sustainability Article Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas Antonio Baselice 1 , Mariarosaria Lombardi 2, * , Maurizio Prosperi 1 , Antonio Stasi 1 and Antonio Lopolito 3   Citation: Baselice, A.; Lombardi, M.; Prosperi, M.; Stasi, A.; Lopolito, A. Key Drivers of the Engagement of Farmers in Social Innovation for Marginalised Rural Areas. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8454. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13158454 Academic Editors: Pedro Verga Matos and Tania Pereira Christopoulos Received: 16 June 2021 Accepted: 26 July 2021 Published: 28 July 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Agriculture, Food, Natural Resource and Engineering (DAFNE), University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy; antonio.baselice@unifg.it (A.B.); maurizio.prosperi@unifg.it (M.P.); antonio.stasi@unifg.it (A.S.) 2 Department of Economics, University of Foggia, 71121 Foggia, Italy 3 Department of Economics, Management and Territory, University of Foggia, 71121 Foggia, Italy; antonio.lopolito@unifg.it * Correspondence: mariarosaria.lombardi@unifg.it Abstract: The European Union promotes social innovation (SI) initiatives for the support of marginalised rural areas through rural and sustainable development policies. These are based on the engagement of local actors and the strengthening of their mutual relationships to boost the fostering of professional collaborations. In this context, the Horizon 2020 Social Innovation in Marginalised Areas (SIMRA) project elaborated a conceptual framework for characterising the engagement in an SI initiative. Accordingly, this paper aims to demonstrate that engagement relies on specific key drivers, such as the existence of unmet social needs and the role of agency. To this end, a two-step Heckman model was applied to an SI initiative case study called Vàzapp’, a rural hub (agency) located in Southern Italy. It promotes relationships among farmers to valorise the marginalised rural areas. The results appear consistent with the theoretical framework, demonstrating that the farmers’ engagement was motivated by the existence of the aforementioned determinants. The implications are relevant for policymakers, consultants, and social innovators who may incorporate these elements in designing specific SI projects in different contexts. Keywords: social innovation; relationships; marginalised rural areas; rural hub; farmers engagement; two-stage model; collaboration creation 1. Introduction The importance of mountainous and rural areas is well recognised at the European Union (EU) level since they represent about 80% of EU territory and 57% of the EU popula- tion, accounting for 46% of the gross value added [1]. Additionally, they provide natural resources, environmental goods, and eco-services, as well as cultural and social heritage. Finally, their economic role in providing agricultural goods needed to activate valuable food and supply chains is widely recognised [2]. This motivates European Commission (EC) efforts to maintain rural areas, especially those lagging behind and those affected by marginalization, such as geographical remoteness, significant industrial decline, and high aging and unemployed populations. To counter the socio-economic decline of these areas in the late 1980s, the EU launched the LEADER programme aimed at directly involving local communities to design and implement rural development projects suited to the local context [3]. The underlying logic of these interventions focuses on unlocking endogenous resources and valorising mostly immaterial assets [4–6]. Such intervention funds deliberative and participatory movements, spontaneously attempting to tackle issues of marginalization in rural areas. These initiatives have been classified under the social innovation (SI) flagship [7]. The advantage envisaged by the promotion of SI initiatives relies on their capacity to valorise the contribution of local communities through the strengthening of their mutual Sustainability 2021, 13, 8454. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158454 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability