RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

68 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
aspects, between local and global markets. The agriculture plays an autonomous and relevant
role not merely accessory to manufacturing and services activities. Rurality becomes
synonym of diversity as opposite to homogeneity of urban societies and slack of bio-diversity,
landscape, historical and heritage asset, tradition and values related to agriculture, and
natural asset (Sotte, 2008).
Rural development emerges as a new paradigm in which the agriculture is at the interface
between actual and potential rural and non rural activities for constructing viable rural
livelihoods (Ellis & Biggs, 2001). Rural development as a multi-level, multi-actor and multifacetted
process for building and sustaining a new developmental model for the agricultural
sector implies the global interrelations between society and agriculture realigning to meet the
rapid and changing needs and expectations of European society by producing public goods
such as beautiful landscapes and natural values (Douwe van der Ploegg et al., 2000).
Rural development implies a redefinition of identities, strategies, interrelations and networks
as to reconsider new nature values, agri-tourism, organic farming, production of high
quality with region-specific products. Rural development concerns with the reconfiguration
of rural resources in terms of land, nature, eco-systems, animals, plants, town-countryside
relations and networks to be reshaped and recombined. Rural development requires to create
new products and services associated to new markets concerning cost reduction through
new technological trajectories and the production of specific knowledge bases.
A new paradigm ‘multifunctional’ for agricultural sector
Agriculture as relevant and fundamental activity in rural areas and interface between community
and the environment tends to be considered as multifunctional activity when it has
one or several functions in addition to its primary role of producing food and fibre. «Beyond
its primary function of supplying food and fibre, agricultural activity can also shape the landscape,
provide environmental benefits in terms of land conservation, sustainable management
of renewable natural resources and the preservation of biodiversity as to contribute to the socioeconomic
viability of many rural areas» (OECD, 2001, p. 9).
Since the Cork declaration in 1996 that refers to multi-functionality in agriculture the farmers
tend to hold a responsibility as stewards of the natural resources in countryside. Multifunctionality
as activity-oriented concept refers to an economic activity and to production
process characteristics having multiple outputs as to contribute to several societal objectives
at once. The key elements of multi-functionality are the following ones: the existence of multiple
commodity and non-commodity outputs that are jointly produced by agriculture; some
of the non-commodity outputs exhibit the characteristics of externalities or public goods, with
the result that markets for these goods do not exist or function poorly (OECD, 2001). Multifunctionality
of agriculture is related to new farm-related activities and new markets as expression
of new relations between agriculture, society, city and countryside to for maintenance
of rural landscape and reinforcing of rural economy as part of the social fabric of the countryside
(Knickel, Renting & van der Ploeg, 2004). In the concept of multi-functionality the
social and environmental significance of agriculture is emphasized. Multi-functionality permits
to integrate the goals of competitiveness and sustainability even if different interpretations
of multi-functional agricultural policies tend to emerge: multi-functional as an adaptation