ABSTRACT
Small farms in Portugal and Italy have strong similarities, sharing many characteristics of the agriculture of southern Europe. Farm families cultivate a diverse set of crops, and some attention is given to home consumption needs. Italian small farms are several times larger and usually much more consolidated than their Portuguese counterparts. The role of structural change policies and public investments to support agriculture differs between the countries. For Portugal, on-farm public investments have important effects on farm competitiveness. The initial impact of the MacSharry reforms was estimated by modification of the baseline results. The “projected baseline” results show the impact on farm systems of changes in incentives without allowance for farm adjustment. Small farms must give attention to total employment offered by the farm in addition to rates of return to labor. Market access is particularly critical for Portuguese small farm agriculture, because the magnitudes of change are so great.
