Farmer private social performance depending on the degree of ecological approaches

Social performance is the pillar of sustainability that is the most often neglected, compared to the evaluation of environmental and economic performances of farming systems. Farmers’ working conditions are rarely studied. To understand farmers’ working conditions and to assess them, it is necessary to develop a multicriteria approach including not only quantifiable dimensions (e.g., the length of working days) but also dimensions that can explain how working conditions are experienced by workers (e.g., by understanding farmer’s reasons for acting). Multiple factors contribute to determine farmers’ working conditions such as the composition of the workforce, the region, but also the degree of uptake of ecological practices. This deliverable contributes to knowledge on this issue, explaining the work carried out in task 3.3 of the LIFT project. The main objectives of task 3.3 were: i) to describe farmers’ and farm workers’ working conditions in different farming systems characterised by different degrees of uptake or ecological practices and; ii) to identify factors explaining these working conditions (degree of uptake of ecological practices, workforce composition, country, etc.).

To achieve these objectives, a set of indicators on working conditions was selected in a two-step approach: firstly, a theoretical basis from the literature, and, secondly, expert knowledge in the LIFT partners. Primary data was collected during interviews with 160 farmers in five European Union (EU) regions (Brittany in France, Puy-de-Dôme in France, Crete in Greece, Ireland, Salzburg area in Austria, Umgebung Steyr-Kirchdorf in Austria). Statistical analysis was conducted to describe the diversity of indicators (working conditions, workforce composition and farm structure) within the whole sample and in the different case study areas. A principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out on working condition indicators, using farms with complete data (123 farms). Farm characteristics and workforce composition indicators were shown on PCA factorial plans to explore relationships between working conditions and farm/workforce characteristics.

Main outcomes of this comparative analysis were identified. First, an overall positive feeling expressed by the farmers may seem contradictory at first sight with some of the results showing long working hours, little time for holidays and day off, etc. Second, the comparative analysis highlighted that farmers’ working conditions differ across European regions. Working conditions in Ireland and Greece differ significantly from farms in other study areas. In the five European case studies, workers were mainly men (64.6%), and only 18.75% of farm managers were women. There was a broad diversity among case studies: female farm managers were most often present in both Austrian and in French Puy-de-Dôme case studies than in France Brittany, Greece and Ireland Third, the degree of uptake of ecological practices, defined here as organic farming practices or the livestock density, do not discriminate working conditions in the sample composed by the five European case studies. Two main factors considered in the comparative analysis explain the variability observed on farmers’ working conditions: the case study area and the production system. Considering a more homogeneous sample - the dairy farms - other factors seem to explain the variability in working conditions, such as the level of education of farmers and the workforce composition. Fourth, another contribution of this comparative analysis in five European case studies is to propose a list of indicators to analyse farmers’ working conditions based on different dimensions (work duration, work organisation, quality at work, work complexity, self-identity and attitudes, stress, satisfaction, social relations).

In some case studies (Brittany in France, Puy-de-Dôme in France, Crete in Greece), a more in-deep analysis was performed. Main results were that farmers experienced an impact of the adoption of ecological practices on their working conditions. Farmers indicated various impacts on workload, work organisation and the need for special equipment, depending on the nature of the production systems and the applied ecological practices. They all expressed a positive effect with an improvement of the workload and their own perception of their job. The Scottish case study highlighted that the relationship between farm organic status and efficiency scores of labour used for both ‘traditional’ and ‘diversification’ outputs, emphasises that organic production is not only environmentally oriented but has a clear economic reasoning.