Les indicateurs de revenu dans les exploitations agricoles en France : une analyse comparée sur 15 ans entre les données du RICA et celles de la MSA

This article presents an analysis of the indicators used to measure the economic performance of farms in France. While the chart of accounts makes it possible to identify the precise method of calculation of various intermediate management balances (including the gross added value, the gross operating surplus and the farm income), the statistical sources used to discuss the question of the level of 'income' of French farmers are diverse and the indicators used are not always homogeneous. This sometimes results in a fragility in the public expression of the notion of farmers' income. By matching two distinct sources of information over fifteen years (2003 to 2017), namely, on the one hand, the Farm Accounting Data Network (Rica) produced by the Ministry of Agriculture and, on the other hand, the database for self-employed contributors (COTNS) of the Caisse Centrale de la Mutualité Sociale Agricole (CCMSA), this article compares the level of several economic performance indicators. The matching was carried out using the SIRET number of the farms and methodological work was carried out so that the scope of the farms is common to both databases. This analysis highlights several original results: the fiscal 'agricultural profit' (published by the MSA) is lower than the current result before tax (derived from the Rica) by one third; the amount of private levies is weakly correlated to the accounting result or to the reported tax income; the heterogeneity observed in income levels depends on structural determinants but also on the strategic choices made by farmers themselves.