How do farmers’ pluriactivity project evolve?

Abstract

Long criticized, pluriactivity is now perceived as an alternative agricultural strategy and it is becoming a subject of support policies. But having an off-far job generates organizational issues that can penalize the viability of this strategy. In this paper, we study the initial motivations of pluriactivity and the strategies developed by farmers over time to reconstitute trajectories that lead to a permanent pluriactivity or not. We use an original qualitative approach interviewing 29 pluriactive farmers in “Nord-Pas de Calais”, region located in northern France. Our results show that pluriactivity is a dynamic strategy, and that farmers develop different strategies to adapt their pluriactivity over time to the farm requirements and the constraints. The results highlight that if most of the trajectories lead to a permanent stage, pluriactivity lasts longer when both activities adapt each other, in particular when permanent constraints need to be completed by organizational adjustments.

Keywords

• pluriactivity duration, agriculture, pluriactivity projects, farm management strategies