Subsistence Farming in Central and Eastern Europe : Empirical Evidence from Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania

Abstract

Present-day Central and East European agriculture is characterized by a high incidence of small-scale farmers who are not producing for the market. This article uses household-level data from comparative farm surveys in Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania to analyze the extent of subsistence farming and to investigate which farm household characteristics and endowments influence commercialization of agricultural produce.Present-day Central and East European agriculture is characterized by a bimodal farm structure with a very large number of small-scale individual farms and a small number of large farms organized in a corporate or cooperative way. More than ten years after the transition began, markets have not yet fully developed, and market-based middle-sized farms are rare (Sarris, Doucha, and Mathijs 1999). Many small-scale farmers produce only for their own con-

Semi-Subsistence Farming: An Elusive Concept Posing Thorny Policy Questions

“…Research on Central and Eastern Europe has developed since this phenomenon became apparent following the transformations in the 1990s (e.g. Kostov and Lingard, 2002, 2004; Abele and Frohberg, 2003; Mathijs and Noev, 2004; Petrovici and Gorton, 2005; Davidova et al. , 2009; Fritzsch et al.…”

“…3 3 Mathijs and Noev (2004) point out a further difficulty in that subsistence can be defined not only as a share of self‐consumed output but also as a share of food consumption covered by own production. However, the latter could be a misleading indicator as fully fledged commercial farms can still cover a substantial part of food consumption of farm households (Wharton, 1969; Davidova et al.…”

A Quantile Regression Analysis of the Effect of Farmers’ Attitudes and Perceptions on Market Participation

“…The analysis of the characteristics of subsistence and semi‐subsistence farming in Europe has become more prominent due to the two ‘Eastern’ enlargements of the European Union (EU) in 2004 and 2007. Several theoretical and empirical studies have been carried out in relation to semi‐subsistence farming in different European countries (Kostov and Lingard, 2002, 2004; Mathijs and Noev, 2004; Petrovici and Gorton, 2005; Latruffe et al. , 2008; Davidova et al.…”

Will They Stay or Will They Go? Simulating the Dynamics of Single‐Holder Farms in a Dualistic Farm Structure in Slovakia

“…Farm structures in many Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) are dualistic. A farm structure is perceived as dualistic when many smaller farms operate parallel to a few (very) large farms (Sarris et al 1999; Lerman et al 2004; Mathijs and Noev 2004). The majority of small farms are single‐holder farms (SF) with the operator being the key person (Eurostat 2007).…”