Agriculture Sustainability in mountain areas: a Willingness To Pay (WTP) approach

The agricultural crisis forces the researchers and the world of science to address problems related to the primary sector through new theoretical and methodological approaches. Although the trend is the same worldwide, the phenomenon is more noticeable in disadvantageous areas, as the mountains. Some traits of mountain agriculture as remoteness, low productivity due to the poor quality land, extreme weather and small farm size, can limit the adaptation and competitiveness of this branch (Mazzocchi and Sali, 2016). The pastures, which are key elements of the mountain livestock, are undergoing for several decades a gradual process of abandonment (Giannini and Gabbrielli, 2013). Moreover they are important to the permanence of the typical alpine landscape mosaic and constitute a touristic attraction (Gios et al., 2006). However, the economic revitalization of agriculture in the mountains require substantial innovation: what could be the drivers for the innovation of alpine farms economy? Talking about multifunctional agriculture as the means to preserve agricultural landscape, to sustain rural development and to preserve the cultural heritage values, is possible to focus some basic elements that must be included in a process of innovation of the concept of mountain agriculture. The paper proposes a Choice Model analysis in order to evaluate the alpine pasture system in an area of the Orobie Bergamasche Park, in the Northern of Italy.