Synergies between Farming and Rural Tourism: Evidence from Flanders

Support for rural development and agri-environment measures is often defended on the basis of the contribution of farming to the attractiveness of rural areas and the growing rural tourism sector. Farmers may benefit from the presence of tourism by offering accommodation or selling farm products to tourists. We analyse rural tourism data for Flanders to determine whether agricultural amenities contribute to the price rural tourists are willing to pay for lodging at a farm. We find that farming practices do indeed influence the attractiveness of an area for tourism and have an impact on the prices that can be charged for accommodation. Amenities from agriculture such as permanent grassland have a positive influence on rental prices. However, the presence of intensive agricultural and livestock farming and associated polluting activities decrease the attractiveness of rural regions for tourism. Farm tourism is found to make an important contribution to the farm income and economy of a rural region. Farm tourism constituted more than 30 per cent of the farm income of certain farms. Overall, our findings support the idea of major synergies between farming and rural tourism. Strengthening this relationship may therefore be a good strategy for countryside management and rural development.     

Self‐reported Resilience of European Farms With and Without the CAP

Firms are able to survive only if they adapt appropriately in response to disturbances. The ability of a farm to continue after a disturbance is defined as resilience. To analyse the resilience of EU farms we explore exit and the number of adaptation strategies that farmers follow under two scenarios. The current CAP will be continued in the base scenario, while it will be abolished in scenario 2. The outcomes show that under both scenarios large, more specialised farms with young farm heads are most resilient, and small more diversified farms headed by old farmers are least resilient.     

The influence of diversification on long-term viability of the agricultural sector

We estimate the impact of diversification on the performance of farm businesses using measures of economic viability among farms in Scotland and Sweden. We derive indicators of viability using national level accounting surveys for the period 2000–2012 and account for short-term and long-term effects within our estimates of viability.A higher proportion of Scottish farms emerge as being more short-term and long-term viable than Swedish farms. This could, we propose, be due to emphasis on enhancing farm viability within Scottish planning for rural development, compared to Sweden which emphasized productivity and environmental enhancement. Moreover, for both countries the trend in viability is relatively stable until 2007, when both panels begin to display the impact of policy and market change.Findings based on a multinomial logistic regression indicate that farms which run additional ventures outside traditional agriculture, and are diversified in the sense that they obtain revenue from two or more agricultural enterprises, are more viable compared to specialized agricultural units. Other factors which affect viability were found to be structural, biophysical and institutional, specifically the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2003. However the significance and magnitude of these effects differ across the two countries. Consequently, these results seem to imply the importance of emphasizing non-specialized agricultural activities within rural development policy and, moreover, informs the rationale behind proposed redistributions of CAP payments.     

Examining the relationship between farm size and productive efficiency: a Bayesian directional distance function approach

Achieving sustainable food security and increased farm income will depend on how efficient production systems are in converting available inputs to produce outputs. Using data from Malawi, we estimate a Bayesian directional technology distance function to examine the relationship between farm size and technical efficiency. Our results support the existence of an inverse relationship between farm size and productive efficiency, where small farms are more efficient than large farms. On average, farms exhibit inefficiency levels of 60%, suggesting that productivity could be improved substantially. Improving productive efficiency and food security will require farms to operate in ways where the size of cultivated area is matched by nonland production inputs such as labor, fertilizer, and improved seeds. The results highlight the need for policies that could incentivize farmers to adopt productivity‐enhancing technologies and, where possible, to allocate excess land to lease markets.     

Using Q-methodology to identify rural women’s viewpoint on succession of family farms

In the world, the majority of farms are family-based. However, migration of young people from rural to urban areas, and a lack of farm successors negatively impact on the continuity of family farming. The pattern of migration is unbalanced in terms of gender: women are more likely to leave rural areas than men, which has negative consequences for rural development. The objective of this study was to identify rural women’s viewpoint about the elements that would facilitate them to eventually take over the family farm. Q-methodology was used to identify rural women’s viewpoints. Data were collected individually from 28 women, face-to-face with each woman, using a transportable board game to enable friendlier dynamics. Our findings showed five women’s viewpoints: rural attractiveness, family support, recognition, working and living conditions, and financial autonomy. The identification of these different viewpoints could provide insights that can be used to design public and private interventions aimed to favor female heirs to take over the family farm.     

