Les motivations des agriculteurs pluriactifs du Nord-Pas-de-Calais

For a long time, multiple job holding has been criticized, but nowadays this strategy is being adopted by an increasing number of farmers. This paper focuses on the motivations of off-farm workers living in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (NPdC) region and proposes a typology. Our results show that multiple job holding is often a long-term strategy that enables farmers to increase their income and to combine different ambitions. Farm inheritance is another important consideration that sometimes motivates ?managerial? multiple job holding, where farmers are not heavily involved in working on the farm. We also found that when setting up a business in agriculture, many farmers do not consider multiple job holding as a long-term strategy but, afterwards, their motivations change, and for most of them (but not all) multiple job holding becomes a sustainable and even rewarding choice.