Subscribe to this RSS feed
2025. Vol.10. №1.

Small business’ motivation for organic production in the agricultural sector of the North-West

May 21 2025

Nikonova N.A., Nikonov A.G., Dibirova Kh.A. Small business’ motivation for organic production in the agricultural sector of the North-West // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2025. V.10. №1. P. 178-201.

EDN: RLJZFA

Annotation

The article considers the possibility of sustainable development of the national organic market by affecting the motivation of local producers. The authors mention theoretical approaches to the study of the relationship between incentive factors and economic behavior and present the results of the survey of heads of farms in the Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov Regions (N=151) to reveal reasons hindering the development of organic production in the North-West. The motivation features of small business in the today’s institutional environment depend on typological characteristics of producers: “highly motivated”, “lowly motivated”, and “conditionally motivated”. Thus, despite some respondents’ interest in the transition to organic agriculture, there are factors preventing such a transition, and one of the most important is the need for increased government support, including in marketing. The authors conclude that mainly the risks of not getting the desired economic result influence intentions and plans of such producers, regardless of the location of the farm, which explains the need for special target programs at the regional level to stimulate the business sector, including the study of the dynamics of producers’ motives and incentives.

Keywords

Motives, organic production, questionnaire, respondents, small agribusiness, government support, North-West.

About the authors

Natalya A. Nikonova, PhD (Economics), Researcher, Saint Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 14th Line V.O., no 39, Saint Petersburg, 199178, Russia.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Aleksey G. Nikonov, Researcher, Saint Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 14th Line V.O., no 39, Saint Petersburg, 199178, Russia.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Khapsat A. Dibirova, Junior Researcher, Saint Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 14th Line V.O., no 39, Saint Petersburg, 199178, Russia.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Full text

 

Additional Info

2020. Vol.5. №4.

Post-Soviet farmers’ international in the agriculture of the North-West Region

Jan 05 2021

Bozhkov O.B., Trotsuk I.V. Post-Soviet farmers’ international in the agriculture of the North-West Region // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2020. V.5. №4. P. 162-179.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-4-162-179

Annotation

The article presents the life trajectories of representatives of those national groups that became active rural entrepreneurs in the North-West Region of Russia at different times. Unfortunately, we have not yet considered the national-ethnic aspect of rural entrepreneurship in our research projects (see, e.g.: Bozhkov, 2019; Bozhkov, Ignatova, 2015; 2017; Bozhkov, Trotsuk, 2018; Ignatova, 2016). The article focuses on various problems that the migrants from different former republics of the Soviet Union face in the zones of risky Russian agriculture. The empirical basis of the article is the data (transcripts of interviews and field observations) of sociological expeditions supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research in 2005–2008 and 2018–2019. The four ‘cases’ confirm the hypothesis that, regardless of the migration-generational trajectory and activities in the Russian countryside, all entrepreneurs face the same problems (labor shortage, abandoned production facilities and dilapidated social infrastructure, expensive loans and harsh tax and administrative pressure ‘from above’—despite the declarative-nominal support of the state, the general atmosphere of social distrust, the lack of traditions and skills of real cooperation, and so on). There is some specificity of such problems; however, it is determined not by the national-ethnic factor, but rather by the reaction of the traditional rural community to ‘outsiders’ who bring their own rules and disrupt the routine of local life (with its unemployment, impoverishment, desolation and alcoholism).

Keywords

migration, nationality, rural entrepreneurs, northern Non-Black-Earth Region, local communities, cooperation, government support

About the authors

Oleg B. Bozhkov , Senior Researcher, Sociological Institute — a branch of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 7th Krasnoarmeyskaya St., 25/14, Saint Petersburg, 190005.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Irina V. Trotsuk., DSc (Sociology), Professor, Sociology Chair, RUDN University; Senior Researcher, Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Prosp. Vernadskogo, 82, Moscow, Russia, 119571.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Full text