Factors Affecting the Use of Organic Seed by Organic Farmers in Europe

Abstract

The new European Organic Regulation 2018/848 has announced the phasing out of derogations for the use of untreated non-organic seed by 2036. However, the use of organic seed by organic farmers is currently limited. This paper aims to identify the factors affecting the use of organic seed. It is based on data collected from 749 organic farmers in 20 European countries, by conducting an online survey and using a network sampling. Results of the descriptive statistics and linear mixed models indicate that: (1) the situation of organic seed use is not consistent across geographical regions and crop sectors; (2) the use of organic seed is higher on farms selling directly to consumers than on those selling to supermarkets; (3) larger and more recently converted farms use less organic seed than established organic farms. In the second part of the paper, we analyse farmers’ attitudes towards organic seed use. The structural equation model (SEM) suggests that the highest contribution to explaining intention to use organic seed comes from social norms, i.e., farmers’ perception of societal expectations, particularly from the consumer and the organic certifier. Such expectations, if communicated in the public and political discourse, could stimulate the use of organic seed.

Can the Market Deliver 100% Organic Seed and Varieties in Europe?

“…Data were collected in 2018 and 2019 from 749 organic farmers in 20 countries in four regions in Europe: Centre (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland); East (Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia), North (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, United Kingdom) and South (Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain). Further details on the survey approach, the questionnaire and sample characteristics are presented by Orsini et al in 2020 [10,11].…”

“…Another important result of the survey is that 'social norm' is a major factor in organic farmers' use of organic seed. It is possible that once organic seed use has diffused to the majority of farmers, further uptake would be accelerated [10,11].…”

Physical and physiological qualities and productivity of corn seeds fertilized with poultry waste

“…Generally, family farmers have low technological levels and are the largest organic producers. The use of more accessible and cheaper inputs, such as poultry waste, is more feasible for these small producers (ORSINI et al, 2020).…”

Autonome Feldroboter in der Landwirtschaft: Akzeptanz und Nutzungsbereitschaft

“…A certain social pressure on farmers in Europe, especially in Germany, results from the public debate on modern production methods in agriculture. The often emotionally charged conflict between economically driven, conventional production methods (e.g., the use of pesticides) and environmentally oriented demands from society are a burden on many farmers influencing them in their strategic decisions (MZOUGHI, 2011;ORSINI et al, 2020;SCHAAK and MUßHOFF, 2018;. Farmers tend to be particularly affected by this, as they are considered important members of rural communities and are influenced in their adoption behavior by social norms (MARTÍNEZ-GARCÍA et al, 2013).…”

“…Distribution channels included the email lists of the regional offices of the German Farmers' Association, published lists of German apprenticeship farms, social media websites of relevant agricultural magazines, an interview with f3 magazine, and private contacts within the agricultural community (network sampling approach). This approach is not uncommon in agriculture (e.g., ORSINI et al, 2020) but means that the results must be interpreted with caution due to incomplete representativeness. In order to prevent a misunderstanding of the questions, the survey was pre-tested for two weeks by experts from agri-economics research and farmers using the software Unipark (Globalpark AG).…”