Semi-subsistence farm households (SFHs) have persevered in Central and Southeastern Europe. An outlook on future perspectives of SFHs asks for reliable information on the phenomenon of SFHs and the impact of policy measures on their development options: (1) intensifying farming, (2) diversifying...

Traditionally, the family farm has always been seen as a cornerstone of the agricultural production system. Given social, economic and political evidence (Calus, 2009), this organisational form might still continue to shape agricultural development. However, important changes in social and...

We begin with a brief comparison of the size distribution of US and EU-15 farms to provide the European audience a greater context to the US issues. The EU data are from the Farm Structures Survey and the US data are from USDA’s Agriculture Resource Management Survey (ARMS). We next address...

This paper investigates the flexibility of the Polish farming sector during a transition period. Flexibility is considered to be a farm’s ability to change output by sustaining average costs. We argue that flexibility is a crucial factor in farmers’ competitive advantage, especially under...

To sell their surpluses of maize, the main staple in Benin, farmers may choose among three modes of transaction: they may sell under a contract with itinerant traders, or they may sell without a contract at the farmgate or on distant markets. It has been postulated that farmers may choose a...

Most of Spanish olive farms are concentrated in Less-Favoured Areas (LFA) with the majority of producer areas are under Objective 1 of the EU Regional Policy. The EU has long recognized such distinctive characteristics of those holdings with a specific support measures aiming to prevent the...

In Nigeria 90% of the agricultural primary produce is in the hands of small holders cultivating between 0.8-4 hectares. Farm size expansion is limited by population pressure, land fragmentation, poor market opportunities and lack of finance. This article presents estimates of soil erosion...

In current economic reality, there seems to be a clear need to recognize, characterize and place small scale agriculture in a setup which accounts for novel trends in the modes of doing business in the global economy and with respect to the changing role of agriculture along development...

A survey of more than 150 small dairy farms and local economic, professional and political stakeholders was conducted in six regions of France. It revealed five types of farm strategy in relation to the farm’s size, agricultural diversification, importance of direct selling, and farm and...

This paper discusses and explores different approaches to the definition of small in relation to farms in the EU. It focuses on distributions of farms using different size criteria, making comparisons of the extent to which one criterion maps onto another. Differences in farm structure that...