A new land package is available again for those who dream of living and working in agriculture.
The eighth edition of the National Bank of Agricultural Lands (BTA) has begun, the instrument of Ismea – the Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market – which enhances and puts public land back into circulation, with the aim of encouraging generational turnover and giving new life to the primary sector.
In this edition, over 14 thousand hectares of land will be auctioned, equal to 571 potential agricultural companies, for a total value of approximately 180 million euros. Expressions of interest can be submitted until 19 November 2025, exclusively online on the Ismea portal.
What’s new this year is a mix of bureaucratic simplifications and faster times. The deadlines for submitting applications and financial offers have been reduced by half: from 90 to 30 days for expressions of interest and from 45 to 30 for offers. The objective is to streamline the procedures and especially benefit those under 41, who will also be able to pay for the land in installments.
An important change also concerns the abolition of the social security requirement: it will no longer be necessary to already be registered as a direct farmer or professional agricultural entrepreneur (IAP) to access land. A measure that finally opens the door to those who want to start from scratch, with an agricultural project to build.
The available land is found throughout Italy, but with a strong presence in the South: Sicily concentrates 40% of the surfaces at auction, followed by Tuscany (11%), Sardinia and Calabria (9%), Puglia (7%), and then Umbria, Emilia-Romagna and Lazio.
The Agricultural Land Bank is divided into two channels: a permanent lot, with 386 plots of land that can always be purchased, and a periodic lot of 185 plots offered in defined time windows.
The project, promoted by Ismea under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (Masaf), aims not only to enhance public lands but also to combat rural abandonment and to encourage sustainable and local agriculture.
Returning the land to those who want to cultivate it means bringing life back to the territories, creating local jobs and reducing the risk that uncultivated land becomes victims of degradation or land consumption.
Behind the numbers there are young people who choose to plant seeds of the future: those who start an organic garden, those who bet on regenerative agriculture or sustainable agritourism.
