Organic EprintsFörderung von unternehmerischen Fähigkeiten von Landwirten, EU ESoFState of the Art: The recent European Commissions’ Green Paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe states that ‘Europe needs to foster entrepreneurially drive more effectively’ (European Commission, 2003a). More specifically, for agriculture, Buckwell (2001) states that development in agriculture will take place under the condition that it has to compete freely in the international market place, but where farmers can also be rewarded for the public environmental services they supply. Historically, farmers have not needed to be entrepreneurial because they have not needed to raise capital from sources external to the family network (McElwee and Warren, 2001). Consequently, they are unlikely to have a high level of what Hannon and Atherton have termed ‘strategic awareness capability’ (Hannon and Atherton, 1998). Effective entrepreneurial activity and diversification however necessitates an external awareness and the capability and capacity to diversify. There are significant barriers to entrepreneurial activity of farmers in the EU. These can be classified as internal organisational difficulties on the one hand, or a lack of access to external resources on the other. Definition of the problem: The reorientation of the CAP aims is coupled with a shift of the employed policy instruments from price support to direct payments. By these changes, farmers have the possibility to benefit from market opportunities and to take more responsibility for the success of their businesses; in other words, farmers will theoretically have more freedom to farm as they wish. In order to do this, farmers will have to develop their managerial and entrepreneurial abilities and become more businesslike. Project aims including target group: The primary concern of the project is to recommend ways how conditions of the social, economic, political and cultural framework can be changed in order to facilitate the adoption of entrepreneurial skills for farmers and how farmers themselves can improve their entrepreneurial skills. The guiding idea comprises the persuasion that the kind of necessary entrepreneurial skills is strongly dependent on the strategic orientation of the farm (e.g. organic/conventional farming). Besides recommendations a diagnostic tool will be elaborated with which farmers can positioned according to their entrepreneurial strategy and their entrepreneurial skills. This tool can be used by decision makers to evaluate and advise farmers to become more entrepreneurial, and farmers can assess themselves, learning their strengths and weaknesses concerning entrepreneurship. Concerning organic farming, the project has two aims: first, to show the importance of the strategic orientation “organic farming” on the necessity of entrepreneurial skills and second, to enable organic farmers to deduce which skills they need. Methodology: Theoretical analysis and qualitative field work Involved organisations, project partners: University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK University of Helsinki; Helsinki, FI Applied Plant Research, Lelystad, NL Research Institute of Pomology and Horticulture, Skierniewice, PL University of Cardiff, Cardiff, UK Education, extension and communication Farm economicsProject description

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