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Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy

History of CREA – Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy

AGRICULTURAL POLICIES AND BIOECONOMY

History of the centre

The origin of CREA Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy dates back to the merging of INEA (National Institute of Agricultural Economics) with CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics). INEA was founded by Arrigo Serpieri in 1928, with Royal Decree n. 1418 of 10th May 1928, aimed at carrying out surveys and studies of agricultural and forestry economy, following the changes of the new Italian agro-industrial system.

Since the 1930s onwards, the versatility of the Institute is witnessed by a set of important inquiries, representing the first steps of the applied social sciences in our Country in the post-war period, period of the agricultural reform. In the 1960s, its extraordinary versatility was instead evidenced by an active involvement in the setting-upof the CAP’s cognitive tools.

The Centre has offices in all Italian regions.This allows to foster significantlythe promotion of a culture on the agrarian accountancy, at a national level,as it represents the liaison between the Italian State and the European Commission in the creation and management of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN).

In the 1970s, it suffered the crisis of the entire agricultural sector.However, between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the following decade, it gained a new centrality thanks to its ability to capture the spirit of the new CAP.The Centre has therefore assimilated, in the economic-agricultural research, the major themes of environment, sustainability, natural resources and local development, then transposed by the new Statute of 2005 and by the following regulations.

In this phase, the Institute has gained an ever-increasing visibility at community, national and regional institutions, thanks to an intense support activity to policy decisions and analysis of the socio-economic contexts in the development of the primary sector and of the agri-food system.  As from 2015, INEA was therefore merged into CREA, with its rich cultural and professional background. Today CREA is the major agricultural research Institute in Italy and one of the most important in Europe.