Africa's changing farm size distribution patterns: the rise of medium‐scale farms

This study assesses changes over the past decade in the farm size distributions of Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, drawing on two or more waves of nationally representative population‐based and/or area‐based surveys. Analysis indicates that much of Sub‐Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership patterns. Among all farms below 100 hectares in size, the share of land on small‐scale holdings under five hectares has declined except in Kenya. Medium‐scale farms (defined here as farm holdings between 5 and 100 hectares) account for a rising share of total farmland, especially in the 10–100 hectare range where the number of these farms is growing especially rapidly. Medium‐scale farms control roughly 20% of total farmland in Kenya, 32% in Ghana, 39% in Tanzania, and over 50% in Zambia. The numbers of such farms are also growing very rapidly, except in Kenya. We also conducted detailed life history surveys of medium‐scale farmers in each of these four countries and found that the rapid rise of medium‐scale holdings in most cases reflects increased interest in land by urban‐based professionals or influential rural people. About half of these farmers obtained their land later in life, financed by nonfarm income. The rise of medium‐scale farms is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. Many such farms are a source of dynamism, technical change, and commercialization of African agriculture. However, medium‐scale land acquisitions may exacerbate land scarcity in rural areas and constrain the rate of growth in the number of small‐scale farm holdings. Medium‐scale farmers tend to dominate farm lobby groups and influence agricultural policies and public expenditures to agriculture in their favor. Nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from six countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia) show that urban households own 5–35% of total agricultural land and that this share is rising in all countries where DHS surveys were repeated. This suggests a new and hitherto unrecognized channel by which medium‐scale farmers may be altering the strength and location of agricultural growth and employment multipliers between rural and urban areas. Given current trends, medium‐scale farms are likely to soon become the dominant scale of farming in many African countries.     

Herd Growth,Farm Organisation and Subsidies in the Dairy Sector of Russia and Kazakhstan

Initially taken as a template for farm restructuring after the demise of collective agriculture, the ‘Western family farm model’ has taken root in the former Soviet countries only belatedly and incompletely. We examine dairy structures in Russia and Kazakhstan and analyse the drivers of recent herd growth. We are specifically interested in the role of farm management and organisation, vertical integration, and the role of policy. Regression analysis based on a sample of 180 randomly selected commercial dairy farms, using an innovative simultaneous equation framework, shows that better herd management and access to milk marketing contracts were more effective in stimulating herd growth than current subsidy payments. We do not find evidence that milking plants belonging to corporate entities or even supra‐regional agroholdings grow more substantially than medium‐sized individual farms. Twenty‐five years after the end of central planning, structural change among commercial dairy farms in Russia and Kazakhstan appears similar in many ways to the patterns observed in the West more recently: smaller farms catch up in terms of herd growth and classical family‐run operations coexist with or even emulate vertically integrated agribusinesses based on hired labour. In moving toward this ‘new normal’ of farming structures, commercial dairy farms in Russia may even be a few steps ahead of their Western counterparts. At the same time, the still sizeable but stagnating group of subsistence producers in rural households finds no equivalent in the West.     

Do Medium-scale Farms Improve Market Access Conditions for Zambian Smallholders?

