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International audience; The PPILOW project aims to co-construct innovations to improve Poultry and Pig Welfare in Low-input outdoor and Organic farming systems through a multi-actor approach. PPILOW implements a participatory approach for proposing and studying welfare-improvement levers. It will provide a combination of practical solutions that can be applied at a pan-European level with specific adjustments depending on citizen’s expectations and the target market. The multi-actor approach consists in involving end-users including farmers, breeding companies, feed producers, consumer associations, retailers, advisers, processors, and scientists in National Practitioner Groups (NPG) in six participating countries. PPILOW partners facilitate the groups by connecting NPG at European level, transferring scientific information, interacting with partners engaged in animal experiments, and co-creating innovations rising from NPG-specific demands. They co-build with PPILOW partners welfare self-assessment tools (development of the PIGLOW app for pigs and refinement of the EBENE® app for poultry), and innovative breeding, feeding, and rearing strategies and techniques to improve the welfare of animals. They co-design protocols, test innovations on farm, and disseminate the results. In turn, they receive insights on methods and scientific results, and inputs from other NPG reinforcing the value of the expected outcomes. Approaches focus on avoiding physical damage and the elimination of layer male chicks, on reducing boar taint of intact male pigs, promoting positive behaviours, animal health, and robustness through field studies with pigs and poultry. Multicriteria analyses of the most effective levers of welfare improvement will be performed to evaluate their economic, social, and environmental impacts based on the ‘One Welfare’ concept; economic and business models will also be developed. To ensure the rapid uptake of the project results by end-users, the close involvement of PPILOW’s NPG throughout the EU will ensure disseminationactivities and the facilitation of change. The PPILOW project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement N°816172. www.ppilow.eu.

International audience

International audience

Animal welfare is an essential part of the sustainability of animal production. While low-input farming, such as organic animal production, is often considered animal-friendly, several ways to enhance animal welfare in low-input animal production exist. However, currently there is little information on how farmers and other supply chain actors view different innovations and tools which may influence animal welfare in low-input outdoor and organic production systems. The aim of this study was to examine farmers’ and experts’ reactions to new approaches to pig and poultry production, with special attention to their animal welfare-related measures. The reactions were tested formally in by using a quantitative survey instrument in nine European countries (Finland, UK, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Romania). In the survey, respondents’ views on production practices and novel measures were asked. These included aspects such as applicability and advantages and disadvantages of various measures such as avoiding mutilations, using dual-purpose or local breeds, or in-ovo sexing. The data included altogether 218 responses from nine countries. Differences between countries were tested and groups of respondents were identified. The results suggest that supply side stakeholders foresee the welfare benefits and some disadvantages of welfare improving measures proposed to them. However, they also indicate that several measures were considered inapplicable despite their benefits. Inadequate financial provisions to adopt a measure was considered as one of the most important reasons for inapplicability of a measure. This may imply either high costs of implementing measures of low market incentives or perceived low demand for animal-friendly products. Other barriers for adopting welfare-friendly measures included farm-specific factors such as limitations imposed by housing. The respondents indicated a high relative preference for feeding, breeding, shelter from predators and the use of vaccines and anti-parasitic treatments to the provision of enrichments and nesting material to pigs, and to mutilations. Farmers agreed that environmental enrichments are important welfare-improving levers and preferred their use in low-input pig and poultry production. Animal breeding-related measures in pig production were perceived quite favorably by supply side stakeholders. Despite their welfare benefits, farmers in some countries had quite high preference towards maintaining castration and tail docking in pig and beak trimming in broiler production as part of their production method.

International audience

International audience

International audience; Although organic animal production is based on farming systems that enable a high degree of expression of natural behaviour by the animals, there are still some welfare challenges in such systems. Our study provides a state of the art of practices that could improve animal welfare in organic productions and interviews with key informants have been conducted to identify gaps and opportunities for animal welfare. This study provides a shortlist of practices that could be used to improve animal welfare while taking into account farmer wellbeing and sustainability and so contributing to “One Welfare”.

