A/HRC/43/44/Add.5 infrastructure, health and school feeding), as well as the true participation of all the food system actors. 19. Inspired by Expo 2015, small and medium-sized towns in the south of Italy have been taking initiatives in favour of the redistribution of common land to locals and have supported local and alternative systems of food distribution.2 20. Some regional initiatives have had a larger impact. For instance, Tuscan Regional Law No. 50/97 on the protection of local varieties is one of the few examples of legislation in Europe to protect and enhance genetic resources for food and agriculture, in line with the aims of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This law was followed by the enactment of similar laws in the regions of Lazio, Umbria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Marche and Emilia Romagna encouraging conservation and providing incentives towards the sustainable use of autochthonous genetic resources. 21. At the municipal level, another effect of this initiative is the Roman school meals system, which was implemented in 2000. To improve the quality of food consumed in public school canteens, the city of Rome introduced procurement policies that created an “economy of quality” and were capable of delivering the economic, environmental and social benefits of sustainable development. 22. Despite good practices, the fragmentation of the food system might have an adverse impact on the unequal implementation of the right to food at the national level. Moreover, inadequate statistics on the right to food for the regions and authorities make monitoring difficult. III. Overview of the agricultural system 23. Italy features a highly diverse agricultural sector with regional variation in terms of farm structures and production. A total of 12,598,161 hectares of the country’s land is dedicated to agriculture-related activities, of which 74.4 per cent is dedicated to cropping, while 25.7 per cent is made up of pastures. The contribution of the agricultural sector to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is relatively low, and similar to that of other developed countries (1.94 per cent in 2018).3 24. In 2019, agriculture production decreased 1.3 per cent in volume and the gross value added decreased by 2.7 per cent as a result of climatic conditions and the spread of diseases. Efforts are being made to increase and strengthen the transformation and value addition industry of agricultural production. 4 Overall, the agrifood industry is one of the best performing sectors in Italian industry. A. Common Agricultural Policy and Italian agriculture 25. The Common Agricultural Policy for 2014–2020 was the attempt of Europe to respond to the need for a reasonable standard of living for 22 million farmers and agricultural workers and a stable, varied and safe food supply for its 500 million citizens. The Policy was focused on increasing agricultural productivity, ensuring a reasonable standard of living for farmers, stabilizing markets, ensuring a safe supply flow and guaranteeing fair prices to consumers. Through the Policy, investments of approximately 37.5 billion euros were planned for the farming sector and rural areas of Italy, prioritizing jobs and growth, sustainability, modernization, innovation and quality. 26. The Common Agricultural Policy is an attempt to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the agricultural sectors in countries of the European Union by providing income support through direct payments (subsidies) aimed at stabilizing farm incomes and 2 3 4 4 Ibid., pp. 11 and 15–16. Statista, “Italy: distribution of gross domestic product (GDP) across economic sectors from 2009 to 2019”. Available at www.statista.com/statistics/270481/distribution-of-gross-domestic-productgdpacross-economic-sectors-in-italy/. National Institute of Statistics, “Stima preliminare dei conti economici dell’agricoltura” (2019).