The Importance Of Autonomy In Farming

Autonomy in line with farming businesses can be defined as the farmer’s state of being free from any kind of obligations imposed on the farmer by for instance agro- industries, traders, banks, etc. (Schneider & Niederle, 2010). Hence, autonomous farmers are able to manage their farms based on uncommitted decision making and self- organization of their property and labor processes adapted to their given facilities and needs (Schneider & Niederle, 2010). According to van Gelderen & Jansen (2006) there are three major motivations for businesses to seek autonomy: independence, self-congruence and determination. Where independence implies that one is not determined by others; self-congruence as a motivation in terms of acting on one’s own desires;

(1999) decision making in farming is based on two preceding variables: personal factors and environmental factors. Where personal factors for instance are described as the farmers’ personality and environmental factors include both external factors and physical farm elements. The personal factors are separated into two further inducing variables: the farmer’s attitudes toward farming in general and the farmer’s objectives in farming. These two inducing variables plus the environmental factors together shape the outcome, the farming behavior in respect of decision making of the farmer. This scheme of Willock et al. (1999) introduces a general understanding of factors influencing farmers’ decision

These choices have to be taken thoroughly because they highly influence and determine farm management and farming practices throughout the entire process of crop production (Dury et al., 2013). Yet, cropping plans are usually dynamic and have to be integrated into a holistic approach of strategic management together with decisions concerning other farming elements. Besides, farmers have to be aware of uncertainties being part in agricultural production practices that have to be considered in almost every major decision (Dury et al., 2013). Hence cropping farms being complex and dynamic systems, require thorough strategic management to be able to deal with these uncertainties and to fulfill and improve the farmer’s objectives through for instance planning, information processing, risk embedding, reactive decision making and strategic resource use (Dury et al.,