“How Much Does Property Cost Up There?”: Exploring the Relationship between Women,Sustainable Farming,and Rural Gentrification in the US

Using in-depth interviews with women engaged in sustainable farming in the western United States, this project explores an unanticipated finding: migration from an urban area to rural “Prairie County” was necessary for these farmers to secure farm land and sustain their farming operations. This article interrogates the role of migration in women’s access to farmland as both an economic and cultural phenomenon. My findings highlight the necessity of migration for women’s participation in sustainable farming and suggest that women’s success in sustainable farming may align with the processes of rural gentrification, by which cultural and economic in-migrants amplify their social privilege and transform the values and economy of rural communities. This project, then, situates gender as a key structure to understanding both the classed dynamics of sustainable agriculture and rural gentrification.     

Women in agriculture: advocates for a gendered sustainable agriculture

A gendered consideration of rural geography has been barely discernible within Australian and New Zealand literature. The notable exceptions in this case have illustrated the complexity and merit of studying the gender patterns and relations of rural life. Outside geography, there is an expanding literature on rural women in Australia. These works parallel significant developments in the lives and politics of rural and agricultural women themselves. This paper reports selected findings from a study of the women in agriculture movement in Australia. As such, it illustrates the increased awareness of the gendered conditions of farming. The women in agriculture movement works to increase the recognition of women's contribution to agriculture. In doing so it affirms the legitimacy of women farmers’ voices and perspectives. There will be no sustainable rural systems while half the rural population is unseen or unheard. Women in agriculture demonstrate a social dimension of sustainability. They highlight the need to integrate gender equity and a ‘wider‐than‐economic’ conceptualisation of sustainable agriculture. Their actions can stimulate rural geographers to further consider the social and political aspects of rural sustainability beyond the conventional farm/industry and community service sites we usually consider.     

Family or Enterprise? What shapes the business structures of Australian farming?

Australian farmers navigate their contemporary circumstances through the use of different business and legal arrangements that are shaped by the commercial realities of farming and the aspirations of farm-owning households. In posing the question ‘Family or Enterprise?’, this paper examines the extent to which various household and farm business indicators are associated with different forms of farm ownership, namely sole proprietorships, partnerships, trusts and companies. Results from a postal survey of farm enterprises in Victoria, Australia suggest that both household and enterprise factors contribute to the business structure used, although the strongest determinants appear to be those factors that are less well understood in the rural geographical and sociological literature: household composition, farmer age and farm size. Greater scrutiny of the business instruments deployed by farmers to manage family and enterprise pressures should inform expectations of the fate of family farming in advanced financialised economies.     

黄土高原地区退耕还林工程的农户响应与影响因素——以甘肃定西大牛流域为例

以甘肃省退耕还林(草)重点实施区为例,通过问卷调查和定量回归分析,研究农户对退耕还林(草)工程的认识和态度。总体上农民有较高的生态环境保护意识,对退耕还林(草)政策的认识基本持积极支持的态度;年龄、文化程度、家庭人口、劳动力数量、人均耕地数量、退耕还林(草)面积是影响农户环保意识和对退耕还林(草)态度的主要因素,农业和非农业农户之间存在一定差异。     

An Investigation of the Role of Social Dynamics in Conversion to Sustainable Integrated Mangrove‐Shrimp Farming in Ben Tre Province,Vietnam

In the coastal area of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, much of the mangrove forest has been cut to make space for expansion of industry and aquaculture. Export‐oriented shrimp farming is a particularly fast‐growing business. Nonetheless, the importance of tropical mangrove forest ecosystems for coastal protection and marine biodiversity is widely recognized. The Vietnamese government, supported by non‐governmental organizations and donors, has sought to restore mangrove forest. To this end, the government has promoted mixed or integrated mangrove‐shrimp systems in which farmers maintain at least 40 per cent of their area under mangrove cover. Since 2012, mangrove reforestation, care and protection has benefited from local authority stimulus as well. Multiple studies have examined the condition of the mangrove forest in Ben Tre and other coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta. However, no research has investigated the role of social dynamics in farmers’ willingness to shift to, or maintain, integrated mangrove‐shrimp systems. Specifically, the influence of information, group dynamics and social learning on farmer decision‐making is poorly understood and, indeed, hardly investigated in Vietnam. This article reports on a study of social processes in three communes in Binh Dai District, Ben Tre Province, Vietnam. We conducted 42 semi‐structured interviews (with 34 farmers and eight local officials) and used secondary data. Our preliminary findings indicate that social dynamics in these communes were issue‐driven and played an important role in farmers’ decisions to adopt, or convert to, the integrated mangrove‐shrimp farming system. Television, radio, the internet, books, neighbours and training courses all had some influence in farmer decision‐making processes. However, our findings suggest that the accessibility, usefulness, relevance and approach of these communication methods must be improved if they are to adequately inform and support local farmers.     

