Methodical approach for farming style research in conditions of multi-functional agriculture
2008
Dojchinova, Yu.
The aim of the paper is to present a methodical approach for the research of farming styles under the conditions of Common Agricultural Policy and to assess its applicability under different characteristics of agriculture and rural regions. The elaborated methodical approach is based on complementing of the Van der Ploeg and Commandeur's approaches for classification dedicated for assessment of farmers' orientation onto business and technologies, added with a criterion for assessing of agricultural producers' orientation for use of the multifunctional effects from agriculture. Regarding the attitude towards using the effect of multifunctional agricultural process, producers might be divided into: those, who are oriented toward vast use of potential effects (with high degree of orientation supposing this criteria) and of farmers with limited use of multifunctional agricultural effects (with low degree of orientation in terms of this criteria). Thus, a three-dimensional model, 8 types (23) of farming styles is setup. Each one of them combines different degree of assessment regarding each one of the qualified criteria. The suggested approach is tested by using expert opinions of 29 professors and researchers from 2 Universities and 1 Scientific Institute and thoroughly, it gets a positive evaluation. The questionnaire for assessment of agricultural producer' orientation regarding all three criteria is founded along with methodical approach for defining the farming styles. Agricultural producers are characterized as conservative, innovative, diversified-oriented, ecological-oriented, multifunctional-tended, technological-tended, multifunctional-ecological-oriented, agribusiness entrepreneurs and multifunctional entrepreneurs. The methodical approach is applied for research of farming styles of 108 agricultural producers in 5 municipalities over the country.
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