Part-time farming: The Cyprus case

Part-time farming is a feature and a consequence of economic change which involves labour movement out of agriculture. It helps to sustain the rural sector by reducing the rate of outmigration. This paper reports on a pilot survey of part-time farmers in the S, Government-controlled part of Cyprus. The economy is growing rapidly with agriculture declining in relative importance although still contributing nearly half the value of exports. Over 50 % of farmers are part-time, meaning in this case they have another occupation. In general, farming is a minor activity and time spent in off-farm work is often increasing to maintain income levels. However the majority of the sample are keen to maintain their farming activity.In the Cyprus study part-time farmers appear slightly younger and operate smaller units than average; they rent in less land and irrigate a smaller area. Considerable differences are found between the four main agricultural zones; mountain, vines, dryland and coastal. At one extreme, exemplified by the coastal zone, commercial part-time farming provides a high standard of living on farms which are somewhat smaller than average. Off-farm work is available locally and complements farm work. Farmers' confidence in long-term prospects is reflected in their willingness (and ability) to invest on the farm and in their low levels of family, migration. At the other extreme, found in the depressed areas of the mountain zone, overt government policies may be required to ensure the continued existence of farming. The combined income of on and off farm work may be inadequate and farmers often have to borrow to meet basic household needs. These farmers travel long distances to find work and may have more than one off-farm occupation. Much of the burden of farm work falls on other family members. Although farmers would prefer to spend more time in agriculture they have limited confidence in its future prospects and recognize the possible necessity of outmigration.     

Part-time farming in the Federal Republic of Germany

Part-time farming has to be considered important in the Federal Republic of Germany. Only one half of the agricultural holdings are presently farmed as full-time farms, occupying 77 % of the farmed area. The importance of part-time farming is not associated with the production of agricultural commodities, but is connected with the combination of farming and non-farming activities.In the Federal States of Baden-Württemberg and Saarland there exists a traditional interrrelationship between industry and part-time farming. Other regions, predominantly peripheral middle-range mountain areas with small farms and less favored natural conditions, form other concentrations. As local job opportunities are often non-existant, it means that daily long distance travel to reach off-farm places of employment is necessary.The income situation of part-time farmers can be considered satisfactory. Only 14 % are unable to earn their living entirely from non-farm earnings and consequently depend upon agriculture. According to statements made by part-time farmers their motivation to remain in farming is influenced by the compensation of working in a more natural environment. In view of the present (unsatisfactory) income situation of many small full-time farms, part-time farming is likely to increase in the future and to form a stable element in the agricultural structure of the Federal Republic of Germany.     

The geography of part-time farming — A new vista for agricultural geographers

This paper presents a macro level geographic vista and a theoretical vista as research avenues for an approach to the study of part-time farming. In Canada about one-third of all farm operators have reported off-farm work in addition to farming in each census period since 1941. The utility of the Canadian Census is illustrated and the temporal and spatial variations in the degree and intensity of part-time farming in Canada are examined. Variations in the degree of part-time farming appear to represent an aggregate response to the needs, opportunities and traditions associated with specific regions while variations in the intensity of off-farm work appear to represent some component of the form or nature of part-time farming.The theoretical vista is a call for agricultural geographers to incorporate part-time farming as one of the elements in the systems approach to the study of agriculture and as a key index in agricultural typologies. It is also suggested that specific typologies of part-time farming be developed. In the Canadian context a theoretical spatial order consisting of 1) areas of symbiotic relationship; 2) areas of low economic opportunity; 3) rural-urban fringe areas and; 4) areas of high agricultural potential, can be utilized to synthesize the degree, intensity and form of part-time farming.     

Trends and characteristics of part-time farming in post-war Japan

Part-time farming is a wide-spread phenomenon in contemporary rural Japan. Characterized by an extremely small-scale rice farming and by a unimodal equitable rural development, most Japanese farm households have combined farming with off-farm employment. In this article, after an examination of the definition of part-time farming (farm household as the unit), the trend of and factors for part-time farming are described and analyzed. Growth and expansion of off-farm employment opportunities, continued small-sized farming, rapid increase in farmland prices and development and diffusion of labor-saving technology are among the major forces which encouraged part-time farming in Japan. Although the overall performance of part-time farms appears less efficient in the use of non-labor resources (e.g., land and machinery), part-time farms still occupy a significant share in the aggregate agricultural production and in the total farmland cropped. Various on-farm and off-farm adjustments are pointed out which have enabled dual employment patterns to be adopted by these people. In essence, due to the limited opportunities for farm-size expansion, part-time farming is considered a necessity, rather than a choise, for most Japanese farm families. But this has also caused some serious agricultural problems, especially with respect to its impact on farmsize structure and inefficient land use. At least for the purpose of maintaining a high income level and for equitable access to opportunities, part-time farming has seemingly contributed beneficially to the farming population of Japan.     

