Moving Towards Sustainable Agriculture Through Higher Education
7
while a Farm Structure Survey was conducted by the NSO in 2013, having a total
of 1372 full-time farmers, including both arable and pastoral farmers. This research
project focused on arable farmers, totalling 725 according to NSO (2016) statistics.
Since the agricultural census is held every 10 years, the most recent data (JobsPlus
2018) further indicates that registered full-time mixed crop growers, amount to 162
farmers while farmers having both fields and animals total 136 farmers. This indicates
an overall total of 298 farmers. Most of the local farmers practice mixed farming,
meaning they do not specialise in one specific cash crop, but grow a variety of
seasonal crops (NAP 2018).
Maltese farmers have to face a variety of constraints some of which were outlined
in the National Agricultural Policy (NAP) paper (2018, p. 24):
• Scarcity of land related to the small size of the islands and dense population.
• Lack of natural resources, in particular, water scarcity.
• Urbanisation, land use pressures and opportunity cost of land.
• Dependence on imported fodder and other inputs that are costly in view of a
limited bargaining power.
• Fragmentation of human and physical resources.
• Individualism and general inability to exploit economies of scale.
Malta’s membership within the EU has guaranteed farmers subsidies and aid,
but has also introduced new regulations. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
aims to increase agricultural productivity, self-sufficiency, maintaining farming jobs
by guaranteeing improved income for farmers. It also aims to stabilise markets and
guarantee stable and reasonable consumer food prices (Waugh 2002). The Maltese
government has also negotiated a Special Market Policy Programme, aiming to transform this small-scale industry into a self-sustainable one, rehabilitating, encouraging
and reviving this traditional activity (Ministry for Rural affairs and the Environment,
n.d.).
3 Methodology
The gap in knowledge, which this research project aimed to fill, is the lack of data on
the views of full-time arable farmers on sustainable development. This research aimed
to gather farmers’ perceptions and attitudes towards a sustainable farming future, and
most importantly, to give a voice to the few remaining full-time conventional, arable
farmers on the Maltese Islands. In this section of the paper, the qualitative approach
to this research will be outlined.
The aim of qualitative research is to collect data which is as in depth as possible
(Lichtman 2006), having the opportunity to discuss matters with the farmers, seek
their knowledge and perceptions on the issue at hand. Qualitative research “aims to
achieve depth rather than breadth” (Blaxter et al. 2001, p. 64). This may be considered
as a critical element of qualitative research as it “involves looking deeply at a few
things rather than looking at the surface of many things” (Lichtman 2006, p. 13). Ary
7
while a Farm Structure Survey was conducted by the NSO in 2013, having a total
of 1372 full-time farmers, including both arable and pastoral farmers. This research
project focused on arable farmers, totalling 725 according to NSO (2016) statistics.
Since the agricultural census is held every 10 years, the most recent data (JobsPlus
2018) further indicates that registered full-time mixed crop growers, amount to 162
farmers while farmers having both fields and animals total 136 farmers. This indicates
an overall total of 298 farmers. Most of the local farmers practice mixed farming,
meaning they do not specialise in one specific cash crop, but grow a variety of
seasonal crops (NAP 2018).
Maltese farmers have to face a variety of constraints some of which were outlined
in the National Agricultural Policy (NAP) paper (2018, p. 24):
• Scarcity of land related to the small size of the islands and dense population.
• Lack of natural resources, in particular, water scarcity.
• Urbanisation, land use pressures and opportunity cost of land.
• Dependence on imported fodder and other inputs that are costly in view of a
limited bargaining power.
• Fragmentation of human and physical resources.
• Individualism and general inability to exploit economies of scale.
Malta’s membership within the EU has guaranteed farmers subsidies and aid,
but has also introduced new regulations. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
aims to increase agricultural productivity, self-sufficiency, maintaining farming jobs
by guaranteeing improved income for farmers. It also aims to stabilise markets and
guarantee stable and reasonable consumer food prices (Waugh 2002). The Maltese
government has also negotiated a Special Market Policy Programme, aiming to transform this small-scale industry into a self-sustainable one, rehabilitating, encouraging
and reviving this traditional activity (Ministry for Rural affairs and the Environment,
n.d.).
3 Methodology
The gap in knowledge, which this research project aimed to fill, is the lack of data on
the views of full-time arable farmers on sustainable development. This research aimed
to gather farmers’ perceptions and attitudes towards a sustainable farming future, and
most importantly, to give a voice to the few remaining full-time conventional, arable
farmers on the Maltese Islands. In this section of the paper, the qualitative approach
to this research will be outlined.
The aim of qualitative research is to collect data which is as in depth as possible
(Lichtman 2006), having the opportunity to discuss matters with the farmers, seek
their knowledge and perceptions on the issue at hand. Qualitative research “aims to
achieve depth rather than breadth” (Blaxter et al. 2001, p. 64). This may be considered
as a critical element of qualitative research as it “involves looking deeply at a few
things rather than looking at the surface of many things” (Lichtman 2006, p. 13). Ary