scholarly journals ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF FAMILY FARMS IN EUROPE – A LITERATURE REVIEW

Author(s):  
Agnieszka Poczta-Wajda

As family farms are the dominant form of agricultural activity in Europe, their economic viability is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas. The aim of this research is to review the latest publications on the economic viability of family farms in Europe. Based on a systematic literature review of studies related to European agriculture published in 2010-2020, this paper presents various concepts of family farm economic viability and assesses the methodologies used. The paper also presents the results of selected empirical research from the last 10 years on family farm economic viability in Europe, broken down into international and national comparisons. Results suggest that the most common approach to measuring economic viability is to use the opportunity cost concept of own factors of production. An important observation is also that, although most studies are based on the FADN database, the results of the analyses are sensitive to the selection of the threshold wage and own capital costs. What contemporary literature lacks is a long-term comparative analysis for all EU countries, as well as studies of drivers of family farm economic viability.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9575
Author(s):  
Salvatore Ammirato ◽  
Alberto Michele Felicetti ◽  
Cinzia Raso ◽  
Bruno Antonio Pansera ◽  
Antonio Violi

Scholars from different perspectives agree that agritourism can be the right tool to balance the needs of tourists with those of rural communities, offering real opportunities for economic and social development, while mitigating undesirable impacts on the environment. This paper aims to provide a holistic outlook of the different perspectives under which scientific literature deals with the topic of agritourism as a means to support the sustainable development of rural areas. To reach this aim, we performed a systematic review of the scientific literature in order to point out the linkages between agritourism and sustainability. We analyzed papers through a text mining solution based on the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) technique to point out the main topics around which the scientific literature on agritourism and sustainability has grown. Topics are further categorized in themes by means of an agglomerative hierarchical clustering procedure. Results are further analyzed to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the current streams of the literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-170
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Czerwińska-Koral

According to art. 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, family farms form the basis of the agricultural system of the Republic of Poland. Family farms is a special type of farm run by an individual farmer. The legislator, realizing the assumptions of agricultural policy, concretes the constitutional norm by means of formal institutions, that is, regulations and legal regulations that prefer a family farm as a form of conducting agricultural activity. Thus, conducting business in this special form and - as a result - managing it is easier compared to other forms of activity. Particular facilities relate to the acquisition of agricultural land rights (possession of agricultural land). The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the preferences of the legislator in relation to family farms and individual farmers who run them.


Ekonomika APK ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 308 (6) ◽  
pp. 68-80
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Mamchur ◽  
Ivan Irkliienko

The purpose of the article is to evaluate measures to support the activities of farms and family farms in the conditions of David-19 and make a forecast assessment of their development and formation. Research methods. It is based on the active policy concept of entrepreneurial potential realization in the countryside, which includes measures for the farms and family farms development, in particular through the transformational mechanism of household formalization into a market environment. The following scientific methods were used in the research process: dialectical scientific knowledge of processes and phenomena; monographic (analysis of scientific achievements of Ukrainian and foreign scientists, as well as stages of business development); graphic (to obtain a synthesized idea of the object of study, to identify its components, to establish causal relationships); empirical (regarding a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the object of study); comparative analysis (identification of problems and directions of formation and development of farming); comparative analysis (taking into account the specific conditions of agricultural activity and comparing the processes of farming development at the national level); prognostic (formation of conceptual bases of regulation and improvement of the strategy of development of business); abstract-logical (theoretical generalizations and formulation of conclusions). Research results. The situation on minimizing the impact of quarantine measures under the conditions of Covid-19 and their consequences and interaction in the development of farms and family farms in rural areas is analyzed. On the basis of generalization in the development of mechanisms to ensure the efficiency of the agricultural sector of the economy, it is necessary to take into account the features and vulnerabilities of the organizational and legal management form. It was found that the most vulnerable to the introduction of quarantine restrictions are small and medium-sized farms, mostly those engaged in vegetable production, in particular the production of early vegetables and berries. This can directly lead to a reduction in their number. Thus, by 2025, the number of farms may be reduced by 450 units - up to 32639 against 33089 in 2019. However, the introduced measures, including compensation the part of SST for family farms, are able to provide in the near future approximately 200 thousand such farms both through a change in the organizational and legal form of existing small farms and through household formalization into the market environment with the acquisition of the official status of business entities. Scientific novelty. The methodological representation and identification of the category of self-employment as structured and defined by law, institutional and economic criteria, forms of organization of rural management with the appropriate definition of priority contours of possible organizational and economic effectiveness of functioning through employment in non-agricultural enterprises. Practical significance. The basic principles for counteracting the impact of restrictive measures in the context of Covid-19 were revealed, which allowed to assess the prospects for the development of farms, including family farms, as well as to make predictive calculations of the impact of proposed measures on their formation and development. Tabl.: 3. Figs.: 1. Refs.: 24.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1566
Author(s):  
Ernesto Mesa-Vázquez ◽  
Juan F. Velasco-Muñoz ◽  
José A. Aznar-Sánchez ◽  
Belén López-Felices

