Explaining variation in farm and farm business performance in respect to farmer behavioural segmentation analysis: Implications for land use policies

Abstract

Economic-orientated land use policies designed within a productivist framework have been argued to be inappropriate to achieve post-productivist multifunctional goals. Additionally, policies which fail to account for attitude–behaviour differences amongst land managers may be equally lacking. Using Defra's behavioural segmentation approach applied to 750 English Farm Business Survey (FBS) co-operators, this paper presents an analysis of the relationship between segmentation groups and their associated physical, financial and managerial attributes to test the segmentation concept. An analysis of the segmentation process is provided, examining the effectiveness of such an approach towards enhancing land use policies. Results classified FBS co-operators as: Custodians (14.0%); Lifestyle Choice (7.2%); Pragmatists (53.3%); Modern Family Business (21.1%); Challenged Enterprises (4.4%). Analysis of the physical, financial and managerial attributes associated with each segmentation group concurs with a priori expectations, offering potential advantages to policy makers in targeting policy design and delivery messages to accord with the objectives of particular segments. However, whilst a proportion of co-operators clearly identified with a particular segmentation group, other co-operators found the process of self-identity segmentation to be both challenging and lacking perceived practical relevance. Given the challenges encountered, policy makers seeking to use the segmentation approach to enhance the design and implementation of post-productivist policies must therefore be aware of the need for caution when attempting to “segment” the farming and horticultural population.