Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May 21;16(5):e0251715.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251715. eCollection 2021.

Farm diversification as a potential success factor for small-scale farmers constrained by COVID-related lockdown. Contributions from a survey conducted in four European countries during the first wave of COVID-19

Zsófia Benedek  1 , Imre Fertő  1   2 , Cristina Galamba Marreiros  3 , Pâmela Mossmann de Aguiar  3 , Cristina Bianca Pocol  4 , Lukáš Čechura  5 , Anne Põder  6 , Piia Pääso  6 , Zoltán Bakucs  1   7
Affiliations

Farm diversification as a potential success factor for small-scale farmers constrained by COVID-related lockdown. Contributions from a survey conducted in four European countries during the first wave of COVID-19

Zsófia Benedek et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

This paper explores to what extent product and marketing channel diversification contributed to the economic success of small-scale agricultural producers involved in short food supply chains after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was conducted between April and July 2020 in four countries of the European Union-Estonia, Hungary, Portugal and Romania,-resulting in a relatively large sample of farmers (N = 421). The analysis was built on a semi-nonparametric approach. Approximately 19 percent of small-scale producers were able to increase sales during the first wave of the pandemic, although country-level variation was significant. Fruits and vegetables were by far the most popular products. The importance of specific channels varied across countries, but farm gate sales were among the most important marketing channels both before and during the first wave. The importance of channels that were based on digital resources and home delivery increased. Our evidence indicates that diversification was a strategy that paid off, both in terms of marketing channels and different product categories. However, the impact appears to be nonlinear; the initial advantage generated by diversification rapidly tapered off, either temporarily (in the case of products), or permanently (in the case of marketing channels). Later research may clarify whether these findings are generalizable in other socio-economic contexts, as well as in a non-COVID situation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Distribution of economic size of farms in sample countries.
Source: FADN.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Distribution of Total Labour Used by the farms in the sample countries.
Source: FADN.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Channel diversification pre-COVID, by country.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Product diversification by country.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Impact of diversification on economic success.
Note: a: channel diversification. b: product diversification.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Benton TG. COVID-19 and disruptions to food systems. Agric Human Values. 2020:1. 10.1007/s10460-020-10081-1 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hobbs JE. Food supply chains during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Canad J Agr Econ. 2020.
    1. Kolodinsky J, Sitaker M, Chase L, Smith D, Wang W. Food Systems Disruptions. J Agric Food Syst Community Dev. 2020;9(3):1–4.
    1. Richards TJ, Rickard B. COVID‐19 impact on fruit and vegetable markets. Canad J Agr Econ. 2020.
    1. Butu A, Brumă IS, Tanasă L, Rodino S, Dinu Vasiliu C, Doboș S, et al.. The impact of covid-19 crisis upon the consumer buying behavior of fresh vegetables directly from local producers. Case study: The quarantined area of suceava county, Romania. Int J Environ Res 454 Public Health. 2020;17(15):5485. 10.3390/ijerph17155485 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types