影响日本佐渡岛农民实施野生动物友好型耕作的因素探究(英文)

野生动物友好型耕作(Wildlife-friendly Farming,WFF)实践是一种维持农田生态恢复的良好方式。本研究的目的在于探讨影响日本佐渡岛农民实施WFF的因素和提出影响这种实践传播的政策。对佐渡岛上把大米销售给日本农业合作社(Japan Agricultural Cooperatives,JA)的5010个农户进行了问卷调查,总共收到2231农户反馈问卷(反馈率45%)。通过与未经认证农民的态度和属性对比,我们确定了影响农民实施WFF的关键因素。与未经认证的农民相比,已认证的农民:(1)对生物多样性和WFF的经济效益表现出更高的兴趣;(2)拥有更多的已认证农民朋友;(3)感受到了来自消费者的更多的压力和期望;(4)当实施WFF时,不受恶劣劳动力或农田条件的限制。为了在佐渡岛进一步宣传WFF,我们建议把WFF实践对稻田生物多样性的有效性信息应用到公共教育中,并在非认证农民和已认证农民之间、农民与消费者之间创建交流的机会。     

Farmer Identity in Multifunctional Landscapes: using a collective identity construct to explore the nature and impact of occupational identity

The use of multifunctionalism to conceptualise contemporary rural landscapes has focused attention on the increased extent and impact of non-farmers in traditionally agriculture-based rural communities. Typologies of rural landholders have been developed as part of that research effort. However, those typologies are not grounded in established theory, including collective identity theory that could provide an important foundation for the study of occupational identity. Indeed, most quantitative studies may be flawed in drawing on only one of the seven elements contributing to collective identity. This paper examines the efficacy of relying on self-declared occupational identity through the analysis of rural landholder survey data in an Australian region. Tests for expected relationships between self-declared identity of farmer/non-farmer and social and farming variables expected to be correlated with occupation, such as property size, profitability, hours worked on- and off-property, enterprise type and membership of farming-related local organisations found that the expected relationships existed. It seems that self-declared occupational identity is a valid and cost-effective way to explore occupational identity amongst rural landholders. Collective identity, however, is complex and it is unlikely that important research questions can be adequately explored without a more holistic approach to the study of farmer identity in multifunctional landscapes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential benefits of moving beyond self-declared occupation to include other elements in the collective identity construct.     

“Die man is die hoof en vat voor”: Women's attitudes to land and farming in the communal areas of Namaqualand

In the former coloured rural reserves of Namaqualand, land is held under an evolving form of communal tenure. This study, using in-depth interviews with both women farmers and non-farmers in Namaqualand, explores women's attitudes towards land and their experience of agriculture. It finds that women gain access to land for residential and production purposes mainly through dependent relationships with husbands, fathers and sons, and that unmarried women find it virtually impossible to obtain land rights in their own name. In the event of divorce or widowhood, women are vulnerable to loss of land rights and other resources. Women were found to engage in a range of agricultural activities, both on land allocated for their own use and on land controlled by male relatives, while a few better-off women engage in independent livestock farming. While the South African government's land reform programme has extended the area of communal land and attempted to secure the rights of existing land holders, this has largely benefited existing male farmers and appears to offer little to women farmers. Women's attitudes to the patriarchal system of land holding were found to be largely conservative. Few are willing to challenge the highly gendered nature of land rights within families, and women generally feel excluded from public processes around land. Nonetheless, women in the study expressed a demand for more secure access to land and an interest in agriculture as part of wider livelihood strategies.     

Contract farming and the remaking of agrarian landscapes: Insights from South India's chilli belt

This analysis of a backward integration traceability scheme for red chillies developed by a multinational food company in India emphasizes spatial integration and differentiation within contract farming. The scheme is premised on the procurement of identically credentialed produce from 10 different sites in two states and incorporates growers in highly flexible and place‐contingent modes. Interviews with corporate informants and farmers reveal this flexibility to be the result of a two‐way process of risk management between the company and growers. The company spread its geographical exposure by initiating production across a number of far‐flung cultivation sites, and growers cultivate chillies for the company within the context of diverse agricultural systems, thereby mitigating dependence. The scheme has had positive impacts for participants, but has more complex implications for the evolution of agrarian landscapes in India. The selective enrolment of participants through ‘progressive farmer’ networks acts to reorganize rural spaces by generating new geographies of advantage and opportunity.     

