Does gender matter in farm management? Evidence from FADN data in Piedmont

One of the main criticisms toward European Union’s supporting schemes is that they are selective in terms of farm size, farm models and to gender issues, as women usually run small farms and are engaged in less entrepreneurial models of farms. Gender mainstreaming is not effectively implemented in the Common Agricultural Policy, and its implementation is also made difficult due to the lack of suitable gender-sensitive statistics and specific economic analysis. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the discussion exploring limits and potential of main statistical sources commonly used in agriculture for conducting gender analysis. The study was carried out for an Italian region (Piedmont) used as a case study, through a descriptive analysis of Agricultural Census data and applying a multivariate technique (MANOVA) on FADN regional database. Starting from farm structures, and performances analysis, authors’ main goal is highlighting differences between farms run by men and by women as it turns out from these data sources. Overall preliminary result confirms that women run smaller farms than men farmers, more frequently located in marginal areas and with higher land fragmentation. In absolute terms, the farms run by men have better results, both in terms of average output and of average net income, but women-run farms have much higher performances in terms of output of quality products. As to farm management, women invest less in fixed assets and tend to reduce the expenses, in comparison to men. Besides, the analysis confirms that farms run by women are under-represented in the main source of information explicitly designed to provide information on farms’ income and economic performances. The lack of specific gender statistics makes it difficult to get an evidence base for developing and monitoring effective gender mainstreaming in agricultural policies.