The Farm Strategy Approach Towards Competitiveness under the CAP Reforms. The Case of Andalusia in Southern Spain

Abstract

The evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and its successive Reforms, has caused a loss of both internal coherence and social legitimacy. On the other hand, the Agenda 2000 has situated agriculture within the objective of competitiveness. What may well be asked is whether indeed the different European agricultural systems are converging towards this objective of competitiveness. To be able to reply to this question it is necessary to change from a 'meso' analysis of the CAP to a 'micro' analysis of farms referring to specific regions. Starting from this context and problem, this paper analyses how the agriculture of the region of Andalusia can be affected by the competitiveness approach in an area which is in an advanced process of modernisation but nevertheless maintains a strong agricultural character and a dependence on the CAP. For this analysis, we have started from the fact that farmers make strategic decisions so as to adapt to a changing political situation. The main objective of this work is to contrast the importance of a combination of structural and strategic variables to explain the differences in the competitive position of agricultural systems compared with different situations of the CAP. In order to achieve this objective, analytical instruments of competitive and strategic approaches, normally designed for individual enterprises in other economic sectors, have been used, adapting them to the agricultural system as a whole. The results allow the affirmation that the farmers who obtain the best competitive positions are those who adopt a strategic position concerning their activity, with a greater coherence between the definition of their objectives and of the resource allocation strategies they design in order to achieve them.