Small and Semi-subsistence Farms in the EU:
Significance and Development Paths
Exploitations de petite taille et de semi-subsistance dans
l’Union européenne : importance et perspectives de développement
Kleinbetriebe und semi-subsistenzwirtschaftliche Betriebe in der EU:
Bedeutung und Entwicklungspfade
Sophia Davidova
Agriculture in Europe, almost in its
totality, is organised into family farm
units, and these farms are the focus
of the United Nations Year of Family
Farming in 2014. Allen and Lueck
(1998) define the ‘pure’ family farm
as an organisation of farming activity
where ‘a single farmer owns the
output and controls all farm assets,
including all labour assets’.
However, this definition is too
restrictive for modern realities since
there has been adaptation of family
farms to changes in economic
circumstances, in opportunities for
non-agricultural jobs and in the use
of rural labour and land rental
markets.
In Europe, family farming is an
umbrella concept which incorporates
farms of many different types and
sizes, with both full- and part-time
farmers, and farmers with and
without other gainful activities i.e. all
activities other than those relating to
farmwork being carried out for
remuneration. Some are specialised
commercial operations, while others
produce mainly to satisfy ownhousehold food needs, the so-called
semi-subsistence farms (SSFs). In the
EU-15 (and elsewhere in Europe,
though to a lesser extent), there are
also small ‘hobby’ or ‘lifestyle’
holdings, usually belonging to
Family farming involves farms of many different types and sizes
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families with substantial nonagricultural income.
This Special Issue of EuroChoices has
been prepared by a team of experts
from different EU Member States who
worked on a study for the European
Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture
and Rural Development (COMAGRI),
Semi-Subsistence Farming: Values and
Directions of Development (Davidova
et al., 2013).1 It does not pretend to be
a comprehensive discussion of family
farming. Rather, this and the following
articles focus on the smallest group of
family farms. The objective is to draw
attention to a widely spread sub-sector
of family farming in Europe, which is
under-researched, often ignored in the
policy debate, and, perhaps,
underestimated. In the current world
situation of high food prices and
competition for agricultural land
between food and biofuel production,
the decisions of small farmers about
the use of agricultural land in Europe
is important.
What are the small and semisubsistence farms in Europe?
There is no universally accepted or
consistently used definition of either
SSFs or small farms, and, in
implementing and assessing the
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP),
EU Member States (MSs) have often
created ad hoc definitions. Problems
arise from multiple measures of size
(land area, business size, labour), and
from the fact that SSFs are often
thought to involve a specific mix of
agricultural, economic, environmental,
social and cultural characteristics.
In its brief What is a small farm? the
EC Directorate General (DG)
Agriculture and Rural Development
underlined three dimensions of
complexity in classifying farms by size:
(1) the physical or economic criterion
used to define the threshold; (2)
within these, whether size is measured
in absolute or relative terms, where
relative means in relation to the
characteristics of all farms in a given
area; and (3) what relevant consistent
data are available at EU level. For
policy purposes, absolute thresholds
“
Les petites
exploitations sont
importantes en Europe
mais elles sont souvent
ignorées dans le débat
sur l’action des
pouvoirs publics.
”
are more straightforward and easier to
understand. In this article and most of
the remaining articles in this Special
Issue our size measures are based on
Utilised Agricultural Area in hectares
or on Standard Output (an indicator of
the economic size of a farm equal to
actual or potential sales revenue,
excluding CAP direct payments). We
classify farms smaller than 2 hectares
(ha) or under €2,000 of Standard
Output (SO) as very small, and farms
with land area less than 5 ha or SO
under €8,000 as small. The logic of
these thresholds is that, throughout
the EU-27, farms with SO less than
€2,000 are not large enough to
bring the household above the
national at-risk-of-poverty threshold of
60 per cent of the national median
income per adult equivalent, when the
household is fully reliant on farming
income. However, in most MSs, even
farms with SO under €8,000 are not
large enough to provide a decent
income since SO includes production
costs and is therefore not synonymous
with farming income. Such households
need to combine farming with
alternative sources of income.
SSFs may be simply defined as
holdings from which less than 50 per
cent of the agricultural output is sold,
with the remainder being consumed
within the farm household, or by
family or neighbours. There is an
inclination to equate SSFs with
poverty. This is true for some farmers,
producing their own food as a
survival strategy to cope with
conditions of relative poverty and a
lack of non-farm jobs; but for others,
it may be a lifestyle preference. Some
semi-subsistence farmers engage
full-time in agriculture without any
other gainful activities, but large
numbers are part-time farmers, some
with other occupations. As a result,
semi-subsistence agriculture in the
EU-27 encompasses a heterogeneous
group of rural land holders with
different motivations and different
degrees of commitment to agriculture.
