The impact of the agricultural industry on the rural economy — tracking the spatial distribution of the farm inputs and outputs

With all the uncertainty surrounding the future of the agricultural industry, it is important to gain some kind of insight into the economic impact the industry has on the rural economy, to enable the formation of the most appropriate rural policies. Using Farm Business Survey data, this study examines the spatial distribution of inputs and outputs from a sample of 52 farms in the Reading Province. The results show significant links between farms and their locality, especially for the smaller farm.     

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.     

Agricultural adjustment and the diversification of farm households and corporate farms in Central Europe

Survey evidence from three Central European Countries (Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) is analysed to identify the degree of non-agricultural farm diversification and the factors facilitating or impeding it in individual and corporate farms. The effect of diversification on rural job creation and household incomes is investigated. The results indicate that the level of diversification is relatively small and enterprise diversification by farmers is unlikely to generate sufficient new jobs to solve the problem of high rural unemployment. The attempt to transpose the West European model of agricultural diversification to the associated countries via the SAPARD programme is questionable, as non-farm centric rural policies appear to be more appropriate.     

Dairyfarmers take stock: a study of milk producers' reactions to quota in Devon

It is now more than three years since the outcry which accompanied the introduction of milk quotas. The impact of these measures has not been uniform either regionally or between farms, yet there is little information on the changes they have actually wrought at the subregional level. This is important where, as in many parts of western Britain, dairying remains' the focus of a still significant agricultural economy. This paper draws on original fieldwork in one such county, Devon, to explore the local impact of quotas on dairy operations, their effects on traditional agricultural and non-farming alternatives and the perceived constraints to change. Drives towards self-sufficiency, diversification, the concentration of quota by trade in the hands of the larger farms and the threats to the viability of the small farm are all felt to have potentially important implications beyond the study area.     

Rural Azerbaijan through Quantitative and Qualitative Research Lenses: Debating the Transition to Small Farm Capitalism

This article examines agrarian relations in post‐Soviet Azerbaijan after redistributive land reforms. We argue that the reforms failed to establish small‐farm capitalism on former collective and state farm land. Commodity production in rural Azerbaijan is characterized by increasing concentration of land and capital, and the recipients of the privatized land shares procure livelihoods not through commercial farming, but through a combination of strategies—including wages, remittances from migrant relatives, and subsistence agriculture. This study is based on the combination of state statistics, government reports, and local ethnography—in‐depth interviews with land reform administrators and with rural residents in six diverse villages from two distinct regions of Azerbaijan. Previous studies of post‐Soviet transition in rural Azerbaijan reported different results of the land reforms. A quantitative account based on the state statistics reported a postreform countryside where small farmers, former collective and state laborers, live off their privatized land shares and increase agricultural productivity. A qualitative account based on local ethnography suggested that the privatized land shares play a marginal role in the livelihoods of local residents. We show how the discrepancy is illusory and stems from an erroneous, legal definition of “small farms” used in the state statistics, which conflates socially distinct categories of land use. When the statistical terms are put into their social context, the quantitative data confirm the qualitative findings.     

Global warming and navy beans: Decision making by farmers and food companies in the U.K.

Farmers are continually adjusting their business enterprises in response to the shifting economic, political and social pressures which affect each aspect of their production. These adjustments may include structural changes, agronomic (production) changes or moves into ‘diversification’ enterprises, and are manifest at different scales, from the farm unit to changes in a country's or region's agricultural structure. One factor influencing future changes in agriculture is likely to be climate change (‘global warming’) which will alter the physical environmental conditions of production. The consequences of this might include a change in the crop species cultivated in different areas. This paper examines the responses of farmers in part of southern Britain to the possibility of growing navy beans, a crop used for baked bean manufacture and obtained almost wholly from North America, as a response to a warmer climate. The paper seeks to explore the network of relations at the farm, national and international scales which will determine the likelihood of commercial adoption of the crop occurring in the U.K. Through discussion of the results of interviews with farmers, food processing companies and associated agencies it is concluded that there are significant structural barriers to the adoption of navy beans as a diversification option on U.K. farms as a result of international trade restraints and a measure of inertia and risk aversion within the processing companies.     

