49 Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 23 (No 1) 2017, 49–57 Agricultural Academy THE EFFECTS OF JOB TRAINING ON FARM INCOMES: THE CASE OF THE KENTUCKY TOBACCO IN BENEVENTO AREA ADELE COPPOLA * ; SARA IANUARIO University of Naples Federico II, Department of Agricultural Sciences, 80055 Portici (Napoli), Italy Abstract Coppola, A. and S. Ianuario, 2017. The effects of job training on farm incomes: the case of the Kentucky tobacco in Benevento area. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 23 (1): 49–57 Since 2010 the decoupling of CAP aids was extended to the tobacco sector. Several studies demonstrated that tobacco is not profitable without EU aids and the survival of the sector is possible only if farmers undertake a strategy of costs decrease, if market price increases or farmers are able to enhance product quality. The present work analyzes how technical training can affect the economic performance of tobacco growers. The analysis summarizes the results of a project implemented within RDP 2007-2014 of the Campania Region and focuses on Kentucky tobacco, used in Sigaro Toscano ® , and on the implementa- tion of leaves selection and setting up at farm level. Results demonstrate that these activities can help farmers to improve the production value and underlines the still relevant need of training and extension services. Key words: business organization; product improvement; job training; farm income; Kentucky tobacco Abbreviations: CAP – Common Agricultural Policy; RDP – Rural Development Programme *E-mail: coppola@unina.it (corresponding author); saraianuario@libero.it Introduction Recent reforms of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) shifted the European Union (EU) support from the production to the farm, directing it towards competitiveness, efficiency and sustainable development criteria. These sig- nificant changes have also affected the tobacco sector for which EU aids were very large shares of the market value and whose future prospects depend on the farmers’ ability to reorganize the production and the supply chain. In fact, in most of the Italian production areas the sector can survive only if farmers are able to reduce production costs or to get higher market price, by increasing their bargaining power with respect to manufacture industries and/or improving product quality (Sardone, 2008). The Kentucky tobacco is the only cultivar used for the manufacture of Sigaro Toscano ® and its production is mainly located in Tuscany, Lazio and Campania regions. In these areas, in spite of the long production tradition, product of- ten does not fit the quality standards manufacturers require, with the consequence of lower prices paid to farmers and income losses for the entire sector. In some cases the qual- ity improvement only require a re-organization of farm ac- tivities and a better selection of the leaves at farm level in order to better match the industry specifications. In fact, when bundles are not homogeneous they receive a grade that represents the average delivered quality and manufacturers pay a price aligned with the average level. In this context, farmers could increase their revenues by simply enhancing the leaves selection and set-up processes, which only require appropriate knowledge and skills. Extension services and job training, in particular, can play a fundamental role in this learning process and represent a key variable for the sector development. The paper aims at proving this role by comparing the economic results of a Kentucky tobacco production before and after a technical training experiment. More specifically, the present work synthesises the results of part of a larger