Smallholder agriculture in transition economies

In this paper, we analyse how smallholder farms have evolved during the transition process in former communist countries and how this process has differed across countries and commodities. The role of smallholders in agriculture differs among transition countries, and this diversity is due to a combination of factors, including capital, labour and land endowments, income levels, scale economies, market imperfections, and reform choices. Institutions to access inputs and sell outputs affect the efficiency and survival of smallholders. In the past decade, the share of smallholders in land use and production has declined significantly as younger and more dynamic smallholders have become integrated in modern value chains, whereas older, less dynamic farmers have (semi‐)retired, producing only for household consumption.     

The “left behind”: Smallholders in contemporary Russian agriculture

Smallholder production in Russia has been in decline for more than a decade. The likelihood is for continued marginalization. Smallholders confront four obstacles. First, path dependencies, which includes the fact that smallholders' production remains traditional and subsistence oriented. Second, institutions in the form of state policy restrict land and animals. Third, Russia's role in the third food regime means that smallholders are unable to help Russia's emergence as a global food superpower. Fourth, smallholders are being left behind in the ongoing technological revolution led by agroholdings. As technological advancement expands in scope, the gap between large farms and smallholders will widen.     

Does Conservation Agriculture Change Labour Requirements? Evidence of Sustainable Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa

Population growth, increasing wealth and changing diets require agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa to intensify to meet future food demand and ensure food security in the region. Conservation agriculture can increase yields in the long run and reduce the negative environmental impacts of intensive farming. In changing the mix of resources used and how they are managed, the adoption of conservation agriculture can have a direct impact on farm labour. We study the relationship between conservation agriculture and labour input requirements as observed in five Sub-Saharan African countries. We focus on the amount of work required and the source of the work employed (household or hired, by gender, by children and by production stage). We apply multinomial endogenous switching regression models on a panel of household and farm data from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. We find that conservation agriculture increases farms’ labour input requirements. Higher demand is driven by more work during the harvesting and threshing stages. Increases in labour requirements are usually met by household labour, not paid work. The workload change is also higher for women than for men, and, in certain cases, is met by children.     

Can farmers extend their cultivation areas in urban agriculture? A contribution from agronomic analysis of market gardening systems around Mahajanga (Madagascar)

The rapid urbanization in developing countries implies an increasing pressure on urban agriculture for production. As most perishable food products come from this agriculture in close proximity to population concentrations, we analysed from an agronomic point of view how market-garden farmers can meet this increasing urban demand. This work took place in the case of Mahajanga, a secondary city with high increasing demographic rate on the Northwest coast of Madagascar. Based on preliminary surveys to characterize the farming systems (on a sample of 91 farms), 11 market-garden farmers chosen in the three main agricultural zones of the urban area were surveyed during two years. Surveys aimed at understanding their decision rules in crop choices, crop allocation to land and resource management, and to estimate their room for manoeuvre to increase their leafy vegetable areas under cultivation. The wholesalers and retailers who buy the farmers’ produce were also surveyed. A previous model of decision rules regarding crop location on farm territory was used to analyse the on-farm surveys and cartographic methods (GIS and on-farm manual representations) were used to quantify the land use. We highlight the following major points. (1) The leafy vegetable production in the surveyed farms already intensively uses land: farmers have complex decision rules largely depending on the water dynamics in the two main environments (lowlands and lakesides) where leafy vegetables are cultivated during the dry season. (2) The scarcity of farmers’ resources (labour money and water) leads to very little internal room for manoeuvre to increase the leafy vegetable production in the farms. (3) At territorial level however, some land reserve exist in one of the lowlands, but not on lakesides. The water availability for agriculture must be better informed through specialized hydrologic studies, as one of the main constraints nowadays to extend the agricultural area. An extrapolation to other cases of urban agriculture is then discussed as well as the role of agronomy to help urban planners to consider the place of agriculture in the urban development.     

