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This research aims to identify the specific characteristics of small farms in developed countries and the factors that influence their survival and growth. Using the case of France, we employ statistical and econometric analysis of data from the Farm Structure Survey ("N" = 70,000) for the period 2000-2007. The principal findings suggest that small farms are no more likely than other farms to employ "alternative" strategies to the predominant model of increasing farm size, nor are they more likely to diversify on-farm activities or operate under quality-labeled production systems, with the notable exception of organic agriculture. However, where small farms do adopt or practice these activities, they are seen to have a favorable effect in ensuring their survival and growth. In contrast, we are unable to conclude that pluriactivity of farm households has a positive impact on the survival of small enterprises. The effect of geographical location on small farms is largely expressed in their concentration in mountainous or disadvantaged regions. Overall, the trajectory of small farms is marked by farm exit, principally as the result of farmers retiring at the end of their careers. The small farm sector is also revitalized by both larger farms declining and thus being reclassified as small farms, as well as the progressive entry into agriculture of small farm holders whose income was previously derived largely off-farm. Copyright (c) 2009 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

The term ‘governance’ is used differently in different literatures. This paper relates the uses of the term and the theoretical concepts to which it is attached in three bodies of literature – the new institutional economics, a geographic literature exploring spatial embeddedness, and the regulation approach. Each adopts a different theoretical point of entry and highlights a particular sphere of governance, centred on the enterprise, people in place and the state respectively. We argue that they can be related, along with the myriad mechanisms of governance that operate within them, to provide a meaningful understanding of the industry and its governance. Doing so generates an approach to sectoral analysis that highlights ‘the industry’ as an object of government and reveals industry governance and the constitution of the industry to be mutually constitutive processes. The work is inspired by our current research on the New Zealand and European wine filières.

[fre] Les filières d'appellation d'origine relèvent d'un même cadre juridique et reposent toutes sur une notion commune de qualité spécifique des produits liée à un territoire. Elles ne constituent pas pour autant un ensemble économique homogène. Ce texte apporte une contribution à la compréhension de la diversité économique de ces filières en analysant leurs modalités d'organisation sous trois aspects: celui des stratégies individuelles des firmes, dans lequel on met l'accent sur la diversité des modèles d'entreprises; celui des formes de coordination, qui sont révélatrices de différentes stratégies collectives des firmes engagées dans ces organisations; enfin celui de la dimension territoriale de ces systèmes productifs localisés, qui met en évidence, entre autres, un balancement entre formes de gouvernance sectorielle et territoriale. [eng] Firms, governance and territoriality: an economic review of the diversity of the 'filieres d'appellation d'origine' - The 'filières d'appellation d'origine'all have a similar legal foundation and rely on the same notion of products possessing specific qualities that are related to territory. But, they are not a homogeneous group. This paper contributes to the understanding of the economic diversity of these supply chains by analysing three aspects of their organisation - the strategies of the individual firms (where we emphasise the models of enterprises); the different forms of coordination, that are indicative of the different collective strategies of the firms involved; and thirdly the territorial dimension of these localised systems of production where we find a tension between sectoral and territorial forms of governance.