Agricultural Professionalization of Austrian Family Farm Households – the Effects of Vocational Attitude, Social Capital and Perception of Farm Situation

Abstract

Household strategies of farming families refer to the medium to long-term orientation of the farm operation. They also constitute the goal and the framework for entrepreneurial behavior and reflect the living concept of the farming family as well as the operative processes of adapting the farm to a changing environment. In this study we explore on the household strategy agricultural professionalization of farmers according to their vocational attitudes, their social capital and their assessments of farming and family resources. A binary logistic regression was applied to data from a survey of 388 farmers in the Austrian district of St. Poelten. The final explanatory model demonstrates that a high level of social capital in family and community in combination with a positive assessment of the survivability of a farm and a positive attitude towards one’s vocation render it very likely that plans are made for agricultural professionalization.