International audience

Currently, little is known about how full or part time rural enterprises develop and are managed. In this study, the objective is to find out how the part time and full time equine enterprises could be managed from resource based view. The objectives addressed in this 1) to describe the differences and similarities of part time and full time equine enterprises 2) to analyse the subjective economic success of equine enterprises and to describe the different critical resources they might possess. The data used was collected via internet survey on spring 2017 from 432 equine enterprises. The data were analysed by principal component analysis, cluster analysis and the non-parametric tests. Part and full time entrepreneurs had different business goals; full time entrepreneurs stressed more often economic objectives. As one could expect, part time enterprises has smaller turnover and had less personnel. Entrepreneurs in full time enterprises had been working longer within the industry and also occupancy in their stables was higher. This might indicate that there are also some qualitative differences between firms. However, there were variation within the groups. For example, there were some part time enterprises that had higher turnover than most of the full time enterprises. The majority of part-time enterprises had less critical resources. As majority of the respondents had selected differentiation strategy, it would very important to improve these resources in order to improve the profitability of equine enterprises. Both part time and full time entrepreneurship are important for the development of sector. We would like to stress that both forms, part time and full time entrepreneurship are important for the development of sector. Enterprises are quite different and they operate on a little different lines of businesses, although many of them are diversified. Therefore they complement each other. Networking and cooperation will bring opportunities for both groups. However, the dynamics of the sector requires full time and smaller, but professionally run part time enterprises. Enhancing management skills is important also in small part time enterprises. For example pricing services too low by using other income as substitute is not sustainable for the sector.

In Finland, there is need for new crop insurance system as the Crop Damage Compensa-tion scheme (CDC) is abolished in 2015. Therefore, the responsibility of farmers, insurance companies and government in case of crop damages and catastrophic events need to be de-fined. We compared CDC data to the total value of crop production in Finland. Probability of catastrophic losses was simulated by Monte Carlo method and compared to farmers’ stated beliefs on catastrophic events. Results suggest that there occurs no such catastrophic risk that crop insurance system would not be able to cover. Thus, disaster relief program by the gov-ernment is not needed in Finland.