Aquaculture and the Postproductive Transition on the Maine Coast

Aquaculture is the global food system's fastest growing sector. The postproductive transition—the shift away from commodity production toward more consumption‐oriented land uses—is common in many coastal areas as well. This paper examines the intersection of these trends in a U.S. state, Maine, with expanding aquaculture and extensive coastal, rural economic and demographic change. It examines interactions between coastal landowners and aquaculture farmers at aquaculture lease hearings in the state's three main aquaculture regions. Landowners are often uncertain about aquaculture because it is new and unfamiliar. Farmers use lease hearings to educate coastal landowners about farm operations, and farmers respond to concerns by altering their operations to fit landowners’ priorities. However, comparative analysis of the three regions reveals divergent histories and geographies leading to different levels of conflict. This study shows the value of applying rural postproductive transition theory to coastal regions and aquaculture development.     

Double exposure in Mozambique's Limpopo River Basin

This paper examines how double exposure to economic and environmental stressors – and the interaction between the two – affect smallholder farmers in Mozambique's Limpopo River Basin. Studying two case study villages we find that people, in general, are resilient to environmental stressors. However, most households show less resilience to the socioeconomic stressors and shocks that have been introduced or intensified by economic globalisation. Our findings indicate that economic change brought about by structural adjustment policies pressures rural people to alter their approach to farming, which makes it more difficult for them to respond to environmental change. For example, smallholder farmers find it difficult to make a transition to commercial farming within the Limpopo Basin, in part because farming techniques that are well adapted to managing environmental variability in the region – such as seeding many small plots – are not well suited to the economies of scale needed for profitable commercial agriculture. People use a variety of strategies to cope with interactive environmental and economic stressors and shocks, but many face considerable constraints to profitably exploiting market-based opportunities. We conclude that economic stressors and shocks may now be causing small-scale agriculture to be less well adapted to ecological and climate variability, making smallholders more vulnerable to future climate change. Some local level policy interventions, including those that support and build on local environmental knowledge, could assist rural agricultural societies in adapting to future environmental change in the context of economic globalisation.     

乡村农户旅游适应效果、模式及其影响因素——以西安市和咸阳市17个案例村为例

乡村旅游地面临人地交互作用的剧烈变迁,内部要素适应社会-生态系统变化,趋利避害降低脆弱性具有重要现实意义。本文重新界定基于恢复力和脆弱性的农户适应性理论内涵,构建旅游开发适应力指标体系,以西安市和咸阳市17个不同类型的城郊型乡村旅游地为例,评价和分析农户旅游适应效果与空间差异规律,探讨和归纳适应行为与对策模式,建立BP神经网络辨别和揭示适应性影响因素与重要性关系。研究表明：① 西安市和咸阳市农户适应旅游开发综合效果呈现中等偏下水平的偏态分布趋势,分别处于旅游地生命周期快速发展阶段和探索起步阶段。② 乡村旅游地农户适应效果形成“圈层辐射、两翼包络、外围联动”的县域尺度空间分布格局;村域尺度圈层分化现象显著。③ 经营模式划分的旅游乡村农户适应效果股份制模式>“公司+农户”模式>“政府+公司+农户”模式>个体农庄模式>“农户+农户”模式;常年外出务工和农家乐经营是农户主要适应行为选择,季节性务工、本地上班以及农业生产是辅助适应行为选择,且适应行为组合方式表现为旅游专营型、旅游主导型、均衡兼营型、务工主导型和务农主导型五种适应对策模式。④ 旅游发展机会认知、技能培训机会、社会联结度、劳动力总量、政策知晓度、旅游就业人数、收入来源种类、生活主要能源、受教育程度、公共服务设施是农户主要旅游适应性影响因素。据此,提出后续社会-生态整合研究亟需突破方向和适应旅游开发的政策路径。     

传统村落农户乡村旅游适应性评价与影响因素研究——基于湘西州6个村落的调查

基于传统村落农户乡村旅游适应性分析框架构建适应性评价指标体系,以湘西州6个传统村落327户农户为研究对象,通过参与式农村评估法获取数据,运用主成分分析等方法分析传统村落农户乡村旅游适应类型、程度和影响因素。结果表明： 农户适应类型可划分为全面适应型、认知缺失型、生态主导型、政策缺失型、文化主导型和发展滞后型6种,各类型特点不一; 农户总体适应程度从高到低依次为全面适应型、文化主导型、认知缺失型、政策缺失型、生态主导型和发展滞后型,全面适应型为比较适应,其他均为一般适应; 每种适应类型在6类因子适应程度上表现有内部差异,除全面适应型外,其他适应类型在社会、文化、经济三类因子的适应程度上普遍较低; 政策、社会、生态、经济和心理5类因子中有13个影响因素对农户乡村旅游适应性有影响,影响程度不一。最后,从农户、社区和政府3个层面提出传统村落农户乡村旅游适应性提升建议。     

