Multiple jobholding farmers in agricultural policy

Abstract

The attitudes of public authorities as regards multiple jobholding farmers are various, and sometimes opposite.

A study of multiple jobholding in farming, conducted by OECD for approximately 15 of its member countries, provided the author with evidence to verify the following hypothesis: the differences and changes in the way governments consider multiple jobholding are explained in reference to their own economic policy, this policy being determined by specific natural and socio-economical conditions. The countries examined can be classified as follows:

• 1. Countries in which the attitude towards part-time farming has been constant for 20 years, either it was indifferent (USA), unfavourable (the Netherlands) or favourable (Austria, Switzerland, Norway).

  The absence of important land-holding conflicts allow the USA to remain neutral. On the contrary, the very high density of population in the Netherlands makes their government favour, as much as possible, the use of arable land by full-time farmers. In the last three countries, natural conditions (mountains, long winters) enable farmers to be available for seasonal jobs, particularly in the sector of tourism which is fundamental to their external trade, while the search for a maximal food self-sufficiency induces the government to support all types of farming (Switzerland).

• 2. Countries in which the attitude towards part-time farming has changed, for example from neutrality to an active integration (FR Germany, Japan) or from reservation to a conditional recognition (France). In the first example, the pressure on land, as well as the concern for preserving rural landscapes, prompted the German government to consider multiple jobholding as a key element of agricultural policy. In France, where strong oppositions to multiple jobholding farmers continues to be expressed, the government concedes that, in mountainous regions, multiple jobholders have a beneficent role especially through their management of land.