In the past decade, the Finnish agricultural sector has undergone rapid structural changes. The number of farms has decreased and the average farm size has increased when the number of farms transferred to new entrants has decreased. Part of the structural change in agriculture is manifested in early retirement programmes. In studying farmers exit behaviour in different countries, institutional differences, incentive programmes and constraints are found to matter. In Finland, farmers early retirement programmes were first introduced in 1974 and, during the last ten years, they have been carried out within the European Union framework for these programmes. The early retirement benefits are farmer specific and de-pend on the level of pension insurance the farmer has paid over his active farming years. In order to predict the future development of the agricultural sector, farmers have been frequently asked about their future plans and their plans for succession. However, the plans the farmers made for succession have been found to be time inconsistent. This study estimates the value of farmers stated succession plans in predicting revealed succession decisions. A stated succession plan exists when a farmer answers in a survey questionnaire that the farm is going to be transferred to a new entrant within a five-year period. The succession is revealed when the farm is transferred to a suc-cessor. Stated and revealed behaviour was estimated as a recursive Binomial Probit Model, which accounts for the censoring of the decision variables and controls for a potential correlation between the two equations. The results suggest that the succession plans, as stated by elderly farmers in the questionnaires, do not provide information that is significant and valuable in predicting true, com-pleted successions. Therefore, farmer exit should be analysed based on observed behaviour rather than on stated plans and intentions. As farm retirement plays a crucial role in determining the characteristics of structural change in agriculture, it is important to establish the factors which determine an exit from farming among eld-erly farmers and how off-farm income and income losses affect their exit choices. In this study, the observed choice of pension scheme by elderly farmers was analysed by a bivariate probit model. Despite some variations in significance and the effects of each factor, the ages of the farmer and spouse, the age and number of potential successors, farm size, income loss when retiring and the location of the farm together with the production line were found to be the most important determi-nants of early retirement and the transfer or closure of farms. Recently, the labour status of the spouse has been found to contribute significantly to individual retirement decisions. In this study, the effect of spousal retirement and economic incentives related to the timing of a farming couple s early retirement decision were analysed with a duration model. The results suggest that an expected pension in particular advances farm transfers. It was found that on farms operated by a couple, both early retirement and farm succession took place more often than on farms operated by a single person. However, the existence of a spouse delayed the timing of early retirement. Farming couples were found to co-ordinate their early retirement decisions when they both exit through agricultural retirement programmes, but such a co-ordination did not exist when one of the spouses retired under other pension schemes. Besides changes in the agricultural structure, the share and amount of off-farm income of a farm family s total income has also increased. In the study, the effect of off-farm income on farmers retirement decisions, in addition to other financial factors, was analysed. The unknown parameters were first estimated by a switching-type multivariate probit model and then by the simulated maxi-mum likelihood (SML) method, controlling for farmer specific fixed effects and serial correlation of the errors. The results suggest that elderly farmers off-farm income is a significant determinant in a farmer s choice to exit and close down the farm. However, off-farm income only has a short term effect on structural changes in agriculture since it does not significantly contribute to the timing of farm successions. Suomalaisen maatalouden rakenne on muuttunut nopeasti viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana. Maatilojen lukumäärä on vähentynyt ja keskikoko kasvanut kun tehtyjen sukupolvenvaihdosten määrä on vähentynyt. Viljelijöiden luopumispäätökset vaikuttavat ratkaisevasti maatalouden rakennekehitykseen. Sukupolvenvaihdoksia ja toisaalta vapautuvien resurssien siirtymistä jatkaville viljelijöille onkin pyritty edesauttamaan mm. viljelijöiden luopumistuen avulla. Suomessa on ollut vuodesta 1974 lähtien käytössä erilaisia viljelijöiden luopumistukijärjestelmiä, ja viimeisen kymmenen vuo-den aikana niitä on toteutettu Euroopan Unionin vastaavan järjestelmän puitteissa. Luopumiseläke on viljelijäkohtainen ja sen suuruus riippuu maksetuista eläkevakuutusmaksuista Maatalouden rakennekehityksen ennustamiseksi viljelijöiltä on alettu toistuvasti kysellä mm. heidän sukupolvenvaihdossuunnitelmiaan. Näiden suunnitelmien on kuitenkin havaittu muuttuvan ajan myötä. Tässä tutkimuksessa verrattiin viljelijöiden sukupolvenvaihdossuunnitelmia toteutuneeseen kehitykseen. Tarkastelu perustui tilakyselyyn, jossa tiedusteltiin tilan kehittämisaikomuksia seuraa-van viiden vuoden aikana. Tulosten perusteella toteutuneita sukupolvenvaihdoksia ei voida ennustaa kyselyvastausten perusteella. Siten viljelijöiden luopumispäätöksiä tulisi tarkastella toteutuneen käyttäytymisen eikä tulevaisuudensuunnitelmien perusteella. Sukupolvenvaihdoksen toteutumiselle on tärkeää riittävän aikainen ajoitus. Erilaisten politiikkatoimenpiteiden lisäksi myös taloudelliset kannustimet ja rajoitteet sekä tilan ja viljelijän ominaisuudet vaikuttavat viljelijöiden sukupolvenvaihdoksiin ja tilanpidon lopettamiseen sekä näiden päätösten ajoitukseen. Tärkeimmät luopumispäätökseen vaikuttavat tekijät ovat: viljelijän ja puolison ikä, mahdollisten jatkajien ikä ja lukumäärä, tilakoko, tilan sijainti ja tuotantosuunta sekä mahdollinen tulonmenetys eläkkeelle jäätäessä. Odotettavissa olevan eläkkeen kasvu aikaistaa erityisesti suku-polvenvaihdoksia. Tarkastelu perustuu Maatalousyrittäjien eläkelaitoksen rekistereistä poimittuun aineistoon. Maatalouden rakenteen muuttumisen lisäksi myös viljelijöiden tilan ulkopuoliset tulot ja niiden osuus tilan kokonaistuloista on kasvanut. Tutkimuksen mukaan viljelijän ja puolison tilan ulkopuolisilla tuloilla on erilainen vaikutus viljelijän luopumispäätöksiin. Viljelijän tilan ulkopuolelta hank-kimat tulot edesauttavat viljelijän päätöstä jäädä eläkkeelle ja lopettaa tilanpito. Puolison tilan ulkopuoliset tulot sen sijaan kannustavat jatkamaan tilanpitoa. Tulosten perusteella viljelijöiden lisääntyvät tilan ulkopuoliset tulot eivät merkittävästi vaikuta perheviljelmämuotoisen maatalouden jat-kuvuuteen pitkällä aikavälillä. Sen sijaan tilan ulkopuoliset tulot vaikuttavat tilanpidon lopettamis-päätösten ajoitukseen sekä tuotantoresurssien siirtymiseen tuotantoa jatkaville viljelijöille. Viljelijöiden luopumistukijärjestelmät ovat ensiarvoisen tärkeitä perheviljelmämuotoisen maatalouden säilyttämiseksi Suomessa. Järjestelmät mahdollistavat oikein ajoitetun sukupolvenvaihdoksen ja ylläpitävät maatalouden työpaikkoja. Houkutteleva luopumistukijärjestelmä on tarpeen nuorten viljelijöiden saamiseksi alalle. Tämä edellyttää eläkkeen alaikärajan pitämistä tarpeeksi matalana sekä riittävän korkeaa luopumistukieläkettä.