Agribusiness,contract farmers and land‐use sustainability in North‐West Tasmania

The core questions pertaining to contract farming or ‘vertical co‐ordination’ relate to the ownership of decision‐making. Where decision‐making is partly removed from farmers there arise issues of sustainability which are inadequately addressed by current practice. A mail questionnaire conducted in North‐west Tasmania in 1990–91 obtained responses from 310 farmers, a 68 per cent return rate from the 456 valid cases initially identified. At the time of the survey, 119 respondents were involved in contract cropping, and a majority of these responses indicated a need for greater co‐ordination in farm planning. This co‐ordination requires a re‐think of the roles of both agribusiness firms and farmer organisations, as well as acceptance by farmers that long‐term planning for crop rotation and soil management has associated self‐benefit. Responsibility for soil erosion is seen to lie partly at the feet of processing firms which relegate production tasks to farmers under contract, but frequently appear to ignore the impact of short‐term planning horizons upon farmer capacity to manage soils for erosion minimisation. With few exceptions, such as the processor firm specialising in the perennial crop pyrethrum and one onion processor that encourages soil conservation, in North‐west Tasmania processing firms generally play no part in planning for sustainable land use.     

农户行为视角下的乡村生产空间系统运行机制及重构启示

农户行为转变是乡村生产空间系统量变或从量变到质变的重要驱动力,乡村生产空间系统的运行实质上是农户行为作用的外在表现,厘清农户行为可为诠释乡村生产空间系统的运行机制提供平台。本文在剖析农户行为转变与乡村生产空间系统运行响应的理论框架基础上,从农户行为转变和乡村生产空间系统响应入手构建指标体系,建立模糊综合评价量化模型,并以重庆市江津区恒和村作为实证,诠释乡村生产空间系统运行机制。主要研究结论为：不同农户行为对乡村生产空间系统运行的影响程度各异,大体为生产大户>合作社农户>传统农户;不同农户行为对系统运行响应结果的作用差异明显,生产大户行为主要影响乡村生产空间的利用效率,合作社农户行为对提升生产空间系统经济效益作用明显,传统农户行为对生产空间系统环境改善的贡献作用最小。并从经济、社会、空间重构视角提出发展多种形式的适度规模化经营、培育新型农业经营主体和职业农民、合理引导农户技术和资本投入等建议,以实现乡村生产空间系统协调与均衡发展。     

Cash gifts,perception of social sphere and distribution of water resources for rural farmers in a typical oasis area in Northwest China

Face-to-face interviews(n=860) were conducted to determine cash-gift behavior, cognition and complexity of social relations, and family water consumption for agricultural production in a typical oasis area in Northwest China. The survey results revealed cash gifts to be the second-largest expenditure(1,330 Yuan) for rural households, far beyond the average spending on health(854.1 Yuan) or education(890.8 Yuan). The amount of cash-gift expenditures indirectly reflects a family's social relations level, and our developed Social Relations Extent Coefficient—based on cash-gift and food expenditures—can directly reflect the extent or level of these relationships. Different types of farmers or farming families have different coefficients. The coefficient also shows how social station affects a family's water resource utilization, and how water is distributed among different types of farmers. Despite the current inequities, however, promotion of better agricultural techniques and large-scale cultivation in this area could help distribute water resources more equitably and effectively.     

基于社区理论大城市郊区化过程中失地农民社区的城镇化问题分析——以长春市兴华园社区为例

基于长春市兴华园社区典型案例,利用社区理论揭示了大城市郊区化过程中失地农民社区的城镇化机制与影响。结果表明土地征用体制下以农村社区为载体实现了快速城镇化,实现了乡村社会和经济空间重构,乡村生产空间和生活空间的优化和重组,地域空间并入城市发展范畴,城镇化进程加快,主要表现为城市景观和设施的推进,农民市民化进程加快,包括就业非农化与生活方式市民化等,但存在社会保障和补偿机制不健全,失地农民生活满意度低,社会认同感缺失等问题。     

基于农户利用效率的平原和山区耕地利用形态比较

土地利用形态是土地利用转型研究的核心内容。农户土地利用决策是引起土地利用系统变化与土地利用转型的深层因素,当前学者从多个视角对耕地利用形态展开了系列的理论与实证研究,但从农户层面深入探讨耕地利用隐性形态及其形成机理的研究相对较少。为揭示农户耕地利用隐性形态的差异及其影响因素,本文以农户耕地利用效率为切入点基于平原区寿光市和山区沂源县农户调研数据,从农户家庭劳动力要素变动与农业生产决策视角对农户的耕地利用效率进行了测算,构建结构方程模型探讨了农户耕地利用效率的驱动机制。研究表明,寿光市和沂源县耕地利用效率较低,并且存在地貌类型和农户类型上的差异,平原（寿光市）耕地利用效率要高于山区（沂源县）,老年农户耕地利用效率低于年轻农户。在影响路径方面,农户耕地经营规模、生产要素投入和耕地产出直接影响耕地利用效率,而种植结构对耕地利用效率的影响不显著。