Farm succession,occupational choice and farm adaptation at the rural-urban interface: The case of Italian horticultural farms

The survival of family farming in Europe is a crucial issue, as it assures landscape maintenance in marginal areas and provides transmission and accumulation of site-specific knowledge in agricultural activity. Using data from a sample of Italian horticultural farms, we explored the multiple forces driving farm succession in a high value added sector. In addition to the traditional factors examined in the literature (farm, farmer and family features), we treated the farm transfer choice as the complement of the decision to migrate out of the agricultural sector, testing the effects of local labour market conditions (employment, income gap between farm and non-farm sector) and population density around the farm, as a proxy of rural-urban interface relationships. It has been shown that both traditional factors and territorial and labour market conditions influence the probability of farm succession. Interestingly labour market conditions exerted an effect in line with occupational choice theory only in less inhabited areas; in more densely populated regions a rural-urban linkage effect seems to prevail, creating an environment that fosters succession of young horticultural farmers. Peri-urban areas may thus be a favourable location for professional and specialised horticultural farms, as well as multifunctional and de-specialised ones, if their assets are properly protected against farmland subtraction. More generally, these findings confirm the validity of a more comprehensive approach toward farm succession, which takes occupational choice theory and rural-urban farm adaptation strategies into account.     

Experiments in farmers' collectives in Eastern India and Nepal: Process,benefits, and challenges

Do farmers' collectives, which pool land, labour, capital, and skills to create medium‐sized production units, offer a more viable model of farming for resource‐constrained smallholders than individual family farms? A participatory action research project in Eastern India and Nepal provides notable answers. Groups of marginal and tenant farmers, catalysed by the project, evolved into four different collective models with varying levels of cooperation, gender composition, and land ownership/tenancy status. Based on 3 years of action research, this paper examines how the models evolved and their differential outcomes. All groups have gained from cultivating contiguous plots in their efficiency of labour and machine use for land preparation and irrigation, and from economies in input purchase. Several collectives of tenant farmers have also enhanced their bargaining power vis‐a‐vis an entrenched landlord class and thus been able to negotiate lower rents and refuse long‐standing feudal obligations. However, the models differ in their extent of economic gain and their ability to handle gender inequalities and conflicts over labour sharing. The paper explores the historical, regional, and cultural factors that could explain such differences across the models. It thus offers unique insights into the processes, benefits, and challenges of farmers' collectives and provides pointers for replication and further research.     

Landraces as an adaptation strategy to climate change for smallholders in Santa Catarina,Southern Brazil

Adapting to climate change has become a pressing and urgent issue given the alarming rapidity with which climate changes is taking place. Agriculture is strongly conditioned by climatic factors, but subsistence agriculture is particularly vulnerable because smallholders do not have adequate financial resources to adapt to climate change. Agrobiodiversity provides one option for smallholders to adapt to climate change. Landraces developed in the western region of Santa Catarina State, Brazil, are part of a deliberate strategy by smallholders to achieve a state of food sovereignty and independence from commercial sources of hybrid seed. The ability of smallholders to collectively conserve climate-adapted landraces indicates the depth of local knowledge and capability within local communities that can be drawn on to meet the future challenges of climate change.     

A Note on Former Soviet Bloc Countries

It is argued that while it is difficult to be critical of GKI, because the picture painted of the former Soviet bloc countries is so broad, the treatment is not sufficiently detailed to be analytically illuminating. Four important weaknesses are identified. The first is the problematic analogy of private plot agriculture on the former state and collective farms with minifundia in Latin America, and the consequent analogy of collective farms with latifundia. The second is the argument that private plot farming was involuting in a Geertzian sense. Thirdly, the GKI redistributive land reform agenda for Russia is questioned and a case is made for privately owned and managed large farms. Finally, GKI are criticized for failing to take account of the limited rural labour supply in Russia.     