This study examines and compares farmers' succession plans and actual succession behaviour and finds that the farm operator's age and regional variables influence both. We also find a discrepancy between intention and actual behaviour which is significantly related to the farm operator's age. Whereas the likelihood of planned succession is overestimated significantly for younger farm operators, the opposite is observed once the farm operator's age exceeds 65 years. Therefore, stated plans have only a negligible value in predicting the observed behaviour and farm operator's statements on the timing of succession may not provide enough information on the grounds of designing structural policies in agriculture. (author's abstract), Series: Discussion Papers SFB International Tax Coordination

In the past decade, the European agricultural sector has undergone rapid structural change. Part of that change is manifested in extended early retirement plans. As pensions play a crucial role in determining the characteristics the change, it is important to establish the factors determining the exit from farming among elderly farmers. This study analyses the choice of pension scheme of farmers. The focus is on the effects of farm and off-farm incomes and various offered economic incentives on farmers? retirement decisions. The results provide valuable information concerning evaluation of existing programmes and the design of future retirement systems and policies.

One of the key issues in the debates and research of structural changes in agriculture has been the livelihood and survival of family farms. Reduced demand for agricultural labour due to the technological progress, rising incomes in other economic sectors, and deteriorating terms of trade for agricultural products has forced family farms, in order to sustain livelihood for the family, to increase in size. Due to the limited availability of agricultural land, these processes have implied a decrease in the number of farms and an increase in average farm size. This thesis explored the factors of farm growth, decline, continuation and exit in the structural adjustment of Estonian agriculture. The role of the main institutional changes in Estonian agriculture in last 25 years was analysed. Regaining of independence in 1991, and the ownership, agricultural and land reforms initiated at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s implied structural break in Estonian agriculture. New private farms were established via restitution of agricultural land and farmsteads, privatisation of land and previous collective farms. In Estonia, a dualistic farm structure already emerged in the early phases of transition, and it is characterised by large share of smaller agricultural holdings, producing a small share of agricultural output, and small proportion of large agricultural holdings, that produce most of the agricultural output. In 2010, 8.2% of agricultural holdings produced 82.9% of the total standard output. From 1991–2001 the number of agricultural holdings increased from 7,400 to 55,700. However, by 2010 the number of agricultural holdings decreased to 19,600. Due to the fact that, in 2001, the number of agricultural holdings exceeded the number of persons employed in agriculture, hunting and related service activities (55,700 and 28,800 respectively), it is obvious that many of the agricultural households established in the 1990s were unable to provide full-time employment for at least one household member. Thus, the 64.8% decline in the number of agricultural households in the period of 2001–2010 could, in some respects, be regarded as expected. The effects of farm-specific socioeconomic factors on the continuation and exit from farming, and farm shrinkage and growth were studied based on the two farm surveys, conducted in 2007 and 2011, and data from Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board. The results indicate that farm growth, decline, continuation and exit processes in Estonia follow the farm life cycle pattern, and are affected by farm-specific socioeconomic characteristics similar to Western countries: age and condition of health of the farm operator, and availability of the potential successors. A 10-year increase in the farm