Farmers’ opinions on the outlook of agriculture in Estonia : a multiple regression analysis

Abstract

While the number of farms in Estonia has been decreasing, however, the strong demand for food and potentially increasing (or levelling) subsidy levels in Baltic countries provide a rather positive outlook for the agricultural production. The aim of the research is to study the opinions of Estonian farmers on the future outlook of agriculture in Estonia. For this, the data of a questionnaire survey of Estonian farmers is used. In the survey, the farmers were asked to give their opinion on the 6 statements: about the demand, prices, EU subsidies, agriculture as source of income and as a lifestyle and about the future prospects of agriculture in Estonia. 6 multiple regression models were constructed to study the relationship between the farmers’ opinions and the following characteristics of the farmer: age of farmer, level of education, size of the agricultural holding, and distance of the farm from the nearest urban growth centre. The results show that the farmer characteristics explained the variation in opinions in 3 models. The farmers with higher level of education gave higher scores to the favourable future prospects of agriculture in Estonia. The farmers with larger arable area were more optimistic about agricultural production as a source of income, and more profit-oriented. There was a strong negative connection between the distance from the growth centre and the assessment on the importance of life-style over profit.