Farmer direct selling: the role of regional factors

This paper studies the factors affecting the decision of farmers to sell their products directly to consumers using micro-data on the entire farm population in Italy. The empirical setting of the analysis reflects a focus on the geographical determinants of farmers’ choices as the model is estimated by adopting a multilevel approach and also including spatially lagged variables. The results support the idea that the diffusion of direct sale is a localized process of social innovation, based on knowledge sharing among actors. Policy design should consider the nature of this process in supporting more sustainable forms of supply chain.