Engagement in agriculture 1987–1991: a west European perspective: Fid-Bau Portal

Engagement in agriculture 1987–1991: a west European perspective

Hawkins, E.A. / Bryden, J. / Gilliatt, N. / MacKinnon, N.

Abstract The paper explores the extent to which Western European agriculture is integrating into a broader social and economic environment. It examines how the deployment of farm household resources of land, labour and capital to agriculture —a process we term engagement/disengagement — is related to alternative sources of income and activity in different study areas. It also seeks to explain situations of stability in the deployment of resources to agriculture, presenting some preliminary thoughts as to why so many farms continue in a relatively stable fashion despite a recession and the uncertainty of agricultural policy. It is farm households with strong agricultural structures in all contexts which are those tending towards further engagement in agriculture. The fact that such households are more prolific in the north of Europe means that engagement in agriculture also tends to be concentrated in the north. Farm households with poor agricultural structures, but located in areas of strong labour markets, are those most likely to be disengaging from agriculture. We find that there is a very large block of stability and low disengagement with regard to the changing deployment of resources to the farm business in peripheral areas, where poor agricultural structures or the agricultural recession discourage engagement, but where there are few other alternatives for earned income. Thus, contrary to our initial expectation, the dominant pattern of engagement in agriculture in the European south is one of stability rather than disengagement.