Who lives in a farm household and what jobs do they do?

While farms are vital to the UK’s food supply, many households running these businesses rely on multiple income sources. This blog by ADR UK Research Fellow Professor Paul Wilson sets out this complex financial landscape in England and Wales and how his project will inform it.

Food, farming and farm households

Food is an important part of our daily lives. About 60% of our food comes from UK farmers. Most farm businesses are family farms, yet many farm households rely on income from sources other than just farming. We know a lot about how well farm businesses perform, but we know much less about the range of incomes that farm households rely on. 

In my fellowship, I aim to uncover the full range of income sources that farm households depend on and how this varies across England and Wales. I will also explore how farm household incomes compare to those of non-farm rural households.

An opportunity to create change

There are more than 110,000 UK farmers, and farming subsidies cost taxpayers about £2.4 billion per year. Despite this, many farms and farm households are often cash-poor, with some farms making a loss on their farming activities. This means that other incomes are needed to support farming.

With the UK nations now deciding their own agricultural policies, there is the potential to change how farm households are supported by governments. To do this, we need to know how much farm households rely on non-farm earnings from all household members. We also need to know if farm household incomes are substantially different from those of non-farm rural households.

Why does this project excite me?

Coming from a farming background, when growing up I was fascinated to see how different farmers and farm households ran their businesses, and which family members were involved in farming. Later in life, as an academic, I had the privilege to lead a large project looking at farm business performance, but this didn’t focus much on the farm household. This exciting new project will let me explore how farm households and farm businesses interact, where farm household incomes come from, and how financially resilient farm households are. 

I will use the Administrative Data | Agricultural Research Collection (AD|ARC) dataset for England and Wales, which combines information from the 2011 Census with data on subsidy payments and overall farm business revenues. It also tells us about the members of farm households and what jobs they do, covering around 78,000 farm households. I will also use two other data sources:

• The Farm Business Survey provides information on farm business profits, which varies by crop type, livestock, farm location, and size.
• The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings provides information on typical earnings for different employment activities.

As the most recent AD|ARC data available is for 2011, this will provide farm household income estimates pre-Brexit – when the UK still operated within the EU Common Agricultural Policy.

What does the research involve?

This research has never been tried before, and so I will be developing new ways to undertake it. I’ll be supported by a steering group that includes researchers in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Government, plus members of farming organisations and independent academic experts. As farming varies across England and Wales, I am engaging with farmers and members of farm households across the two nations to understand the practicalities, pressures and privileges farm household members’ face and enjoy.

Next steps

I hope that my research will be useful for both farmers and policy makers. I hope that farmers will see the benefit of knowing more about the range of incomes that other farm households rely on. I also hope to provide new insights to farming organisations and to the devolved governments to help guide new agricultural policies. I plan to undertake presentations and workshops explaining the research findings. I will also be producing at least two research papers to help guide researchers in the future.

Find out more about Paul’s project