Side Activities of Non-Farmers in Rural Areas in the Netherlands

Marianna Markantoni,Dirk Strijker

doi:10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2012-23-supplement-2-006

Abstract

In many rural areas, not only in The Netherlands but also elsewhere in Europe, has been observed a variety of employment opportunities for rural populations, following the decline in traditional agricultural employment. This contributes to the fact that the countryside is changing and rural areas can be viewed as new spaces of work. As a result, rural economy is no longer dominated by agricultural activities, but by activities such as small scale industrial production, service provision, landscape management, and residential use. To a certain extent these activities have the form of side-activities next to primary income sources. Most attention in both scientific literature and policies is focused on side-activities by farmers, such as agro-tourism and direct marketing. However, according to empirical data from The Netherlands, most side-activities are developed by non-farmers. In this paper the focus is on this last group. The amounts and types of non-farmers’ and farmers side-activities will be deployed, together with their motives to start new entrepreneurship endeavors and the impact on the local community. It will be argued that this type of activities will stimulate rural economic development offering new job opportunities for income generation to the rural inhabitants and create new economic spaces in rural geographical contexts transforming the rural economy.

Highlights

Rural areas are increasingly becoming spaces of consumption rather than only spaces of agricultural production (Ilbery 1998)
Rural economy is no longer dominated by agricultural activities, but by activities such as small scale industrial production, service provision, landscape management, and residential use
To a certain extent these activities have the form of side-activities next to primary income sources

Summary

Introduction

Rural areas are increasingly becoming spaces of consumption rather than only spaces of agricultural production (Ilbery 1998). According to Broersma et al (2010), 23% of the Dutch population in employment in the five municipalities has lower education, 49% secondary and 27% higher If we compare these figures with the results from this study, we find that there are major differences between the two side-activity owner groups. In these five municipalities there is a tendency for non-farmers with side activities to have a higher level of education than farmers (Table 2). If we compare the results with the Dutch working population in these municipalities, we can conclude that the average level of education among side-activity owners is higher than the working population in these municipalities This indicates that more highly educated people – and especially non-farmers – are more inclined to start side activities

Municipalities reference*

Findings

Conclusions