Regional Specialisation in the Agricultural Industry

Abstract

Data for Scotland are used to show how some farm types are becoming locationally more dispersed while others become more localised in those regions with which they have a traditional association. The process leading to a more specialised regional farm type structure is complex and varies in character from region to region. The differential movement into and out of the production of certain products, particularly beef, lies at the centre of the process. The regional specialisation of production has implications for the economic stability of farm economies and the environment.

The Spatial Restructuring of Farm Types in the English Counties, 1976–1985

“…This problem determined 1976 as the starting date for the present investigation; it ends with the latest data available. Similar analyses of farm-type change, but not in relation to farm size, have been conducted for the earlier 1965-1973 period (Bowler 1981a(Bowler , 1982 providing useful comparative material, albeit for English and Welsh counties taken together. The more recent 1976-1985 study period is also valuable in so far as it permits some examination of the effect of the EC'S Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on structural change in English agriculture, It is acknowledged that the data source (Agricultural Census) is not without its problems (see Clark 1982;Clark et al 1983) and that measuring farm size in terms of area can be questioned (Ilbery 1985).…”

“…Initially, 'structure' was interpreted in terms of the allocation of land to various uses (land-use structure) and later to farm sizes ; under the latter interpretation (farm-size structure), the process of farm amalgamation has been of central importance (Clark 1979;Todd 1979;King & Burton 1983). More recently, 'structure' has been interpreted in terms of the enterprises comprising individual farm businesses and the relative importance of different farm types in a region (Bowler 1981a(Bowler , 1982. Even so, farm-type structure has not been greatly studied despite the existence of suitable data in many countries, nor has there been any attempt to examine the regional restructuring of farm types in relation to changes in farm size.…”

Agricultural Change on the West Midlands' Urban Fringe

“…In contrast, the pattern of mixed farming has become noticeably more concentrated on Birmingham's urban fringe, with the COL rising from 0.32 to 0.70. This is not altogether surprising for Bowler (1981a) has shown that farm types experiencing decline tend to become spatially more concentrated, usually in traditional areas.…”

“…Farming has become more modernised (Healey & Ilbery 1985), characterised by fewer, larger and more capital-intensive farms, increasing farm fragmentation and an intensification and specialisation of production. Most countries of the Western World have experienced elements of this change, with many farm types becoming more regionally specialised (Bowler 1981a(Bowler , 1982(Bowler , 1986. Cropping and livestock enterprises are increasing their concentration in those areas in which they have a traditional association; in the United Kingdom, for example, this has heightened the division between the pastoral West and arable East.…”

A Regional Analysis of Enterprise Substitution in Irish Agriculture in the context of a changing Common Agricultural Policy

“…The sources of the differential patterns of change between the regions in the number of livestock units can be examined further using the technique of shift and share analysis, (Higgins, 1978;Bowler, 1981), which allows for the disaggregation of the total change in the number of livestock units in each region into three components: (a) anational component giving the change that would have occurred if the aggregates for all livestock categories in each region changed at the same rate, assuming the area of land devoted to livestock Enterprise substitution in Irish Agriculture Table 9: Localisation coefficients by region for major fanning enterprises, 1970,1980 and 1989 remained unchanged, (b) a structural component reflecting the change due to the mix of livestock categories in the region and the trends in each category in relation to overall national trends, and (c) a competitive component giving the change that can be attributed to specific regional factors which result in deviations from the overall trend for each livestock category. These components are usually referred to as the Regional share (R), the Proportional shift (P) and the Differential shift (R) respectively.…”