In this paper, we provide an economic interpretation of intercropping as a risk management strategy based on spatial diversification of production. We study vine intercropping, i.e., the scattering of vines across fields rather than concentrating them in specialized vineyards, a traditional practice in Italian agriculture. We argue that, in the absence of developed financial markets, spatial diversification provided a third layer of insurance for peasants operating in traditional agrarian economies, distinct from and in addition to crop diversification at the farm level and risk sharing through tenancy contracts at the estate level. Spatial diversification increased production costs, particularly transportation costs. Therefore, the price of this form of insurance (and the likelihood of its adoption) depended critically on rural settlement patterns. We test our model with data from Italy in the 1930s, when intercropping still prevailed in many areas of the country. We show that its adoption was positively related to the pattern of scattered dwellings that dated back to the late Middle Ages and reduced transportation costs to individual plots. The mass exodus from the countryside during the economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s made intercropping no longer viable.

中文翻译：

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传统农业的风险管理：意大利葡萄酒生产中的间作

在本文中，我们对间作作为基于生产空间多样化的风险管理策略进行了经济学解释。我们研究葡萄树间作，即将葡萄树分散在田野中，而不是集中在专门的葡萄园中，这是意大利农业的传统做法。我们认为，在缺乏发达金融市场的情况下，空间多样化为在传统农业经济中经营的农民提供了第三层保险，不同于农场层面的作物多样化和通过庄园层面的租赁合同分担风险。 。空间多样化增加了生产成本，特别是运输成本。所以，这种形式的保险的价格（及其采用的可能性）主要取决于农村定居模式。我们使用 20 世纪 30 年代意大利的数据来测试我们的模型，当时间作在该国许多地区仍然盛行。我们表明，它的采用与可追溯到中世纪晚期的分散住宅模式呈正相关，并降低了各个地块的运输成本。20 世纪 50 年代和 1960 年代的经济奇迹期间，大量人口离开农村，使得间作种植不再可行。