanissetta (from the next Agrigento) and for Siracusa and Ragusa; these two last provinces are the most important for invested surfaces and production of the cultivation of summer melon in Sicily.
As we can see from figure 2 and 3 the analysis and the comparison, for the different provinces, show an overestimation of surfaces and productions. In particular, as we see, for Trapani, Agrigento, Siracusa and "The other provinces" we have an over-evaluation both for surfaces (equal to 52%, 57%, 176% and 99%) and productions (equal to 92%, 43%, 68% and 79%).
The three zones that have been the object of our investigation
in total intercept 81% of the production of Sicily, with a total
amount of 130 thousands of tonnes, while 160,3 thousands of tonnes
are tof tonnes, while 160,3 thousands of tonnes
are the melons of all the Island.
3. The territorial analyses that has been done by the DISEAE of the University of Catania have produced a lot of interesting results, at the basis of the following research that has been made at the level of the single companies, from the microeconomic point of view.
Firstly, we confirm that in Sicily we have at the same time three different typologies of melons (in full field, in tunnel and in hothouse), with the characteristic of being specialized and intensive. The first typology is found in the areas of ancient cultivation, and in particular in the "Trapanese", it interests the cultivation of winter melon in full field and it is frequent on the bare ground or on soil covered ground; its target is the early-matured varieties in order to activate certain flows of trade, once directed only towards the regions of the Mezzogiorno of Italy, todays directed towards the Centre-North of our country and is some cases abroad (France). This cultivation expanded itself with a centrifugal movement, with the "colonization" of new lands that are located in the bordering provinces of Palermo, Caltanissetta and Agrigento; especially for this last province we have remarked a large diffusion and inside it we made special assessments during our direct research. The second typology is that one of the cultivation of summcond typology is that one of the cultivation of summer melon in tunnel and it is diffused in the zones of the "Agrigentino" and of the "Siracusano". In common with other garden-land cultivation in protected environment that are characterized by remarkable economic results, at the basis of the development of this "cucurbitacea" we found the use of technical means and the human specialized resources, the organizational and management's procedures. The cultivation is made in this case always on soil-covered ground, and it is directed to reach levels of precocity such as it is possible for Sicily to open the season of commercialization with these melons. The third typology is that one of the cultivation of melons in hothouse; it is possible to find it in all the three zones that have been examined and it is tendentiously strongly in decline, with respect to the previous years, because of the diffusion of the tunnels; in fact these last require minor investment and management's costs, they are more easily to be done and - thanks to the recent models coming out from technological developments - they are surely more functional for melons and they make adequate anticipation's levels in the maturing of melons possible.
Secondly, we found at the end of territorial analyses, the existence of a strong dynamism of invested surfaces, and this is indispensable in order to overcome the known problems of "tiredness" the known problems of "tiredness" of the ground that are the consequence of the cultivation on the same land. This is valid especially for all those managers which do not make appeal to bromide of methyl ("Trapanese") and are always in the search for virgin new substrates for this "cucurbitacea".
As a consequence, there is a high instability of the territorial location of firms; it is very common to recur to the seasonal rent and the canons vary according to services and facilities that the piece of land offers.
Thirdly, we remark that the cultivation of melon has the tendency to be included in the above-mentioned three zones inside agricultural companies with a direction towards the horticultural specialization or towards the mixed cultivation (horticultural-viticultural; horticultural-viticultural in hothouse; horticultural grain growing; etc.); inside them a more or less consistent surface has been devoted to this "cucurbitacea". This peculiarity has brought to the need for the application of a rigid selection by ourselves; at the end we chose only those companies with at least 80% of Gross Saleable Produce coming from the cultivation of melon and where it was possible to separate the organization and management of that lot of land destined to melons from the other uses of land inside the company. We made our specific direct research only on these companies.
Furthermore, inh only on these companies.
Furthermore, inside the three zones we noted a very rich varieties' panorama, dominated from various local ecotypes (their seed are autoproduced very often inside the same company) and a discrete presence of selected cultivars and hybrids of different origin. For what we said, farmers can easily find the necessary material for propagation; this does not happen for other productions, for example for the early potato, where only few firms have the exact seed and also a "de facto" monopolistic distribution's position. On the other side, this fact does not allow to give full value to the production, that present itself not fully homogeneous, above all if we refer to the size and to the brix degree, that not always fully responds to market's demand.
