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Farm Households (farm + household)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	78%
Humanities and Social Sciences	14%

Selected Abstracts

Determinants of economic well-being among U.S. farm operator households

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2007
Hisham S. El-Osta
Farm households; Composite measure of economic well-being; ARMS data Abstract Participation in government programs has a mild impact on the economic well-being of U.S. farm households. Major factors that determine farm household prosperity are the primary operator's education level and ethnicity, education level of the spouse, and other characteristics such as forward purchasing of inputs, use of contract shipping of products, having a succession plan, farm ownership, and location in a metro area. This article uses the 2001 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) as well as relative and an absolute measure to assess U.S. farm households' economic well-being. The relative measure compares the income and wealth position of farm households relative to median income and median wealth of the general population. The absolute measure adds annualized wealth to a farm household's income. [source]

Tree crop smallholders, capitalism, and adat: Studies in Riau Province1, Indonesia

ASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 3 2004
Lesley Potter
Abstract:,This paper examines the extent to which traditional techniques and practices remain current among a sub-set of Indonesian tree crop smallholders. Village-based studies of independent oil palm and rubber smallholders in Riau (Sumatra) indicate that bio-diverse ,jungle rubber' and multi-cropping techniques still exist, but primarily as components of farmers' coping strategies under low commodity prices. A further strategy, seeking income from non-agrarian sources, notably ,illegal' logging and land sales to migrants, partially fits Rigg's ,deagrarianisation' thesis, though his suggestion that the farm household has become a mere ,shell' is not substantiated. The lack of full legalisation of tenure constrains full capitalist development but does not impede land sales. Land seizures during the Suharto period reduced belief in the efficacy of customary (adat) law, though adat has retained importance in dispute resolution and as a cultural framework. New structures of village governance following decentralisation have so far had minimal impact in either empowering villagers or dispossessing elites. [source]

Distributional effects of WTO agricultural reforms in rich and poor countries

ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 50 2007
Thomas W. Hertel
SUMMARY WTO agricultural reforms Rich countries' agricultural trade policies are the battleground on which the future of the WTO's troubled Doha Round will be determined. Subject to widespread criticism, they nonetheless appear to be almost immune to serious reform, and one of their most common defences is that they protect poor farmers. Our findings reject this claim. The analysis conducted here uses detailed data on farm incomes to show that major commodity programmes are highly regressive in the US, and that the only serious losses under trade reform are among large, wealthy farmers in a few heavily protected sub-sectors. In contrast, analysis using household data from 15 developing countries indicates that reforming rich countries' agricultural trade policies would lift large numbers of developing country farm households out of poverty. In the majority of cases these gains are not outweighed by the poverty-increasing effects of higher food prices among other households. Agricultural reforms that appear feasible, even under an ambitious Doha Round, achieve only a fraction of the benefits for developing countries that full liberalization promises, but protect the wealthiest US farms from most of the rigors of adjustment. Finally, the analysis conducted here indicates that maximal trade-led poverty reductions occur when developing countries participate more fully in agricultural trade liberalization. , Thomas W. Hertel, Roman Keeney, Maros Ivanic and L. Alan Winters [source]

Soil quality and fertilizer use rates among smallholder farmers in western Kenya

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 5 2009
Paswel P. Marenya
Fertilizer demand; Fertilizer policy; Soil carbon; Soil organic matter; Switching regression Abstract Studies of fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa have been dominated by analyses of economic and market factors having to do with infrastructure, institutions, and incentives that prevent or foster increased fertilizer demand, largely ignoring how soil fertility status conditions farmer demand for fertilizer. We apply a switching regression model to data from 260 farm households in western Kenya in order to allow for the possibility of discontinuities in fertilizer demand based on a soil carbon content (SCC) threshold. We find that the usual factors reflecting liquidity and quasi-fixed inputs are important on high-SCC plots but not on those with poorer soils. External inputs become less effective on soils with low SCC, hence the discernible shift in behaviors across soil quality regimes. For many farmers, improved fertilizer market conditions alone may be insufficient to stimulate increased fertilizer use without complementary improvements in the biophysical conditions that affect conditional factor demand. [source]

