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Structural Changes on Family Farms in Developed, Developing and Transition Economies

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A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2021) | Viewed by 27880

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Ayal Kimhi

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Guest Editor

Department of Environmental Economics and Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
Interests: family economics; labor economics; agricultural economics; development economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural sectors are continuously changing in all countries due to technological innovations, institutional reforms, market forces and economic policies and are expected to change even further due to climate change. Among the notable structural changes are the decline in farm numbers and the increase in the size of farms, as well as changes in the product mix and specialization. These changes are important to understand as they have clear implications for food security, both locally and globally, and the resilience of rural economies. Despite the changes that seem to favor larger operations, family farms still dominate, at least in number. Structural changes in family farms are unique because they are also affected by family decisions, such as income diversification and intergenerational succession. This Special Issue of Agriculture aims to collect case study analyses of the causes and consequences of structural changes on family farms in developed, developing and transition economies. International comparisons are also welcome. Papers focusing on specific institutional arrangements and policy reforms are particularly encouraged. Key topics in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

Interlinkages between different aspects of structural change;
Do observed structural changes result primarily from adaptations on continuing farms or from selective entry and exit?
Role of policy reforms in the structural change process;
Food security implications of structural changes;
Family farm structural change and the resilience of rural areas;
Farm structural changes and sustainability;
Gender roles and farm structural change.

Prof. Ayal Kimhi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

family farms
structural changes
institutional arrangements
policy reforms

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 254 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Common Policy but Different Outcomes: Structural Change in Family Farms of Central and East European Countries after Their Accession to the EU

by Philip Kostov and Sophia Davidova

Agriculture 2021, 11(11), 1074; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11111074 - 31 Oct 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1284

Abstract

This paper investigates structural change in family farming in ten EU New Member States from Central and Eastern Europe which can be treated as a borderline between transition and developed economies. The paper proposes that farms using at least one Annual Work Unit (AWU) family labour are classified as family since it is considered that engaging less than one full-time family member may not show commitment to the family operation. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is employed to analyse the drivers of structural change at a farm level, i.e., the extent to which it is technology or endowment driven. To compare the developments in different countries, the changes are presented in relative terms in order to reveal the relative distance travelled by the structural change in individual New Member States alongside the relative importance of technology and endowments changes. The estimation of a translog production function by country is used to derive the corresponding decompositions. Empirical analysis is based on data from the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) for two time points—2007, when the last of the ten CEECs joined the EU—Bulgaria and Romania, and 2015 to investigate structural change during the first decade of EU membership. The results show that the differences in the initial conditions and the adjustments to the CAP have brought about quite a diverse picture concerning the changes in output in the family and non-family farms in the NMS. The a priori expected dynamics of positive output growth in family farms and negative in the non-family has only materialised in Latvia, Romania and Slovakia. The decomposition of output changes suggests a positive effect of technical change in family farms only in the early years of EU accession. Concerning endowments, their effect on structural change is mostly positive with the only exception of Slovenia. This suggests that the family farming sector grows by accumulating productive resources. However, this growth has not always materialised in increase of family farms output. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Changes on Family Farms in Developed, Developing and Transition Economies)

22 pages, 3878 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Using Aggregated Farm Location Information to Predict Regional Structural Change of Farm Specialisation, Size and Exit/Entry in Norway Agriculture

by Sebastian Neuenfeldt, Alexander Gocht, Thomas Heckelei, Klaus Mittenzwei and Pavel Ciaian

Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 643; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11070643 - 09 Jul 2021

Viewed by 2306

Abstract

In this paper, we extend the analysis of farm structural change with respect to farm specialisation, size and exit in Norway by, first, explicitly incorporating the location information of farms generating a number of neighbouring farms within a certain range and, second, by predicting farm numbers in addition to farm group shares, which allows for consideration of the exit farm group. We use Norwegian single-farm full census data for the period 1996–2015. Four production specialisations and seven size classes represent farm groups, as well as a residual and an exit farm group at the regional level. The estimates indicate the explanatory power and importance of aggregated farm location information in the model. Simulation analysis showed that the farm groups develop differently, given a change in the number of neighbouring farms with respect to the farm numbers and farm group shares. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Changes on Family Farms in Developed, Developing and Transition Economies)

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16 pages, 2228 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

The Survival of Family Farms: Socioemotional Wealth (SEW) and Factors Affecting Intention to Continue the Business

by Manel Plana-Farran and José Luis Gallizo

Agriculture 2021, 11(6), 520; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11060520 - 03 Jun 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5959

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of succession in family farms in a context of generational change. Family businesses are characterized by their long-term orientation and by having a positive effect through environmental goals that remain in place generation after generation. The general increase in average age among farmers is seen as a barrier to more sustainable land use, and the survival of family farming therefore depends on the availability of a successor in the family. Socioemotional wealth (hereafter, SEW) is understood as the affective endowment of family members. This study adopts the SEW dimensions conceptually validated to analyse the effects of psychological and socioeconomic factors on potential successors’ intentions. The results of a survey administered to students attending agricultural schools in Catalonia show that intentions to assume the management and ownership of the family farm increase in line with individuals’ interest in creating their own business, their ability to take over the farm, and their emotional inclination to continue the family legacy. In addition, SEW was measured in relation to the potential successor and not the incumbent, as has typically been the case in previous work, bringing this important research subject as a principal actor. Finally, an empirical validation of a short FIBER scale, i.e., REI scale, was obtained that relates individuals’ intentions to succeed the family farm to the socioemotional wealth of business families, testing suitability of the REI scale as a measure of intention to succeed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Changes on Family Farms in Developed, Developing and Transition Economies)