Moreover, we observed that there is, especially for the summer melon, a certain specialization of the techniques of cultivation, contrarily to what the past thinking on the subject was. Besides the noteasily to mechanize typical operations, we remarked a diversity of typologies of cultural operations, of fertilisation's programmes, and of cultivation's regimes (dry or irrigated land) with evident effect on costs and profits of the cultivation. The situation and the perspectives are different for the winter melon, for which there is the need for several things, such as the diffusion of some techniques (for example, the fertilization of the whole land), mple, the fertilization of the whole land), the mechanical seed through a precise seeding machine or through a transplanting, adequate plant distances in order to reach the best plantation's density, the utilization of ground covers with polyethylene films along the row and an increased use of irrigation associated with an improvement in the conditions of hydric provisions.
Both for the winter melon and the summer melon we found a temporal arc of the productive cycle of this cultivation in Sicily, that is anticipated with respect to that specific to other regions of Italy that produce melons, with consequent positive results in particular on the product's supply calendar, which corresponds to april-may for summer melons and june-july for winter melons. This is a very important element for cultivator of melons because of the negative effects that can have hypothetical delays in the maturation of products on the level of prices, so that it can be sometimes unconvenient to collect all the "peponidi", that can reach, in particularly sfavourable years up to 20% of surface destined to melons in Sicily.
Finally, we must observe that the existing commercial structures
show evident limits; only some initiatives (usually those that
are together within a consortium) has adequate structures. We
note the scarce presence of market's associated companies. As
happens in other productive sectors, the most diffused modality
of sellie sectors, the most diffused modality
of selling is "franco azienda a peso", with the harvest
charged by the same produces and clear effects on the activity's
degrees of this cultivation, on production costs and profits.
However, it is opportune to precise that the selling price is
fixed normally with respect to a single harvest. Closely, it can
be the object of variations in decrease with the coming of the
season and for the following blooming of melons as the quantity
of supplied melons increases on the market where these last are
placed.
4. Once we obtained the principal technical-economic characteristics from a territorial point of view of the cultivation of melons in the three indicated zones, we could make a companies' analysis through the remark of the principal characters of the organisation and - for one or more productive cycle - the management of this cultivation. We made this effort in order to determine the structure and dimension of production costs, the level of profits and incomes and those economic indicators which will allow, at the end of the research, to express judgements and conclusions on the technical economic results and on the degree of the future perspectives of the cultivation of melons.
The survey has been articulated collecting the result of various companies operating in this field with the help of two different cards, prepared "ad hoc" one for ifferent cards, prepared "ad hoc" one for the company's analysis and the other for the piece of land destined to melons.
The first card has been structured and articulated in order to collect, in an exhaustive way, the principal organisational and managerial characteristics of melons' companies. It has been divided in five parts regarding the general characteristics of the fund (wideness, fragmentation, distances from the company's centre, roads conditions, shape of the pieces of land, hydric resources, etc.), the company's productive direction (distinguishing between specialized and mixed companies the different typologies of cultivation (in full field, in hothouse and in tunnel), the type of concern (with respect to the existing relation between the company and the inside workers and deepening on the rent regime), the belonging or not to associated companies (with different possible alternative typologies and the dimension of investments (we analysed for the investment on the land and the stock investments, respectively, the typology, the data of realization, the value, eventually the obtained grants, the degree of utilization of cultivation's, etc.).
The second card has been defined in order to deepen the economic analysis of the pieces of land that have been invested in melons, that cannot be examined globally inside companies with an horticultural-mixed address (horticultural-harboricultural, horticultural-grainculturall-harboricultural, horticultural-graincultural, etc.). This second card foresees in particular, through an opportune articulation in three parts, for each of the pieces of land of the company (from 1 to 3, usually) the acquisition of general news (invested surface, data and informations on the register of landed property, land's characteristics, fragmentation, relations company-ownership and company-labour, rent for each piece of land, hydric supply, value of the land, kind of investments on the land, utilized fixed company's capitals, on hire operations, etc.), the elements relative to the organisation of the cultivation of melons (cultural alternation, typology of protection, utilized varieties, modality of selling the product, total production, quantities and prices, calendars of harvesting, etc.) and also exact data on the management of the same cultivation (agricultural employees for each cultural operation, utilization of materials, services, etc.).
