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This paper assesses the efficiency of public agricultural expenditure in each Italian region through the analysis of regional budgets, both as a whole and in relation to specific agricultural policy measures. The degree of integration/complementarity between regional funds and Community funds of the second pillar of the CAP is also evaluated, in order to determine whether European resources are used by the Regions as a substitute for or in addition to regional measures. In Italy, public agricultural funding comes from three sources: the EU, the State, and the regions. While the literature on the effectiveness and efficiency of public spending in agriculture focuses on EU funds, the present research also takes into consideration the agricultural spending of Regions. This original analysis of agricultural spending at the regional level has been made possible by the databank of the CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics), which has been gathering information on the allocations, payments, and remaining balances of regional accounts since 1990. The expenditure items for the agricultural sector included in the regional budgets were reclassified according to an original methodology created by the INEA (National Institute of Agricultural Economics, today CREA). The results show that the overall efficiency of public expenditure has improved over the last two decades (from less than 40% in 2000 to just over 50% in 2019). This improvement is quite evident in the South and the Islands and less so in the North. Agricultural policy measures that can be defined as “short term measures” (contributions to public and private entities involved in agricultural and forestry activities for running costs, such as salaries, telephone, electricity, etc.) show a good spending capacity, while measures requiring planning, such as business investments, still present difficulties. As regards integration/complementarity between regional funds and EU Fund for Rural Development Programmes (RDPs), the regions have been classified depending or whether or not they differentiate between the RDP financing and Budget financing. In the most recent period of 2014-2020, most regions have tended to target both sources of funding to support the same types of priority activities.

The world production of chestnuts has significantly grown in recent decades. Consumer attitudes, increasingly turned towards healthy foods, show a greater interest in chestnuts due to their health benefits. Consequently, it is important to develop reliable methods for the selection of high-quality products, both from a qualitative and sensory point of view. In this study, Castanea spp. fruits from Italy, namely Sweet chestnut cultivar and the Marrone cultivar, were evaluated by an official panel, and the responses for sensory attributes were used to verify the correlation to the near-infrared spectra. Data fusion strategies have been applied to take advantage of the synergistic effect of the information obtained from NIR and sensory analysis. Large nuts, easy pellicle removal, chestnut aroma, and aromatic intensity render Marrone cv fruits suitable for both the fresh market and candying, i.e., marron glacé. Whereas, sweet chestnut samples, due to their characteristics, have the potential to be used for secondary food products, such as jam, mash chestnut, and flour. The research lays the foundations for a superior data fusion approach for chestnut identification in terms of classification sensitivity and specificity, in which sensory and spectral approaches compensate each other’s drawbacks, synergistically contributing to an excellent result.