The inland areas, in general, are disadvantaged areas where agricultural activity is functional to the protection and preservation of the natural environment and the socio-economic development. The case that’s going to be studied in this work refers to the sub-region of the Subappennino Dauno (in the province of Foggia - Apulia), fragile from the physical point of view, which is subject to severe and widespread hydrogeological instability, thin from the perspective of anthropogenic, having known massive forms of exodus and emigration of the population, and marginal from an economic point of view. This is an area where the rural life helps to delineate the identity traits, identifi ed in the heritage of values that human group living in there expresses and hands down, such as: cultural specifi city, care of the natural environment and respect for the landscape characteristics. The analysis of the Subappennino Dauno business characteristics helps to understand the local agricultural system and suggests to look more and more at a multifunctional agriculture that may come into circuits and wider networks to compete on the global market and improve the socio-economic situation of the area. Farm operators and administrators are promoting initiatives that support the development of the region through the promotion of local identities. They are trying, for instance: to provide food chains, to promote organic farming, to ensure traceability of typical products, to retrieve rural settlements, to promote historical and socio-cultural backgrounds. 

Keywords: Multifunctionality, Local development, Subappennino Dauno (Apulia).