Farm size: why should we care?

Abstract

Farm size matters for two reasons: the poverty of (some but not all) small farmers, and their environmentally friendly practices. Encouraging structural change to increase incomes and discouraging it to preserve biodiversity seems impossible, but clever design of agri‐environmental schemes (AESs) can help. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) objective of a fair standard of living for farmers still applies, but paying peanuts to many semi‐subsistence farms (SSFs) and large amounts to a few big farms, as in Romania and Bulgaria, is not acceptable. In post‐war Finland, many small farms/SSFs were created for refugees, and support was differentiated according to size, in order to address poverty, labour surplus and food security, but certainly slowed structural change, and reduced agricultural efficiency. Direct CAP payments cannot substitute for social policy. The only long‐term solution given the present size of the agricultural labour force is for farm labour to leave the sector. The CAP could encourage non‐farm employment and suitable skills through its Rural Development Programmes (RDPs). There are several suitable measures in the proposed new RDP regulation. In contrast to most farm business investment, preservation of biodiversity contributes to a public good. Hence, there is a case for public support for small farms through targeted and monitored AES payments.

Published in

EuroChoices
2014, volume: 13, number: 1, pages: 28-30

SLU Authors

• Rabinowicz, Ewa

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Global goals (SDG)

SDG1 No poverty
SDG8 Decent work and economic growth

UKÄ Subject classification

Other Agricultural Sciences not elsewhere specified
Economics

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1746-692X.12048

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/53643