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Abstract
This paper aims at analyzing business services in bioenergy investments
and innovations on farms in the Northern Ostrobothnia region in Finland.
Finance into research of bioenergy has strongly increased during the last years
both in Finland and Europe. Primary focus of this research has been so far on the
technical and economic problems, like production, processing and combustion
techniques of biofuels and environmental effects of bioenergy production. Energy
resources of farms and their possibilities to act as bioenergy entrepreneurs has
been paid attention to only lately. Research focusing on the background factors,
support services and regional conditions effecting farm level bioenergy entrepreneurship
has been minor in Finland.
The number of Finnish farm enterprises is assumed to decrease from 70,000 to
about 50,000 by the year 2013 and the decline is especially drastic in marginal
rural areas like Northern Finland. This trend fosters the depopulation of rural
areas and weakens the well-being there. New business opportunities are important
in keeping up agricultural enterprises in business. High hopes have been put
on the production and use of domestic bioenergy as one of the farm businesses,
which is at the same time seen as one of the solutions for reacting to the demands
of climate change. In here, governmental and other business services have an
important role, but the Finnish business services are scattered in numerous organizations.
The research emphasis is put on local/regional actors, who make fi nal energy
decisions. Empirically this paper is based on questioning (150 farmers) and
structural interviews (39 farmers) for farms directed to bioenergy production in
the province of Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. The data was collected in 2006 and 2007. Three groups of farmers were categorized according to their attitudes
to bioenergy production on their farms: investors, entrepreneurs and hobbyist.
The results will help to develop future business services, increase bioenergy use,
and bring in information about the factors and causalities behind bioenergy decisions.