Environmental Constraints and Part-time Farming in Southeastern Nigeria

In southeastern Nigeria where population pressure is a problem of accelerating importance the agricultural land is in short supply thereby necessitating off-farm jobs to supplement farm income. There is therefore, a high incidence of part-time farming in the region. Analysis of the operational characteristics of thirty-six villages confirms that the intensity of part-time farming varies spatially according to the severity of environmental degradation resulting from population pressure. In addition, villages around urban/industrial centres participate actively in part-time farming since opportunities for off-farm employment are relatively higher. The situation in southeastern Nigeria is used to illustrate the prospects and problems of part-time farming in a developing economy. The implications of part-time farming on the agricultural economy and on rural development generally are examined. Policy measures are suggested that will direct the co-existence of part-time farming with work in the off-farm sector in order to achieve a beneficial and integrated rural development.     

Farmers’ choice of wetland agriculture: checking wetland loss and degradation in Lagos State, Nigeria

The issue of food security has received increasing emphasis in developing countries, particularly in the cities. The emphasis on food security has engendered agricultural expansion and encroachment on the coastal and inland wetlands in these nations. To facilitate and sustain the security of food in the developing countries local and international policies have been designed and employed; they have specifically targeted abounding food production towards ensuring human survival in the cities. However, the various ecological and socio-economic benefits derivable from the preservation of wetlands and inland valleys in these urban environments may be lost, with the transformation in the land use and cover. This study is therefore concerned with how wetland degradation and loss can be checked and mitigated, focusing on the developing countries and their cities. In this respect, the farmer’s awareness of the impacts of wetland cultivation and the role of accessibility, socio-economic and biophysical factors influencing the choice of wetland farming are examined. To this end, structured questionnaire on choice of wetland agriculture in the urban and periurban wetland areas of Lagos city was administered to the farmers. Simple frequency analysis is used to explain and interpret the data generated. The data reveals a generally low level of farmers’ awareness of the implication of wetland cultivation; it shows different categories of factors influencing the choice of wetland farming. Provision of irrigation infrastructure and improvement in living standard of the people through poverty eradication can discourage disadvantageous encroachment on wetlands in cities.     

Afforestation of European landscapes: How do different farmer types respond to EU agri-environmental schemes?

This paper investigates how different types of farmers manage the landscape with primary emphasis on farmland afforestation, planned landscape changes, and the extent to which EU agri-environmental schemes take farm type specific characteristics into account in information strategies. The empirical data concern landscape practices of more than 2,000 landowners in 16 European areas in eight countries who were surveyed using quantitative questionnaires. Supplementary in-depth interviews were conducted for two case areas in Denmark to further investigate the role of the policy information environment. The analysis is based on a categorization of the farmers into hobby, part-time, full-time and retired farmers. This study shows that hobby farmers constitute a high proportion of landowners and manage a large part of the rural landscape. At the same time, hobby farmers are relatively more interested in landscape changes and differ from other landowners by considering farmland afforestation more often than full-time landowners, for example. Yet, 40% of the hobby farmers who are considering farmland afforestation are not familiar with the agri-environmental scheme for farmland afforestation. One reason may be their low membership rate in traditional information networks such as farmers’ or foresters’ associations, as revealed by the in-depth analysis of the cases in Denmark. Thus, it is proposed that policy impact may be improved if farmer type specific differences are explicitly taken into account in the scheme logistics for EU agri-environmental schemes.     

