Family concepts and development options of farms - Decision patterns and action orientations of farm families
2004
Rossier, R.(Agroscope FAT Taenikon, Eidgenoessische Forschungsanstalt fuer Agrarwirtschaft und Landtechnik, Ettenhausen (Switzerland))
The requirements to be met by agriculture have risen substantially in the last ten years, thus increasing the pressure on the farming population to perform. Prevailing social and economic conditions demand greater flexibility and innovative ability from farm families, transcending the established framework of agricultural life and production. The call nowadays is for provision of services and an environmentally friendly contribution to society, rather than purely agricultural food production. The present study investigates the social relationships within farm families. These relationships determine the decision patterns and action orientations with regard to the farm development strategy. The case reconstruction method (Hildenbrand 1999) and a targeted sample are used to reconstruct the farm families decisions in the context of their action orientation in order to establish hypotheses concerning the farm development options. The study leads to the thesis that development strategies in family farming depend very much on the family concept. Farm families with a flexible family concept, where roles on the farm are negotiated individually, according to interests and abilities within the family, and where womens potential is integrated and recognized, represent a farm concept with a future. Such farm families continually develop to cope with the technical, economic and political trends in the agricultural sector, or else quit farming altogether. Farm families with a rigid type of family concept, where roles on the farm are ascribed and unchanging, with women mostly not being integrated into the farm either socially or financially, typify an outdated farm concept. Such farm families confine themselves to the traditional area of farm production and are unwilling to innovate in the technical and/or environmental field.
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