Association between the farm succession and the generational integration process

The exit of younger generations from rural areas has serious negative implications both to farms and to the territory, however, the generalized aging of farmers is occurring worldwide. The main objective of this research is to analyze the drivers that determine the permanence of young farmers in the family farm. The traditional approach focuses on analyzing the socioeconomic conditions and how they influence the probability of a farm being successfully passed to the next generation. Another strand of research states that the most influential factors are those actions the principal farmer conducts with him/her heirs. These actions are collectively called the Generational Integration Process (GIP). We carried out the field work in a horticulture area of Zarcero, Costa Rica where 126 interviews were conducted to old farmers (above 35 years old). Results indicate that indifferent to the socioeconomic level (SI) of the principal famer, the resulting GIP for the heirs considered potential ‘Successors’ is significantly great than that for ‘Not successors’. The successors, however, show significant GIP differences between ‘Low SI’ and ‘High SI’