Over the last two decades, experimental economics has been gaining relevance in the research of a wide range of issues related to agriculture. In turn, the agricultural activity provides an excellent field of study within which to validate the use of instruments employed by experimental economics. The aim of this study is to analyze the dynamics of the research on the application of experimental economics in agriculture on a global level. Thus, a literature review has been carried out for the period between the years 2000 and 2020 based on a bibliometric study. The main results show that there has been a growing use of experimental economics methods in the research on agriculture, particularly over the last five years. This evolution is evident in the different indicators analyzed and is reflected in the greater scientific production and number of actors involved. The most relevant topics within the research on experimental economics in agriculture focus on the farmer, the markets, the consumer, environmental policy, and public goods. These results can be useful for policy makers and researchers interested in this line of research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 4553
Author(s):  
Ewelina Ziajka-Poznańska ◽  
Jakub Montewka

The development of autonomous ship technology is currently in focus worldwide and the literature on this topic is growing. However, an in-depth cost and benefit estimation of such endeavours is in its infancy. With this systematic literature review, we present the state-of-the-art system regarding costs and benefits of the operation of prospective autonomous merchant ships with an objective for identifying contemporary research activities concerning an estimation of operating, voyage, and capital costs in prospective, autonomous shipping and vessel platooning. Additionally, the paper outlines research gaps and the need for more detailed business models for operating autonomous ships. Results reveal that valid financial models of autonomous shipping are lacking and there is significant uncertainty affecting the cost estimates, rendering only a reliable evaluation of specific case studies. The findings of this paper may be found relevant not only by academia, but also organisations considering to undertake a challenge of implementing Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships in their operations.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Marcin Surówka ◽  
Łukasz Popławski ◽  
Helena Fidlerová

The work discusses issues of the infrastructure, its instruments, and specifics of infrastructure in Polish and Slovak rural areas. The aim of this article is to analyze the level of technical infrastructure development in rural regions of the Małopolskie Voivodeship in Poland and the west part of Slovakia—Trnava self-governing region (Trnava region) as two regions with a similar position regarding regional competitiveness index. Following the topic, after identification of strengths and weaknesses of mentioned regions, the opportunities, and threats of sustainable development of infrastructure in rural areas have been analyzed using the SWOT method. The development of sustainable, reliable, and functional infrastructure does not only refer to the chosen regions of Poland and Slovakia but also other regions in the European Union. Sustainable infrastructure is a factor stimulating social and economic progress as one of the most important determinants of sustainable development and regional competitiveness. The authors notice a particular lack in the sustainable development of infrastructure in the field of water and sewerage management together with the supply of water. Therefore, this article tries to complete the gap in research focusing on the concept of a more systematic approach to technical infrastructure improvement in the context of sustainable development, and strategy of cooperation.


Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Krystyna Kurowksa ◽  
Renata Marks-Bielska ◽  
Stanisław Bielski ◽  
Audrius Aleknavičius ◽  
Cezary Kowalczyk

Sustainable development is socioeconomic growth that integrates political, economic, and social measures alongside environmental protection to meet the needs of communities and citizens without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The sustainable development concept was initially based on three main pillars: environment, economy, and society. In successive years, this concept has been expanded to include new pillars. The awareness of these changes has influenced our research interests. The main research objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of geographic information system (GIS) tools (data, tools, and multidimensional analyses) to the implementation of sustainable development principles in rural areas. The study covered rural and nonurbanized areas in Poland, especially farmland, forests, fisheries, and farms. The study presents the results of our research into environmental, economic, and social determinants of growth in the spatial dimension. GIS tools continue to evolve, which improves access to information and increases database managers’ awareness that highly accurate data are needed for spatial analyses. GIS systems allow us to formulate, in a structured and formal way, models that reflect both the current state and forecast changes that will occur in space. It is a very useful tool in the sustainable development of rural areas.


Author(s):  
Jianhong Fan ◽  
You Mo ◽  
Yunnan Cai ◽  
Yabo Zhao ◽  
Dongchen Su

Resilience of rural communities is becoming increasingly important to contemporary society. In this study we used a quantitative method to measure the resilience regulating ability of rural communities close to urban areas—in Licheng Subdistrict, Guangzhou City, China. The main results are as follows: (1) Rural systems close to urban areas display superior adapting and learning abilities and have a stronger overall resilience strength, the spatial distribution of which is characterized by dispersion in whole and aggregation in part; (2) the resilience of most rural economic subsystems can reach moderate or higher levels with apparent spatial agglomeration, whilst the ecological subsystem resilience and social resilience are generally weaker; the spatial distribution of the former shows a greater regional difference while the latter is in a layered layout; (3) some strategies such as rebuilding a stable ecological pattern, making use of urban resources and cultivating rural subjectivity are proposed on this basis, in order to promote the sustainable development of rural areas and realize rural revitalization. This work also gives suggestion for the creation of appropriate and effective resilience standards specifically targeted for rural community-aiming to achieve the delivery of local sustainability goals.


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