Factors affecting farmers' decisions to realize organic farming

This diploma thesis aims to identify the main factors that affect farmers' decisions to convert from conventional farming to organic farming. Currently, organic farming and organic products are highly popularized because they represent one of the ways of achieving a sustainable development of human society and environment. Thus, many developed countries, including the Czech Republic, support the development of organic farming. On the demand side, this is achieved by information and promotional campaigns. On the supply side, developed countries create conditions for certified organic farming systems. Organic farming subsidies are used as a compensation of the increased expenditure resulting from organic farming as compared to conventional farming. In the Czech Republic, the numbers of organic farms are still increasing. However, many questions remain to be answered. What are the incentives influencing the farmers' choices for organic farming? Are organic farmers propelled by the desire to produce healthy food and to contribute to the protection of the environment? Or are they predominantly motivated by economic factors, namely by the subsidies? In order to answer these questions, the author of the diploma thesis conducted a questionnaire survey among Czech organic farmers. The analysis of the survey provided a number of interesting findings. In particular, it can be concluded that the subsidies as an economic motivation factor influenced the farmers' choices for the organic farming. Yet, the noneconomic factors played even more significant role in the farmers' motivations than the subsidies. The most indicated noneconomic factor are an effort to live more in harmony with nature, to personally contribute to the protection of the environment, to avoid the use of chemicals or to produce healthy and quality food.