The viability of cotton-based organic farming systems in India

Cotton farmers in many developing countries are facing decreasing marginal returns due to stagnating yields and high input costs. Conversion to organic management could offer an alternative. In a two year comparative study in central India covering 170 cotton fields, organic farms achieved cotton yields that were on par with those in conventional farms, whereby nutrient inputs and input costs per crop unit were reduced by half. Due to 10–20% lower total production costs and a 20% organic price premium, average gross margins from organic cotton fields were 30–40% higher than in the conventional system. Although the crops grown in rotation with cotton were sold without premium, organic farms achieved 10–20% higher incomes from agriculture. In addition to these economic benefits, the organic farming system does not burden soil and groundwater with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. However, in this study only minor differences were detected in soil fertility parameters of organic and conventional fields. Altogether, the results suggest that conversion to organic farming can improve livelihoods of smallholders while protecting natural resources. Income loss due to reduced yields in initial years of transition, however, constitutes a major hurdle, especially for poorer farmers. It is thus important to support farmers in overcoming the obstacles of the conversion period.     

AGRICULTURAL LABOUR IN AN EXPANDING ECONOMY

The low position of agricultural workers in the wages scale is examined in the context of National Plan objectives to increase opportunities for the labour force. The results of a survey of lubour use on 55 Yorkshire farms over the past five years are presented. The regular hired labour force on these farms has been cut by a quarter, and some farms still report surplus labour. Data on the farm workers employed and those which have left the farms is given. The characteristics of the ‘ideal farm worker’ as seen by the farmers are investigated and conclusions regarding the likely success of a wages structure in agriculture are drawn. The implications of a rise in the minimum agricultural wage to £14 a week are discussed in the light of the survey results.     

Together we stand,divided we fall? Smallholders' access to political power and their place in Poland's agricultural system

It has long been recognized that agrarian transformation can be seen as an outcome of struggles between politically influential interest groups. At the same time, numerous theoretical arguments suggest that small‐scale farmers are politically weak. Smallholders are commonly believed to comprise a particularly vulnerable group, which has only little influence on the pace and the direction of the ongoing restructuring. One may wonder, however, whether smallholders are able to affect the paths of agrarian development once they solve collective action problem and attain political office. In this paper, we try to improve our understanding in this respect by analysing smallholders in Poland. Our findings suggest that in municipalities in which smallholders had access to political offices, the rate of smallholders' exits from farming was significantly lower than elsewhere.     

Climate precarity in rural livelihoods: Agrarian transformations and smallholder vulnerability in Vietnam

In recent decades, agrarian transformations in Southeast Asia have resulted in significant environmental and social change, yet insufficient attention has focused on the particular pathways by which these changes have increased vulnerability to climate change. In particular, climate precarity, a situation in which class, social, labour and/or gender inequities amplify negative impacts from climate change, has been on the rise for many smallholders. Using case studies in Vietnam of changes to swidden agriculture in upland areas and the loss of deepwater rice systems in the Mekong Delta lowlands, the paper examines social differentiation and ecological outcomes of these processes and how they have increased climate precarity, particularly for poor households and women. Based on longitudinal fieldwork in affected regions, we identify key changes contributing to climate precarity as farming systems intensify. In particular, loss of flexibility in farmer decision-making, loss of voluntary engagement with markets, and declining access to social capital and entitlements have increased risks for households and reduced adaptation options. Suggestions are made to more directly address these elements in future agricultural and climate policies, rather than current approaches to climate adaptation that often promote even more intensification of agriculture, which runs the risk of exacerbating precarity.     

Survey and Analysis of Labour on Organic Farms in the UK and Republic of Ireland

A survey of 1144 organic farms in the UK and Republic of Ireland (IE) was used to assess whether organic agriculture provides more labour than conventional (nonorganic) farming. The sampled farms comprised 23% of all organic farms. The jobs per farm and per area varied greatly with enterprise type and farm size, and between regions. Comparison of the survey with national statistics showed that organic farms employ 135% more FTE (full time equivalent jobs) per farm than conventional farms. The mean jobs per area was markedly lower for organic farms (1.35 compared to 2.43 FTE per 100 ha), because they are larger (216 ha compared to 51 ha). Even when corrected for the different size distribution, organic farms had more jobs per farm than the national averages (2.52 and 1.49 FTE for the UK and IE, compared to 1.28 and 1.16 FTE). The farm size weighted FTE per area for organic farms in the UK (4.33 FTE per 100 ha) was almost twice that for conventional farms. We predict there would be 19% and 6% more farming jobs in the UK and IE if 20% of the farms of both countries were to become organic (compared to the present 1–2%).     

