Development paths of small subsistence farms in Greece, Italy and Portugal

The basis of this paper are the results of a country case study in Greece, Italy and Portugal undertaken for a study requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural development carried out in 2013 and entitled “Semi-Subsistence farming – value and Directions of Development”. Over recent decades, the number of Small Survival Farms in Greece, Italy and Portugal has constantly reduced mainly due to absorption into larger farm holdings, or to land abandonment. The paper discuss in what areas the SSFs are concentrated. Firstly, in mountain areas and economically depressed inland regions, where outmigration has often resulted more in farmland abandonment rather than in land concentration. The second area of high concentration of SSFs is in peri-urban and other areas with off-farm opportunities. In such areas, many SSFs survive mainly as the result of the adoption of household strategies based on off-farm employment and outsourcing. Although it may be too early to assess fully the impact of the crisis on farming systems in the three southern countries, we discuss how the current recession may affect the future of SSFs. First, increasing unemployment in non-farming sectors reduces the chance of finding an off-farm job. This may trigger future exit from SSF status and a trend towards increased farm size. Second, increasing unemployment, coupled with in-migration and often inadequate state pensions and cuts in public sector salaries, has increased the numbers of low-income and poor households. In the current context of recession, agriculture is perceived as a refuge, and small-scale farming as an important contribution to household budgets and food security, as well as to alleviating rural poverty.N/