Vad skulle få en lantbrukare att ställa om från konventionell till ekologisk mjölkproduktion?
The Swedish government has proposed that 20 % of the cultivated land in Sweden should be organic by the year 2010 (The Swedish Board of Agriculture, 2008). In addition to this the production of organic food like milk, meat and egg should increase considerably. To reach the government?s goal it is necessary that the Swedish farmers get motivated to convert their production from conventional to organic. Milko is a dairy association that has chosen to focus on organic products, they want to be the leading organic dairy association, and therefore they have a large need for organic milk (Milko, 2008). Today the company collects milk on 913 farms and about 8 % of the milk volume is organic. The goal for Milko is that within 15 years 50 % of their collected milk should be produced in an organic way.
The aim with this study was to illustrate what factors that would make a farmer convert from conventional to organic milk production by doing qualitative interviews with some farmers within the Milko district (a region in the middle of Sweden).
The motives for converting, which appeared in the interviews, were that it would agree with the farmer's ideology, it would be a challenge and a way to improve the economy. The motives that were mentioned for not converting were a deteriorated economy, that it would not agree with the farmer?s ideology, indistinct rules for certification, too little land, that the cultivating would be more difficult and an uncertain future. The access to more land and information, a changed regulatory framework and an increased payment are concrete factors that would make an interested farmer convert from conventional to organic milk production, according to the results from this study.