For what concerns the companies, we found that one of the most significative elements on the which it is useful to reflect is that one of high utilization of labour. Especially, we must consider that the harvesting of melons require costly manpower and that other post-harvesting operations, being the "franco azienda a peso" the most frequent modality of selling.
From direct research, we obtained activity's degrees that are different in each of the examined companiat are different in each of the examined companies. They oscillate considerably in relation to the zone and the interested typology and they are however variable between 112 to 189 hours per hectare in the "Trapanese", 88 to 165 in the "Agrigentino" and 324 to 540 in the "Siracusano", with average values equal respectively in the three zones to 142 hours per hectare in the first zone, 126 and 345 in the second zone and 410 in the third zone. They are varying with respect to a series of factors such as the number and the executive modalities of the cultural operations, the ground and the plantation's characteristics (for example, we found that for cultivation in tunnel relative values are higher), the managerial choices, etc. It is useful to remark that some melon's typical operations (such as the summer pruning, the thinning of the fruits, the harvesting and the related operations, etc.) require specialized labour to be realized so that they absorb a high rate of total labour needs of this kind of cultivation; it has been calculated that they change in the three zones from 30,4% to about 40%. We must also consider, for some of the companies that have this occurrence, employment linked to the creation of tunnels (arches' installation and application of covering material) that is consistent and vary from more that 14% to 16% of total).
The investments linked to the fund are also quite high (for example: thee fund are also quite high (for example: the rural buildings; water supply and distribution; inter-company road system). They are in total respectively for the zones equal more or less to 2 millions of lire in the "Trapanese", from 4,7 to 5,9 millions in the "Agrigentino" (both in full field and in tunnel) and 6,9 in the "Siracusano".
The stock investments are also worthy of note. They reach the following average values for the three zones: 3,5 millions of lire per hectare in the first zone, from 1,8 to 5,3 millions in the second zone and 14,5 millions of lire in the third zone, while the field of variation is from 870 thousands of lire to 6,4 millions in the "Trapanese", from 870 thousands of lire to 3 millions and from 4,3 to 6,4 millions in the "Agrigentino" and from 3,7 to 17 millions in the "Siracusano". As it is possible to note, these values are particularly high in the case of the cultivation in tunnel and this is an important signal of the association of this kind of cultivation to intensive hothouse horticulture.
From table 5 and figure 4 we obtain the economic results of the direct research that was made. The total costs of production present an average of 6,1 millions of lire per hectare in the "Trapanese", 6,8 and 23,6 millions in the "Agrigentino" and 29,8 millions the "Agrigentino" and 29,8 millions in the "Siracusano". The Gross Saleable Produce (G.S.P.) is about 8,1 millions of lire per invested hectare in the first zone, 8,5 and 25,9 in the second zone (according to the two prevalent ways of cultivation) and 32,4 millions in the third zone. Consequently, the unitary profits in the three zones are respectively: 2 millions, 1,7 and 2,3 millions and 2,6 millions per hectare.
In conclusion, these results are a good representation of the
cultivation of melons in the three areas, with respect to the
width of the analysed companies, that have been accurately chosen,
and to the market and seasonal proceeding in the agrarian year
chosen (1992-95), that has been "normal" for the produced
quantities and for prices.
5. As a whole, the perspectives for the cultivation of melons seem to be favourable above all in consideration of the fact that the internal and abroad demand for melons is capable in the medium-term to absorb a constantly increasing supply.
However, we can register in the future higher or lower price reductions if the supply will strongly increase; in the case in which we consider the noted increases in the past in surfaces and productions we can also have exponential rhythms of growth inside this sector and delays in the maturation times for both the winter and the summer melons with unfavourable repercussions on ihe summer melons with unfavourable repercussions on incomes and profits. Everything is also linked to the evident limits that it is possible to remark with respect to the organisation of the market of this cultivation.