Part-time farming in Spain — a review

This paper is a review of statistical data and existing research on the part-time farming in Spain. The available data show an important level of development of the phenomenon: in 1965, 37.7 % of the earnings obtained by farm families are from jobs off the farm; in 1972, 48 % of the agrarian operators had main jobs off the farm. Most of the part-time farms are of small size although the phenomenon is also important on groups of farms of the largest size. The regional studies show a greater development of part-time farming in the Cantabrian coast, where the part-time farmer working in industry prevails, and in the E and S regions, where the jobs off the farm but within the agrarian sector (wage labour) are very important. Some studies on the stability of part-time farming show that this stability depends on the type of farming, the market of agricultural land in the area and the conditions of the jobs off the farm. In the present economic crisis the interest in part-time farming has been increased.Translated by Isabel Carbonell. Comments on earlier versions of this paper were provided by Prof. Josep Caries Genoves.     

Keeping the stress off the sheep? Agricultural intensification, neoliberalism, and ‘good’ farming in New Zealand

Under neoliberal schemes like audit systems, consumer demands born of concerns about food safety, the environment and animal welfare are theoretically poised to influence agricultural production systems (Campbell and Le Heron, 2007). Whether such influences might reverse or redirect the trend toward environmentally-damaging rampant productivism of the 20th century hinges in part on the subjective positions of farmers and the ways in which they inform how farmers respond to policy and market signals.In this paper we argue the need for a genuine engagement with both the complexities of farmer subjectivity and the interactions amongst farmer subjectivity and agro-ecologies, and animal bodies in particular. This paper presents a case study of sheep farmers on the South Island that reveals contestation and transitions in traditional markers of “good farming”, particularly animal health. We observe how such transitions arise from reconfigurations of the relationships between agro-ecological, political and social histories. In this paper’s formulation, neither state subsidies nor neoliberalism in agriculture is primary cause or ultimate effect of the transformation of agricultural practice. Rather, changes in the political economy expose contradictions in farmer subjectivities, the resolution of which may block or reinforce trends suggested by the political economy. We suggest that contested ideas about animal health within the social field of pastoral farming in New Zealand makes it possible that New Zealand’s sheep growers may take the high road of best environmental practice via highly audited environmental standards of production demanded by elite consumer markets, or that they may remain in the intensifying trajectory of continuing to drive the sheep’s body to its maximum possible intensity of production. The mixed legacy of neoliberal reform is that it has simultaneously enabled both of these contradictory trajectories in New Zealand pastoralism.     

Agricultural transformation in Zimbabwe: Lessons for South Africa after apartheid

When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, reversing historical inequalities became a primary rural development objective. Growth, it was argued, must also generate greater equity. As part of their overall plan, sophisticated agricultural institutions were made available to black farmers and a land resettlement program enacted. Due to constitutional constraints, international pressure, fears about restructuring the economy too rapidly, and a class alliance between white farmers and an emerging black bourgeoisie, limited highveld land was reallocated and large-scale commercial farmers maintained their historical privileges. The only significant change in the subsector was increased capital intensity of production. Small-scale black farmers with access to good land and productive resources have responded remarkably to new production opportunities. In only 7 years, black production of maize and cotton more than doubled and marketed contributions rose from less than 10% to approximately half of national sales. The pattern of agricultural development, however, is spatially and socially limited. New forms of uneven rural development are emerging. The majority of rural blacks still have inadequate land and off-farm income resources to insure subsistence levels of consumption on an annual basis. The rural crisis persists. In South Africa, a Zimbabwe-type small farm development strategy would help a minority of households who are already relatively privileged in terms of access of land, agricultural capital and off-farm income resources. To achieve rural growth and equity, new forms of social organization in farming must be developed concurrent with a major land redistribution program. Zimbabwe's strategy has successfully generated short-term growth but cannot fulfill longer-term rural development objectives.     

Part-time farming in the developing world: A case of Hobson's choice or the privilege of half a loaf

Existing international literature on part-time farming derives mainly from developed country situtations. The vast and heterogeneous developing world awaits documentation, analysis and interpretation. New approaches will also be required due to different conditions, such as overwhelming dependence on agricultural employment, skewed patterns of access to land and high levels of landlessness. Heritage is also different as are future prospects.Colonial economic management introduced constrained part-time farming. For the native population, poll taxes induced migration to plantations. The Hacienda system in Latin America provides a built-in system of dependent part-time farming. Capitalist farming has been spreading rapidly, sometimes fueled by land reforms, and has boosted the use of the vast class of small farmers, usually part-timers, as a pool of low-cost and docile labour.Trends are not re-assuring. Entrepreneurial agriculture tends to displace small holders from the land and to throw them on to the labour market while at the same time it generally lowers the employment capacity of agriculture through modernization of production. Parttime farming seems as unstable as ever and operates against a secular threat to the employment and income of the vast rural labour force. Part-time farming in the developing world merits deep probing and imaginative assessment.     

