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Betriebsgröße: Weshalb ist sie überhaupt wichtig?
Author(s) -
Rabinowicz Ewa
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
eurochoices
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.487
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1746-692X
pISSN - 1478-0917
DOI - 10.1111/1746-692x.12048
Subject(s) - subsistence agriculture , agriculture , payment , poverty , food security , business , direct payments , order (exchange) , agricultural economics , economics , labour economics , economic growth , natural resource economics , geography , finance , archaeology
Summary 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 ( AES s) 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 ( SSF s) and large amounts to a few big farms, as in Romania and Bulgaria, is not acceptable. In post‐war Finland, many small farms/ SSF s 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 ( RDP s). 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.