Group farming in France

Why do some regions have more cooperative ventures than others

Bibliographic Data

ID4139946
AuthorsBina Agarwal (0000-0002-6026-6877, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, corresponding author), Bruno Dorin (0000-0002-8738-8057, CIRAD, UMR CIRED, Montpellier, France)
Year2019
Volume51
Issue3
Pages781-804
Publication date2019-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0308518x18802311
OpenAlexW2900639179
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited24

The global debate on food security and the kinds of farming systems that could prove economically and ecologically sustainable has focused overwhelmingly on small family farms versus large commercial farms, with little attention being given to alternative models based on farmer cooperation. France offers a significant but under-researched and internationally little-recognized model of group farming - the GAEC ( Groupement Agricole d'Exploitation en Commun) - based on farmers pooling land, labour and capital. This model is of considerable contemporary interest for both France and other countries. Catalysed by a 1962 law, GAECs accounted for 7.6% of farms and 15% of agricultural adult work units in 2010, but their incidence varied greatly across regions. Using data from the French agricultural census and other sources, this paper identifies the factors - economic, ecological, social and demographic - underlying this regionally uneven development of GAECs (and comparatively of EARLs - Exploitations Agricoles à Responsabilité Limitée - another type of group farm introduced in 1985). Regions with a higher incidence of group farms are found to be those that were historically dominated by middle-sized farms, had a local ecology favouring labour-intensive animal breeding, especially pastures, a higher proportion of agricultural graduates, greater economic equality and social institutions that promote community cohesion, among other factors. These results illuminate not only the conditions favourable to the emergence of group farming in France, but also the conditions under which such farmer cooperation could take root in other (including developing) countries, subject to context-specific modifications of the French model

Agriculture · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Pooling · Agricultural Innovations and Practices · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development

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