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Small can be beautiful for organic market gardens: an exploration of the economic viability of French microfarms using MERLIN

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  • Morel, Kevin
  • San Cristobal, Magali
  • Léger, François Gilbert

Abstract

Microfarms are commercial soil-based market gardens cultivating organic vegetables with less than 1.5ha per farmer in rural France. Microfarms typically grow crops in both outdoor and protected (tunnel) areas. Despite their growing popularity among young farmers with no agricultural background, there are no data on expected income generated by these small-scale farms. Our objective was to determine the economic viability generated by a given agricultural area based on distinct microfarm scenarios. We used the stochastic model MERLIN to simulate 18microfarm scenarios combining three technical systems (varying with respect to the mechanization level, use of commercial inputs, cropping density, and number of cropping cycles per year), two marketing strategies (varying with respect to the length of the selling period and the range of crops grown), and three investment hypotheses (varying with respect to the level of bank loans and the percentage of workload used for self-built equipment). Viability was calculated from the number of simulations that generated a selected minimum monthly income (600, 1,000, or 1,400 Euro) for a maximum annual workload (1,800 or 2,500h).

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  • Morel, Kevin & San Cristobal, Magali & Léger, François Gilbert, 2017. "Small can be beautiful for organic market gardens: an exploration of the economic viability of French microfarms using MERLIN," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 39-49.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:158:y:2017:i:c:p:39-49
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2017.08.008
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    5. Jiao Huang & Ze Liang & Shuyao Wu & Shuangcheng Li, 2019. "Grain Self-Sufficiency Capacity in China’s Metropolitan Areas under Rapid Urbanization: Trends and Regional Differences from 1990 to 2015," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-23, April.
    6. Paut, Raphaël & Sabatier, Rodolphe & Tchamitchian, Marc, 2019. "Reducing risk through crop diversification: An application of portfolio theory to diversified horticultural systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 123-130.
    7. Pépin, Antonin & Morel, Kevin & van der Werf, Hayo M.G., 2021. "Conventionalised vs. agroecological practices on organic vegetable farms: Investigating the influence of farm structure in a bifurcation perspective," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    8. Mcdougall, Robert & Rader, Romina & Kristiansen, Paul, 2020. "Urban agriculture could provide 15% of food supply to Sydney, Australia, under expanded land use scenarios," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    9. Benjamin Ruch & Margita Hefner & André Sradnick, 2023. "Excessive Nitrate Limits the Sustainability of Deep Compost Mulch in Organic Market Gardening," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-13, May.
    10. Konrád Kiss & Csaba Ruszkai & Katalin Takács-György, 2019. "Examination of Short Supply Chains Based on Circular Economy and Sustainability Aspects," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-21, September.

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