Agriculture and nutrition” is the name of a sub-chapter in the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP.

The term part-time farming does not appear there.

According to a study by the head of the agricultural sciences department at the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences, Theodor Fock, it is precisely these companies that provide added value for society.

They offer an alternative to mass production, they act regionally, contribute to the preservation of open landscapes and promote biodiversity.

And they preserve the original courtyard structures, true to the motto: "You belong to me and you don't belong to me, borrowed for a short time, people come, people go, but the courtyard remains."

So says Nikolaus König, vocational school teacher, part-time farmer - for over 10 years with organically compliant young animal rearing - and until the outbreak of the Corona crisis cabaret artist in the program of the theater makers "Bure zum Alange" (farmers to touch).

König manages one of the approximately 127,000 German part-time farms;

According to the Federal Information Center for Agriculture, this is about half of all farms.

The fact that there are so many part-time farms also has something to do with tax law: Smaller agricultural and forestry operations can determine their taxable profit using average rates, and there is no need for a time-consuming calculation of surplus income.

High emotional factor

The emotional factor also counts.

"The freshly mown grass in spring, the earthy scent of the potato harvest, the sweat combined with the scent of resin and fir trees in the forest," enthuses König.

This is linked to the awareness of taking responsibility "for the piece of land that was prepared by our ancestors".

All of this he "ingested with his mother's milk".

But it is a challenge to survive as a farmer.

The master farmer, who runs a 35-hectare farm in the Upper Black Forest at an altitude of almost 1,000 meters, knows what he is talking about.

The Bartleshof has been family-owned since 1805;

The farm was run full-time until 2013, when König continued his education to become a technical teacher.

"I enjoy working with the students from agriculture and viticulture," he says.

Since then, his income as a teacher has contributed around 60 percent to the family income.

Yields from agriculture and forestry (on 9.5 hectares with court sawmill) bring 20 percent.

The rest came from tourism (holiday apartments) and entertainment (acting, cabaret) before Corona.

Included is an amount that König receives for making his historic sawmill available as a setting for the SWR television series "The Fallers".

In it he occasionally appears as an actor.

"Sometimes I'm too versatile," says König self-critically;

None of this would be possible without the help of the family.

A good third of part-time farmers keep suckler cows, which is technically less complex, writes Theodor Fock in his Agricultural Report 2020. Extensive farming is typical of part-time farms.

So they keep only 0.58 livestock units per hectare.

It is also quite possible that the animals are fed with feed from their own meadow and slaughtered close to the farm.

The article comes from the student project "Youth and Business", which the FAZ organizes together with the Association of German Banks.