A/HRC/43/44/Add.5 financing programmes responding to country-specific needs through national (or regional) rural development programmes. The Policy also provides a number of market measures and other elements to facilitate organic production and better labelling. 27. The Common Agricultural Policy budget delivered a total of 408.31 billion euros for 2014–2020, with 308.73 billion euros intended for direct payments and market measures (the first pillar) and 99.58 billion euros for rural development (the second pillar). Italy has the flexibility to adapt both direct payments and rural development programmes to its specific needs and is one of the largest recipients of payments through the Policy, taking in 12 per cent of the total – behind France, Germany and Spain.5 28. The Common Agricultural Policy has contributed to agricultural and rural development in Italy. Changes to be made to the revised Common Agricultural Policy after 2020 include more flexibility for European Union countries to transfer funds towards agriculture and/or rural development, to make sure the funds are more closely aligned to national priorities, and to increase attention and support towards small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises.6 B. Smallholders and industrial farming 29. The current agricultural landscape presents an important dichotomy in Italy: on one side, the large landholdings and intensive production systems, mostly located in the north, with an average of 80–100 hectares per farm; and on the other side, a large group of smallholder farms, mostly located in the south, where the average farm size is 5 to 8 hectares. 30. Smallholder farms, which are mostly family farms, represent 98.9 per cent of total farms, cultivating 89.4 per cent of total utilized agricultural area.7 Family farming plays an important role in the urban and rural economy as it contributes to food safety, provides many high-quality products and improves the dynamism of the rural economy, and the interest in the care of the environment fosters the production of local goods. 31. Across the country, the “zero km food” concept is being increasingly practised to ensure that the food is produced, sold and eaten locally, travels zero km and does not go through global trade chains. Nevertheless, smallholders are being confronted with an increase in intensive agriculture, the control of the agrifood market by major distribution chains and the establishment of large buying centres, all of which increase pressure on farmers to lower their prices. In Italy, the landscape is characterized by abandoned farmhouses, once belonging to smallholders, who failed because they were unable to compete with the pressure imposed by industrial agriculture. 32. Defining fair agricultural prices greatly impacts farmers, who are otherwise unable to obtain fair prices for their work and are forced to move out of agricultural and rural areas. More consistent and permanent measures should be put in place to protect smallholders and medium-scale farmers from price fluctuation, in order to ensure their survival in the changing agricultural and food production sectors. 33. Italian agriculture is struggling with the low prices paid by buyers, which often reverberates to working conditions and environmental practices, but also leads to suicides and to an increase in farmers’ bankruptcies. As a remedy, a bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies to ban double-race auctions for the purchase of agricultural goods, which was the most significant example of the power imbalance between producers and buyers. The Special Rapporteur would welcome the imminent approval of the law by the Senate. 5 6 7 European Union, Beneficiaries of CAP Funds database. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/foodfarming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/financing-cap/beneficiaries_en. European Union, “Future of the Common Agricultural Policy”. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/futurecap_en. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Family Farming Knowledge Platform. Available at www.fao.org/family-farming/background/en/. 5