Institute of

Farm Economics

Farm and Enterprise Structures

New structures in agriculture
New structures in agriculture (© BLE, Bonn/Dominic Menzler und Thünen-Institut/BW)

The agricultural sector of today is hardly comparable to what it was 30 years ago. During this time period the used acreage only slightly reduced but about two thirds of the farms in West Germany closed down by now (ca. 890 000 farms). Consequently, the remaining farms have increased their used acreage considerably. Partially aided by new financial models, at the moment large, complex companies increasingly develop, that try to use technical possibilities as well as the economic and legal framework in the best way. In regions with a high density of pig and poultry as well as in East Germany, where large companies and large plots dominate agricultural structures, there are developments which considering the aims of agricultural policy one needs to question.

There is only little sound knowledge of new investment and management models, since these are hardly collected through official statistics. Being aware of structures, their development and essential factors influencing them is however an important pre-condition to design effective policy measures

Therefore, at the Institute of Farm Economics we investigate the following research questions:

  1. What is the status quo and which development tendencies exist regarding farm and business structures?
  2. Which new ownership and management systems are in place? What are their drivers and how do they influence production volume and systems, competition and company structures?
  3. How is the data availability regarding farm and enterprise structures and in the case of deficits how could data collection be improved?
  4. Which economic and legal factors mainly influence farm and business structures?
  5. Which impact on farm and business structures can we expect from political measures targeting farm structures?

At the moment, questions regarding farm and business structures as well as modern ownership and managements systems are in the focus. In our research we apply different methods which depending on the topic are combined.

Dossier - Wohin steuern unsere Agrarstrukturen?

Agrar- und Unternehmensstrukturen - Biogas

Zusätzliche Informationen zu Agrar- und Unternehmensstrukturen finden Sie im Dossier.

Projects of Farm and Enterprise Structures

crops (©  ESA Copernicus Open Access Hub: https://scihub.copernicus.eu/dhus/#/home)
I spy with my little eye: automated detection of agricultural parcels and crops using satellite images

German-wide and plot-specific land use data is so far not public available. This can change due to the new data from satellite imagery from the Copernicus program (Sentinel), which is free and taken at a high frequency.
The variety of farms increases. (©  Thünen-Institut/BW)
Agriculture: farm diversity and change

Farm structures are constantly changing – they must, if they respond to competition. However, how well do we know the current farm structures? Available statistics only provide limited information. Therefore, in this project we intend to initially identify the exact knowledge gaps and later develop approaches to close them.
Landwirtschaft von oben (©  Thünen-Institut)
Explaining, predicting and linking European farm structural change with the European farm supply model IFM-CAP
Projeckt image: Explaining and predicting farm structural change (©  DOP40 BKG)
Explaining and predicting farm structural change

The EU commission annually develops a projection of the future development in agriculture to detect trends as early as possible. Until now, the structure of farms played only a minor role. A greater consideration of the structure of farms would increase the quality of the projections, particularly after the reorientation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2013. The impact of the “Greening” of the first Pillar is closely related to the productive orientation of a farm – e.g., whether a farm produces as grassland farm rather milk or as arable farm cereals. Main objective of this project is to identify the factors that affect the productive orientation to predict the future development.
Fruit and vegetable display (©  Thünen-Institut/Thomas Lindemann)
How is the German horticultural sector doing?

How profitable is German horticultural production, what are its production structures, its value chains, its market outlets and who provides advisory services? We want to thoroughly decribe and analyse the current situation.
Almbauernhof (©  Thünen-Institut)
Zukunftsfähige Landwirtschaft (Sustainable Agriculture)

Conditions in Switzerland with regard to agricultural market and support policy in future might develop towards the existing Common Agricultural Policy in the European Union. This would mean that external protection and high direct payments would be reduced. The consequences for the agriculture are not clear.