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15 pages, 2774 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Structural Changes in Israeli Family Farms: Long-Run Trends in the Farm Size Distribution and the Role of Part-Time Farming

by Ayal Kimhi and Nitzan Tzur-Ilan

Agriculture 2021, 11(6), 518; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11060518 - 03 Jun 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2441

Abstract

Israeli agriculture has experienced rapid structural changes in recent decades, including the massive exit of farmers, a resulting increase in average farm size, a higher farm specialization and a higher reliance on non-farm income sources. The higher farm heterogeneity makes it necessary to examine changes in the entire farm size distribution rather than the common practice of analyzing changes in the average farm size alone. This article proposes a nonparametric analysis in which the change in the distribution of farm sizes between two periods is decomposed into several components, and the contributions of subgroups of farms to this change are analyzed. Using data on Israeli family farms, we analyze the changes in the farm size distribution in two separate time periods that are characterized by very different economic environments, focusing on the different contributions of full-time farms and part-time farms to the overall distributional changes. We found that between 1971 and 1981, a period characterized by stability and prosperity, the farm size distribution has shifted to the right with relatively minor changes in higher moments of the distribution. On the other hand, between 1981 and 1995, a largely unfavorable period to Israeli farmers, the change in the distribution was much more complex. While the overall change in the size distribution of farms was smaller in magnitude than in the earlier period, higher moments of the distribution were not less important than the increase in the mean and led to higher dispersion of farm sizes. Between 1971 and 1981, the contributions of full- and part-time farms to the change in the size distribution were quite similar. Between 1981 and 1995, however, full-time farms contributed mostly to the growth in the average farm size, while the average farm size among part-time farms actually decreased, and their contribution to the higher dispersion of farm sizes was quantitatively larger. This highlights the need to analyze the changes in the entire farm size distribution rather than focusing on the mean alone, and to allow for differences between types of farms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Changes on Family Farms in Developed, Developing and Transition Economies)

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25 pages, 4688 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

The Essence of Agritourism and Its Profitability during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

by Michał Roman and Piotr Grudzień

Agriculture 2021, 11(5), 458; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11050458 - 18 May 2021

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 8949

Abstract

The article aims to present the essence of agritourism in the literature regarding the subject of its profitability during the COVID-19 pandemic. To verify the goal, data from our own research was applied. The research was conducted in 2019 and 2020 with the exploratory survey method and an interview questionnaire. Thirty-two service providers running agritourism activities in randomly selected rural communes of the Podlaskie province (communes of Mielnik, Suchowola, Giby, Płaska, and Hajnówka) participated in the study. The Ward cluster analysis method was used to group the counties of the Podlaskie Province in terms of spatial differentiation in the development of agritourism. For this purpose, data provided by the Central Statistical Authority in Poland reported for 2019 and the primary data (research by M. Roman) was applied. In the first part of the article, the authors describe and explain the basic concepts of rural tourism and agritourism based on the literature. The figures were also quoted, for example, the number of agritourism farms in Poland and other European countries. The last part of the study provides the results of our own research. The study demonstrates that in 2020 agritourism was profitable, as the owners of the farms recorded a profit. The research confirms the massive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agritourism. During a pandemic, many people choose places with few people (e.g., rural areas). The research also considered the importance of innovation on agritourism farms and business profitability. The issues discussed in the study relate to current events—scientific studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on agritourism concern other countries; however, the authors were not able to find studies focusing on agritourism farms in Poland. A new element of methodology in this article was to organize the concepts of agritourism and to present the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the profitability of agritourism. It was also essential to present the classification of rural tourism. According to the authors of the study, the problems covered here are new and point to new trends in the development of agritourism during the pandemic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Changes on Family Farms in Developed, Developing and Transition Economies)

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24 pages, 605 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

What Drives Farm Structural Change? An Analysis of Economic, Demographic and Succession Factors

by Alessandro Corsi, Vito Frontuto and Silvia Novelli

Agriculture 2021, 11(5), 438; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11050438 - 12 May 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3134

Abstract

The evolution of farm size and land use are important determinants of the efficiency and profitability of agriculture and the configuration of the territory. In this paper, a conceptual framework of the evolution of the number of farms and land use is presented, arguing that a major determinant of the change in the number of farms is the presence or absence of successors to ageing farmers and that these socio-demographic variables shape the evolution of the sector in terms of farm size, while they do not significantly affect the changes in the farmed area. This hypothesis was empirically tested with data drawn from individual farm records of the Italian Agricultural Censuses of 2000 and 2010—aggregated at the municipality level for an Italian region—by estimating regressions on the decrease rates of the number of farms, the utilised agricultural area and the total agricultural area. The results support the conclusion that the change in the number of farms was largely determined by the absence of successors in family farms and by the average operators’ age, unlike the change in the farmed area, for which natural land conditions were the main drivers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Changes on Family Farms in Developed, Developing and Transition Economies)

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Review

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14 pages, 1308 KiB

Open AccessReview

Synthesizing Knowledge about Structural Change in Agriculture: The Integration of Disciplines and Aggregation Levels

by Stefan Mann

Agriculture 2021, 11(7), 601; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11070601 - 28 Jun 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2647

Abstract

It is common sense that it needs social and economic perspectives to understand structural changes in agriculture. The current study asserts that, likewise, the integration of the farm level (micro), the sectoral level (meso), and the societal level (macro) are needed to gain insight into the system of agricultural structures. Following a review of the literature, these three levels were integrated in a cycle in which the interdependencies between different units of analysis were evaluated. The study concludes that it enhances the understanding of structural change on each level if the other levels are also taken into account. It therefore contributes not only to the literature on agriculture, but also to the discussion about the rationale of an analytical meso-level between the analysis on micro- and macro-levels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structural Changes on Family Farms in Developed, Developing and Transition Economies)

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