The Concentration of Agricultural Production and Growth of Agricultural Holdings,

Abstract

Between the 1998 and 2000 agricultural censuses, the number of agricultural holdings fell from one million to 664 000. This fall resulted in a slight increase in the relative concentration of agricultural production, with the smallest holdings decreasing in size and the largest holdings becoming larger. There are two explanatory variables which today have a greater influence on holding size than in the past: the age of the manager of the agricultural holding, with younger managers coming to increasingly larger holdings, and the legal form. The starting size has little incidence on the growth of holdings: the concentration of production occurs more due to a rise in economic size thresholds than the cornering of the market by the largest holdings. The slight movement towards concentration observed over the last 15 years is essentially linked to the development of corporate farming, which is better suited to larger holdings than the individual farmer.Size Growth, Demography, Agricultural Holdings