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.     

Return of the gentleman farmer?: Conceptualising gentrification in UK agriculture

In this paper, processes of gentrification are assessed in relation to non-commercial farming: the production of agricultural commodities without the intent of earning a living. The author argues that due to the connection between residence and productive assets (particularly land) inherent in farming, agricultural gentrification represents a special case, distinct from rural and urban gentrification, where gentrification is possible from within the existing farm household. Pluriactivity of the farm household enables both economic capital accumulation and alterations in the cultural capital held. Similar to rural and urban gentrification processes, agricultural gentrification leads to landscape change. Both non-commercial farming and gentrification processes are found to have been encouraged by the state, through post-productivist polices and laws aimed at commercial agricultural producers. The author argues for further research on farmers as consumers of rural amenities, and raises questions about the environmental impacts of ‘non-commercial farming’ and the acquisition of farm land by the wealthy elite.     

Alternative rates of structural change in Norwegian dairy farming: impacts on costs of production and rural employment

The economies of size in Norwegian dairy farming are far from exploited. There is increasing pressure on cost savings through faster farm restructuring. Such a structural transition could have severe effects on other concerns (rural employment and social well being, landscape preservation, biodiversity, heritage values, etc.) valued by the society. A simulation model is developed to study effects of alternative rates of structural change on the social costs of milk production, farm employment and farm subsidies. The model is based on economic conditions at the farm level for various size groups and regions. Changes in the model's farm structure depend on the exit rate of existing farms in various size groups and the size of newly established farms. When new farms are substituted for existing farms, a rapid change in farm structure and a new herd size of 60 cows (the largest evaluated) results in the lowest costs. Approximately 60% of the cost savings achieved by larger farms can be attributed to lower labour input, resulting in considerable losses of employment. Job losses will have the greatest negative family and community impacts in areas located far from urban centres, because a large share of the milk is produced is such areas, farms are smaller and there are fewer non-farm employment opportunities. Government support is necessary to preserve small farms’ provision of multiple benefits. The balance between cost-saving pressures and the rationales for retaining small farms under increasingly liberalized market regimes is bound to be a complex issue.     

Producing More Milk on Fewer Farms: Neoclassical and Neostructural Explanations of Changes in Dairy Farming1

Neoclassical theory in economics has served as the guiding paradigm for agricultural development in the United States. At one level, this model emphasizes the substitution of capital in the form of machinery and chemicals for land and labor. At another level, the paradigm calls for the introduction of mass production techniques, such as product standardization and the routinization of labor processes. Using data on dairy farms and dairy processors from the 50 states, the neoclassical model accounts for changes in productivity on dairy farms; however, the model is less useful in accounting for changes in dairy farm structure. To explain changes in structure, recent neostructural theory that links the structure of markets to the structure of production is used. It is concluded that persistence of family-size dairy farms may rest more on developing and protecting markets for the milk they produce than with tinkering with the neoclassical model.     

“Tractorettes” or Partners? Farmers' Views on Women in Kansas Farming Households

In the United States, for various reasons, fewer farm families rely solely on their farming operations for their livelihoods. As the structure of agriculture changes and farm families adjust their livelihood strategies, do the discourses around gender relations in households also change? This article analyzes the portrayal of women's roles in farming households by drawing on interviews with Kansas field crop farmers, primarily regarding their land‐use decisions, but also inquiring about their farms and communities. The article addresses the following question: How do farmers' discourses compare to Brandth's (2002a) categorizations of three dominant discourses in the literature on gender in European family farming—the discourse of the family farm, the discourse of masculinization, and the discourse of detraditionalization and diversity? While Brandth finds the discourse of the family farm prevalent in the literature, overall, the discourse apparent from 30 farmer interviews is more characteristic of detraditionalization and diversity. Although men are primarily the principal operators in farming, overall, women were not portrayed simply as helpers. Rather, their roles are depicted as diverse and important to farm operations.     

