The restructuring process and economic centrality in capitalist agriculture

The purpose of the paper is to examine contemporary relations in agricultural production. The discussion focuses upon the internal and external processes modifying production relations on the farm and, in particular, the changing significance of farm-based sources of income and capital (economic centrality) to the farm business in the restructuring of agricultural capital. There are a variety of reasons why farm businesses are finding it increasingly necessary to diversify their sources of income, and in some cases capital generation, which relate to their internal family relations and external contacts. While obtaining alternative sources of income for farmers may be advocated for the purpose of reducing their marginalisation and low income problems, this may only be realisable for a minority. The complexities of farm businesses and their external relations with other forms of capital suggest the need for a construction of a typology which focuses on the economic centrality of the business to the farm family. The discussion here is divided into four sections. First, the main characteristics of the restructuring process in British agriculture are identified, leading to a discussion focusing on the transformation of the family farm. The concept of economic centrality is then discussed as an important characteristic of the restructuring process affecting British farming, and a typology of farm businesses established, based upon empirical evidence collected from London's Metropolitan Green Belt. This evidence forms part of a wider study of the changing structure of farm businesses in three areas of lowland England (East Bedfordshire, West Dorset and London's Green Belt) which links farm business change to changes in the farm landscape.     

After Farming: Emotional Health Trajectories of Farm,Nonfarm, and Displaced Farm Couples*

Abstract This study links macro social change to emotional health through continuity and change in farming. Families were divided into four groups, depending on whether they were full‐time farmers, part‐time farmers, displaced farm families who had left farming during the 1980s, or nonfarm families. Using four waves of panel data, we estimated initial levels and subsequent changes in per capita family income, stressful life events, and depressive symptoms of wives and husbands. Between 1989 and 1992, full‐time farm families' incomes decreased dramatically, while displaced farm families started 1989 with the lowest average per capita family income but saw the largest average increases in subsequent years. Farm status and changes in income predicted changes in stressful life events; changes in stressful life events, in turn, predicted changes in wives' and husbands' reports of depressive symptoms.     

The Emergence of Supermarkets with Chinese Characteristics: Challenges and Opportunities for China's Agricultural Development

The supermarket revolution is spreading faster in China than anywhere else in the world. Supermarket sales are growing by 30–40% per year, 2–3 times faster than in other developing regions. This development has been driven by factors shared by other developing countries as well as by China‐specific policies. It presents opportunities for Chinese agricultural producers to diversify into activities with higher income prospects, and for procurement systems to move into dealing directly with farmers. However, supermarket managers face several unique challenges: average farm size is small and farmers are not well organised. Hence, the whole supply chain must be upgraded, and government agricultural policy and rural development programmes have an important role in this.     

Remittances and Other Financial Flows to Developing Countries

Official estimates of migrants’ remittances are around US$100 billion annually, with some 60 per cent going to developing countries. Any policy making use of migrants as a development resource must understand the size and allocation of remittances, and the roles played by migrants and their communities in the remittance process. This paper examines the flows of remittances in relation to other financial flows to developing countries. The examination is based on data available from official statistics. As discussed in the paper, remittances by unofficial channels are significant by all accounts so the remittance amounts reported here are quite conservative. The paper shows that annual remittances to developing countries have more than doubled between 1988 and 1999. Viewed over the last decade, remittances have been a much larger source of income for developing countries than official development assistance (ODA). The gap is increasing, since ODA has been falling while remittances have increased. Furthermore, remittances appear to be a much more stable source of income than private flows, both direct and portfolio, which tend to be more volatile and flow into a limited set of countries. Remittances to developing countries go first and foremost to lower middleincome and low–income countries. Lower middle–income countries receive the largest amounts, but remittances constitute a much higher share of total international flows to low–income countries. Of the ten countries receiving most remittances, two are low–income (India and Pakistan); six are lower middle–income (Philippines, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Thailand, and Jordan); and two are upper middle–income (Mexico and Brazil). Sub–Saharan Africa received some 8 per cent of remittances in 1980, but only some 4 per cent in 1999. South Asia’s share also declined from what was already a relatively high 34 to 24 per cent. Those who gained most were Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South and Central America, and the Caribbean, which increased their share of global remittances.     

Why Agriculture Remains a Viable Means of Poverty Reduction in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Case of Ethiopia

Although there is much empirical evidence of the importance of agricultureled economic growth, there is a renewed emphasis in development circles on the industrial sector as the main driver of growth, even for the low‐income countries of sub‐Saharan Africa. This article applies a simplified model of agricultural growth linkages to illustrate the importance of agricultural growth for increasing employment and accelerating poverty reduction in Ethiopia. Achieving rapid agricultural growth, however, will require the engagement of small commercial farmers, large enough to adopt new technologies and produce significant marketed surpluses, but small and numerous enough to have spending patterns that drive a large, vibrant rural non‐farm sector.     

