n 2023, organic farming in Italy covered 2,456,020 hectares, involving approximately 94,400 organic operators. Organic agriculture accounted for 7.4% of all farms and 19.8% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA), according to the 2021 ISTAT Census, falling 5.2 percentage points short of the 25% UAA target for organic farming. 

Over the past 33 years, the trend has been upward in both the number of operators and cultivated area, countering the long-standing decline in utilised agricultural area in Italy.

 At the European level, Italy ranks among the most virtuous Member States.

The indicator analyses the capacity of the national agricultural sector to stimulate economic growth while simultaneously reducing environmental pressures and impacts. The purpose of the indicator is to measure the eco-efficiency of agriculture, that is, its ability to decouple economic growth factors from increasing environmental pressures and impacts.

The evolution of the variables shows a positive trend in the eco-efficiency of Italian agriculture over the analysis period (2000–2022). This is evident when comparing the performance of the economic variable (represented by the value added at basic prices) with the trend of environmental pressures, which have all decreased compared to the base year (2000) — with the exception of irrigated areas — although not all reductions have been substantial (e.g. energy use).