Une nouvelle classification des exploitations agricoles françaises

The study is the result of original work begun in 1969. The aim of this research was to classify farms according to their production system and not simply according only to the criterion of size, from the data usually provided by statistical studies of farm structure. This should lead to a better knowledge of the production conditions, a means of popularization in farm economics and a means of presenting statistical results, as well as a useful means of establishing forecasts. The technical problem posed by the working-out of a typology consisted in classifying the farm population into a limited number of groups in such a way that the production units in any one class should be homogeneous and that they should be totally different from those in the other classes. An analytic approach was adopted and this method was neutral and objective because factorial analysis was used. This method of multidimensional analysis classifies the data collected and enables one to discover and sum up logical structures without previously putting forward any hypotheses concerning the number of classes, or their limits and without giving more importance to some data than to others. The classification study required a considerable number of calculations to be made involving a great many variables within the limits of the Ministry of Agriculture's computer. Hence a representative sample of 6.000 farm units drawn from the E.E.C.'s farm-structure survey in 1967 (1/5 the total number) was analysed. The classification that resulted from this sample was tested and criticised, then extended to another sample of 20.000 farms from the same survey. Once the classification's stability was ascertained, a regional analysis and a more sophisticated statistical study of the various farm classes in the second sample were undertaken. This provided representative data on a regional basis. The study shows that, in spite of its complexity, the farm-unit group as a whole is fairly well structured. Farm labour is a simpler and hence more structured sub-group than that of stock or, above all, of crops. These two relatively independent classifications - that defined by the principal type of labour (linked to farm-size) and that defined by the type of crops or live stock were further investigated. Classification of farm-units in % according to the principal type of labour and the total amount of work I - Part-time family labour II - Full time family labour III - Full-time family and hired labour IV - Hired labour V - Part-time family and hired labour 64 25 3 7 1 Total 100 Classification of farm-units in % according to the principal types of crops and livestock : 1 - Grain crops 8.2 2 - Large-size grain-crop and industrial-crop farms. 1.3 3 - Maize 3.6 4 - Wine-growing 10.5 5 - Open-air vegetables 2.4 6 - Market gardening and grapes . 4.1 7 - Mixed farming (fodder and potatoes) 4.8 8 - Mixed stock-breeding 8.8 (meadows and cultivated grass) 9 - Stock-rearing in poor areas on heath-land and rye 3.6 10 - Dairy cattle 25.8 11 - Beef production . 12 - Cattle for breeding 13 - Sheep 14 - Pigs 15 - Poultry 6.4 9,2 3.9 4.5 2.9 Total 100.0 These fifteen types were selected, classified according crops or stock, for two reasons : in order to describe the fifteen classes statistically according to the various data collected in 1967 (gross income and total output - crops or stock) in order to check afterwards the regional distribution of the types of farm and the homogeneity of the different groups, and the behaviour of the different types. This classification will be of great interest if it remains stable and is used as a stratification criterion for the drawing of agricultural samples and as a framework for statistical analyses during the next five or ten years. It provides a means of comparing and completing data from various sources and of building matrices describing the evolution of farm-units and of input and output.