Socio-Economic Determinants of Small Family Farms’ Resilience in Selected Central and Eastern European Countries

Abstract

We investigated the resilience of small-scale family farms because of the contemporary importance of both the farms’ resilience and the role of these farms in five countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The authors addressed a research gap concerning cross-sectional research on the resilience of farms by combining determinants from various fields. Thus, the primary goal of this article was to identify microeconomic and political factors and links to markets that affect the resilience of small-scale family farms in Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Serbia. Using a database of over 3500 farms, the resilience of the farms was calculated, and then the impact of selected factors on that resilience was determined. The research showed that the production scale was the key determinant of the resilience of farms. To achieve higher benefits, increasing the production should be combined with strengthening the market integration of agricultural producers. The position of the producer in the food supply chain determined the income situation of the farm (economic stability). This shaped the quality of life of the family members (social stability). Identifying the effects of those dependencies may provide recommendations for the policy of supporting small-scale family farms in the analysed countries.

Farming Resilience: From Maintaining States towards Shaping Transformative Change Processes

“…The focus is thus on observable facts, captured through measurement, statistics, surveys. Some studies have focused on the resilience of agroecosystems (e.g., [55,56]); others have focused on farm management, using large data sets, e.g., from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (e.g., [57]) or from surveys (e.g., [58,59]); yet others have integrated the analysis of quantitative data and participatory assessments (e.g., [60,61]). Such studies have explored the relationships between the structural features of farms (e.g., type and size) and variables reflecting the farmer's agency (e.g., diversification, farm expansion, participation in agri-environmental programs), looking for correlations with some indicator of farm resilience.…”

Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency: Example of Small- and Medium-Sized Family Farms in Selected European Countries

“…In this method, weights are determined based on standard deviations and correlations between variables. A characteristic feature of this method is that relatively higher weights are assigned to characteristics that have a high coefficient of variation and a low correlation with other characteristics [30]. Variable weights were determined according to the following formulas:…”

Eco-Efficiency and Human Capital Efficiency on the Example of Small and Medium-Sized Family Farms in the Selected European Countries

“…In the TOPSIS-CRITIC method, weights are determined on the basis of standard deviations and correlations between variables. A characteristic feature of this method is that relatively higher weights are assigned to characteristics that have a high coefficient of variation while having a low correlation with other characteristics [30]. Variable weights were determined according to the following formulas: where: cj -a measure of the information capacity of feature j, sj(z) -standard deviation calculated from the normalised values of the feature j, rij -correlation coefficient between features j and k.…”