Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

L. Kirner and W. Schneeberger:

Willingness of cash crop farms to convert to organic farming in Austria

Analysis of a written survey

Summary

The number of cash crop farms with the measure "organic production methods" in the Austrian Environmental Programme is low compared with the total number of organic farms. Therefore a written survey was carried out in order to investigate the factors inhibiting the conversion to organic farming of cash crop farms. 1.500 questionnaires were sent to randomly selected cash crop farms praticipating in the Austrian Environmental Programme, 34 percent of the questionnaires came back. This paper deals first with the survey results. Then the results of a factor analysis with the answers to 13 inhibitors addressed in the survey are presented. This analysis identified four key factors for the cash crop farms: standards/extra work, production technique, enterprise development and real net output. Key words:  Austrian Environmental Programme, organic farming, survey, factor analysis.