Positive aspects of part-time farming in the development of a professional agriculture: Remarks on the Italian situation

Part-time agriculture is a large, well-developed and persistent phenomenon in Italy. But this is not well known. This paper takes into consideration the Italian literature on part-time farming (PTF) to find a satisfactory definition. The author deals with general problems of rural development, looking at PTF (especially in farm-based households) as a structural phenomenon. The article suggests the farm family instead of the individual farm operator be the unit of analysis and provides new data and estimates based on official statistical sources from 1961 through 1975. There are different typologies of PTF situations according to the internal and external conditions of the family's holdings: transitional PTF, which involves rural and poor families working for domestic production. This type is a form of subsistence farming which attracts State subsidies and public income transfers; accessorial PTF is a form of autoconsumption concerning different families' members. It is generally used to increase family income (sometimes farming is a secondary activity for people employed outside agriculture); professional PTF, based on the family holding's central role, which is a rational way of farming. This last kind of PTF is sometimes more productive, modern (ready of the introduction of innovations) and more competitive than full-time farming: this element could have important implications for the rural development policy in the industrialized countries.     

Participation constrained: Generating buy-in and rationalizing carbon forestry labor through participatory mapping in Southern Mexico

In recent years diverse actors have hailed participatory practice as an effective means to empowering people in payment for ecosystem services (PES) work. In Chiapas, Mexico participation is a central component of the Scolel’ Te carbon forestry program, the cornerstone of which includes Plan Vivo participatory mapping. Plan Vivo mapping is used by the managing NGO, AMBIO, to build trust relations between participating farmers and program managers so as to ensure the successful production of carbon credits. However, I argue that it is also used to instill in farmers a series of behavioral and attitudinal transformations designed to align farmer land-use activities and attitudes with the program’s carbon credit production objectives. Yet, despite these ambitions, the ability of the mapping activity in Scolel’ Te to achieve its stated goals is challenged on the ground. In order to explain this discrepancy between the aspirations tied to the mapping activity and the mapping experience, I assess Plan Vivo mapping as a situated discourse and as a labor process. Taking the former perspective, I show how the managing NGO uses a paternalistic discourse to justify participatory mapping, one that presents farmers as misguided resource managers in need of external intervention. Then, using a labor process approach, I show how PVM acts to reorient farmer relationships to their land and to development organizations by intervening in farmer land-use practices and by establishing trust relations. It is, however, a process that consists of inequalities that stand to potentially limit the effectiveness of the activity.     

The political economy of part-time farming

This paper seeks to root the analysis of part-time farming in the political-economic structure of agriculture and the larger economy. While part-time farming is not a new phenomenon, the growing prevalence of part-time farming in the US and other advanced industrial societies bears a strong relationship with the emergence of dualistic agrarian structures. Part-time farming has also been connected with the deconcentration of industry and employment. The political implications of the trend toward part-time farming are explored, with a conclusion that multiple jobholding, while nominally a proletarianization process, may in fact reinforce political conservatism in the countryside. The paper concludes by suggesting that future research on the political economy of part-time farming should place particular emphasis on the political implications of and sexual division of labour on multiple jobholding.     

Geographies of folded life: How immunity reframes biosecurity

Biosecurity, in broad terms, aims to reduce the impact and incidence of threats to life through regulatory means. For reasons we raise in this paper, such regulation can often lead to the specification of disease free processes within the food and farming industry, with biosecurity success measured in terms of the degree of compliance with and allegiance to modern farming practice. We counter this progressive narrative in three ways. First we draw on UK-based qualitative fieldwork with vets, farmers and pigs to demonstrate how biosecure farming and disease freedom are translated and qualified, in practice, to pathogen free, pathogen management and ultimately to configuring health through immunity management. Second, these translations demonstrate how building health is dependent on spatial and microbiological diversity rather than uniformity. Crucially, health involves patch-work and situated knowledge practices that are under threat within an industry increasingly marked by control and homogeneity. Third, in conceptual terms, we argue that while pig farming is organised through both biosecurity and a biopolitical regulation of life, immunity opens up political space for exploring an alternative politics of life, one where farmers and others are not so much made responsible for disease prevention, but make valued contributions to understandings of animal health and food security.     

