Small farmer issue remains topical

Many farmers can best add their neighbor's plot. No wonder it's expensive when it comes up for sale. In other words, most farms are on the small side. That's nothing new.

The state commission of 1886 already established that at least on many sandy soils there is 'a disproportion between people and the soil'. A famous 1951 study summed up the problem clearly: The 'small farmers issue' on the sandy soils† The LEI authors Maris, Scheer and Visser still used quotation marks on the cover, but further on, the problem of small farmers is discussed unambiguously.

The average surface area on the sandy soils was then 8 hectares, which was an improvement compared to 6,4 hectares in 1910. 73% of the farms were smaller than 10 hectares. There was talk of hidden unemployment: according to the collective labor agreement, a full-fledged worker still worked 3.200 hours a year at the time, which was barely achieved on the average company. On farms under 3 hectares there was only 1.200 hours of work.

Time for a thorough study
Perhaps even worse was that almost 1 in 4 companies was created by splitting off. Until the end of the 19th century there had not been a large birth surplus, and after that the reclamation of wastelands had offered a solution. But the usable wasteland was running out. And yet many companies had more than 1 successor. Time for a thorough study, then, which was ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Agriculture Foundation, the predecessor of the Landbouwschap and therefore the farmers themselves. A team with first author Adriaan Maris, a farmer's son from West Brabant whom I met in 1981 when he retired as director of the LEI, collected extensive data in 13 municipalities, from Rolde and Zelhem to Venray and Nederweert.

The authors found in their analysis that the yields could be slightly higher. The allotment was not good and the drainage also left a lot to be desired. At the same time, they already saw the problem of drought: "Water supply in dry times is of the utmost importance and will demand all our attention in the future". We've been warned.

Starting point for breeding agriculture
The study is often cited as a starting point for intensive livestock farming (which was then called breeding farming), but that is too simplistic. The authors are critical of it: "It would, of course, be possible to convert farms into pig and chicken farms through the purchase of animal feed. Apart from credit facilities, this solution is probably not economically feasible in connection with the purchase of animal feed and the marketing of the products in Abroad".

So there was little choice but to redefine the problem in a redundancy issue. To prevent further splitting into mini-companies, 67% of the agricultural youth had to leave. Of the 236.000 agricultural professionals, 50.000 were potentially surplus, the study found. Emigration had to be promoted and farmers' sons should not receive an agricultural education, because that made them uneducated for other professions, the authors stated plainly. Some of the municipalities surveyed were located near industrial sites or had guest houses in the summer who were taking a week's holiday. The authors already saw a good change in mentality in the choice of profession there.

German economic miracle
The study was cited for years to come and contributed to structural policy and indirectly to industrial policy. In the years since it was published, it was a good thing that the authors had used the word 'probably' when serving the pigs and chickens, because the German Wirtschaftswunder took off and the scarcity of dollars to buy animal feed on the world market disappeared. Mansholt would pursue a structural policy until the 70s, which provoked a lot of resistance from small farmers who felt threatened in their existence.

Technical development has kept the small-farmers issue up to date. American economists recently calculated that you need to have 500 cows there to earn something and 1.000 for a normal return. The numbers here are much lower, but perhaps double the average number of 100. So the subject remains relevant, but I don't see LNV and the farmers' organizations 'probably' ordering another study like this.

Krijn J. Poppe

Krijn Poppe worked for almost 40 years as an economist at LEI and Wageningen UR and now holds a number of advisory and management positions. For Boerenbusiness he dives into his bookcase and discusses current developments on the basis of studies that have become classic.

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.