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.     

Queer Farmland: Land Access Strategies for Small-Scale Agriculture

Farmers struggle to afford farmland because competing land uses raise prices higher than what farmers earn, especially in small-scale and sustainable agriculture. Farmers often depend on an intimate partner’s income or labor to access land, yet few studies investigate sexual relationships in farmland access. I interrogate how sexuality shapes land access for small-scale agriculture through participant observation and interviews with 25 queer farmers in New England. I find that queer farmers’ sexual identities and relationships influence where they farm, who they live and work with, how they afford the land, and how they learn to farm. I argue that finding land, labor, credit, and knowledge are intertwined, heteronormative processes of capital accumulation shaped by racism and sexism. Queer farmers’ experiences navigating heteronormativity suggest the relevance of sexuality to land conservation and food justice, limits of organizing land access through sexual relationships, and alternatives to the “family farm.”     

Kilofarms in The Agricultural Heartland

Kilofarms are farms of 1,000 acres or more. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Census of Agriculture has few tabulations of data by farm size, but geographical analysis suggests some of the characteristics of kilofarms. Their operators are part‐owner farmers. Their land and buildings are worth several millions of dollars, and their gross annual income is well over the $250,000 necessary to provide an acceptable level of living for a contemporary farm family. Kilofarmers concentrate on growing crops of corn and soybeans for cash sale, and they rely on computers and Internet access to help them make marketing decisions.     

Coping with land scarcity. Farmers' changing land-use and management practices in two mountain watersheds of Nepal

In this study some light is shed on farmers' changing land-use and management practices in two mountain watersheds located in the Western Hills of Nepal. The study is based on a survey of 300 households, group discussion, interviews of key informants, and field observation in project and non-project watersheds conducted from April to September 1999. Confronted with shrinking landholding size, owing to a steadily growing population and scarcity of non-farming employment opportunities, farmers in both watersheds have gradually intensified land use and cultivated new crops to increase farm production and income. They are shifting from cereal crops to livestock husbandry, particularly along the road in the project watershed, and to vegetables and other cash crops in the accessible foothills of the non-project watershed. They have also adopted various structural and biological measures to control soil erosion, landslides, gully expansion and soil nutrient loss in order to maintain or enhance land productivity. The degree of adoption of the structural and biological measures is higher in the project watershed than in the non-project watershed. Contrary to the traditionally held belief of some researchers, population pressure on a finite land resource has brought about positive changes in land-use and management practices. Farmers have innovated and adopted different land management technologies to increase farm production as they are exposed to the risk of food insecurity because of shrinking landholding size and land degradation.     

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.     

Oil Extraction and Benefit Sharing in an Illiberal Context: The Nenets and Komi-Izhemtsi Indigenous Peoples in the Russian Arctic

ABSTRACT

How can indigenous communities in illiberal regimes benefit from oil production? This paper compares the experience of two indigenous peoples in the Russian Arctic, the Nenets and the Komi-Izhemtsi, in their quest for environmental protection and the development of benefit-sharing arrangements with Lukoil, a Russian oil company. The Nenets people, recognized by the Russian state as indigenous, are marginalized political actors who identified a route to receiving compensation for loss of land and damage to the environment as well as economic benefits under the auspices of Russian law and Lukoil’s corporate policies. In contrast, the Komi-Izhemtsi, despite indigenous status in global institutions including the United Nations and the Arctic Council, are unrecognized as indigenous domestically and initially received no compensation. Their path to benefit sharing was more challenging as they partnered with local nongovernmental organizations and global environmentalists to pressure Lukoil to sign a benefit-sharing agreement. Ultimately, the comparison illustrates how transnational partnerships can empower indigenous people to gain benefits from natural resource exploitation even in illiberal political systems.     

