Family and non-family succession in the Upper-Austrian farm sector

Abstract

Comprendre la transmission des exploitations agricoles est essentiel pour analyser les changements structurels du secteur agricole. Grâce à des données de recensements apariées de 1980, 1985 et 1990, les décisions de succession des ménages ruraux de Haute-Autriche sont examinées empiriquement en utilisant un logit multinomial. Contrairement aux enquêtes auprès des exploitations qui examinent les projets de succession, le recensement des exploitations permet d'identifier des successions ayant réellement eu lieu. Deux types de successions sont distingués sur la base de la comparaison de l'âge de l'exploitant et de celui des autres membres du ménages de chaque exploitation dans deux recensements consécutifs : les « successions familiales », définies par la transmission de l'exploitation à un enfant de l'exploitant et les « successions non familiales » (dans lesquelles l'exploitation est vendue hors de la famille). Les fermetures d'exploitation sont considérées comme une catégorie supplémentaire dans le modèle. Un impact significativement négatif (positif) de la taille de la ferme et de la diversification des activités agricoles sur la probabilité de fermeture d'exploitation (de transmission) est mis en évidence. La probabilité d'une succession familiale commence par augmenter puis diminue avec l'âge de l'exploitant alors que les probabilités d'une transmission hors de la famille et d'une fermeture d'exploitation augmentent de façon monotone avec l'âge, indiquant que les exploitants qui ne prennent pas leur retraite à temps courent le risque de ne pas trouver de successeur au sein de la famille. La taille de la ferme ainsi que l'éducation et le sexe de l'exploitant semblent également avoir une influence sur les transmissions et les fermetures d'exploitations. Enfin, les exploitants pluriactifs ont une probabilité significativement plus faible de transmettre leur ferme au sein de la famille mais ont une probabilité significativement plus élevée de fermer leur exploitation. Cela suggère qu'un emploi non agricole peut être le premier pas d'une exploitation familiale vers la sortie du secteur agricole. Le choix du modèle, les questions de spécifications et les directions de recherches futures sont également discutés. from 1980, 1985, and 1990 actual succession decisions of Upper-Austrian farm households are examined empirically. Two types of succession are distinguished by inspecting the age of the farm operator and other household members in the consecutive census observations : "family succession" (succession by the farm operator's child) and "non-family succession" (the farm is sold outside the family). Farm exits are considered as an additional category in the model. Several characteristics of the farm and of the farm operator's household are found to influence the succession decision significantly. Model choice and specification issues are discussed. Summary -Using linked census data

Factors influencing succession plan among aged crop farmers in rural communities of Ogun State Nigeria

“…This implies that an increase in farming experience, years of residency, and cash crop farming activities will also increase the intention of aged farmers to have a succession plan. This established that increase in the farming experience as reported by Stiglbauer and Weiss, (2000); Vogel, (2007); Glauben et al (2009) has an increasing effect on a succession plan.…”

Impact of business transfer on economic performance: The case of Italian family farms

“…Therefore we used a proxy to capture the event of succession: we identified an event of succession based on managers' age differences between two consecutive years. The change in manager's age is widely used to identify a succession event both in non-agricultural firms (Bach, 2010;Bach and Serrano-Velarde, 2015;Bates et al, 2000;Colombo et al, 2014) and in the farm sector (Kimhi and Bollman, 1999;Remble et al, 2010;Stiglbauer and Weiss, 2000). Furthermore, documents based on official statistics (Allen and Harris, 2005), as well as expert opinions and direct interviews with farmers in Italy collected by us, support the reliability of age difference to approximate a succession event.…”

“…For example, Zhengfei and Oude Lansink (2006) suggested that there is an adjustment period of newly settled farmers, where they get into debt and invest to expand, maybe impacting negatively farm performance. The presence of a successor on the farm before succession takes place may influence future farm strategies in a positive way and limit this decrease in performance, since younger farmers are generally more oriented toward diversifying farm activities and adopting more sustainable agricultural practices (Sottomayor et al, 2011;Stiglbauer and Weiss, 2000;Suess-Reyes and Fuetsch, 2016;Zagata and Sutherland, 2015). In addition, some actions taken by the retiring farmer before transfer, and aiming at developing the farm and improving performance, can also make the farm more attractive to successors (Cavicchioli et al, 2015;Lobley and Baker, 2012) and ensure its viability (Wheeler et al, 2012).…”

Engagement of new entrants in mountain farming through the lens of generativity: Lack of family farming background and its implications in Alpine Austria and Italy

“…Entering the family farming system McGreevy et al (2019, p. 226) present two fundamental routes into family farming by generational change: via heritage-family farming offspring succeeds immediately or delayed by interim education or occupation outside of agriculture, and via non-heritage-newcomers with specific agricultural education and practice or complete autodidacts without prior farming expertise take over (cf. Korzenszky, 2018;Stiglbauer & Weiss, 2000). Zagata et al (2017, p. 18ff) label successors who have not grown up on a farm as 'new entrants' and thus differentiate them clearly from 'young farmers' who were raised on a family farm, are usually working there already and take over directly.…”

“…(2019, p. 226) present two fundamental routes into family farming by generational change: via heritage—family farming offspring succeeds immediately or delayed by interim education or occupation outside of agriculture, and via non‐heritage—newcomers with specific agricultural education and practice or complete autodidacts without prior farming expertise take over (cf. Korzenszky, 2018; Stiglbauer & Weiss, 2000). Zagata et al.…”