This study is motivated by the need to understand how the rise of medium-scale farms in Africa is affecting small-scale farm households. Survey evidence over the past decade has shown a dramatic rise in the prevalence of ‘medium’ sized farms between 5 and 100 hectares, but smaller farms still constitute the vast majority of farms and rural households. Prior evidence highlights a co-evolution between the concentration of landholdings, surplus production volumes, and entry of larger traders into the market. Whether these changes tend to impact on smallholders negatively, crowding them out of markets, for example, or positively, potentially opening new marketing channels, is an empirical question. Using a multi-stage model for maize market participation in Zambia, we find that in areas where medium-scale farms are growing, even the smaller farms are becoming more likely to sell maize, more likely to sell to the private sector, more likely to sell to larger traders, and expected sales amongst sellers are higher. On balance, the growth of medium-scale farms and large-scale traders seems to have positive spillover effects on nearby smallholder marketing options.     

Off‐Farm Work,Intensity of Government Payments,and Farm Exits: Evidence from a National Survey in the United States

The last three decades have witnessed the continued exit of households from primary agriculture in the United States, where the average annual gross exit rate has averaged 10% per year. Understanding exit behavior is one key to future farm structure, management of abandoned land, depopulation of rural areas, and agricultural policy, including government program payments. This study empirically estimates the determinants of exit decisions of farm households. Particular attention is given to the roles of intensity of government payments and off‐farm work decisions of farm couples in the exit decision. Using a large farm‐level survey and controlling for endogeneity, results indicate that farm households with reduced intensity of government payments are more likely to exit farming. Households where the operator spouse works off the farm are more likely to exit farming. Additionally, households with older farmers, with the farm operator and spouse raised on a farm, and households operating farms located in Northern Great Plains are more likely to exit farming.     

Is there a future for small farms in developed countries? Evidence from the French case

This research aims to identify the specific characteristics of small farms in developed countries and the factors that influence their survival and growth. Using the case of France, we employ statistical and econometric analysis of data from the Farm Structure Survey (N = 70,000) for the period 2000–2007. The principal findings suggest that small farms are no more likely than other farms to employ “alternative” strategies to the predominant model of increasing farm size, nor are they more likely to diversify on‐farm activities or operate under quality‐labeled production systems, with the notable exception of organic agriculture. However, where small farms do adopt or practice these activities, they are seen to have a favorable effect in ensuring their survival and growth. In contrast, we are unable to conclude that pluriactivity of farm households has a positive impact on the survival of small enterprises. The effect of geographical location on small farms is largely expressed in their concentration in mountainous or disadvantaged regions. Overall, the trajectory of small farms is marked by farm exit, principally as the result of farmers retiring at the end of their careers. The small farm sector is also revitalized by both larger farms declining and thus being reclassified as small farms, as well as the progressive entry into agriculture of small farm holders whose income was previously derived largely off‐farm.     

Patterns in Technical Efficiency and Technical Change at the Farm‐level in England and Wales, 1982–2002

English and Welsh farm‐level survey data are employed to estimate stochastic frontier production functions for eight different farm types (cereal, dairy, sheep, beef, poultry, pigs, general cropping and mixed) for the period 1982 to 2002. Differences in the relative efficiency of farms are explored by the simultaneous estimation of a model of technical inefficiency effects. The analysis shows that, generally, farms of all types are relatively efficient with a large proportion of farms operating close to the production frontier. However, whilst the frontier farms of all types are becoming more efficient through time because of technical change, it is also the case that the efficiency of the average farm for most farm types is increasing at a slower rate. In addition, annual mean levels of efficiency for most farm types have declined between 1982 and 2002. The factors that consistently appear to have a statistically significant effect on differences in efficiency between farms are: farm or herd size, farm debt ratios, farmer age, levels of specialisation and ownership status.     

Farm diversification strategies in northwestern Spain: Factors affecting transitional pathways

The present paper identifies strategies that farmers have undertaken in northwestern Spain, an area characterized by late structural adjustment. For this study, a survey of over 559 farms has been conducted in four areas representative of different specializations and rural situations, from marginal to productive intensification. Farms have been categorized according to social and productive characteristics through a multivariable analysis. Four basic behaviors have been identified and connected with farm types and rural areas using a multiple correspondence analysis. These basic strategies were defined depending on whether investments have been made on farms to increase or intensify production and whether new on- or off-farm diversification activities have been introduced. This analysis allows us to assess transitional pathways for the future and to assume some consequences of farm behavior in connection with structural adjustments. Thus far, empirical evidence shows that the nature and main drivers of the diversification process are different from those in northern European areas. At the same time, a significant level of farm abandonment is registered.     