How big is the small farm sector
in the EU?
EU farm structure is highly fragmented
(Table 1), especially in the 12 New
Member States (NMS-12).
In 2010, there were 8.1 million farms
in the EU-27 with utilised agricultural
area (UAA) less than 5 ha, including
5.6 million farms with UAA less than
2 ha. Farms smaller than 5 ha utilised
11.8 million ha of agricultural land, or
only 7 per cent of the EU’s UAA, but
engaged 42 per cent of labour as
measured in Annual Work Units (an
Table 1: Numbers of small and semi-subsistence farms in the EU-27, 2010 (‘000)
EU
EU-27
EU-15
NMS-12
Total and small farms
SSFs
Total
Less than
2 ha
Less than
5 ha
SO less
than
€2,000
SO less
than
€8,000
Total
Less than
2 ha
Less than
5 ha
SO less
than
€2,000
SO less
than
€8,000
12,015
5,225
6,789
5,637
1,728
3,909
8,056
2,728
5,328
5,132
1,167
3,965
8,507
2,669
5,838
5,842
845
4,997
4,053
660
3,393
5,186
786
4,401
3,906
501
3,406
5,487
758
4,729
Source: Davidova et al. (2013).
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average for all size groups. Against
this backdrop, the number of SSFs has
been relatively stable in the EU-27:
between 2007 and 2010, their number
declined by only 1 per cent. However,
this average rate of change hides two
different developments – a decline of
5.7 per cent in the NMSs, and a
substantial increase of 35 per cent in
the Southern EU-15 MSs. Both
developments have been most
pronounced in the smallest size
group, i.e. SSFs with SO under €2,000.
The deeply rooted traditions of
semi-subsistence farming in some
MSs, the relative rural poverty in some
areas, and the hardship stemming
from the effects of the economic
recession in urban areas are all factors
contributing to the relative stability
and in some cases to the proliferation
of SSFs.
Small farms are of key importance socially
AWU is equivalent to one person
employed full-time in agriculture); in
the NMS they engaged 55 per cent of
AWUs. These statistics reveal two
salient features of small-scale farming
in the EU: first, it is very labourintensive, and second, it is socially of
key importance in providing at least
some income to millions of farmers
and their households in rural areas,
which might well further depopulate
without this contribution.
In 2010 in the EU-27, there were 5.8
million SSFs, almost half of all
agricultural holdings. They accounted
for about three-quarters of very small
holdings. However, their distribution
varies greatly between MSs: 86 per
cent are in the NMSs (61 per cent in
Romania, and 8–9 per cent in each of
Hungary and Poland) but 11 per cent
are in Italy, with significant numbers
elsewhere (over 100,000 in each of
Bulgaria, Greece and Lithuania). SSFs
also comprise a significant share of
holdings in Cyprus, Latvia, Malta,
Slovakia and Slovenia. In the more
developed and prosperous MSs, SSFs
– sometimes created as a post-crisis or
post-war strategy of land settlement
– have virtually disappeared.
Two patterns of structural change
are common to all MSs: the exit of
labour from agriculture, and
changes in the number of holdings
and their average size. Agricultural
labour in the EU-27, measured in
AWUs, decreased by 27 per cent
between 2003 and 2010, with the
highest rates of exit recorded in the
NMS-12, and particularly from the
smallest holdings of less than 2 ha.
Labour exit is often associated with
adjustments to part-time farming,
which is becoming more and more
typical in the EU. Often (though
not always, especially in the
EU-15), part-time farming is related
to a survival strategy of farm
households who use non-farm
income to support their farm
operations. This is particularly true
for small farms.
“
Europäische
Kleinbetriebe sind
wichtig, werden in der
politischen Debatte
jedoch häufig
ignoriert.
”
Similar to labour exit, structural
change in terms of farm numbers has
been slightly more pronounced
amongst the smallest farms. However,
the decline in the number of farms
smaller than 5 ha and 2 ha (with the
exception of the North-Western MSs)
has not differed consistently from the
Paths of development of small
and SSFs in the EU and policy
implications
The heterogeneity of SSFs and small
farms suggests three main possible
paths for their development in the
EU.
• Disappearance of SSFs and small
farms due to absorption into larger
commercialised farm holdings, or
to land abandonment (e.g. in
remoter areas).
• Transformation of SSFs into small
commercial farms via greater
market integration, with increasing
farm output sales and reduced
subsistence dependency. This is
the main path sought by EU rural
development policy.
