EFFECTS ON FARM INCOMES AND RURAL LABOUR OF A RELATIVE INCREASE IN WAGES*

We use the concept of the elasticity of farm incomes with respect to changes in input prices to analyse the effects of a large increase in relative wages on selected measures of farm incomes. In order to estimate the elasticity of farm incomes we have to estimate elasticities and cross-elasticities of demand and supply for farm labour and capital. The estimates of elasticity of demand for operator and hired labour allow us to calculate the impact of a rise in wages on numbers of farmers and hired labour employed in agriculture.     

RAISING FARM INCOMES: TRANSFER PAYMENTS VERSUS OUTPUT RESTRICTIONS*

On the basis of approximate calculations for 1969-73, an increase in Canadian net farm income of some 20 percent would have been needed for parity between labour income in the farm and non-farm sectors. Demand theory indicates a lower utility loss in the non-farm sector if an income shift to the farm sector is made by direct taxation and transfer payments rather than through higher prices resulting from output restrictions. However, if there are decreasing returns to purchased inputs in agriculture, the higher prices and consumer surplus foregone through output restrictions do not necessarily constitute a greater burden than direct transfer payments.
D'après des calculs approximatifs pour les années 1969-73, une augmentation de 20% dans le revenu canadien net-ferme, aurait été nécessaire pour atteindre parité entre le revenu de travail ferme et le non-ferme. La théorie de demande indique une perte ďatilité moins sévère dans le secteur non-ferme, si une augmentation de revenu dans le secteur ferme est faite par I'impôt direct et par le transfert des paiements, plutôt que par des prix plus hauls qui sont le résultat des restrictions sur le rendement. Cependant, si les remises des consommations achetées en agriculture diminuent, les plus hauts prix et le surplus perdu du consommateur ne constitueront pas nécessairement un coút plus élévi que le transfert direct des paiements.     

FARM FINANCE AND FARM INDEBTEDNESS IN THE EEC

Many farmers in the EEC are currently having to finance an increasing indebtedness when prospective farm profitability is falling, interest rates are likely to remain high and inflation rates are steadying, and taxation is becoming heavier. It is also a time when bankers traditionally specialised in the financing of farming are considering whether to diversify their lending. Thus they are considering more critically the balance between profitability and security in their farm lending.     

THE EFFECT OF PRICE SUPPORT POLICIES ON AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT,EMPLOYMENT, FARM INCOMES AND LAND VALUES IN THE U.K.

Agricultural price policy has a major impact on the input markets as well as the output markets and a model is developed to analyse the effects of changes in support levels on U.K. agricultural employment, earnings, investment and land prices. This paper describes the specification, estimation and evaluation of the model and simulates the effects of a one per cent increase in support prices. The main conclusions are that net investment would increase in the years following the rise by a maximum in the second year of £12m and by a cumulative total of £44m (representing an increase of about 0.4 per cent in the capital stock). Employment on the other hand, while rising at first, would subsequently fall to almost one per cent below its original level, and earnings of hired labour also fall slightly. Net farm income increases by around 10 per cent and this is capitalised into a similar increase in land values.     

CHANGES IN FARM PRODUCTION UNDER INTENSIVE FARM MANAGEMENT ADVICE*

This investigation examines the impact of intensive farm management advice on levels and productivities of resource use on samples of farms. A total of 60 members of 13 farm management advisory services and 60 non-members, matched by locality, were studied in two farming regions of Western Australia. A production model has been formulated and analysed which discriminates between effects of differences and changes in resource use and productivity over time and between members and non-members. Major differences between members and non-members over time have been rates of growth of inputs and outputs rather than systematic changes of production relationships.     

ACCOUNTING FOR CAPITAL IN THE FARM BUSINESS

The management accounting procedures used in British farming usually deal inadequately with the capital aspects of the farm business. This has stemmed in part from the failure to study solvency as well as profitability, and partly from too great a reliance upon the data from the Farm Management Survey. Certain aspects of depreciation are also discussed.     

FARMER AND FARM CONCEPTS IN MEASURING ADOPTION LAGS

Conventional definitions of the time to adoption of an innovation do not consider whether a potential adopter already had decision-making responsibilities at the time the innovation became available. Data from a pest management survey conducted in India are used to evaluate empirically an alternative definition that takes into account when farmers assumed decision-making responsibilities.     

RISK AND FARM SIZE IN THE PASTORAL ZONE

Variable performance over time is an important feature of wool growing in the eastern pastoral zone of Australia. An analysis of time series data from the Australian Sheep Industry Survey indicates that standard deviation of net farm income is related more or less linearly to size of firm and increases with size at about the same rate as does average net income. A tentative conclusion is drawn that large farms have had a slight tendency to experience less variable rates of return than small farms. However, it is found that farms that have experienced relatively variable returns have tended to enjoy average rates of return above those of other farms of similar size.     

COLLECTION OF RELIABLE FARM LEVEL DATA IN LDC's

This paper analyses the difficulties involved in timely processing of farm level survey data in LDC's using a main-frame computer. It then discusses the potential role of micro-computers used in the field to speed up and improve the quality of data collection.     