Resilience and finances on Aotearoa New Zealand farms: Evidence from a random survey on the sources and uses of debt

Debt and income are keystones to financial resilience on New Zealand farms. This article utilises a survey on finance to assess farm financial health using a new model of resilience. It shows the majority of farms are financially strong. Further borrowing and development are possible. With increasing variability resulting from the longer term trade liberalisation as well as global warming impacts, the high equity will provide future resilience. On the other hand, profit levels are not high relative to the investment, but this has been the case for decades and has not caused problems due to farmer and farm family resilience.     

农户对农业绿色生产技术响应的影响因素 ——以青岛市为例

利用青岛市黄岛区和即墨区10个村庄共213个农户的实地调研数据,通过Logistic模型从秸秆还田、农家肥还田以及可降解农膜和绿色农药使用等方面考察农户对不同农业绿色生产技术的响应差异及影响因素。结果表明:(1)农户对农业绿色生产技术响应的影响因素确有差异。其中,施用绿色农药由农户资金情况主导,秸秆还田受种植结构和政策宣传影响较大,农家肥还田对土地规模要求较高,可降解农膜使用受种植结构影响较大。(2)户主和家庭特征对农户响应行为影响显著。(3)宣传与政策有利于促进农户采纳农业绿色生产技术,尤其是农户参与秸秆还田方面。针对结论提出了加强政策宣传与支持、开展专项教育培训、建立专项金融体系等政策建议。     

Globalization, grapes and gender: Women's work in traditional and agro-export production in northern Chile

Recent changes in the global political economy have had dramatic effects on the lives of women as they are incorporated into globalization processes, such as the expansion of agribusiness, in often marginal and unstable ways. However, it is vital to consider how these globalization processes are mediated by women in ways that reflect local geo-historical contexts. This paper explores the expansion of the fruit export sector, land tenure, community organization and female employment in agriculture in northern Chile. Agro-export production has marginalized but not destroyed the small-scale farming sector and large-scale export farms co-exist with small-scale domestically-orientated farms. Female labour has been very important in the success of fresh fruit exports and many rural women negotiate both waged work in the fruit export economy and unwaged work on family farms. The paper explores the women's perceptions of agricultural work and how these relate to their identities as unpaid workers on the family farm and as waged workers in the agro-export sector. The paper thus attempts to explore the multiplicity of ways that women experience rapid changes in the agrarian sector and how these changes relate to the maintenance of more 'traditional'practices and identities.     

SELLERS AND NONSELLERS OF LAND FOR NEW RURAL HOUSING∗

Landowners can choose either to sell or to hold their land in areas with active rural land markets. Sellers and nonsellers are both important because their decisions shape patterns of land use. Analysis of mail survey data from 286 landowners in the Rochester, MN SMSA isolates four characteristics that distinguish sellers from nonsellers: occupation, size of landholding, recent acquisition of land, and interest in selling land. Nonsellers are often farmers with a large landholding and no interest in selling. More information is needed about their non-economic motives for holding land.     

农户土地用途变更空间决策行为分析——以江苏省常熟市、如东县和铜山县为例

在理解农户土地利用决策机制的基础上,利用江苏省的铜山县、如东县和常熟市329份农户问卷调查数据,采用Tobit模型以及方差分析方法探讨了影响农户土地用途变更空间决策的影响因素。研究表明:自主经营人数比重越高,农户选择改变用途地块的距离就越远,而打工导致的劳动力转移对于农户土地用途变更空间决策则没有显著影响;农户的存款越多资金越充足,农户改变用途地块的距离可能就越远;相对于铜山县,如东县和常熟市两地农户改变土地用途的地块距离相对较远;变更后地块的用途不同对于改变用途地块的选择也有影响,变更为渔业养殖用地则通常会选择离家较近的地块,而在种植业内改变用途,通常会选择离家较远的地块。     

A local landscape in transition between production and consumption goals: can new management arrangements preserve the local landscape character?

