AGRIFIRM ANR JC Research Project Characterization of forms of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

AGRIFIRM ANR JC Research Project

Characterization of forms of social and economic

• rganizations associated with « firm agriculture »

Geneviève NGUYEN Coordinator of the research project : François PURSEIGLE (University of Toulouse, INP-ENSAT, UMR Dynamiques Rurales) Team : G. Anzalone, V. Barraud-Didier, P. Blanc, E.A. Buhler, M. Guibert, B. Hervieu, M.C. Henninger, F. Lepage, G. Nguyen, V. Olivier, F. Purseigle

CERISY, September 2011

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• 1. The origin of the project

q A seminar in 2008-09 : “Looking back on rural sociology” – Paper by Hervieu & Purseigle published in Etudes Rurales No.183 (2009) q Studies conducted on farming systems and cooperatives’ strategies in different regions in France and in Europe

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Different forms of labor organization in agriculture

« Peasant » family agriculture « Modern » family agriculture « micro » agriculture « State- governed » agriculture « Finance- governed » agriculture « Entrepreneurial » family agriculture

Beyond family types

• f agriculture, other

types without names

« Service- delegated » agriculture « subsistence » agriculture

3'47

« Peasant » family agriculture « Modern » family agriculture

Forms of « family » ag. Forms of « firm » ag. ? Forms of « excluded » ag. ?

« micro » agriculture « State- governed » agriculture « Finance- governed » agriculture « Entrepreneurial » family agriculture « Service- delegated » agriculture « subsistence » agriculture

Agrifirm, a name by default

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New types of farming systems ? “entrepreneurial”, “service-delegated”, “agribusiness”, “corporate” farms… Examples from the Camargue region, a region with a particular ecosystem and a particular history of colonization (Picon, 2008)

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Large farms, other characteristics ?

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A farm characterized by:

• the absence of the owner
• complete delegation of the farm management
• qualified and specialized hired labor force
• purely financial logic with hierarchal decision

making process

• disconnection from the territory (delocalization)
• integration into a food system (transnational firm)
• intensive rice production system

… An archetype of “corporate” farm ?

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BUT ALSO MORE COMPLEX “AGRIFIRM” FARMING SYSTEMS…

• family assets
• mix family patrimonial / financial logic
• multiplicity of decisional units
• mix of different legal status
• high managerial capability
• vertical and horizontal integration
• strong integration to the territory (supply
• f multiple services, including farm

management & credit supply)

• overlaps of different production chains
• overlaps of different markets

… An hybrid form of family capitalism ?

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Questions raised by these different types of farms

• Policy issue : fragmentation/co-existence with others OR increased

agricultural duality ? ó About the ethics of determinism (“lock-in” trajectory ?) and of volitional pragmatism (a political discourse based on one’s perception and belief of…)

• Transmission versus creation of new structures

ó Evolution path on a long time span ?

• Valuation of the cost-efficiency of such organizations regarding

different issues (financial investment, environmental preservation, landscape building…) A NAME, A QUALIFICATION FOR WHICH PURPOSE ?

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Some major conceptual and methodological challenges

• Limits of a single approach
• Economists : reconstructing the notion of farming system using theories of the

firm (institutional & industrial evolutionary economics) and finance What’s the frontier of these new forms of ag production organizations (abstraction from the traditional frontier, porosity of new frontier) ?

• The necessity of a dynamic analysis of co-evolution of trajectories
• Problem of access to data

A NAME, A QUALIFICATION FOR WHICH PURPOSE ?

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• 2. Objectives of the project

Scientific objectives :

¢ Observe and qualify the “new”/ “without-name” forms of agricultural

production organizations

¢ Study the co-existence of the different forms and the co-evolution of

their trajectories on a long time span (paradigm of complex systems)

1.

A sociological ambition : types of organization / political representations

2.

An inter-disciplinary approach for the typology exercise

3.

An original database

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• 3. Methodology (1/3)

A typology exercise based on 4 main entries

l Forms of collective action and of engagement within and without the

• rganization

l Underlying economic (markets interrelations, embedded forms of

coordination and governance) and financial models (corporate governance, risk management)

l Processes of spatial localization of activities and of labor division l Geo-politic dimension of collective action regarding the control over

strategic resources

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Economic dimensions

Capital structure and mobility More or less mixed capital Logic of capital governance / risk management strategies Corporate governance versus patrimonial governance Decision making process Multiple (K owners/managers) More or less decentralized Perception of land value Patrimonial versus economic value Characteristics of production system Technically demanding productions / norms Supply of multiple services Ratio hired/family labor force Rather high Competencies of hired labor Rather high and specialized Managerial skills Rather high Human resource management Specialized functional organization Relations with other actors of the agrofoodchain and with the territory Agrifirm/farms : local production system Agrifirm/coop : competition Overlapping food chains Relations to markets and public policies Integration to the market of labor & financial market Historical trajectory / Dynamics of co- evolution of trajectories Singular / non linear (interconnections, inflections and splits) / “lock-in” ? / more or less resilient …

Different levels of embedded organizations and their dynamics

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French more or less local investors Historically, family farms Storage, inputs supply and credit facilities SA food processing industry

Determinants of trajectory: Markets, CAP, family events…

Management of farms Supply of food industries

New type (1)

• family assets
• mix family patrimonial / financial

logic

• multiplicity of decisional units
• mix of different legal status
• high managerial capability
• vertical and horizontal integration
• strong integration to the territory
• overlaps of different production

chains

• overlaps of different markets

Foreign investors, external capital

New type (2)

• corporate assets
• absence of the owner
• complete delegation of the

farm management

• qualified and specialized hired labor force
• purely financial logic with hierarchal decision

making process

• disconnection from the territory (delocalization)
• integration into a food system (transnational firm)
• intensive rice production system

SA food processing industry

Traditional French family farms

Cooperatives Food industries Banking sector New type (3)

• corporate assets
• absence of the owner
• mix family patrimonial / financial logic
• high managerial capability, hired labor
• strong integration to the territory

French and foreign investors, external capital More or less informal relationship Formal contractual relationship

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A focus on the study of the role of external capital shares/assets in a family farm

Questions :

¢ What are the share and the status of external assets ? ¢ What are the necessary conditions for the entry of external funds in

agriculture ?

¢ What are the emerging forms of assets governance ? ¢ What is the contribution of external capitals to farm sustainability ?

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• 3. Methodology (2/3)

In-depth case studies of “actors/organizations” associated with “firm” agriculture

l Farms l Cooperatives l Enterprises suppliers of agricultural services l Investors, managers of investment funds

Areas of study

l Mainly France (Hautes Landes, Picardie, Champagne Crayeuse) l Associated areas (following French actors trajectories) : Ukraine, Brazil,

Argentina Research in partnership

l Research teams l Cooperatives, banks, professional organizations

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Vivons nous dans l’oubli de nos métamorphoses ? (P. Eluard) … and for us, the importance of qualifying the un- names to go beyond determinism

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