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.     

Part-time farming in Canada: Issues and non-issues

Part-time farming has always existed in Canada. Since 1941, about one-third of census-farm operators have reported some off-farm work. The structure of participation in off-farm work by type of farm remained relatively stable in the 1961 to 1976 period suggesting a stable relationship between the production of certain food commodities and off-farm work by farmers.Off-farm work can be considered to be one of the productive enterprises to which an operator may allocate his human and non-human capital endowment. There is no (economic) theoretical basis for policies to discriminate against part-time farmers — part-time farming is consistent with efficient food production.Off-farm work is one way to improve the welfare of farmers and rural communities. Off-farm work appears to aid the entry of many but not a majority of recent entrants to the status of full-time farming. Not many full-time farmers appear to use off-farm work as a mechanism to leave agriculture. Public policies should directly pursue their objectives of efficient food production, fair farmer incomes etc. regardless of whether the farmer is full-time or part-time.     

Large-scale farming as a cultural dilemma in U.S. rural development— The role of capital

Although agressive economic traditions have benefited U.S. agricultural fortunes enormously in the past, expanding farming scale now also seriously threatens equally-prized rural traditions extolling the values of family farming. To see in detail how strongly and in what ways large-scale farming is exerting its influence across the nation, a multivariate model was applied to county census data. Emphasized were forces of capital accumulation rather than traditional single criteria like farm size or incorporation. Results uniformly dispute the argument for continued vigor of the family farm. Smaller operators are not only disadvantaged in all production factors, but also are no longer protected by such traditional recourses as labor intensification and production efficiency. Far more farmers are also subjected to large-scale farming pressures well beyond the “factory farm” areas, and in several places to pressures as intense. One of these centers is the Western Corn Belt, a bastion of both technology and rural tradition, and thus quite possibly the place where the foremost dilemma in American agriculture is finally resolved.     

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.     

Ecological problems arising from intensive agriculture in Western Slovakia

In Slovakia in the second half of the twentieth century, agriculture gradually changed from a private peasant to a socialist type, with the aim of achieving a large scale of production. But the switch from ownership to user rights disturbed the peasants' sensitive attitude towards the land which had evolved through the ages. Agriculture uses 65 percent of the land in Western Slovakia which is the most important part of the country for farm production. Intensive farming involves constant anthropic pressure and in consequence there is much erosion and soil contamination. As an example, this essay investigates eleven districts which form part of the West Slovakian region. An attempt is made to evaluate new trends in the development of regional agricultural structures in agriculture from the environmental point of view.     

Farming as a livelihood source for the urban poor of Nakuru, Kenya

Farming among urban dwellers in Sub-Saharan Africa is a common phenomenon. The present study, carried out in a medium-sized town in Kenya, not only confirmed this but also showed that farming by urban dwellers in the rural areas was even more important for these households’ livelihoods than farming in town. However, those who could benefit most from farming, i.e. the urban poor, appeared to be underrepresented among urban farming households and those urban poor who did farm, either in urban or in rural areas, performed worse than the farming non-poor. The importance of farming as a livelihood source is illustrated by the fact that in years with very little or no harvest due to drought, many of the poor farming households faced food shortages.     

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.     

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.     

The Hungarian diversification strategy: Constraints and opportunities

Although agricultural work is declining in Hungary, farming remains an important source of employment. However, the agrarian population should not be regarded as homogenous because many small farms are worked only for subsistence and family income supplement. This is because of prolonged economic crisis which makes for a shortage of job opportunities in other sectors of the economy. Until economic growth accelerates there is a need for transitional solutions to the problem of unemployment. It is argued that the present farming system could be diversified through labour-intensive programmes to provide piped water and drainage in small towns and villages and simultaneously engage many of the long-term unemployed who are no longer entitled to benefit and lack the qualifications for jobs that require special skills. The environment could also be protected by the afforestation of 300–400 000 ha of arable land or its conversion to grassland. Light industry could also generate employment while stimulating the growth of local farm production and the improvement of the infrastructure. Training for unemployed young people should also be a priority if the erosion of rural labour resources is not to become irreversible. A much more proactive approach is needed from government to safeguard rural labour resources and achieve greater integration between forestry, farming and processing. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.     

Policy synergies between nutrient over-enrichment and climate change

Surplus nitrogen from agricultural production is a leading cause of water quality problems in the U.S. It is also a source of nitrous oxide, the largest category of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Any reduction in the amount of nitrogen lost from farming practices would produce significant benefits for both water quality and climate protection. Using a model of the U.S. agricultural sector we adapted to explore water quality and climate issues, we evaluate a variety of policy options for their impact on farm income and the environment. We find that policies to create markets for reductions in nitrogen lost to water or greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture would increase farm income while producing cost-effective environmental benefits.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Water scarcity problems in Israel

The demand for scarce fresh water requires Israel to cease squandering this limited resource on agriculture, at present consuming about 70% of the annual supply. Environmental pollution must cease as well, for untreated urban water effluent contaminates ground water. All Israel's 700 million cubic metres sewage water must be suitably purified to irrigate about one hundred thousand hectares. Climatically controlled greenhouses and advanced agricultural research will reduce the amount of water and land required for the cultivation of the fresh vegetables and fruit, and small proportion of the dry fodder needed for the country's consumption. Israeli agriculture's association with moral, ideological and social ideas obstructs meaningful reduction in the allocation of water to agriculture. The Zionist movement has always seen transforming land into a means of production as the index of its success. Failure in this would signify an inability to adapt to adverse environmental conditions and be a sweeping repudiation of Zionism. The protracted Israeli-Arab national conflict also affects water policy. Israeli Jewish society has always considered rural settlement, agricultural activity, as part of the substance of its national identity and power, bonding the people with the land and consolidating territorial sovereignty. Since the 1970s, capitalism, which has dominated Israeli ideology, has favoured the individual's interests over the community's. Thus agriculture is mobilized to accommodate the private struggle for the good of the farming sector against the needs of the national collective.     

