Bridges between family farming and organic farming: a study case of the Iberian Peninsula

The aim of this work was to identify procedures adopted by family farms in the centre and north of Portugal and Galicia (Spain), and to verify whether they resemble those used in organic farming. A checklist was prepared in Portuguese and Spanish and applied personally to managers of family farms. The participation was voluntary and 125 valid responses were collected. The results show that farmers included in the study owned small family farms where labour is mainly performed by the family, and tended to adopt, in general, good agricultural practices, many of which are common to organic farming, such as crop rotation, avoidance of GMO or avoidance of phytoregulators. However, they failed to adopt some important practices, including the use of seeds inoculated with mycorrhizae, composting, biological and biotechnical control or avoidance of chemical control for plant protection. It was further concluded that gender and age of the farmers did not significantly influence the type of agricultural practices, contrarily to the level of education and region, which were significantly associated with many of the cultural interventions investigated.