Protected designation of origin products and part-time farming in a strongly developed area

The aim of this work is to analyse an area where, along with a strong tradition of typical products, part-time work and pluriactivity can be found. This occurs in a "rich" socio-economic context, which is characterised by an agriculture reaching high levels of productivity, a widespread industry and a significant service sector. The area is the province of Parma. The objective is to stress the ways thanks to which agriculture would not disappear in a socio-economic context that is rapidly following a development model marked by the increasing role of the service sector. The role the significant typical products play helps professional and non-professional farming to keep its place. The main lesson to be drawn is this : the presence of typical products and of a flourishing food industry accounts for the permanence of a rich professional agriculture as well as of a network of part-time and pluriactive farms which, thanks to their high profits, stay active in the agricultural sector in the long term and not as a prelude to leaving it. This is fundamental because, as recent studies point out, agriculture tends to be forced out from a post-industrial context, either for economic or socio-cultural reasons. To reach this goal we had to analyse in detail the 47 administrative municipalities belonging to the province of Parma in the light of some factors we regard as significant. The analysis has been conducted with an innovative approach aimed at incorporating the idea of the local labour market, i.e. through the adoption of a functionally defined statistic-geographic entity, the local labour market, as explained in Annex 1. The analysis has pointed out that, according to the main activity in terms of employees, in the province there can be found three types of local markets of labour that can be divided on a time basis : 1. A. ''Agricultural exemplification" local market of labour - The term agricultural is inappropriate, since agriculture is not the main sector, in terms of employees, but in this area it has a greater weight than the average in the rest of the province : with the "central town" of Busseto. 2. Al. ''Agricultural-Industrial exemplification" local market of labour - This area has a high percentage of agricu/tu-ral farms as compared with the average of the province, but is has - in absolute figures - the highest percentage of workers in the industrial sector, with the "central town" of Langhirano, where industry means food industry. 3. S. "Other activities (Services) exemplification" local market of labour - having the highest percentage of employees in the other activities (services) sector, it has all the typical characteristics of the development phase of current economic systems : with the "central town" of Fidenza. In this work, the general results concerning the three local labour markets of each type will be shown. After providing some useful information regarding the development process of the area under examination, the following factors have been analysed: - Significance of the agricultural activity linked to typical products in the context of local production and importance of food industry in the economic activities. - Relevance and features of pluriactivity and part-time work in agriculture.