Around towns in the Alentejo region, the landscape is dominated by a characteristic agricultural small-scale mosaic. These areas are central in the region landscape character – even if the large-scale latifundia landscape of the extensive silvo-pastoral systems is most commonly associated with the region. In the last two decades, these parcels became extremely attractive for new comers, who settle in the rural context as residents, week-end visitors, being often also lifestyle farmers. The paper presents a case study landscape, in Montemor-o-Novo, a small town 100 km from Lisbon, highly subject to the pressure for consumption uses, by urban users. The study shows that the new owners, even if they have settled in the area due to the tranquility and social bindings of the rural, end up doing farming, with new or reshaped production objectives, markets and models, but at the same time maintaining the traditional farm systems. Thus, the landscape character is maintained, so far. Nevertheless, the role of these neo-rurals and lifestyle farmers is still an unseen role, both by the agriculture and the planning sectors. And thus the question is, whether the combination of actors and land management drivers will continue maintaining the landscape in the future.     

THE FARMLAND CONVERSION DEBATE: NALS AND BEYOND∗

The need to protect high quality agricultural land through public policies and programs at various levels of government has been debated in the U.S. for at least three decades. This article reviews the evolution of the debate before 1979, the ill-fated attempt of the National Agricultural Lands Study (NALS) (1979–1981) to resolve the debate, and the current status of the land conversion issue. Articulation of the issue has been impeded by confusion of objectives, semantic problems, unreliability of land conversion data, and excess capacity in the American farm economy. Land conversion estimates published in 1977 by the Soil Conservation Service and relied upon by NALS have proven to be misleading in light of the 1982 National Resources Inventory. State and local programs to discourage farmland conversion are justifiable in terms of land use planning objectives, maintenance of a viable local farm economy, and avoidance of undue reliance upon marginal lands requiring costly technical inputs.     

The farmer as a landscape manager: Management roles and change patterns in a Danish region

Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 111(2):107–116, 2011

Rural landscapes are mainly maintained and changed through farmers' decisions and practices. As a landscape manager the farmer has many different roles of which three roles related to the farm as a whole is investigated in this paper: producer, owner and citizen. Although most farmers take landscape decisions in all these three roles production based decisions are assumed to be more important for full time farmers than for hobby farmers who have their main income outside the farm and who may consider their farm more as a living place than as a production place. Based on a large survey carried out in Hvorslev, Eastern Jutland, Denmark in 2008 farmers' landscape practices are analysed in relation to their background, occupational status and view of their farms as a production place versus a living place. Altogether 377 farmers were interviewed and some comparisons are made to a similar survey in the same area in 1996. It was found that a significant proportion of farmers are hobby farmers who mainly see the farm as a living place and who to a large degree have different landscape practices than full time farmers have. The findings indicate that more research is needed to fully understand the reasons for and implications of the differences in landscape management practices.     

大都市郊区农户生计多样化及对土地利用的影响——以北京市大兴区为例

以北京市大兴区为例,采用农户调查数据,设计不同资源群体农户分类评价指标体系,利用非系统聚类方法将农户划分为5类(①中等资源禀赋,中等非农收入;②高等资源禀赋,中等非农收入;③中等资源禀赋,低等非农收入;④纯农户;⑤非农户),进而分析了不同资源群体农户的生计多样化特点及对土地利用的影响。研究表明:(1)在大都市郊区,农户类型1～3、纯农户和非农户分别采取了农业和非农兼顾、留在农业和脱离农业的生计策略。(2)农户类型1～3和纯农户中,70%农户生计多样化指数分布在2～3之间,且依然呈现粮食作物播种面积较大,选择比例最高,其次是经济作物。(3)农户类型1～3和非农户中,以就地转移方式非农就业是农户家庭劳动力安排的主要选择,且非农就业劳动力年龄最轻和教育水平最高。(4)大都市郊区土地非农化的转型特点促使农户从类型1～4被动地向类型5转化,土地利用效益低下也持续推动了农户生计多样化,同时,农户生计多样化会引发粮食生产能力停滞不前、土地流转和产权调整大规模顺势而生、土壤养分富集等土地利用现象。     