• Continuation of SSFs and small
farms in the longer term, through:
(a) diversification with on- or
off-farm enterprises; (b) nonagricultural wage employment
and part-time farming; or (c)
‘forced’ succession as successive
family generations must take over
the farm with similar
technologies, lifestyles and
incomes due to the lack of other
income sources.
The relative importance of these
development paths in different
countries and regions of EU MSs
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will vary according to a number of
factors, including the general
prosperity of local agriculture, and
the macroeconomic circumstances,
locally and generally. No single
policy measure, even a welltargeted one, is likely to be wholly
appropriate for all types of farms
and all development paths: this is
not a one-size-fits-all situation. The
first path, disappearance, calls for
measures stimulating structural
change, as, for example, provided
in the post-2013 CAP. Entry into the
new Small Farmers Scheme in Pillar
1 will entitle applicants to one-off
payments at a higher rate for Pillar
2 Farm and Business Development
Assistance, if they permanently
transfer their holding to another
farmer to create a viable economic
unit and stop all commercial
farming activity. However, in some
areas farmers may be encouraged
“
Small farms in
Europe are important
but often ignored in the
policy debate.
”
to stay to avoid further
depopulation. An existing example
of this type exists in Scotland,
where ‘crofting’ measures
encourage small farmers to
modernise their farms and houses,
SSFs account for almost half of all EU-27 agricultural holdings
and thus to improve their standard
of living. The second path,
transformation, suggests measures
to decrease the costs faced by small
and semi-subsistence farmers in
accessing markets, including
dissemination of market
information, improvement of rural
electronic and physical
infrastructure, and providing
legislation favourable to
cooperatives and other producer
organisations (e.g. in relation to
taxation and member entry and
exit). The third path, continuation
a and b, is related to effective rural
development policies, including
support for rural small and
medium-sized enterprises which
create jobs, and which may thus
help to create an environment in
which ‘forced’ succession may be
avoided.
Note
1 The Guest Editors would like to
thank COMAGRI for its funding and
other assistance for this study,
including permission to use the
results in many of the articles in this
special issue of EuroChoices. The two
Point de Vue articles are unconnected
with the study.
Further Reading
Allen, D. and Lueck, D. (1998). The nature of the farm. Journal of Law and Economics, 41(2): 343–386.
Davidova, S., Bailey, A., Dwyer, J., Erjavec, E., Gorton, M. and Thomson, K. (2013). Semi-subsistence farming – value and directions of
development. Study prepared for the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Brussels. Available online at:
www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/AGRI/studiesdownload.html?languageDocument=EN&file=93390.
Davidova, S., Fredriksson, L., Gorton, M., Mishev, P. and Petrovici, D. (2012). Subsistence farming, incomes, and agricultural
livelihoods in the New Member States of the European Union. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 30(2): 209–227.
European Commission (2011). What is a small farm? EU Agricultural Economic Briefs No. 2, July 2011, EC, Brussels. Available online at:
ec.europa.eu/agriculture/agrista/economic-briefs/02_en.pdf. Last accessed: March 8, 2013.
Fritzsch, J., Wegener, S., Buchenrieder, G., Curtiss, J. and Gomez Y Paloma, S. (2010). Economic prospects for semi-subsistence farm
households in EU New Member States. JRC Scientific and Technical Reports, EUR 24418 EN, Luxembourg. Available online at: ftp.jrc.es/
EURdoc/JRC58621.pdf.
Sophia Davidova, Professor of European Agricultural Policy, School of Economics, University of Kent, UK.
Email: [email protected]
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Summary
Small and Semisubsistence Farms in the
EU: Significance and
Development Paths
Exploitations de petite
taille et de semisubsistance dans
l’Union européenne :
importance et perspectives de développement
Kleinbetriebe und semisubsistenzwirtschaftliche
Betriebe in der EU:
Bedeutung und Entwicklungspfade
In Europe, family farming is an
umbrella concept which incorporates
farms of many different types and sizes.
Some are specialised commercial
operations, while others produce mainly
to satisfy household food needs, the
so-called semi-subsistence farms (SSFs). In
2010, there were 8.1 million farms in the
EU-27 farming less than 5 ha, including
5.6 million holdings of under 2 ha.
Small-scale farming is socially of key
importance in providing income and in
keeping millions of farmers and their
households in rural areas, thus avoiding
depopulation. SSFs account for almost
half of all agricultural holdings in the
EU-27, and about three-quarters of small
holdings under 2 ha of agricultural area.
