Effectiveness of EU and regional policies such an essential tool in promoting the competitiveness in rural areas: an explorative analysis in Apulia region

The rural development policies of the European Union for 2014-2020 aim at contributing to the achievement of smart growth in agriculture and multifunctional farming (Sandu, 2014; Scuderi et al., 2014). The importance of multifunctional activities is remarkably evidenced by the significant changes provided by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The Local Action Groups (LAGs) are local agencies that process the Measures of Local Development Programme and manage financial funds for Firms Modernization Plans; the latter is a farms tool aimed at supporting the LAG in requesting process for public aid. In fact, the beneficiaries of the measures of Axis III can participate in the public tenders only by means of a LAG. Focusing on Measure 311 Axis III, it aims at diversification into non-traditional agricultural activities in order to support farm businesses that restructure and diversify activities for providing alternative income sources. We take in account such a case study the Apulia Region - in South Italy - where 25 LAGs cover the entire region: performing integrated statistical data analysis the paper aims at evaluating the effective positive influence of FMPs on farms differentiating their activities in non-traditional agricultural. Finally, our research questions is how and if the implementation of the Firms Modernization Plans can improve economic assets and modernization and growth process in rural areas. Also, this paper provides suggestions for bottom-up policy implications deriving by the LAGs local strategies supporting stakeholder networking