Part-time Farmig in Hungary

Part-time Farming in Hungary plays an important role in agricultural output. It provides 1/3 of gross production, half of the pork production and the majority of such intensive products as wine, fruits and berries, honey, etc. Part-time Farming has two basic forms: the household plots of collective farm members and employees and the small private farms of non-agricultural population. Half of the Hungarian families have such a farm activity, which is largely encouraged by the government. The flexible intregration of large scale (collective) farming and the private part-time farming was one of the keys in the recent agricultural successes of Hungary.     

Neoliberalism and natural resource management: Agri-environmental standards and the governing of farming practices

Private standards and certification schemes are widely acknowledged as playing an increasingly important role in agri-environmental governance. While much of the existing research concludes that these mechanisms consolidate the global extension of neoliberalism – enhancing the power of corporate actors to the detriment of smaller producers – we argue that this overlooks the complex ways in which standards are used by governments and farmers in the governing of farming practices. Focusing specifically on a process standard – Environmental Management Systems (EMS) – promoted by the Australian government as a way of verifying the ‘clean and green’ status of agricultural exports, we examine how one regional group of producers has sought to use EMS standards in practice. Our analysis of a case study in the state of Victoria appears to confirm that EMS was a successful instrument for the extension of neoliberal governance, reinforcing the production of neoliberal subjectivities and practices amongst farmer participants and enabling the government to compensate for gaps in environmental provision. However, it would be a mistake to interpret the development of this EMS scheme as an example of naïve farmers manipulated by the state. In practice, farmers used the opportunities provided by government funding to undertake actions which expressed their own agri-environmental values and practices. Establishment of an EMS and associated eco-label enabled producers to demonstrate and extend their capacity to act as good environmental stewards. Our research highlights how the local application of environmental standards negotiates and shapes, rather than simply contributes to, neoliberal rule.     

河西走廊内陆河流域农户地下水使用的影响因素分析

在农业与生态系统用水相矛盾的干旱内陆区,地下水过度开采导致生态环境急剧恶化。以往对地下水的管理,以政府直接控制地下水使用为主,但效果并不十分理想,或管理成本较大。因此,寻求间接调控地下水使用的措施成为更好的选择。以河西走廊的石羊河、黑河和疏勒河流域为例,以农户问卷调查数据为依据,探究影响农户使用地下水的关键因素,以寻求通过制定更有针对性的政策来影响农户节约并高效利用地下水,最终达到农户自下而上自发节水的效果。分析结果发现：农户对地下水的使用在不同阶段有不同的特征,但均强烈地依赖于地表水供给,地表水供给每增加1个轮次,单位公顷耕地地表水用量会增加237.3 m³,相应会减少795.2 m³的地下水,整体上平均减少504.1 m³的总用水量,地下水占灌溉总用水的比例也会下降3.7%。此外,地下水的使用还与家庭经营规模、经营模式、地下水供给条件及经营者偏好等因素密切相关。因此,政府应根据流域内地表水与地下水的综合条件和特点,结合农业生产特征和农户偏好,因地制宜制定政府主导的管理政策与农户自我调节能力有效结合的开发治理制度和方案,切实实现区域水资源节约与高效利用双重目标。     

Nematode damage to crops affects decision making of the Nigerian farmer and consumer

Four important parasitic nematodes were found associated with roots of 26 crops sampled from four locations in E Nigeria. Commercial agriculture will result in further establishment of nematodes as major pathogens in agricultural fields to the detriment of farmers and consumers. It is suggested that certain features in native farming system worked into commercial agriculture could reduce damage to crops and losses to the Nigerian farmer.     

Part-time farming in Norway

Conclusion Despite changes during the part thirty years, part-time farming seems certain to remain a dominant feature of Norwegian agriculture well into the future. Environmental conditions and the size structure of Norwegian farms would alone be sufficient to guarantee this. But the survival of part-time farming is likely to be further assisted by an agricultural policy which seeks, inter alia, the continuing development of agriculture on small farms and in marginal areas in order to maximize the use of scarce resources of agricultural land and maintain population and settlement in the more peripheral regions.