Stefano Grando University of Pisa, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment

1. Pisa – 12 July 2019 International Master of Science in Rural Development The IMRD Intensive Programme in Pisa • Frameworks and categories to analyse small farms' connections and outcomes in a system perspective Stefano Grando • University of Pisa, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment • Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food, forestry and Tourism Policies

2. frameworks and categories • small farms • connections and outcomes • a system perspective

3. Territories, Innovation, Rural transitions SMALL FARMS Small farms, economic viability and socio-cultural suitability Farm and household in relation to food systems Small farms sustainable tourism and territorial valorisation Opportunities for a sustainable agro-tourism sector Small farms and the environment Farms’ impact on biodiversity and agroecosystem services Small farms and political agenda Observation of enabling conditions, supporting and hindering factors

4. 1. Small farms’ definitions: farm, household and decision-making process 2. The multi-dimensional environment influencing farms’ strategies 3. Food system conceptualization 4. Small farms’ strategies, performances, contributions to rural development

5. Two European Research Projects (Horizon 2020)

6. 1. Whatis a «small» farm? Size, household and the decision-making process

7. What is a “small” farm Size-based criteria. Farm “size” can be seen from two (main) perspectives: • structural size, related to resource endowment (land, capital, labour) • economic size, related to the level of activities generated with farm resources • a) Structuralsize: • n° of acreage/hectares (e.g. under 5 hectares); n° of animals; • n° of people working/full-time equivalents; • amount of commodities produced. • b) Economicsize: • gross revenue, turnover or sales; • n° of people fed by the farm directly or from its income; • ratio of business size to household size.

8. Small/Family farms identification Size-based criteria The observation of the structural and the economic size leads to different classifications. Farms with a rich endowment of land and capital can be managed extensively and yield limited turnover, and small plots of land can be intensively worked so to give relatively high economic performance. Products’ value added and markets’ access also make a difference between farms of similar structural size. Thresholds are context-specificbut common thresholds can bepreferableforresearch or politicalconcerns

9. Small/Family farms identification. The relation between «farm» as a business and «household» isrelevant to identify a farm as a «small» farm (or to analyse a farm according to its «smallness»). Centrality of farm-household relations • Importance of familiar traditions. • Business objectives, participation to farm's activities and income flows. • Importance of off-farms’ incomes for the household • The balance between self-provisioning and market

10. Most of small farms, but not all, are family farms, and also many large farms are family owned.

11. Flows of income and sources of investment in an agricultural smallholding (HLPE 2013)

12. Focus on family farms: • The Agricultural Household Model (AHM, Singh and Subramanian, 1986; Taylor and Adelman, 2003) . • Family farming strategies are not only aimed at business-related objectives, but at a more complex range of objectives, including family welfare. • Production and consumption decisions cannot be seen separately when they are attributed to the same entity and family farm business outcomes have to be assessed also, if not mainly, in relation to household's welfare. • Examples of this interplay include for example: • how to share and organize the work, • the trade-off between self-production and market purchase of some goods, • the choice between in-farm and off-farm employment.

13. Farms activate flows of labour, information and money. SFs are often characterized by the need to achieve a critical mass to overcome the limits of small scale and profit of synergies, access good markets, obtain fair conditions of input supply. Some farms may establish specialized and exclusive connections, such as in the case of monocultures for global value chains; others tend to diversify their connections to reduce the risks. The relational configurations farmers develop with other farms and actors shape the properties of the food systems. Both market and extra-market relations should be considered. The informal and extra-market exchanges can be particularly relevant in the case of the subsistence farming. The development of local-based food networks often hinges on the activism of SFs which shape cooperative arrangements in the aim/need to overcome their limits and to achieve greater autonomy.

14. Access and use of resources: • the limited production scale makes it impossible to activate scale economies at the farm level; • Some activities act as a bottleneck: processing plants, administration costs, etc.; • certain resources and assets (workforce, machinery) are required only in peak periods, which makes it difficult to employ them efficiently. • Access to to markets: • the output size does not allow to establish a relationship with retailers (in relation to retailers’ size, retailers’ requirements on the products, geographical distance); • the costs of certification are disproportionally high in relation to the size of the output.