Their distribution varies greatly between
MSs but they are located predominantly in
the New Member States and the Southern
EU-15. Three main paths of development
for SSFs and small farms in the EU can be
envisaged, with different implications for
policy: Disappearance due to absorption
into larger commercialised farm holdings,
or to land abandonment (e.g. in remoter
areas); Transformation of SSFs into small
commercial farms via greater market
integration – the main development path
sought by EU Rural Development policy
and Continuation through diversification,
non-agricultural wage employment, or
‘forced’ re-entry as successive family
generations do not have other income
sources.
En Europe, l’agriculture familiale est
un concept large qui comprend des
exploitations de sorte et de taille diverses
et variées. Certaines sont des entreprises
spécialisées à vocation commerciale, alors
que d’autre ne produisent pratiquement
que pour satisfaire les besoins
alimentaires de la famille et sont appelées
exploitations de semi-subsistance (ESS).
En 2010, il y avait dans l’Union
européenne (UE) à 27 8.1 millions
d’exploitations agricoles de moins de
5 ha, dont 5.6 millions de moins de 2 ha.
L’agriculture à petite échelle est d’une
importance sociale cruciale car elle
apporte un revenu et maintient dans les
zones rurales des millions d’agriculteurs et
leur famille, limitant ainsi la dépopulation.
Les ESS représentent presque la moitié
des exploitations agricoles de l’UE à 27, et
environ les trois-quarts des petites
exploitations de moins de 2 ha. Leur
répartition entre États membres varie
beaucoup mais elles sont principalement
situées dans les nouveaux États membres
et dans la partie sud de l’Europe des 15.
Trois principales pistes de développement
peuvent s’envisager pour les exploitation
de petite taille et de semi- subsistance de
l’UE, qui ont des implications différentes
pour les politiques: leur disparition par
absorption au sein d’exploitations
agricoles à vocation commerciale de plus
grande taille ou par abandon des terres
(dans les zones les plus isolées); la
transformation des ESS en exploitations
commerciales mieux intégrées dans les
marchés - qui est la voie principale de
développement recherchée par la
politique de développement rural de l’UE;
leur maintien grâce à la diversification,
l’emploi salarié non agricole, ou une
rentrée forcée lorsque les générations
successives n’ont pas de source de revenu
alternative.
In Europa stellen bäuerliche
Familienbetriebe ein umfassendes
Konzept dar, das sich auf Betriebe
verschiedener Arten und Größen erstreckt.
Einige haben sich spezialisiert und sind
gewerblich tätig, während andere, die
sogenannten semi-subsistenzwirtschaftlichen
Betriebe, hauptsächlich für den eigenen
Lebensmittelbedarf produzieren. Im Jahr
2010 hatte die EU-27 8,1 Millionen aktive
landwirtschaftliche Betriebe mit weniger als
fünf Hektar, darunter 5,6 Millionen mit
weniger als zwei Hektar. Unter sozialen
Gesichtspunkten sind Kleinbetriebe
entscheidend für die Einkommenssicherung
und dafür, dass Millionen von Landwirte
und deren Haushalte in ländlichen
Regionen verbleiben und dass somit einer
Entvölkerung entgegen gewirkt wird.
Semi-subsistenzwirtschaftliche Betriebe
machen nahezu die Hälfte aller
landwirtschaftlichen Betriebe in der EU-27
aus, und etwa drei Viertel der
landwirtschaftlich genutzten Fläche wird
von Kleinbetrieben mit weniger als zwei
Hektar bewirtschaftet. Sie sind sehr
unterschiedlich in den Mitgliedsstaaten
verteilt, jedoch hauptsächlich in den Neuen
Mitgliedsstaaten und den südlichen
EU-15-Ländern zu finden. Es sind drei
Hauptentwicklungspfade für semisubsistenzwirtschaftliche Betriebe und
Kleinbetriebe in der EU vorstellbar, die
verschiedene Auswirkungen auf die Politik
haben: Betriebsaufgabe bedingt durch
Übernahme durch größere,
kommerzialisierte landwirtschaftliche
Betriebe oder bedingt durch Landaufgabe
(z.B. in entlegeneren Regionen); Wandlung
von semi-subsistenzwirtschaftlichen
Betrieben in kleine kommerzielle
landwirtschaftliche Betriebe durch verstärkte
Marktintegration - der Entwicklungspfad,
der hauptsächlich von der Politik der EU
zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums
verfolgt wird; Fortführung mittels
Diversifikation, Lohnarbeit außerhalb der
Landwirtschaft - oder der zwangsläufige
Wiedereinstieg, da
Familienbetrieben traditionell keine
anderen Einkommensquellen zur
Verfügung stehen.
summary
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