Farm youth and Progressive agricultural reform: Dexter D. Mayne and the Farm Boy Cavaliers of America

In the early years of the twentieth century, rural America faced a population crisis as young people increasingly left farms for cities. Progressive reformers responded to this crisis with various suggestions meant to more firmly attach youngsters to their rural roots. Among the many solutions advocated were rural youth organizations. The Farm Boy Cavaliers of America, which also enrolled girls, pursued a more innovative path than most, emphasizing not only entertainment and instruction, but also a high degree of economic education and independence for farm children. The program offered an alternative to the Boy Scouts, which Dexter D. Mayne, the organization's founder, believed to be unsatisfactory and inappropriate for farm youth. Ultimately, the organization may have promoted too much freedom for the rural youth, advocating behavior that parents could not approve of or afford in the cash-strapped early days of the century.     

Rapid land use change by coastal wind farm development: Australian policies,politics and planning

The siting of both onshore and offshore wind farms has caused controversy in a number of countries, particularly in Europe, which currently has the world’s largest array of offshore wind turbines. Like the rest of the world there has been a dramatic increase in wind farm development In Australia over the last two decades but none of this has occurred in the offshore environment. Australian wind farms are predominantly located onshore around the southern part of the continent where wind energy is high. This has specifically affected rural coasts where it has created planning and land use policy issues along with environmental impacts and associated public and political reaction. This paper examines the geographic spread, timing and concentration of Australian wind farms around the coast. It also examines the extent to which scientific knowledge on wind farm impacts is incorporated into different state and federal land use and environmental policy and legislative frameworks. The paper concludes that the rapidity in the expansion of the Australian wind energy sector has outpaced strategic land use planning resulting in a piece-meal and cumulative wind farm development on rural coasts.     

THE FARM AS A FAMILY BUSINESS: A REVIEW

Although the great majority of UK farms are run as family businesses, the family dimension of these businesses is frequently neglected. There are nevertheless important inferences to be drawn from studying the farm family, its forms and functions, and the way that the family and the business interact. This calls for a multidisciplinary approach and the review attempts to draw together insights from industrial economics, social anthropology, history and rural sociology as they apply to the farm family business. It then relates these insights to considerations of the family development cycle, processes of inheritance and succession, roles of farmers' wives and multiple-job farming families. The literature review points to opposing tendencies within the population of farm businesses. Family forms of organisation and relationships may have become less relevant to farming at the lower end of the size scale but more relevant to the conduct of a successful large farm business.     

Exploring the features of agritourism and its contribution to rural development in Italy

This paper studies the features of Italian agritourism farms (agritourisms) by analysing their economic, structural and localization features, in order to examine the relations of agritourism with rural development and land use policy. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of about 11,000 farms from the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (Fadn) dataset. Given that agritourisms represent a minority among farms, the sample is strongly imbalanced towards farms without agritourism activities. In order to avoid the difficulties arising when analyzing imbalanced samples, we use the Random OverSampling Examples (Rose) approach that has been recently proposed in the statistical literature to obtain representative balanced samples from imbalanced ones. The empirical results show that landscape and environmental variables are important in shaping the probability that a farm runs agritourism activities. This results, together with others related to the economic dimension of the farm, its specialization, and the characteristics of the farmer make it possible to argue that there are areas of the country that can offer potential to agritourism, and that agritourism in turn can open new horizons in rural development with possible beneficial effects on the environment, the landscape, and the reduction of depopulation.     