The effect of nonfarm income on investment in Bulgarian family farming

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009
Tom Hertz
Bulgaria; Nonfarm income; Agricultural investment Abstract This article documents a relationship between nonfarm income (primarily earnings and pensions) and agricultural investment in Bulgaria, specifically, expenditures on working capital (variable inputs such as feed, seed, and herbicides) and investment in livestock. Among those with positive spending on farm inputs, the estimated elasticity of these expenditures with respect to nonfarm income is 0.14. Nonfarm income also has an effect on the number of households that purchase farm animals, with an estimated elasticity of 0.35. The use of nonfarm income for farm investment is consistent with the presence of credit constraints, as is the fact that less than one percent of farmers report outstanding debts for agricultural purposes. Yet many farm households take out large unsecured loans for other purposes, primarily to cover consumption expenditures, implying that credit is available, but that farmers prefer not to use borrowed funds to finance agricultural investment. This would suggest that increases in the availability of agricultural credit may have little effect on farm outcomes, whereas increases in nondebt-financed sources of liquidity, such as subsidies or transfers, may better stimulate investment. [source]

Rural nonfarm activities and agricultural crop production in Nigeria

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009
Gbemisola Oseni
Nigeria; Rural nonfarm activities; Agricultural crop expenditures; Credit constraints Abstract Although most rural households are involved in the farm sector, the nonfarm sector has grown significantly in recent decades, and its role in rural development has become increasingly important. This article examines the effect of participation in nonfarm activities on crop expenses of farm households in Nigeria. The relationship is modeled using a nonseparable agricultural household model that suggests that participating in nonfarm activities can relax the credit constraints facing farm households and reduce risk thereby helping households improve farm production and smooth consumption over time. The results show that participation in nonfarm activities by Nigerian farmers has a positive and significant effect on crop expenses and in particular on payments for hired labor and inorganic fertilizers. Separate analysis of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria indicates that it is in the South-South and South-East zones where nonfarm participation appears to induce more hiring of labor. The results support the hypothesis that nonfarm participation helps relax liquidity constraints but suggests how that liquidity is used is zone-specific. In general, the results also indicate that liquidity is used more to pay for inputs into staple production as opposed to cash crops. [source]

The increasing importance of nonfarm income and the changing use of labor and capital in rice farming: the case of Central Luzon, 1979,2003

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009
Kazushi Takahashi
Green revolution; Nonfarm employment; Factor use; The Philippines Abstract There have been sharp increases in nonfarm income among farm households in Central Luzon for the last few decades. This study attempts to identify the effects of the increasing nonfarm income on the use of tractors and threshers and on the employment of hired labor as a substitute for family labor. We found that while the increased nonfarm income positively affects the ownership of tractors, it has no significant impact on the use of agricultural machines due presumably to the development of efficient machine rental markets. We also found that the increased nonfarm income leads to the increased use of hired labor, thereby releasing family labor to nonfarm jobs. [source]

Determinants of economic well-being among U.S. farm operator households

Introduction to the special issue on the role of nonfarm income in poverty reduction: evidence from Asia and East Africa

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2006
Keijiro Otsuka
Abstract In this special issue, we present seven studies that collectively attempt to investigate the role of non-farm income in long-term and short-term poverty reduction in Asia and Africa. The first four studies out of the seven use long-term panel data over two decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. These studies show drastic increases in non-farm income shares and corresponding declines in poverty levels over time, especially in the Philippines and Thailand. Education levels of household members and returns to education also increased significantly in these countries. The remaining three studies use cross-sectional and short-term panel data from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. These African studies show high proportions of poor households and low shares of non-farm income that are somewhat comparable to the situation in the 1980s described in the Asian studies. Without the Green Revolution that provided stable farm income and potential financial resources to invest in children' education in Asia, it is not clear if African farm households can follow the Asian examples. [source]

Intertemporal analysis of employment decisions on agricultural holdings in Slovenia

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2005
Luka Juvan
Employment decisions; Mobility of labor supply; Off-farm employment; Probit model Abstract The article attempts to quantify determinants influencing the dynamics of employment decisions on agricultural holdings in Slovenia and to test specific aspects of labor reallocation during the transition period by the application of an agricultural household model. Through the use of a 1991,2000 longitudinal data set for 22,055 farm households, quantitative analysis of intertemporal employment decisions by farm holders is carried out using probit techniques. The determinants tested relate to the personal characteristics of farm holders (gender, age, education level, and potential off-farm income), household characteristics (size, structure), characteristics of the agricultural holding (economic size, labor intensity), and local labor market conditions. The model results generally confirm existing empirical evidence on asymmetrical and irreversible participation of holders on the labor market. Despite intensive restructuring of agriculture and profound changes in the nonfarm labor market in the analyzed period, labor supply of farm holders remains rigid. The mobility of labor supply is lower than expected, which can be attributed to the importance of structural problems constraining intersectoral mobility. Low labor mobility reduces the efficiency of labor allocation on agricultural holdings in Slovenia. Elements of this problem emerge on both supply (e.g., low level of educational and professional attainment of reference persons) and demand sides of the labor market (e.g., unfavorable local labor market conditions). A marked tendency toward maintaining the same employment status is more distinct in the case of holders employed on-farm only. [source]