Herd Growth,Farm Organisation and Subsidies in the Dairy Sector of Russia and Kazakhstan

Initially taken as a template for farm restructuring after the demise of collective agriculture, the ‘Western family farm model’ has taken root in the former Soviet countries only belatedly and incompletely. We examine dairy structures in Russia and Kazakhstan and analyse the drivers of recent herd growth. We are specifically interested in the role of farm management and organisation, vertical integration, and the role of policy. Regression analysis based on a sample of 180 randomly selected commercial dairy farms, using an innovative simultaneous equation framework, shows that better herd management and access to milk marketing contracts were more effective in stimulating herd growth than current subsidy payments. We do not find evidence that milking plants belonging to corporate entities or even supra‐regional agroholdings grow more substantially than medium‐sized individual farms. Twenty‐five years after the end of central planning, structural change among commercial dairy farms in Russia and Kazakhstan appears similar in many ways to the patterns observed in the West more recently: smaller farms catch up in terms of herd growth and classical family‐run operations coexist with or even emulate vertically integrated agribusinesses based on hired labour. In moving toward this ‘new normal’ of farming structures, commercial dairy farms in Russia may even be a few steps ahead of their Western counterparts. At the same time, the still sizeable but stagnating group of subsistence producers in rural households finds no equivalent in the West.     

Agrarian Winners of Neoliberal Reform: The ‘Maize Boom’ of Sinaloa,Mexico

While the detrimental impact of neoliberal policy on Mexico's maize smallholders is well researched, little attention has been paid to the rise of maize in the northern state of Sinaloa. Sinaloa's entry into maize has restructured the geography of national supply, and generated a new national confidence in white maize self‐sufficiency. Using semi‐structured interviews and secondary data, we document the primary social and political drivers of Sinaloa's maize boom. Local actors trumpet Sinaloa's response as a success story of entrepreneurship and technological innovation, while simultaneously appropriating the language of food sovereignty to justify preferential entitlements in public investment. Our analysis confirms interpretations of neoliberalism as a political project, illustrating how existing natural, social and political capital held by specific interest groups can be leveraged and reinforced through private–public partnerships to mould national policy and investment, and the potential vulnerabilities that may emerge from this process.     

Environmental efficiency and the impact of regulation in dryland organic vine production

Organic agriculture figures prominently in the policies adopted by the EU to improve the environmental impact of agriculture. It may also potentially provide other benefits such as high-quality, health-enhancing food products and advancements in rural development. Recent years have brought new research to assess the environmental and economic implications of organic conversion. Economic efficiency comparisons between organic and conventional farms have been extended to include environmental performance. The inclusion of this variable in efficiency analysis may be useful when assessing the potential impact of suggestions to improve environmental regulations and policies. This paper applies the environmental efficiency model to the analysis of different technologies and calculates productivity and efficiency with and without environmental impacts. In the empirical part of the paper Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and bootstrap techniques are applied to detect and measure differences between organic and conventional agriculture aggregate efficiency and productivity in a sample of vineyard farms operating in semiarid, non-irrigated conditions in Navarre (Spain), taking farms’ nitrogen surplus and pesticide toxicity indicators to consideration. The results for these particular agronomic conditions suggest that organic agriculture is more environmentally efficient than conventional agriculture in dryland farming, in that it achieves a more favorable production to environmental impact ratio. Nevertheless, conversion to organic production methods for extensive vine cultivation under arid conditions does not guarantee substantial environmental gains, since the organic farms in our sample do not display inferior levels of pollution emissions per unit input as extensive conventional production. The overall environmental efficiency of organic farming is largely attributable to the fact that organic farms come closer to the frontier of their own technology. We find no significant technological differences in environmental productivity, however. In terms of policy implications, these findings suggest that the tightening of specific environmental restrictions in organic standards should involve consideration of technological differences in environmental productivity between organic and other alternative technologies. If organic technology is less productive, more restrictive regulation could undermine the economic viability of farms, and thus undermine the other benefits of organic farming. The results also indicate that, at the local level, it could be convenient to address part of organic subsidies to further improvements in the control of pollution from fertilizers and pesticides.     