Agricultural diversification and dietary diversity: A feminist political ecology of the everyday experiences of landless and smallholder households in northern Ghana

There is an emerging literature suggesting that when smallholder households diversify their agriculture, a wide range of food groups will be available, and consequently, dietary diversity will be improved. The present article brings this literature into critical conversation with research in feminist political ecology. Grounded in five years of repeated fieldwork, the article weaves together 70 in-depth interviews, and dietary as well as farm production diversity data from 30 households in northern Ghana. This dataset is analyzed by considering not only the diversity of farming systems, but also household headship, including male-headed, de facto female-headed, and de jure female-headed. Among other findings, the paper suggests that dietary diversity scores are lowest for households who have lost their farmlands to on-going land grabbing in Ghana. Furthermore, the paper suggests that while agricultural diversification is essential, it is not sufficient in itself to address nutritional challenges confronting smallholder households. In the contested and political arena of the household, the gendered politics of access to food can deeply shape how agricultural diversification contributes to dietary diversity. Overall, I do not wish to conclude that there are no benefits of increasing the diversity of farm production. Rather, I wish to stress that farm production diversity might not be the best or only strategy to improving dietary diversity among rural households. Through this case study, I also contribute to emerging research in new feminist political ecologies by demonstrating how the intersection of gender, seniority, marital status, and sexual politics shapes resource access and control.     

Status of climate-smart agriculture in southeast Nigeria

This paper explored the status of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in southeast Nigeria using qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection. One hundred and sixty farmers were selected from the area. Also, focus group discussions were conducted. Data collected were subjected to qualitative analysis and logit regression. The study identified five broad and important practices relevant to CSA in southeast Nigeria, which include: adjusting agricultural production systems, mobility and social networks, farm financial management, diversification on and beyond the farm, and knowledge management and regulations. The determinants of CSA in southeast Nigeria include: education, income, credit, extension, livestock ownership, farming experience, land area cultivated, distance to the market and water resources, leadership position, risk orientation, gender, land ownership, household size, and mass media exposure. Government policies need to support research and development that develops and diffuses the climate-smart technologies to help farmers respond changes in climatic conditions.     

The social relations of catfish production in Vietnam

The growth of intensive export-oriented Pangasius catfish production in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is unparalleled in terms of rapidity and scale by any other agricultural sector, with production climbing from a low base to more than 1 million tons in a single decade. This paper examines the effects of this remarkable change on the rural class structure in locations where catfish farming has boomed, and analyses the role of local state-society relations in mediating outcomes resulting from the integration of local actors into the global value chain. We conclude that private economic activity is deeply embedded in informal relations with the state bureaucracy in Vietnam, with the result that the expansion of catfish aquaculture has generally acted to reproduce and entrench existing class relations rather leading to a radical reconfiguration of the rural class structure.     

A behavioural analysis of hop farming in Hereford and Worcestershire

Behavioural studies in agricultural geography are comparatively rare, and this paper demonstrates the importance of the satisficer concept of economic behaviour when examining patterns of hop production in the West Midlands. The main farm and farmer characteristics of the hop growers are outlined before attention is focused on the relative importance of physical, economic and socio-personal factors in the decision-making process. Whilst economic factors dominate the ranking, socio-personal factors have a significant effect on the hop growers' decision-behaviour. Opportunity cost and social inertia are forwarded as important concepts in accounting for patterns of hop farming and a multivariate analysis emphasized the complexity and individuality surrounding farmers' decision-making behaviour. Differences in attitudes and behaviour are shown to be related to variations in the hop farmers' personality and rationality and to differences in their age, education, experience and traditions.     

Towards domestic fair trade? Farm labor, food localism, and the ‘family scale’ farm

Over the past several decades, consumers in the global North have increasingly looked to fair or alternative trading systems as a means to promote ecologically and socially sustainable agricultural production. While fair trade has historically been limited to international commodity networks, US-based agro-food activists have recently turned their attentions towards building a domestic movement, to bring fair trade principles and standards ‘home.’ Through an exploration of this growing movement, we consider the potential for third party certification and labeling to incorporate social justice into US-based agricultural production, with a particular focus on the implications for farm workers. We view current efforts to bring the principles of fair trade to the domestic arena as a reflection of several interrelated developments: a growing need on the part of small and mid-sized farmers to garner price premiums due to the erosion of the organic price premium; a recognition of the failure of organic certification to advance a holistic vision of sustainability; and the strategic embrace of voluntary regulatory mechanisms as an alternative to public regulation and collective bargaining. Initial research suggests that this has led to particular framings of the domestic fair trade concept, which may undermine the movement’s ability to address the social relations of agro-food production. Specifically, prioritization of the ‘family-scale’ farm and an undercurrent of food localism may obscure farm workers’ role in valorizing the US agricultural landscape.