Culture,Markets, and Agricultural Production: A Comparative Study of the Investment Patterns of Migrant and Citizen Cocoa Farmers in the Western Region of Ghana

Current agrarian reforms in Ghana, sponsored by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, are based on the notion that pricing incentives from markets are the key to agricultural investments. The turnaround in the production of the principal agricultural export, cocoa, seems to vindicate this view. However, this perspective is silent on the question of why many farmers continued to produce cocoa in the period preceding the reforms when prices were at their lowest in the country's history. Based on research on the comparative investment patterns of migrant and citizen cocoa farmers in two districts in the Western region of Ghana, this article suggests a holistic approach to comprehending investments. It indicates that the economic behaviour of cocoa farmers is complexly linked to the politics of land tenure, and cultural expectations and obligations.     

Farm Size and Land Use Pattern Changes in Postsocialist Poland∗

The postsocialist transition resulted in widespread structural change in Polish agriculture, but fine-scale assessments of how these changes affected farming and rural landscapes are scarce. This article examines changes in farm sizes and land use patterns after the breakdown of socialism in Poland using micro-census data and satellite images. Our study area is Pyrzyce County. The analysis indicates a polarization of the farm size distribution (e.g., medium-sized farms disappeared) as well as marked changes in land use patterns (e.g., increasing field sizes and field aggregation). Interviews with farmers and stakeholders suggest that this shift can be explained by decreasing competitiveness of medium-sized farms in the emerging new agricultural value chain, which forced farmers to increase and intensify production or to downsize their farms, especially when the preference was for other occupations.     

北方生态脆弱区农户兼业对耕地利用的影响(英文)

当前我国农户兼业现象十分普遍。本文基于在内蒙古太仆寺旗的农户调查数据,采用单因素方差分析法,对生态脆弱区农户兼业及其对耕地利用的影响进行了研究。结果表明:当前研究区农业劳动力非农就业和农户兼业现象十分突出,而兼业程度不同的农户,其经营土地的方式差异明显。非农就业户通过将其土地转给其他农户而脱离了农业耕作,这同时满足了其他农户扩大土地经营面积的愿望。种植结构差异不大,均体现为劳动生产率高的作物具有优势;对于有耕地利用行为的纯农业户、I兼型农户和II兼型农户,随着兼业程度的增加,物质投入增加,说明农户兼业使其资金约束减小,增加了资金投入能力,但是在劳动力约束下,兼业农户的劳动力投入减少,且务农劳动力"妇女化"、"老龄化"和"文化低"等现象突出;作物单产和土地净收益纯农业户大于兼业农户,说明劳动投入对土地产出更为重要。文章最后认为建立农业劳动力非农就业与耕地利用相互协调的机制,是解决生态脆弱区生态安全与农业生产之间矛盾的重要途径。     

Cyborg urbanization beyond the human: the construction and ruination of the Matinha gasworks site

ABSTRACT

Work on cyborg urbanization has unveiled the way in which the city is produced through hybridizations of the human and non-human. However, less attention has been given to the ways by which non-human actors entangle each other without human mediation. On the other hand, literature on urban ruination has explored the agency of the non-human in landscape transformation, however few works have established the link between the processes of ruination and urban transformation. In this article, we bridge these two literatures and argue that it is possible to extend the concept of cyborg urbanization to include urban transformation processes that are conducted by non-human actors, namely vegetation.

We explore these missing links through an exploration of the Matinha Gasworks site, located in the Eastern Zone of the city of Lisbon, Portugal, and deactivated in 2001. It is a vacant land, with several ruined derelict constructions of a gasworks. We draw upon archival work, remote sensing techniques, and post-phenomenological fieldwork to explore the 80-year long process of construction and ruination of the Matinha Gasworks site. Our findings highlight the accumulation of distinct temporalities, scales, matters, and subjectivities in the production of the urban.