From an Agrarian to an Environmental,Food, and Natural Resource Base for Agricultural Policy: Some Reflections on the Case of the EC

Abstract The agriculture of the European Community (EC) has experienced significant changes in the last decade. From a situation of deficiency in agricultural and food production, the twelve-nation community has shifted to a situation of food overproduction. This change has also been characterized by a rapid decrease in the agricultural labor force and a decrease of its importance in the employment structure which has manifested itself in fewer, more efficient farms. This alteration of structural conditions has led to the emergence of a new set of agricultural issues. This article discusses these changes by underscoring the decline of agrarian-based issues and the emergence of environmental, food, and natural resource-based issues. It is maintained that EC agricultural policies have been instrumental in both the resolution of agrarian-based issues and in the creation of new problems embodied in the environmental, food, and natural resource-based policies. The combination of the demise of agrarian-based policies and the emergence of environmental, food, and natural resource-based policies is also employed as a theoretical perspective from which the evolution of the agricultural sector in the EC can be interpreted.     

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.     

The Uplands after neoliberalism? – The role of the small farm in rural sustainability

The modernist project foresaw no role for small farms, but this can no longer be regarded as axiomatic as neoliberalism enters what Peck et al. call its “zombie phase”. This paper asks what contribution small farms in the uplands can make to societies’ goals, what role they might play in the sustainability of rural communities in such regions, and how this contribution might be supported by state policies. In Scotland and in Norway these questions have recently been the subject of policy debates which appear to offer exceptions or alternatives to neoliberal universalism, and these are considered specifically in this paper. In each case support for small farms is seen as necessary to maintain ‘lights in the windows’ of remoter rural areas. Moreover, each highlights the vital role of the state in offering not only financial support but also in regulating land transfers and occupancy. It is argued that the dismantling of such regulatory powers depletes the state’s ability to manage the tensions between continuity and change which are at the heart of sustainable rural development. The paper concludes that small farms can persist and can contribute to rural sustainability in ways that have been infrequently recognised under neoliberalism.     

An alternative to farmer age as an indicator of life-cycle stage: The case for a farm family age index

In studies of farming, the age of the principal decision-maker (PDM) has been associated with numerous farm structural and managerial features and has been widely accepted as a good indicator of the influence of life-cycle factors on decision-making. As such, it has become an important aspect of many quantitative studies of agricultural change. However, contemporary studies of family farming demonstrate that the concept of a single PDM in family farms is becoming an anachronism as alternative enterprises, pluriactivity and the scale of family farms force more diffuse management/operating systems. This raises questions concerning whether the age of the PDM can still be taken as representative of farm structure, strategy or life-cycle stage? Using a study conducted in the Grampian Mountains region of Scotland in 2003 this note investigates the impact of using an alternative index—compiled by averaging the age of family members working on the farm. It suggests that PDM age is a relatively poor indicator of farm structural and managerial features compared to a family age index and calls for researchers to think about alternative approaches to measuring ‘age’ as an indicator.     

The Production Function,Crop Diversity,and the Debate Between Conventional and Sustainable Agriculture1

Abstract Organizational assumptions embedded in the production function of neoclassical economics have served to structure production agriculture in the United States for the past 100 years. The narrow focus of the production function on the inputs of land, labor, capital, and management and the use of on-farm profitability as the primary definition of sustainability have come under attack from sustainable agriculturalists, who argue that the social and environmental consequences of production are as important as the economic outcomes. Using diversity of crops harvested as an indicator of sustainability, the production function is operationalized to inform the debate between the conventional, neoclassical model of production and the alternative, sustainable model. Census of agriculture data from 1978, 1982, and 1987 are used in both cross-sectional and temporal models. Results show that increases in expenditures for equipment and machinery, prevalence of corporate farms, higher rates of tenancy, and the prevalence of large farms are associated with lower levels of diversity at the county level. Conversely, higher levels of diversity are found in counties with greater farm labor expenses, where there are more medium-size farms, and where farmers are more likely to farm full-time.     