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND FARM INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN LDCs

There were remarkable and sustained increases in agricultural and food production in the developing countries over the last three decades. But the fruits of this progress were not shared by all, and many remain in poverty. Some believe this due to the unequal distribution of benefits and accordingly claim that an agricultural strategy which focuses on reducing disparities of income, assets and access is the most important objective for agricultural development. This approach is justified by claims of wide and increasing disparities of income in the agricultural sectors of LDCs. This paper looks at the evidence for such claims and finds that they cannot be supported by hard evidence. Indeed, the few valid studies of agricultural income distribution show modest disparities. Accordingly, redistribution strategies, especially those aimed at uni-modal farm sectors, are rejected as unnecessary, undesirable and unachievable (without destroying the main spring of agricultural progress). On the contrary, it is urged that growth in productivity, output and incomes should be the dominant development objective to encourage, as many examples show, the enterprise, ability and energy of small farmers and their families. Such a strategy produces a degree of unequal distribution of benefits which reflects the distribution of personal qualities and endowments and acts as an incentive to their exercise. To keep disparities within bounds, agricultural policies relating to pricing, extension, credit, research and so on should aim at widening the number of small farmer beneficiaries of agricultural development.     

PARTICIPATION OF FARM OWNERS IN FARM AND OFF-FARM WORK INCLUDING THE OPTION OF FULL-TIME OFF-FARM WORK

The option of working full-time off the farm is generally neglected in farmers' time allocation studies. In this paper, a generalised multinomial logit model, in which the choices are working only on the farm, allocating the time between farm and off-farm work, or working only off-farm, is estimated using Israeli data. The results show that the explanatory variables have significantly different effects on utility for off-farm workers who also work on the farm versus those who do not. There seem to be incentives to work full time rather than part time off the farm. These conclusions cannot be reached if farm owners who do not work on the farm are excluded from the estimation. The conclusions imply that policy intended to encourage pluriactivity could instead result in increased specialisation in full-time farm work or full-time off-farm work if it does not target the right incentives.     

FARM HOUSEHOLD STRATEGIES AND PLURIACTIVITY IN UPLAND SCOTLAND

This paper considers how farm households in Grampians, an upland area of Scotland, are adapting to changing economic and political pressures. Most farms in the area are family farms, and such farm households are being exhorted to diversify their sources of income and to reduce their reliance on agriculture. Based on surveys in 1988 and 1989, this study finds, to the contrary, that only a small proportion of farmers has been reducing reliance on agricultural sources of income, and few anticipate a declining share of their household income to come from farming. Most farmers are loathe to undertake ancillary non-agricultural occupations because of the lower status implied; and farmers in the study area are found to have a very poor understanding of the broad policy context within which they produce. The paper also confirms the finding of other studies that off-farm employment of household members makes a significant contribution to farm household income; and the nature of such pluriactivity and of pluriactive farm households in the area is reviewed.     

FARM INCOME POLICY IN ONTARIO: REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

This paper discusses and evaluates "The Challenge of Abundance" [l]. The recommendations of the Ontario Farm Income Committee are reviewed, the assumptions implicit in the recommendations are presented and the shortcomings of the Report discussed. The author, while finding a number of sound recommendations, ques the extreme emphasis on government intervention and control; the lack of research documentation; the failure to adequately comprehend the dependence of Ontario farmers on inputs from and sales to the rest of Canada and foreign countries; and the absence of a program to assist the majority of farmers who would no longer be allowed to produce food.
LE REVENU AGRICOLE EN ONTARIO: REVISION ET CRITIQUE — Cet article discute et évalue "The Challenge of Abundance" [l]. Les recommandations de la commission ontarienne sur le revenu agricole sont examinées, les assumptions dans les recommandations sont présentées, et les imperfections du rapport sont discutées, Tout en constatant plusieurs recommandations sérieuses, l'auteur interroge l'appuie intense donné à l'intervention et l'autorité govememental; le manque de documentation; l'incompréhension vis à vis la dépendance du fermier ontarien dans la vente au reste du Canada et à l'étranger; et l'absence d'un programme qui assisterait la majorité des fermiers qui ne sont plus permis de produire les aliments.     

ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF THE FARM WOODLAND SCHEME IN SCOTLAND

This paper describes an economic evaluation of planting under the Farm Woodland Scheme in Scotland based on the calculation of the Scheme's net UK Exchequer cost (NEC) and its relationship to the benefits observed through a survey of first-year Scheme entrants. It was found that the motivation in planting was primarily for ‘environmental’ benefits such as landscape, amenity, wildlife and sport. Income and timber production were much less important. On average, payments under the Scheme under-compensated farmers for their direct and opportunity costs associated with planting. When based on agricultural savings in the year of planting, the annual NEC was #58 per ha, but this cost increases substantially if the additionality principle is applied. Anticipated benefits in terms of farm output reduction, income diversification, employment and timber production are identified but the effects are not large. Environmental benefits were not included in the evaluation and these may provide greater justification for the expenditure.     

发达地区不同规模家庭农场粮食生产技术效率的实证研究基于上海松江家庭农场的调查

目的 松江在发展家庭农场方面的探索和实践,被认为是可以在我国经济较发达地区推广和复制的“松江模式”。通过对该地区家庭农场粮食生产的技术效率进行实证研究,可以为发达地区家庭农场推进适度规模经营、优化资源配置提供理论依据和政策支持。方法 基于2017年上海市松江区943个家庭农场的问卷调查数据,文章运用随机前沿生产函数模型测算了不同经营规模家庭农场粮食生产的技术效率,并在此基础上运用Tobit模型进一步探究了其影响因素。结果 上海市松江区家庭农场粮食生产的技术效率水平较高,达到0.922 6,且适度中规模家庭农场粮食生产的技术效率最高,家庭农场主的性别、受教育程度、务农年限和经营家庭农场的年限以及家庭农场主的父辈是否经营家庭农场、家庭农场种植制度的选择等对家庭农场粮食生产的技术效率具有显著性影响。结论 对于经济发展水平较高的地区而言,必须坚持以农户家庭经营作为农业生产的基本单位,因地制宜推进家庭农场的适度规模经营,同时,大力发展农机社会化服务,鼓励家庭农场主对稻田进行3年1次轮茬,在改良后的土地上种植二麦。