Going green in Thailand: Upgrading in global organic value chains

Under what conditions are some small-scale agricultural producers able to overcome challenges associated with shifting to organic production, whereas most are not? The answers are vital for the global effort to encourage more sustainable, pro-poor forms of agriculture—more organic farming, more sustainable production; more smallholders engaged in green production, more income and better livelihoods. Yet, answering this question is challenging in part because previous analyses of global production networks, such as those associated with organic agriculture, focus more on broad governance patterns than the specific factors and actors that help smallholders shift to organic production and link to far-flung markets. To fill in these gaps, we conducted fieldwork in Isan, Thailand, a major rice-producing area in which many groups of smallholders have attempted to shift into organic production. Doing so allows us to identify the critical challenges associated with upgrading into organic production and analyse how specific actors enabled some groups to overcome these challenges. Our findings provide a generalizable theoretical approach to understanding how to link small-scale farmers to global value chains in ways that can potentially enhance smallholders' livelihoods, spark rural development and encourage more sustainable practices in agriculture.     

A New System of Labour Management in African Large‐Scale Agriculture?

This paper applies a convention theory (CT) approach to the analysis of labour management systems in African large‐scale farming. The reconstruction of previous analyses of high‐value crop production on large‐scale farms in Africa in terms of CT suggests that, since 1980–95, labour management has moved from a ‘domestic’ to a ‘market’ system. However, data collected by the authors from a sample of 11 large‐scale rose farms in Kenya in 2011 (covering around 20% of national output) points to the adoption of systems that, in CT terms, combine ‘industrial’ and ‘civic’ elements. The paper concludes by suggesting a series of hypotheses that might explain this trend.     

Perceptions and outlook on intercropping coffee with banana as an opportunity for smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda

Coffee and banana are important cash and food crops in Uganda and the surrounding East African highland region. Production is dominated by smallholders that have limited arable land and often coffee and banana are intercropped. No significant research and development efforts have been undertaken over the last few decades on this coffee/banana intercropping system. Because recent studies suggest that this system could be a practice with high benefits to the farmers, we decided to study the perceptions of stakeholders along the coffee value chain starting with farmers. Perception analysis based on open-ended interviews following interview guides revealed that a major limitation for the sustainability of this system was poor soil fertility conditions. Perceptions on the benefits of intercropping differed little among coffee actors; that is, banana intercropping provides additional food and income from smallholders’ limited land and helps farmers reduce risks related to drought, pest/disease attacks and coffee price volatility. However, farmers’ desire to minimize risks does not match the objective of stakeholders higher up the coffee value chain to maximize coffee production. Furthermore, research by public institutes, both national and international, is primarily organized for single crops and not systems. We conclude that the institutional setting of the coffee sector hampers the promotion of intercropping, despite the benefits for the farmer.     

Capital Intensification,Productivity and Exchange – A Class‐Based Analysis of Agriculture in West Bengal in the Current Millennium

This paper deals with capitalist agricultural development in West Bengal, India. Based on a field study of two regions at different ends of the development spectrum, it shows the class‐specific nature of agrarian development. Farms based on hired labour adopt more capital‐intensive techniques, operate on a much larger scale and have higher yields in comparison to farms based on family labour, regardless of their size. Differentiation of the peasantry is intense where the adoption of capital‐intensive technology is high. The paper concludes that the arguments of A.V. Chayanov and A.K. Sen, which seek to explain the inverse relation between farm size and productivity in terms of the superior efficiency of farms based on family labour compared to capitalist farms, are not borne out by our findings. Moreover, in the advanced region of Bardhaman, farmers of all economic classes are found to be subject to a form of compulsive exchange or stressed commerce brought about by traders external to the region.