11 pages, Diversifying a farm's production operations or marketing channels can boost income and raise farm survival rates. But are beginning and small-scale farmers inclined toward a strategy of diversification? We analyzed 578 attendee surveys from 10 years of an Extension workshop for new and small-scale farmers in Ohio. We investigated the farming profile of beginning and small-scale farmers, the degree to which they are interested in pursuing diversified farming, and whether these interests vary by gender. We found evidence that new and small-scale farmers are interested in alternatives to commodity grain farming, that these alternatives are associated with diversified farming systems, and that some specific diversification interests vary by gender.
16 pages, There is growing evidence that religiosity affects important socio-economic outcomes. A potential channel through which religiosity affects these outcomes is by shaping individuals’ risk preferences. We combine a lab-in-the-field experiment, survey, and focus-group discussions to investigate the effect of religiosity on risk-taking among rural people in Ethiopia. We find evidence that religious farmers are more risk-taking. The effect is likely driven by the trust/belief in God as the omniscient and just power in determining outcomes under uncertainty. This is further corroborated by results from follow-up focus-group discussions.
25 pages, n many countries farmers face pressure to adopt practices to promote sustainability and resilience while ensuring efficient business management to produce food and other agricultural products at reasonable cost. Given a policy context in which voluntary action is preferred over government regulation, understanding farmers’ motivation to embrace recommended practices has become a major subject for research. Increasingly, this endeavour is guided by the theory of planned behaviour, a reasoned action approach (Fishbein and Ajzen, 2010). We provide a brief overview of the theory of planned behaviour and an elaboration of good practices in the assessment of the theory’s constructs. We systematically review 124 applications of the theory to farmer behaviour on a number of specific review criteria. Based on observations of improper use, we consider theoretical and methodological issues and provide recommendations for research design and data analysis.
31pgs, This article aims at investigating the impact of financial supports from agricultural policy on farm-size dynamics. Since not all farms may behave alike, a non-stationary mixed-Markov chain modelling (M-MCM) approach is applied to capture unobserved heterogeneity in the movements of farms across economic size (ES) classes. A multinomial logit specification is used for transition probabilities and the parameters are estimated by the maximum likelihood method and the Expectation-Maximisation (EM) algorithm. An empirical application to an unbalanced panel from 2000 to 2018 shows that French farming consists of ‘almost stayers’, with a high probability of remaining in the same ES class over time, and ‘likely movers’, which present a higher probability of a change in size. The results also show that the impact of subsidies and other economic factors depends greatly on the type that a farm belongs to. These findings confirm that individual characteristics of farmers may be relevant for policy efficiency and more attention should thus be paid to unobserved farm heterogeneity in both policy design and the assessment of their impacts on farm-size dynamics.
24 pages, We present a systematic review of the extensive body of research on farmer risk preference measurement across Europe. We capture the methodological developments over time and discuss remaining challenges and potential areas for further research. Given the constantly evolving policy environment in Europe, and increasing climate-change related risks and uncertainties, there is large value to be gained from enhancing our understanding of this fundamental aspect of farmers’ decision-making processes and consequent actions.
12 pages., Via online journal., Policy makers and researchers foresee four investment strategies for conventional pig farmers in contested pork production regions: (1) continue with a cost-price reduction strategy through modernisation and scale enlargement; (2) convert to an intermediate market segment with higher requirements as to animal welfare and environment than conventional; (3) convert to a niche market segment with higher requirements as to animal welfare and environment than intermediate; or (4) quit farming. For policy makers, it is interesting to gain insight in intensive livestock farmer's perceptions regarding these investments and in processes of social interaction that influence farmer decision-making and the potential diffusion of investment strategies over time (Edwards-Jones, 2006). The aim of this explorative study is to analyse the effect of social interaction on diffusion of investment strategies in capital-intensive livestock production systems with groups of Dutch pig farmers, using a simulation game. The game is designed in such a way that contextual factors do not provide a limiting factor. Furthermore, the game is constructed to stimulate interaction and to trigger imagination of participants. Our main research questions for the analysis of the results of the game sessions were: (1) ‘what are differences in diffusion of investment strategies between sessions?’, and (2) ‘to what extent does social interaction affect diffusion of investment strategies?’ A total of seven sessions were played, with 4–8 pig farmers and/or participants who were affiliated to the sector as advisor or successor. All game sessions were video- and voice- recorded, and interaction between participants was transcribed per game session. First, differences in diffusion of investment strategies between sessions were explored. Second, the causes for differences in diffusion between sessions were explored, by looking at the type of investment strategy, communication between participants, and processes of influence. Special attention was given to the influence of opinion leadership. The results of this research show that (1) only investment strategies with a financial benefit did, under influence of social interaction, result in high adoption; (2) for high adoption to occur, communication between participants was necessary; (3) opinion leaders played an essential role in high adoption of investment strategies; and (4) there was a common understanding among participants that favoured scale enlargement. The gaming methodology triggered participants to communicate their tacit knowledge, i.e. assessment criteria that are important in real-life investment decisions, and to experiment with investment strategies.
