: The Situation of Small Family Farms in the European Union

Burgerné Gimes, Anna

Keywords: European Union, small farms, area, production, labour, consumption, sale

There are a great number of small farms in the European Union (EU) Member States. Their problems have been discussed in many economic and sociological studies. The aim of this study is to investigate and analyse the present situation of small farms in EU Member States based on some important characteristics. Most small farms can be found in Southern Europe and in the recently accessed Central-Eastern European countries; however, their numbers are declining everywhere as they are replaced by larger farms. In spite of the large numbers of such farms, their shares of the agricultural area are small. These shares are somewhat greater in the South European and recently accessed EU Member States, particularly in the poorest ones. By contrast they generally occupy small fractions of the total agricultural area in the most developed Western European countries. However, a great number of people are working on small farms, although their numbers in terms of annual work units, (i.e. converting them into full time annual work) are much smaller, often less than half of the original numbers. Their shares in the national employment statistics, as a rule, are small as well, however they are somewhat larger than the average in some Southern and poorer EU Member States. Farms which are larger than 100 ha and produce high production values occupy the greater part of the agricultural area of most countries. They employ most of the full-time workers. The number of small farms is high, however their productivity, as a rule, is low.

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