We can remember a series of factors that seem to obstacolate the growth's potentialities of the cultivation of melons and among these are: the limits in the field of research and technical assistance; the coming of new parasitic attacks and other diseases; the limits in finding and making experiments of a renewed varietal panorama, that contribute to solve the problems of uniformity of size; the colouring; the resistance to manipulation, to preservation and transports; the need for having homogeneous indications in the most important technical-agronomic choices (epoch and modality of installations; fertilizing programmes; hydric volumes; etc.); the difficulties linked with the availability of irrigation's water (particularly urgent in those environments where there is the presence of melons in full field) that are due both to the limits of existing supplies that can be assured by water market operators and to the fact that not all of the areas potentially idoneous to melons have at their disposal sufficient resources; various difficulties linked to the finding of idoneous lands with the declared aim of taking away the cultivation of melons to the big limit of the "tiredness" of ground; the existing boundary of dos" of ground; the existing boundary of doing progress on what we remembered, without alter the qualitative level of fruits.
Organic presence of public action at the advantage of this "cucurbitacea" come be of primary importance; until now we note that only few initiatives took place at the different levels of government, while this sector needs especially stimulating and incentivating actions. In this direction, a special attention must be dedicated to insert the melons among the products of the new Common Market Organisation (CMO) on hortofruits (Rule EC 2200/96); this European Union's initiative introduces specific aid is indennities about market's withdrawals of the product in excess for all the fruits that have been included.
We think that, in a future perspective, we must create for this kind of cultivation a special global program containing measures in order to act at the same time for the market (supplies are constantly increasing) and for the production, with initiatives of a structural and infrastructural nature (new system of cultivation to lengthen the supply calendar; new road conditions; commercialization's centres; equipped working markets; etc.). Furthermore, it is useful to stimulate scientific research to find alternative or integrated utilization to the fresh consumption of the fruit.
We could utilize incentives coming from the Community's Rule n. 2078/92, that creates an aid regime for Rule n. 2078/92, that creates an aid regime for the methods of agriculture production compatible with the needs for the protection of environment and the needs for the protection of environment and the care for rural space; we must be successful in individuating for melons the cultivation's conditions foreseen by the various measures of this Rule. We must remark the general availability of farmer to extend these methods also for this cultivation in protected environment.
Other help could come from the Multifund Operative Program (POP) for Sicily 1994-99, that is the operative instrument through the which the European Union provides for the realization of the interventions inside the Support Comunitary Framework for Italian regions of objective 1. At the measure 8.6. ("Actions for the horticultural-floricultural and the nursery sector") we could insert also the melon; a special emphasis could be dedicated to the diffusion of innovations of process (for example to the purchase of machinaries and of various equipments for the cultivation and the following work of melons.
In this sector, we need to reinforce the presence of commercial structures and especially "ad hoc" centres with the target of making the working, the packaging and the refrigeration of the fruit; the alternative would be the creation of equipped public or mixed markets next to the production's zones.
It is important to promote scientificzones.
It is important to promote scientific research in this field, in particular in the direction to solve the above-named problems of the "tiredness" of lands, to try to combat the particularly hurtful diseases (for example, the "tracheofusariosi" and the "tracheoverticillosi"), to mechanize some cultural operations, to diffuse the use of ground cover - it has shown great advantages - and of other protection's techniques in the environments where melon in full field is cultivated.
Finally, we remark that it is indispensable to organize a qualified
technical assistance to offer to the agricultural farmers working
in this field and to adopt adequate - national and international
- promotional and advertising actions.
1 Filadelfio Basile and Giuseppe Timpanaro are respectively Professor of Agriculture and Economic Development and Researcher in the DISEAE (Economic Department of Agrarian Economics and Economic Sciences) of the University of Catania. The work is the result of full collaboration between the authors and therefore both the authors accept full responsibility for it. The actual writing of sections 1, 3 and 5 is attributable to Filadelfio Basile, while sections 2 and 4 and all the tables and figures are attributable to Giuseppe Timpanaro.
2 It is the case for remembering that the melon 2 It is the case for remembering that the melon belongs to the order of Cucurbitales, family of the Cucurbitaceae, genere Cucumis melo L.. Among the populations that are cultivated in Italy we can distinguish the following groups: Cantaloupensis (the most know type is the Charentais); Reticulatus (or netful or american melons); Inodorus. The so-called summer melons belong to the first two groups, that are cultivated in protected enviroment. The so-called winter melons belong to the third group, that are cultivated in full field. In the present work we shall utilize the unique nomenclature utilized by FAO ("Cantaloupes and other melons").
