Women Entrepreneurship in Multifunctional Agriculture for Rural Revival in Serbia

Introduction

The interlinked climate change, COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine conflict have raised serious food shortages, trade disruptions, price inflation and quality and safety challenges within international supply chains. Farmers, consumers, scientists and policy-makers worldwide are increasingly advocating more resilient and localized food systems, relied on diversified, shorter, fairer and cleaner values-based supply chains to buffer external shocks (De Schutter, 2019; Gaupp et al., 2020; Gomez et al., 2021; Zaremba et al., 2021; Gargano et al., 2021; USDA, 2022). Proclaiming 2019-2028 as the UN Decade of Family Farming, the United Nations emphasize the role of multifunctional agriculture, family farming and women farmers in achieving SDGs related to sustainable and inclusive food systems, gender equality and no poverty (FAO & IFAD, 2019). Rural areas, valued for food production, tourism and management of natural resources and climate risks but also faced with women and youth outflows, get new opportunities for comprehensive post-pandemic revival, based on the green and digital transition.

Multifunctionality allows farmers to act holistically on various aspects of sustainable development (FAO & IFAD, 2019). Multifunctional agriculture is a framework for a set of business models related to vertical integration and on-farm diversification that integrate economic performance of food production with environmental and socio-cultural issues within sustainable territorial development (Cadiou, 2018; Mihailović et al., 2020). Farm activities are deepening towards value addition (organic, place-based and high-quality food production and short food supply chains), broadening by diversification (e.g., agrotourism, nature & landscape management, care farming) and re-grounding by resource mobilization based on cost reduction and off-farm income (van der Ploeg & Roep, 2003). Carter (1998) linked farm pluriactivity to portfolio entrepreneurship, noting that “pluriactivity has always been an important and distinctive feature of the farm sector” (p. 17). For Tohidyan Far and Rezaei-Moghaddam (2019) entrepreneurship is the heart of multifunctional agriculture.

Lans et al. (2017) included farm women's affinity for new on-farm businesses among specifics of agricultural entrepreneurship, along with the farm location and business environment, and family farms' entrepreneurial tradition. Montagnoli (2020) pointed out that 32% of agricultural enterprises in Italy are female-led while among agritourism companies this share reaches 39%. Innovative business models, based on agroecology, food re-localization, collaboration, e-services and cultural and creative industries, provide new opportunities for rural women farmers and entrepreneurs, notably young, skilled and well-educated newcomers (Sutherland et al., 2015; Cadiou, 2018; Uvarova & Vitola, 2019; European Commission, 2021). These women are building new rurality with their insights, knowledge and skills, connections and participation in public life, and changing social norms concerning work–life balance (Baylina et al., 2017; Franić & Kovačićek, 2019). In its Resolution on women and their roles in rural areas, European Parliament (2017) stresses that women in rural areas can be agents of change in moving towards sustainable agriculture and green jobs. However, there is still a number of gender stereotypes and inequalities that prevent women from using their full potential to run a farm business successfully. Rural cultures and traditions affect female careers (Wiest, 2016). Women farmers often have fewer resources, incomes and assets, and therefore low decision-making power at home and in the community that, associated with poor provision of work-life balance services in rural areas (Franić & Kovačićek, 2019; Addati et al., 2018), limit their access to training, extension, technology, markets, credit and social networks (Brandth, 2002; FAO, 2011).