Care Farms in the Netherlands: An Underexplored Example of Multifunctional Agriculture—Toward an Empirically Grounded,Organization‐Theory‐Based Typology

For agricultural and rural development in Europe, multifunctionality is a leading concept that raises many questions. Care farming is a promising example of multifunctional agriculture that has so far received little attention. An issue that has not been examined thoroughly is the strategic mapping of different care farm organizations in this emerging field. The objective of this article is to develop a typology for care farms in the Netherlands and provide insight into the diversity of care farms. We have used different concepts from organization theory and information from regional organizations of care farmers to identify key dimensions and develop a typology of care farms. Key dimensions are the ratio between agriculture and care, the background of the initiators, and the degree of collaboration with formal care institutions. We found six main types of care farms with different identities, four of which were initiated by the farmers' families (mainly female partners). The other two types were started by new entrants in agriculture. On the basis of our findings, we confirmed, disputed, and supplemented insights to multifunctional farming literature. As a further contribution to that field, drawing from the organization theories underlying our typology, we have sought to understand how different types of care farms could emerge.     

“The Only Thing That Isn't Sustainable . . . Is the Farmer”: Social Sustainability and the Politics of Class among Pacific Northwest Farmers Engaged in Sustainable Farming

Using interviews and participant observation at Pacific Northwest sustainable farming operations, this article analyzes the complex ways that class privileges and labor practices impact the social sustainability of sustainable agriculture. While the farmers in this study were highly aware of and reflexive about the class politics of sustainable agriculture, they also participated in a classed system that restricts access to sustainable farming as an occupation even as it exploits the labor of the farmer in order to regulate prices. In particular, the farmers in the study benefited from educational privileges and often‐lucrative off‐farm income, they expressed a desire to make their goods more accessible and affordable even as they marketed their foods to their upper‐middle‐class consumers, and they used their own idealism as justification to exploit their own difficult labor on the farm. Using a qualitative, ethnographic approach, this research explores the negotiations between farmers' social ideals and the actual practice of sustainable agriculture in a capitalist system.     

Pluriactivity in the Moshav:: family farming in Israel

In the past several years, pluriactivity has become quite widespread among moshav farming households, especially those located within Metropolitan Tel Aviv's rural fringe. Agricultural income has been on the decline and other sources of income have appeared. This paper has a threefold aim: To identify major patterns of income sources among Moshav's households; to explain the underlying causes for choosing pluriactivity as an income-producing strategy; and to explain the reasons for the specific choice of pluriactivity patterns adopted.An analysis of the activities of moshavim¹ located in the Sharon Region indicates that the further the moshav from the metropolitan area, the greater the role of agriculture in total family income. Within a pluriactivity strategy, the main additional sources of income are wage employment and small business activity, carried out either on or off the moshav. The main factors stimulating the increase in pluriactivity are the decline in agricultural income and the desire to take advantage of vocational training. This trend is supported by other factors, such as the availability of premises for alternative uses as well as the ease of operating a business from the home.The divergence in pluriactivity patterns may indicate that the frequency of mixing agriculture with other income sources may be a temporary option adopted by households for which agriculture has been a mainstay. Those households may shift away from agriculture in the short or mid-term. We would argue that at present, for the majority of those no longer devoted solely to agriculture, pluriactivity is also aimed at helping to sustain agricultural activity. In such cases, farmers utilise the resources acquired from non-agricultural employment for investment in agriculture, including the upgrading of equipment and other assets.     

Rural development and the Fifth Malaysia Plan

The Fifth Malaysia Plan, 1986–1990, represents the fourth phase of Malaysia's Outline Perspective Plan, 1971–1990. Its strategies for the rural sector incorporate broadly technocratic policies outlined in the 1984 National Agricultural Policy (NAP). Maximization of farm incomes, and of the national income derived from agriculture, is to be based on ‘efficiency of production involving the judicious selection of economically remunerative crops and employing the most efficient technology’. The model for the efficient mode of agricultural production is the estate or plantation. The greatest challenge to this ‘modernization’ policy lies in the padi sector. Much of Malaysia's padi land remains low in productivity and many farms are too small to support a family. Although great advances have been made in padi production since 1950, poverty amongst padi households remains high and, since the mid-1970s, there has been an active withdrawal from the industry by substantial numbers of farmers. The problem facing Malaysian planners in the padi sector is that of reconciling the continuation of existing land ownership and inheritance patterns with the need for the creation of larger operating units to permit the use of modern technology and raise the incomes of those working them. In general the technical advances of the last 30 years have widened the income gap between larger and smaller farmers. Weaknesses of the plantation mode of production in the padi sector relate both to its methods per se and their inability to cope with inadequate production by very small farms or shares. With or without major land reforms, which are not on the Fifth Plan's agenda, there is an urgent need to reduce the number of households dependent on padi growing for their living.     