15. Empirically -grounded identification of small farms' connections to the food system

16. 2. The multi-dimensionalenvironmentinfluencing (and influenced by) farms’ strategies

17. Small farms decision-making process and strategies

18. External conditions (building on Porter, 1998) Regulation & Policy Factors Demand Finance & Risk Technological Farmers Socio-demographic Socio- institutional Ecological

19. Externalconditions Perceivedconditions (sociallyconstructed)

20. Conditions vary with the political-geographical level at which they are defined. Some are relevant to the local level, others act at a national or even global scale. • Conditions change over time. Some can be regarded as "stable" conditions, which define the current context of action, but in some cases what influences producers' choices is conditions’ change (like a CAP reform, or global warming).

21. Different conditions, differentinfluence… • Conditions perceived as stable for the time range relevant for the decision-making process; • Conditions expected to change according to some more or less predictable trends • Conditions expected to change unpredictably • Environment in whichdecisions are taken • Opportunities to grasp, adverse trends to anticipate, mitigate, adapt to • Need for protection from risks

22. 3. Small farms and the food system

23. (HLPE 2013)

24. (Modified from Ericksen (2008/a)

25. The missingactor…Geography

26. The initial representation Link to Conventions’ Theory

27. The mixed food chain-territorial mixed representation Regional systems are integrated in geographically wider systems Within a region there are different food networks. They can establish synergies and/or compete for resources, customers etc. Actors can have multiple engagements, and participate in multiple configurations.

28. The territorialised/regional approach is useful in various regards: • it represents a manageable scale at which to do empirical research, ensuring some standardisation in terms of scale of analysis • many system conditions and processes, that depend on bio-physical and social characteristics, have a territorial variation pattern • it can focus on administrative levels for which statistics are available and policies are set • it is possible to highlight interrelations between rural and urban areas • it sets boundaries within which food production or consumption can be considered

29. 4. Small farms’ strategies, performances, contributiontoruraldevelopment

30. Conditions, strategies, performances

31. Several typologies of strategies have been suggested in the literature. These include those named as "adaptation", "survival", "adjustment" and "development" strategies Agro-industrialcompetitiveness The first cluster is focused on three levels of innovation: technology, marketing and finance. All of these levels are relevant also for other types of strategies, but are here seen in a classic industrial competition perspective. Blurring farm borders In some contexts producers opt for a more flexible or efficient organisation of resources by focusing on some activities and externalising others, or by establishing strategic partnerships and networks. Ruraldevelopment A range of strategies, often implemented in synergy with other farms, are centred on the re-grounding of farming and on the re-valorisation of small scale and proximity. These strategies range from the re-discovery of abandoned varieties to the adoption of environmentally friendly methods, to the provision of multifunctional services. Risk management The strategies to cope with production, business, productive, and ecological risks are mainly based on contracts and legal arrangements through which risks can be shared among partners, or partially or completelyshifted to others. Politicalsupport Many farms are highly influenced, if not fully dependent, on public support. Not only as it influences farms' capability to invest and to cope with risks but also because it can be the dominant income source. In these cases this reliance becomes a true strategy. Coping with farmingdecline A final set of strategies describes all those situations in which a farm "merely" copes with the decline of its activity, finding ways in which the household can survive, or even improve its livelihood standards.

32. Elements of farms' strategies Agro-industrialcompetitiveness Blurring farm borders Ruraldevelopment Copingwithfarmingdecline Politicalsupport Risk management

33. Elements of farms' strategies

34. Strategies range from the more farm- and farming- oriented, to others that involve off-farm external jobs, part-time farming) or extra-farming leasing of buildings) activities. • Strategies can be aimed at avoiding or limiting the effects of harmful changes but also to profit of opportunities. • Strategies can be mutually exclusive (for ex. the choice between intensification and low-intensity farming), but, in most of the cases a producer may adopt more than one strategy simultaneously. • Some strategies can be implemented by a single farm; others are collective strategies (for ex. collective lobbying or the creation of a territorial brand). The suitability of a strategy may depend on the presence of other producers willing to cooperate in that particular action.

35. A new look at small farms' connections to the food system

36. Performances / Outcomes (hereexpressed in positive terms)

37. Conditions, strategies, performances / outcomes

38. CONDITIONS Regulation & Policy Socio-institutional STRATEGIES PERFORMANCES (and UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES) Socio-demographic Factors Demand Finance & Risk Technological Ecological