operator’s age increased the probability of farm exit by 4.0%. Also, an increase in the farm operator’s age decreased the probability of farm growth. The probability of farm growth was highest among the farm operators aged 40–49 years. The good availability of successors significantly reduced the probability of farm exits, and increased the probability of farm growth. Farm size, which is closely related to the income earning potential of the farm, has significant effects on continuation of farming, farm shrinkage and exits. Every 10 ha of additional agricultural area decreased the farm exit probability by 0.8%. Having an off-farm job increased the likelihood of farm exits by 13.4%. Farms participating in a semi-subsistence farming scheme had a 10.6%, and farms participating in the less favoured area payment scheme a 10.5% lower probability to exit from farming. However, participating in these payment schemes did not have significant effects on farm growth and decline probabilities. It appeared that a higher level of education had a positive effect on the probability of farm growth, while farm operator’s higher evaluation on his or her knowledge and experience had negative effect on the probability of farm exits and positive effect on the probability of continuation of farming. Farms that were established based on the restituted land or farmsteads had a lower probability of farm shrinkage and farm growth. In addition, the discrepancies between intentions and actual behaviour regarding continuation and exit from farming, decline and growth of agricultural area, were studied. The study revealed that the farm operators’ intentions regarding exiting from farming and shrinkage of farm size are less useful in predicting actual exits and contraction compared to the intentions regarding continuation of farming and farm growth in predicting actual continuation or growth. This implies that the information gathered from the farm operators regarding their intentions about continuation of farming, farm exits, farm shrinkage and growth, is limited. Therefore, planning of the agricultural policy measures that address the problems related to structural adjustment of agricultural holdings, should be based on ex-post analysis of actual changes in farm structures. The results of this thesis emphasise the significant role of the age of the farm operator, farm family life cycle, and farm size (income) among the farm-specific socioeconomic factors of farm growth, decline, continuation and exit. Põllumajandustootjate strukturaalsete muutuste käsitlemisel on üheks oluliseks uurimis- ja aruteluteemaks väiketootjate, sh peretalude toimetulek ning püsimajäämine. Tehnoloogilisest arengust tingitud tööjõuvajaduse vähenemine põllumajanduses, sissetulekute kasv teistes majandusharudes ning aastakümneid kestnud põllumajandustoodete püsihindade alanemine on sundinud põllumajandustootjaid piisava elatise tagamiseks laienema ning tootmismahte kasvatama. Põllumajandusmaa piiratuse tõttu on nende protsesside tulemuseks põllumajandustootjate arvu vähenemine ning alles jäävate tootjate keskmise suuruse kasv. Käesolevas töös uuriti Eesti põllumajanduslike majapidamiste tootmismahu kasvu ja kahanemist ning tegevuse jätkamist ja lõpetamist mõjutavaid tegureid. Analüüsiti institutsionaalsete muutuste osa Eesti põllumajanduse strukturaalses kohanemises viimase 25 aasta jooksul. Eesti taasiseseisvumine ning 1980. aastate lõpus ja 1990. aastate alguses algatatud põllumajandus-, omandi- ja maareformid tõid põllumajanduses kaasa struktuurikatkestuse. Asutati uued, eraomandis olevad põllumajanduslikud majapidamised ja ettevõtted, mis baseerusid tagastatud talumaadel ja -kohtadel, erastatud põllumajandusmaal ja ühismajanditel. Eestis tekkis 1990. aastate reformivalikute tagajärjel duaalne põllumajandustootjate struktuur, mida iseloomustab suur väiksemate tootjate osakaal, kes annavad väikese osa põllumajandustoodangust, ja väike suuremate tootjate osakaal, kes annavad enamiku toodangust. 