Farmer participation in voluntary land diversion schemes: Some predictions from a survey

National and European agricultural policy schemes are now coming forward which rely on land diversion to achieve a variety of supply control, social and environmental policy goals. Operating on a voluntary basis, these will depend for their success on sufficient numbers of farmers agreeing to enrol land in sufficient quantities and in the right localities. Participation is thus a crucial variable in any assessment of land diversion policies. This paper draws on the results of a farm survey to make some predictions about the level and pattern of uptake of a range of such schemes, identifying the characteristics of resistors and adopters and exploring the motives of participants. It is concluded that land diversion will have most appeal to well-placed farmers who are able to justify the diversion of land out of an agricultural use in terms of forestry and conservation plans which have already been laid. The implication is that voluntary schemes may not be especially powerful instruments for bringing about land use changes on the large number of holdings in the U.K. which presently lack any history of conservation or forestry management, at least not without accompanying reductions in the level of market support for agriculture.     

Modelling of socio-ecological connectivity. The rural-urban network in the surroundings of Madrid (Central Spain)

As most of Europe’s metropolitan landscapes grow, a change is occurring in their surrounding rural environment. The consequences thereof mainly involve losses of traditional land uses and changes in the socioecomic structures of the local population. The lack of coupling ‘urban society-countryside’ can be considered to constitute a driving force of this process. The present paper focuses upon the rural-urban network around the metropolis of Madrid (Central Spain). We developed a quantitative model to explain the socio-ecological rural-urban linkages, taking into account the influence of the metropolis in the network of neighbouring municipalities. The results show a rural landscape gradient ranging from silvo-pastoral to agricultural land uses and maintaining different interactions with the local socioeconomy. Urban-rural polarisation of the territory and accessibility to the metropolis are the main factors influencing the landscape dynamics. Territorial cohesion among municipalities and connectivity with the metropolis are factors determining the socio-ecological structure. The agricultural area presents good social cohesion, but a weak connection with the City. The silvo-pastoral landscape, on the contrary, maintains prominent links with the metropolis, but a non-significant interconnection between the small towns. The model tested constitutes a useful tool for analysing socio-ecological connectivity and for quantifying, designing and promoting territorial cohesion policies.     

Hobby farming in America: Rural development or threat to commercial agriculture?

Part-time farming has increased throughout the developed countries since World War II. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the United States experienced a large and widespread increase in the number of farms of less than 50 acres, most of which sold less than $10,000 a year in farm products. The majority of these were ‘hobby’ farms and were located in rural-urban fringe areas of growing nonmetropolitan regions. In sufficient numbers, the proliferation of these hobby farms may threaten the future viability of commercial farm operations by raising land prices, fragmenting land holdings, and thus hindering the expansion of commercial farms and the consolidation of parcels into commercial farm units. America's state and local governments have been slow to regulate the spread of hobby farms in the rural-urban fringe and in growing nonmetropolitan areas. Attempts in the State of Oregon to control hobby farms have met with mixed success. Yet the Oregon approach offers important lessons for other areas of the United States as well as other developed countries. In fringe areas in particular, policies and incentives need to be devised and implemented to locate hobby farms away from commercial farming areas and to eliminate tax subsidies for hobby farms so that the long-term viability of commercial farming can be maintained.     

关于深化上海农村改革的若干思考

上海深化农村改革应着力发展现代农业经营的"三类主体":家庭农场、农民合作社和农业企业;着力保障农民的"三项权利":农民的土地承包经营权、农村集体经济组织成员权利和农民宅基地用益物权;着力盘活农村的"三块土地":农村承包土地、农民宅基地和农村集体建设用地;着力完善涉农的"三项制度":农产品价格形成制度、农业支持保护制度和土地征收制度;着力提升农村公共服务的"三项水平":农村义务教育水平、农村社会保障水平和农村医疗服务水平。