关于发展家庭农场的对策研究

家庭农场与种养大户、农民合作社、农业产业化龙头企业都是农业经营主体,但这些经营主体功能不同、各有优势,它们是互补关系,而非取代关系。上海市松江区和吉林省延边州的家庭农场在我国具有典型意义。松江区、延边州为了避免在工业化、城镇化快速推进过程中,可能出现农业被边缘化、农地粗放经营等问题,探索发展了家庭农场。目前,各地发展家庭农场的积极性很高,但认识上还存在一些误区,这些认识如得不到及时澄清,可能使家庭农场培育偏离健康发展的轨道。     

Are Conventional Farmers Conventional? Analysis of the Environmental Orientations of Conventional New Zealand Farmers*

Abstract Within the political economy of agriculture and agrofood literatures there are examples of approaches that reject simple dichotomies between alternatives and the mainstream. In line with such approaches, we challenge the assumption that alternative agriculture, and its attendant improved environmental practices, alternative management styles, less intensive approaches, and better approaches to animal and ecosystem welfare, is the only source of agricultural sustainability. This article uses national farm‐survey results for New Zealand's sheep and beef, dairy, and horticulture sectors to examine conventional farmers, measure their assessments of farming practices, and assess their environmental orientation. Analysis identifies a proenvironmental cluster of farmers in each sector characterized by a higher environmental‐orientation score and distinct ratings of other farm practices queried in the survey. We interpret the results in terms of the exposure of different agricultural sectors to the effects of market‐based, audited, best‐practice schemes. The presence of shades of “greenness” among conventional farmers has important implications for environmental management and for our understanding of the various and complex pathways toward the greening of agrofood systems.     

Typology of causes of poverty: The perception of Iranian farmers

Causal attributions are important mediators of future behaviour because once a cause is assigned; a commensurate action can be taken. The aims of this research were to find how Iranian farmers attribute the causes of poverty, to provide a typology of attribution of causes of poverty as perceived by Iranian farmers and to compare socio-economic characteristics and contextual conditions of farmers based on their causal attribution of poverty type. Findings revealed that 50% of respondents had structuralistic, almost 30% had individualistic, and about 20% hold fatalistic attitudes towards the causes of poverty. Farmers with individualistic attitudes towards the causes of poverty had higher quality of life, well-being, level of agricultural technology, agricultural production, used insurance more often, they had more land, income, access to agricultural extension services and practiced sustainable agriculture more often. Farmers with fatalistic attitudes towards the causes of poverty had the worst condition with regard to the above variables. However, those who had structuralistic attitudes, stood somewhere between the two previous groups. Based on findings, a number of poverty alleviation recommendations are made.     

Farm business and the development of alternative farm enterprises: An empirical analysis in Greece

The objective of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework and an empirical evidence of farm business change in relation to the adoption and development of alternative farm enterprises (AFE). The present paper adopts a business typology and looks at the various paths of development. A range of factors condition which path of farm business development will be selected. Some factors relate to the farms' physical characteristics, its business and its human capital. A sample of 200 farmers in the prefecture of Etolia-Akarnania in Greece is analysed in order to identify the factors influencing the choice of farm business development. Three main paths of farm business development are identified in this lagging region of Greece. Conventional (mainstream) farming, alternative farm enterprise development and conventional farming with off-farm employment. Appropriate statistical modelling revealed that both economic and social factors exert an independent effect on the choice of farm business development. Proposals concerning the formulation of future rural policy in the lagging regions of Greece are drawn, based on the results derived from the analysis of the present sample.     

The Dimensions of Agricultural Diversification: A Spatial Analysis of Italian Municipalities

Diversification in agriculture could ensure the survival of farming by broadening the income base of farms and encouraging agricultural sustainability. The diversification of on-farm activities may depend on socioeconomic and environmental characteristics. Although multifunctionality is a hotly debated topic, few papers have focused on the farm characteristics that influence diversification and none have focused on the influence of the spatial pattern. This paper examines the relationship between farm characteristics and the adoption of a specific type of diversification. An econometric model is presented that uses a spatial autoregressive lag model at the municipal scale. The results demonstrate that the activation of each diversification dimension is influenced by both internal and external factors, encompassing farmers’ characteristics, the farm structure, and territorial features, including regional and spatial patterns. Deepening is mainly influenced by the farmer’s age, education, and the presence of small and labor-intensive farms. The key factors for broadening diversification are the presence of small farms and farms with mixed production (breeding and crop cultivation). Regrounding is most affected by the labor-intensive farms in the area and the farms with mixed production.     

