Files
Abstract
Management strategies and performance differ among farmers, as a result of different,
multiple and often conflicting goals. Many approaches to building farm level models
that incorporate multiple goals have been developed over the years, most of which
share a common weakness. The determination of the goals to be used as attributes in
the utility function is the result of a highly interactive process with the individual
farmer, often difficult to implement. In this study, we use a non-interactive
methodology, described in recent literature, to elicit the utility function of selected
sheep farmers in western Greece, since farmers often appear reluctant to answer
straightforward questions about their goals and preferences. Τhe results indicate that
sheep farmers aim at the achievement of multiple goals, and that the maximization of
gross margin is an important attribute in the utility function of mainly larger farms
with a commercial orientation. The minimization of purchased forage, family labor
and cost of hired labor are also important goals, especially for small and less
commercial family farms. The multi objective farm level model built reproduces the
Greek sheep farmers’ behavior more accurately and can replace the single objective
model in decision making or agricultural planning problems.