Farm Diversification in a Dairying Region: The exemple of Sud Manche, Western France

• Annabelle Boulay ^[1] ; Guy M. Robinson ^[2]
  1. [1] Institute of Food Research

     Institute of Food Research

     Norwich District, Reino Unido

     
  2. [2] Kingston University

     Kingston University

     Kingston upon Thames, Reino Unido

     
• Localización: New ruralities and sustainable use of territory: proceeding of the 16th Colloquium of the Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems of the International Geographical Union (IGU), Jaca-Saragossa-Teruel (Spain), August 2008 / coord. por Luisa María Frutos Mejías, Eugenio Antonio Climent López, Enrique Ruiz Budría, Ana Maria S M Bicalho, Lucette Laurens; Unión Geográfica Internacional (aut.), 2009, ISBN 978-84-92774-55-5, págs. 519-536
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Europe-wide research on farm diversification during the 1990s reported a growth in the number of farms pursuing various other gainful opportunities (OGAs) both on- and off-farm as a means of sustaining incomes in the face of the persistent cost-price squeeze. This research noted geographical variations in the type and extent of diversification, observing that it tended to be least pronounced in dairying regions, largely because of the labour intensive nature of dairy farming allied to the small-scale family nature of many dairying operations. This paper reports the findings of research on farm diversification in one of the principal European dairying regions, Normandy France, looking at changes occurring over a twenty- year period since the introduction of milk quotas in 1984. The research is based on a survey of 180 farms in the département of Sud Manche, at the southern end of the Cherbourg peninsula. Here, in common with most other European dairying regions, the number of dairy farms has substantially declined in recent decades, leaving an industry in which around three- quarters of the surviving farms have embraced some form of diversified activity. The nature of these activities is discussed in terms of the competing influences of tradition and innovation, the norms of the farming community and the impress of external (globalising) forces. Clear distinctions are drawn between the pursuit of structural, agricultural and enterprise diversification, with the changing nature of farm business management linked to recent conceptions of multifunctionality.The paper records the growth of mixed dairy and beef enterprises, and more limited developments of specialist production of niche market quality products (e.g. pré-salés lamb) and farm-based tourism. These developments are set in a broader context of the expanding num- recognisable pathways taken by farm households in order to survive on the land.