Are small‐scale rice farmers in eastern India really inefficient? Examining the effects of microtopography on technical efficiency estimates

The article analyzes how controlling for differences in land types (defined by position on a low‐scale toposequence) affects estimates of farm technical efficiency for rice farms in eastern India. Contrasting previous research, we find that farms are considerably more technically efficient when efficiency estimates are carried out at the plot level and control for plot characteristics rather than at the farm level without such controls. Estimates show farms cultivating modern varieties are technically efficient and plots planted with traditional varieties on less productive lands (upland and midupland) operate close to the production frontier. Significant technical inefficiency is found on more productive lands (medium and lowland plots) planted with traditional rice varieties. The finding that these smallholder rain‐fed rice farms are efficient cultivators on some plots contrasts with previous findings of farm‐level inefficiency (i.e., rejects overarching explanations linked to farm operator ignorance or lack of motivation) and suggests more complex explanations are required to address the inefficiency that is present.     

Survey and Analysis of Labour on Organic Farms in the UK and Republic of Ireland

A survey of 1144 organic farms in the UK and Republic of Ireland (IE) was used to assess whether organic agriculture provides more labour than conventional (nonorganic) farming. The sampled farms comprised 23% of all organic farms. The jobs per farm and per area varied greatly with enterprise type and farm size, and between regions. Comparison of the survey with national statistics showed that organic farms employ 135% more FTE (full time equivalent jobs) per farm than conventional farms. The mean jobs per area was markedly lower for organic farms (1.35 compared to 2.43 FTE per 100 ha), because they are larger (216 ha compared to 51 ha). Even when corrected for the different size distribution, organic farms had more jobs per farm than the national averages (2.52 and 1.49 FTE for the UK and IE, compared to 1.28 and 1.16 FTE). The farm size weighted FTE per area for organic farms in the UK (4.33 FTE per 100 ha) was almost twice that for conventional farms. We predict there would be 19% and 6% more farming jobs in the UK and IE if 20% of the farms of both countries were to become organic (compared to the present 1–2%).     

Estimating the range of economic impacts on farms of nutrient leaching reduction policies

Declining agricultural incomes, increasing concern over rural poverty and sporadic crises such as those of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and Foot and Mouth Disease mean that the imposition of further costs on U.K. agriculture are likely to be politically and socially sensitive. Such additional costs are however on the agenda with the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD; European Commission, 2000 ). The WFD aims to achieve “good ecological status” in EU water bodies reducing, inter alia, diffuse pollution from agriculture. In this study, we assess four possible WFD measures proposed to the U.K. Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs: reducing inorganic fertilizer application, conversion of arable land to ungrazed grassland, reducing livestock stocking rates, and reducing livestock dietary N and P intakes. For each measure, changes in farm gross margins (FGMs) are estimated using a dataset of over 2000 farms. In contrast to previous analyses, which have focussed upon mean responses on stylized farms, our approach allows the analysis of the range of impacts across a wide variety of real‐world farms and farm types. Findings reveal high variability in impacts. Cost‐effectiveness analysis indicates that, on average, cropping farms seem capable of reducing nutrient leaching in a more cost‐efficient way than livestock or dairy enterprises.     

Measuring the effect of farmland preservation on farm profitability

Purchase of development rights (PDR) programs have been created in 27 states to preserve farmland resources. These programs seek to advance several societal objectives, including the protection of farmland from development, retention of rural amenities, and promotion of the economic viability of farming. Using New Jersey farm-level data, this study evaluates whether participation in a state PDR program improves farm profitability. The propensity score matching method is used to correct for selection bias arising from the voluntary nature of these programs. No statistically significant profit differential is found between preserved and observationally equivalent unpreserved farms in our full sample of 4029 farms. When the analysis is replicated across different farm types, we find weak evidence that the profitability of preserved residential lifestyle/retirement farms is lower than that observed for their unpreserved equivalents. In contrast, we find that small farms (<$100,000 in annual sales) operated by individuals for whom farming is a principal occupation earn $414 to $436 more per acre in profit than their observationally equivalent unpreserved counterparts.