The role of agricultural cooperatives in sustaining the wheat diversity and productivity: the case of southern Italy

Abstract We hypothesize that institutions such as agricultural cooperatives influenceregional levels of variety diversity through input supply, processing or marketingfunctions. This diversity can also affect yield, a partial measure of crop productivity.We test these hypotheses with data from southern Italy, a mega-diversity spot andcentre of diversity for durum wheat. Cooperatives in the southern regions of Italyprocess farmers’ harvests of durum wheat into bread, label it, and sell it locally. Inthis relatively marginalized region of the country, cooperatives enable farmers to capturemore of the value of the final product and reduce marketing costs. To test thehypothesis, we apply a two-stage estimation approach with a Cobb-Douglas productionfunction and panel data analysis. Findings suggest that the density of cooperativesin a region is associated with greater spatial diversity in wheat varieties grown, andthat, over a 14-year period, this diversity positively affected crop yields.