The role of social capital in the promotion of conservation farming: the case of ,landcare' in the Southern Philippines

LAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2006
R. A. Cramb
Abstract ,Social capital' refers to the relationships of trust, communication, and cooperation that facilitate collective action in a community. It is particularly relevant to soil conservation in developing countries, which requires collective efforts to raise awareness of soil degradation, provide effective training in soil conservation practices, and implement soil conservation measures on individual farms. The Landcare Program in the Southern Philippines promotes simple conservation practices in upland environments through establishing and supporting community landcare groups and municipal landcare associations, thus augmenting the social capital of farmers in these locations. An evaluation of the Landcare Program in Barangay Ned, South Cotabato, based on a survey of 313 farm households and case studies of nine landcare groups, shows that, despite extreme isolation and difficult working conditions, farmers responded by rapidly forming landcare groups and a landcare association, and adopting contour barriers on their maize farms. They utilized the bonding social capital inhering in their local communities to build stocks of bridging social capital, linking them to information, training and resources from outside their immediate locality. A logistic regression model of the factors affecting adoption of contour barriers shows that farmers who had undergone the practical, farmer-based training provided by the Landcare Program, and who were members of a landcare group, were significantly more likely to adopt conservation measures. These results confirm the value of investing in social capital to promote soil conservation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

A Farm Household Conception of Pluriactivity in Canadian Agriculture: Motivation, Diversification and Livelihood*

CANADIAN REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY/REVUE CANADIENNE DE SOCIOLOGIE, Issue 1 2006
KENNETH C. BESSANTArticle first published online: 14 JUL 200
La collecte d'information du recensement sur la pluriactivité agricole ou sur l' « agriculture à temps partiel », comme on l'appelait au début, a commencé aussi tôt que dans les années trente aux États-Unis et dans les années quarante au Canada. Depuis, les chercheurs ne se sont pas contentés de rapporter les statistiques descriptives de base, ils ont effectué des enquêtes détaillées des diverses sources non agricoles sur le revenu familial global, sur les types d'emplois à l'exterieur de la ferme et sur les motivations sous-jacentes. Quoique l'intérêt pour le sujet ait quelque peu diminué, une analyse plus approfondie des ménages pluriactifs est justifiée, particulièrement à la lumière de la restructuration et du dépeuplement ruraux et de la « crise agricole ». Les spécialistes en sciences humaines ont suivi des pistes divergentes sur la nature de la pluriactivité; cependant, plusieurs de ces travaux sont liés aux concepts des collectivités rurales durables (CRD), comme les stratégies adaptatives, la diversification et la résilience. Dans cet article, l'auteur explore l'utilité de l'analyse des CRD pour interpréter la présence, la persistance, les formes et fonctions variées de pluriactivité dans les ménages agricoles canadiens. The collection of census information about pluriactivity or "part-time farming," as it was initially termed, began as early as the 1930s in the United States and the 1940s in Canada. Researchers have since moved beyond reporting basic descriptive statistics to detailed investigations of the various non-farm sources of total family income, types of off-farm employment, and underlying motivations. Although interest in the topic has waned somewhat, further analysis of pluriactive households is warranted, particularly in light of rural restructuring, farm depopulation, and the "farm crisis." Social scientists have pursued divergent lines of inquiry into the nature of pluriactivity; however, much of this work is related to Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (SRL) concepts such as adaptive strategies, diversification and resilience. This paper explores the utility of SRL analysis for interpreting the presence, persistence, and varied forms and functions of pluriactivity among Canadian farm households. [source]

China's New Rural Income Support Policy: Impacts on Grain Production and Rural Income Inequality

CHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 6 2006
Nico Heerink
D58; Q12; Q18 Abstract This paper analyses the impact of agricultural tax abolition and direct income payments to grain farmers on grain production and rural inequality in China. To separate the impact of the income support measures from recent price trends for grains and inputs, and to account for differences in household responses, we use a village-level general equilibrium model that we calibrate for two villages with different degrees of market access in Jiangxi province. The results show that the income support policy does not reach its goal of promoting grain production. The increased incomes allow farm households to buy more inputs for livestock production and involve other activities that are more profitable than grain farming. Selling of rice outside the villages declines more than rice production, because households in the villages consume more rice when incomes rise. We further find that the income support measures tend to reduce income within a village, but that tax abolition tends to widen income inequality between villages. (Edited by Zhinan Zhang) [source]