L’allevamento bovino nella valle del Torto: un caso di zootecnia sostenibile in Sicilia

In spite of not being the main activities of Sicilian agriculture, zootechny plays a very important social role, even more than economic, for a large part of Sicily. The crisis that has hit the industry since early 2000s, and particularly cattle livestock, caused the closure of many holdings and a strong decrease in the number of animals bred, both meat and dairy cattle. The beef cattle population in the Valle del Torto, in the province of Palermo (area covered by this study), for many decades has significantly contributed to the development of a rural community that trough this activity created his own wealth, income and economic stability. The crisis that over the last decade has affected the livestock sector involved also this area of Sicily, and today may lose its identity as a rural community if we do not seek to recover that market space that the local product lost and keeps losing. The road that leads to a revival of the livestock sector in the area moves from the local enhancement of product through the closure of the producing chain by the sector operators themselves and a quality improvement of productions. Through the SWOT analysis it has been possible to identify those strengths to act on for a speedy revival of the sector and to prevent the downsizing, if not the disappearance, of an entire rural community.