Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in ABSTRACT:Factor and cluster analysis are used to analyse the attitudes and perceptions of agricultural households in five EU New Member States towards farming, commercialisation, and barriers to and drivers for an increased integration in agricultural markets. The contribution of unsold output to the total household income is valued. A stepwise linear regression is employed to detect important variables explaining the degree of agricultural market integration of farm households. The analysis indicates that subsistence farming is of utmost importance for the rural poor, and particularly in Bulgaria and Romania. The proportion of consumption from own production, manual cultivation techniques and distance to an urban centre negatively affect output sales. Rural development policies targeted at rural physical and market infrastructure might relieve some of these constraints. KEYWORDS: IntroductionTwenty years after the start of the economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe, small scale subsistence and semi-subsistence farms are still wide-spread. The resilience of these farms has raised a heated debate about their role and future, particularly in relation to the EU membership, as producers in the New Member States (NMS) have to compete in the single EU market.In the literature, there is no agreement about the role and prospects of subsistence farming. One school of thought treats subsistence and semi-subsistence farms in Europe as an unwanted phenomenon and an impediment to rural growth. Subsistence farming has been associated with a traditional technology, inefficiency, and a use of scarce resources which could have been allocated to a more efficient use (Kostov and Lingard, 2004). Often, subsistence has also been related to poverty (Mathijs and Noev, 2004).However, subsistence farming could be considered as an important survival strategy, not only in low but also in middle income countries, during periods of drastic economic reform and economic recession. Brüntrup and Heidhues (2002) argue that subsistence farming is a way for people to survive under difficult and risky conditions, and to cope with high transaction costs in fragile economies.In the economic literature the persistence of subsistence farming has been explained by market failure and particularly high transaction costs. As different farm households face different transaction costs, the evidence is that subsistence and commercial farms co-exist (e.g. Key et a...

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For selected regions of five EU Member States (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia), this paper examines the determinants of the commercialisation of (semi)subsistence farms. While subsistence farming has become an important feature of the EU, there is a lack of evidence on its spatial distribution, importance and reasons for persistence. The analysis utilises cross-regional survey data and qualitative interviews. Results suggest the absence of a subsistence poverty trap driven by either farmer perceptions or transactions costs although capital endowment appears to play a significant part. On the other hand the degree of market engagement depends on access costs, which vary with location, households' productive assets, specialisation, and risk propensity. Implications for land use policy are discussed.

The aim of this study was to establish the inter-rater reliability of the Functional Balance test for Geriatric patients (FBG) and concurrent validity between the FBG and the Berg balance scale, and to present reference values for the FBG. Patients (n = 22) aged between 66 and 87 years with varying diagnoses and elderly subjects without balance problems (n = 145) were assessed. The inter-rater reliability, calculated with intraclass correlation (ICC 2.1 ) for FBG total was 0.99. Cohen's kappa coefficient (κ) varied between 0.83 and 0.94 for the four items in the FBG. The correlation between the total scores for FBG and the Berg balance scale, calculated with Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (r s ) had a correlation of 0.96. The reference value for FBG total was 24 for men and woman aged 65-69 years, 23 for men and woman aged 70-79 years, 22 for men 80 years and older, and 21 for woman 80 years or older.

Bulgaria has a long tradition of smallholder farming, predominantly producing for self-consumption. As a result of land reform and farm restructuring, many rural households received agricultural land. Some developed commercial farms but most households stayed as subsistence farmers and used their small pieces of land to produce for self-consumption and market the excess output to top up their non-farm incomes or meagre pensions. They had little capital and insecure access to markets. The paper employs semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 10 smallholders for obtaining detailed information about individuals’ behaviour and exploring issues in greater detail. In particular, the study looks at the drivers of the diverse strategies pursued by smallholder farms, their importance for household food security and incomes, and the prospects of smallholder farms in the future, especially the possibilities for productivity increases. The Bulgarian study on contemporary smallholder farms shows that subsistence production constitutes a valuable safety net for households with low incomes, and therefore, it acts as an extension of the limited social security system of the country. Despite all the challenges faced by smallholders, half of the interviewed households succeeded to commercialise and increase marketable surplus. Policies for increased commercialisation of smallholder farms and a structural change in agriculture should address, besides market factors, the socioeconomic aspects which contribute to the persistence of subsistence farming. Furthermore, when prioritising different policies, the chosen livelihood strategies of the households should be taken into account.