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Résumé :
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Over the past few years, pluriactivity of farmers and farming households has been increasing and more than one third of EU-27 family farmers (36.4%) now carry out another gainful activity. Though they are mainly small farmers looking for complem[...]
Over the past few years, pluriactivity of farmers and farming households has been increasing and more than one third of EU-27 family farmers (36.4%) now carry out another gainful activity. Though they are mainly small farmers looking for complementary income, they may also be animated by a genuine entrepreneur's will, and set up diversification activities on their own farm, an option currently implemented on 12% of EU-27 holdings. For the purpose of this note, a family farm manager will be considered as pluriactive if he carries out any activity other than farm work for remuneration, be it on the holding itself (farm diversification), on another holding, or as employee in a non-agricultural enterprise. Farm diversification is understood as the creation of any gainful activities that do not comprise any farm work but are directly related to the holding i.e. use its resources or products, and have an economic impact on the holding.1 It should be noted that European sources cover only the frequency of other gainful activities and their relative importance. Financial data on the share of other gainful activities in the income of farm households are not available at EU level.Depending on the size of the farm, farmers will tend to choose one or the other option : pluriactivity is mainly a feature of small farms, whereas diversification occurs morefrequently on large holdings; the share of pluriactive family farm managers decreases by almost 3 between farms with 0 to 2 ha ¿ where 41.5% of the managers are pluriactive - and farms with more than 100 ha ¿ 15.3% -, whereas the share of family farms with diversification more than doubles, increasing from 10.2% of farms with 0 to 2 ha to22.8% of farms with more than 100 ha. In the case of farm diversification, the size of the farm also influences the type of activity set up, with small farms developing the processing of agricultural products, and larger ones contractual work.The type of farming is also determinant, as some activities are more labour intensive than others or may require a constant presence of the farmer. As a consequence, farmers involved in permanent cropping or field cropping are more available to choose pluriactivity, while farmers dealing with livestock may be more inclined towards on-farm diversification. Like the farm size, the type of farming may also influence the kind of diversification activity set up: contractual work is more frequent on farms specialised in field crops, processing of farm products on farms specialised in permanent crops. As for tourism, its ¿ so far little - development is mainly linked to farms specialised in grazing livestock. Indeed, farms specialised in grazing livestock may be located in places rated as attractive for diversification activities such as tourism. Mountain areas, coastal areas or pleasant countryside may be critical advantages to attract potential clients. Similarly, farmers located in predominantly urban (PU) areas may have more employment opportunities than farmers located in predominantly rural (PR) areas, as well as better outlets for their diversification activities. 37.5% of farmers living in PU regions are pluriactive, against 34.8% of farmers living in PR regions.Last but not least, human capital can make a decisive contribution: older farmers are much less pluriactive than younger ones: some 20% of family farm managers aged more than 65 y.o. are pluriactive, against close to 50% for those aged less than 54 y.o. Besides, a high educational attainment and an entrepreneur's mind are certainly advantages to launch new activities on farm. The interest of rural development funding Due to the impact on employment and income evaluated as rather positive ¿for example, diversified holdings occupy on average more people than non-diversified ones, the setting up of diversification activities on farm is encouraged via rural development. It is planned that 1.7% of the EAFRD contribution - i.e. 12% of Axis 3 -will be spent on this measure during the 2007-2013 programming period. Moreover, this measure has long been implemented in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy or Finland, countries where a parallel development of diversification of farms has been observed.Nevertheless, the analysis carried out suggests that this solution can not apply to all farms. It also underlines the fact that most of EU-27 agricultural production is performed on farms where it is difficult for the farmers to diversify their income sources via external employment : on farms with more than 16 ESU ¿ representing 75% of the economic potential of EU27 family farms - , pluriactivity is relatively modest (18%), and the diversification activities set up often consist in the prolongation of agricultural activity (contract work using the farm equipment, processing of farm products).
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