Entry Barriers for Young Farmers – Do They Depend on The Size of The Holding?

Young farmers must overcome certain barriers when entering the sector. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the main obstacles in starting a farming business and to assess whether the entry barriers faced by young farmers depend on the size of a farm. We used data from electronic survey conducted among 510 young farmers in the Czech Republic. The average size of a farm was between 0 to 1000 ha (on average 42.4 ha). The farmers were divided into the following categories: those with a holding from 0 to 5 ha – small, those with a holding of over 5 ha to 50 ha – medium, and those with a holding of over 50 ha – large. Young farmers assessed the difficulties, which they had to overcome when starting up a farm on a scale from 1 (this was certainly a barrier) to 4 (it was not a huge barrier) and 0 (it is not my case). The average score for each category and barrier was calculated. The highest barrier was administrative burden and the purchase of agricultural land. Young farmers did not perceive strategic planning and the purchase of livestock as a serious problem. The test in contingency table revealed that almost all types of barriers statistically significantly depended on the size of the farm. Starting a business is the most difficult problem for small and middle farms, but the purchase of an agricultural land and obtaining knowledge and experience is difficult for all farms to a similar axtent.