Book of Abstract (incl. addendum) - IFSA symposium 2012

Workshop 1.3 Understanding agricultural structural changes and their impacts, to support
inclusive policy dialogue and formulation
of smallholders into the global economy, but the broader agricultural transformations and structural
change.
The emergence of “firm” agriculture in France: Characteristics and
coexistence with family farms?
G. Nguyen and F. Purseigle
University of Toulouse, France
Nguyen@ensat.fr
Up to now, French agricultural production is mainly based on family farming systems. The Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP), at its creation in the 1950s, set up indeed the development of family
farming systems to achieve food self-sufficiency as a clear policy objective. Fifty years later, in year
2000, the CAP reform promoted the concept of multifunctionality, with the aim to defend a certain
model of agricultural development where the role of family farms was reinforced. Despite this
apparently strong policy support, the model of family farming appears not to be universal nowadays.
Field surveys of farming systems conducted within our “Agrifirm” research project in different regions
of France, as well as in-depth interviews with stakeholders of the agricultural sector, report evidences
of the emergence of new forms of agricultural production, which appear to be very different from the
model of family farming. The main objectives of our communication are, first, to present an
interdisciplinary conceptual framework we have elaborated in order to better characterize new forms of
social and economic organizations of agricultural production, and second, to present the preliminary
results of our regional case studies. We focus on the study of the rice farming systems in the Camargue
region, located in the South-East of France, where we have found very diverse forms of new
organizations associated with “firm” agriculture (agricultural service-supply enterprises, corporate
farms, “family capitalism” farms, etc.). A typology is presented based on several major organizational
and functional criteria, such as a complex form of governance with multiple logics, a new relationship
to markets and to resources, a new organisation of labour. Finally, we discuss the determinants of the
emergence of these new forms and the dynamics of the coexistence of these new forms with the more
traditional family farms. We draw the hypothesis that the colonisation history of the Camargue region,
its natural and geographical characteristics and the agricultural policies are among the major
determinants. Despite the fact that the Camargue presents some very specific characteristics, the
pattern of farming systems observed there could be found in other regions of France. This last
observation brings us to the second hypothesis that the emergence of “firm” agriculture is a more
general phenomenon, associated with the transformation of French agriculture in the context of
globalization.
Rural Transformation and Structural Change: insights from Developing
Countries facing Globalization
Sandrine Freguin-Gresh, Eric White and Bruno Losch
CIRAD, South Africa
Sandrine.Freguin@up.ac.za
Agriculture has a key role in development and poverty reduction. But beyond its role in producing
food, it should also generate activities, income, and employment to facilitate rural transformation and
structural change. This is particularly the case for developing countries facing the challenges of
incipient economic transitions and quickly evolving demographic context characterized by growing
cohorts of new labor market entrants. While a larger labor force offers countries new opportunities for
growth related to the “demographic dividend,” it also could pose socio-political risks if investments
and public policies are inappropriate to support the processes underway.
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