2010. aastal andis 8,2% tootjatest 82,9% Eesti põllumajanduse standardtoodangust. Aastatel 1991–2001 kasvas põllumajanduslike majapidamiste arv Eestis 7400-lt 55 700-ni, aastaks 2010 vähenes see 19 600-ni. Kuna 2001. aastal oli Eestis põllumajanduslikke majapidamisi rohkem kui põllumajanduses, jahinduses ja nendega seotud valdkondades töötajaid (vastavalt 55 700 ja 28 800), on ilmne, et suur osa neist ei suutnud pakkuda täistööajaga hõivet isegi ühele pere liikmele. Seetõttu on aastatel 2001–2010 toimunud põllumajanduslike majapidamiste arvu vähenemine 64,8% võrra mõneti loomulik. 2007. ja 2011. aastal põllumajanduslike majapidamiste juhtide seas läbiviidud küsitluste ning Põllumajanduse Registrite ja Informatsiooni Ameti andmete alusel analüüsiti ettevõttespetsiifiliste sotsiaal-majanduslike tegurite mõju põllumajanduslike majapidamiste tootmise jätkamisele ja lõpetamisele ning tootmismahu kahanemisele ja kasvule. Selgus, et sarnaselt teiste lääneriikidega mõjutavad ka Eestis põllumajanduslike majapidamiste tegevuse jätkamist, lõpetamist, tootmismahu kahanemist ja kasvamist oluliselt selle juhi ja tema pere elutsükliga seotud tegurid: juhi vanus, tervis ning majapidamise üleandmiseks sobivate järeltulijate olemasolu. Juhi vanuse suurenedes 10 aasta võrra kasvas põllumajandusliku majapidamise tegevuse lõpetamise tõenäosus 4,0%. Juhi vanuse kasvades vähenes ka tegevusmahu laienemise tõenäosus. Tootmismahu kasvamise tõenäosus oli kõige suurem juhtide vanuserühmas 40–49 aastat. Põllumajandustootmise lõpetamise tõenäosust mõjutas oluliselt majapidamise üleandmiseks sobivate järeltulijate olemasolule antud hinnang. Mida positiivsem see oli, seda väiksem oli ettevõtte tegevuse lõpetamise tõenäosus ning seda suurem oli tootmismahu kasvamise tõenäosus. Lisaks juhi ja tema perega seotud teguritele mõjutab põllumajandustootmise lõpetamist või jätkamist suurel määral majapidamise ja sealt saadava sissetuleku suurus. Iga 10 ha täiendavat põllumajandusmaad vähendas põllumajandustootmisega tegelemise tõenäosust 0,8%. Ettevõtte juhi palgatööl käimine väljaspool ettevõtet suurendas põllumajandustootmise lõpetamise tõenäosust 13,4%. Elatustalude kohanemise toetust saanud põllumajanduslike majapidamiste puhul oli tootmise lõpetamise tõenäosus 10,6% ning ebasoodsamate piirkondade toetust saanud majapidamiste puhul 10,5% väiksem kui neil majapidamistel, mis vastavaid toetusi ei saanud. Samal ajal ei olnud nendel toetustel olulist mõju majapidamiste tootmismahu kahanemise ja kasvamise tõenäosusele. Juhi haridustase mõjutas positiivselt põllumajandusliku majapidamise tootmismahu kasvamise tõenäosust. Nende põllumajanduslike majapidamiste juhtide puhul, kes hindasid oma teadmisi ja kogemusi kõrgemalt, oli põllumajandustootmise lõpetamise tõenäosus väiksem. Nendel põllumajanduslikel majapidamistel, mis asusid tegutsema tagastatud põllumajandusmaa või talukoha baasil, oli tootmismahu kahanemise ja kasvamise tõenäosus väiksem kui neil tootjatel, kes hakkasid tegutsema teistel alustel. Lisaks uuriti põllumajanduslike majapidamiste juhtide tootmise jätkamist ja lõpetamist ning põllumajandusmaa suuruse kahanemist ja kasvu puudutavate kavatsuste ning tegeliku käitumise lahknevusi ja neid mõjutavaid tegureid. Selgus, et juhtide kavatsused, mis puudutavad tootmise lõpetamist ja ettevõtte põllumajandusmaa pindala vähenemist, on tegeliku käitumise prognoosimiseks vähem usaldusväärsed kui kavatsused, mis puudutavad põllumajandustootmisega jätkamist ning põllumajandusmaa laiendamist. Sellest tuleneb, et põllumajanduslike majapidamiste juhtide kavatsusi uurivate küsitluste kaudu saadud informatsioon ei võimalda piisavalt täpselt prognoosida põllumajanduslike majapidamiste tegevuse jätkamist ja lõpetamist ning tootmismahu kahanemist ja kasvamist. Seega peaks põllumajanduslike majapidamiste strukturaalseid muutusi puudutavate põllumajanduspoliitika meetmete kujundamisel arvesse võtma põllumajanduslike majapidamiste struktuuris toimunud tegelikke muutusi ning neid mõjutanud tegureid. Põllumajanduse strukturaalse kohanemise protsessi paremaks mõistmiseks on vaja põhjalikke teadmisi põllumajandustootjate tootmismahu kasvu ja kahanemist ning tegevuse jätkamist ja lõpetamist mõjutavate tegurite kohta. Käesoleva töö tulemused toovad põllumajandusettevõtete kasvu, kahanemist ning tegevuse lõpetamist mõjutavate sotsiaal-majanduslike tegurite hulgas esile eelkõige põllumajanduslike majapidamiste juhtide vanuse, majapidamise üleandmiseks järeltulijate olemasolu ning majapidamise suuruse (sissetuleku) olulise osa.