Farmers' trade-off strategies between investment and private withdrawals, and the profitability of invested capital

Farmers capitalize a significant share of their cash flow in their farm’s professional assets. Indeed, the wealth generated on a farm can be allocated either to the immediate remuneration of the non-salaried workers or to the financing of investments, which can be considered as a deferred remuneration to be realized in the future. Based on the analysis of their annual cash flows and assets on their balance sheets, we document how this trade-off is implemented by a FADN sample of 1,374 French commercial farms over the period 2002-2018. It appears that the estimated internal rates of return of the investments are positive in most cases, with an average of 1.7%. We further identify five strategies based on the respective shares of the operating cash flow dedicated to either investments or private withdrawals.