Money in marriage: how patterns of allocation both reflect and conceal power

This paper examines perceptions of money within marriage, focusing upon the concepts of control and ownership. It considers the criteria involved in Pahl's (1983; 1989) typology for the allocation of income, and their ability to capture the dynamic perceptual elements associated with change. These issues were explored by means of data from semi-structured interviews, using mainly middle-class couples (thirteen women and nine of their partners) in the 30–50 year age-range. Most of the women were in the process of returning to the labour market following an absence of at least eight years. The findings demonstrate, on the one hand, that Pahl's revised typology (1989), which includes an emphasis on the person possessing overall control, can be used to trace major shifts in the balance of economic power as a function of the life-cycle and associated changes in the source of income. On the other hand, the findings also show that a couple's report of their financial arrangements, concerning the Spooling’ of income, can yield the erroneous impression that resources are equally shared. In particular, the ‘rights’ of ownership associated with having earned the income may remain hidden, and lead to patterns of overall control with potential consequences for a non-earning, dependent partner.     

Farm forests and rural livelihood in Finland

In the rural areas of Finland, a substantial share of incomes is derived from private farm forests. Regional variation, however, is great: significance of forestry on farms is higher in eastern than in western and southern Finland. The membership in the European Union (EU) is expected to alter rural economic development because of considerable negative effects on farm incomes. This study aims at evaluating the effects of Finland's EU membership on the significance of forests on farms in particular, and in rural economy as a whole. Five scenarios with different development of prices for agricultural and forest products are analysed by a linear programming model. Farms are assumed to practice a combination of activities to maximise farm revenue. The share of forestry in total farm revenue is likely to increase due to EU membership and the application of the Common Agricultural Policy. However, the increased significance of forests is only relative as a result of the considerable absolute decline in agricultural income. These results indicate that farm forestry will require increased attention and investment in order to maintain livelihood and economic activity in the mainly agriculture-oriented vast rural areas of Finland.     

Productivism is allegedly dead, long live productivism. Evidence of continued productivist attitudes and decision-making in South-East England

The adjustment of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) initiated in the mid-1980s in response to its high cost and in-built tendency for overproduction set in train a series of measures that have been interpreted as reversing the former emphasis on agricultural production and diverting farmers towards alternative approaches to running their businesses. The policy reform measures have been characterised as contributing to a structural transition from a ‘productivist’ to ‘post-productivist’ era in agriculture, although empirical evidence for such reorientation at the farm level is less than conclusive. This paper reports on results from an analysis of large-scale commercial farmers in an area of relatively intensive arable and mixed livestock farming using documentary and survey sources to seek evidence of this transition over the long-term. Although these farmers have engaged with policy reform measures where these do not conflict with their primary objective, they continue to intensify and specialise their agricultural operations and to concentrate productive farm resources through accumulation and expansion.     

Across the divide (?): Reconciling farm and town views of agriculture–community linkages

In North America and elsewhere it is frequently asserted that changes in rural society have led to an economic and social ‘decoupling’ of agriculture from the wider rural community. Casual analysis of contemporary media reporting and popular discourse would suggest that interactions between the two spheres are as often characterized by neglect or conflict as by complementarity and collaboration. However, scholarly interpretation of evolving relations between farming and the wider rural community, and whether these constitute a trend to relinking or decoupling, has remained elusive and problematic. This paper advocates for and articulates a case study approach to the analysis of ‘ambiguous interdependency’ at the local level. Specifically, it is argued that much can be learned from a comparative analysis of farm and town views of sector-specific development trajectories and of implications for agriculture–community linkages. Insights obtained from in-depth interviews with 68 farm and town residents of South Huron County, Ontario, suggest a strong tendency for farmers to undervalue their importance and influence within the local community, but also highlight certain consequences of ongoing agricultural change and recent municipal restructuring that point toward the continued reshaping of agricultural community linkages. The research suggests both points of convergence and divergence that may be valuable in understanding, and perhaps managing, future development at the local scale and beyond.     

Agricultural structural change: Impact on the rural environment

Current farm practices contribute to a wide array of environmental problems: the monoculture of many agricultural regions, the problem of soil erosion, the contamination of ground water resources by nitrate and pesticide, wildlife habitats lost or subject to fragmentation. Over 50% of the EC's total land area is used by agriculture.Assumed are links between settlement and farm structure, rural culture, related values and environmental quality. This paper attempts to identify key indicators and relationships to predict what the environmental impact of certain structural changes will be. Is there a correlation between farm size or type and environmental impact? An example is the decreasing linkage between animal husbandry and crop growing.Is there a correlation between degree of pluriactivity and the structure of land use? The majority of small farms in the F.R.G. have additional off-farm income. The predominance of small farms is characteristic of the few charming rural areas left. Does that imply that large farm units mean necessarily infrastructural changes, loss of crop diversity and more monotonous landscape?Finally, the question of the impact that different policy measures have on the direction and intensity of agricultural change is examined. A major conclusion is that environmental policies need to be an integral part of regional development and agricultural policies.