Uneconomic hobby or pursuit of autonomy? Exploring the farm management of underutilized crop farms

Abstract To improve food security and adaptation to climate change, EU policies promote agricultural diversification with the cultivation of more genetically diverse crops, including underutilized crops (UCs). However, little is known about how UC farms operate and perform in Europe. This paper aims to explore the farm management of UC farms. We interview 17 cereal and vegetable UC farmers in France and address multiple farm management aspects: farm structure, farmers’ goals and decision-making, farm performance, and farmers’ perceived resilience and challenges. We also compare UC farms with reference values from FADN farms where possible. Interviewed UC farmers operate in a specific way, often having a moderate asset base. Also, their goals are different, e.g. they want to contribute to the local economy and food autonomy. Decision-making focuses on boosting farm autonomy through seed saving, using little inputs, and on-farm processing. The interviewed UC farmers are profitable with low levels of debt (i.e. on average 32 per cent and 11 per cent of total fixed assets for cereal and vegetable farms, respectively), and farmers consider their income sufficient to support their households. Their levels of subsidies are low (i.e. on average 18.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent of total income for cereal and vegetable farms, respectively). Outputs are valorised through direct sales and short chains. Overall, interviewed UC farmers deem their farms resilient but still face challenges, such as limited know-how, and limited access to seeds when starting with new UCs. More effort is needed to integrate UCs effectively into EU policy frameworks such as the Farm-to-Fork strategy.