What Factors Encourage Intrafamily Farm Succession in Mountain Areas? Evidence From an Alpine Valley in Italy

Family farming plays a vital role in mountain areas. Its survival is related to multiple factors, including intra-family farm succession. This study examined data on apple-producing family farms in an Italian Alpine valley, trying to identify which factors foster or discourage intra-family succession and to what extent they do this, both at the farm level and from the potential successor’s viewpoint. To do so, various farm, farmer, and individual characteristics were analyzed using probabilistic (probit) regression. We found that intra-family succession was more likely when the farm was managed by a woman (+20%) with a high school diploma (+13%), had at least 1 child with specialized education in agriculture (+27%), and when farm sales had increased in recent years (+25%). We also found that a child’s willingness to take over the family farm decreases as the number of farm children increases and when the child is a female with a high school diploma; however, the likelihood that children will take over the family business rises as farmer education level and work experience increase. These findings, while mixed, suggest that women play a key role in keeping family farming alive in mountain areas, along with education of family members, improved marketability of agricultural products, and in general, with competitiveness and profitability of the family farm.