Polyculture,autonomy, and community: the pursuit of sustainability in a northern Thai farming village

A growing body of literature tracks small farmers worldwide engaging in new, proactive forms of ecologically oriented mobilization in a quest for community sustainability. We present the case of a group of farmers in northern Thailand who have converted from high-input, export-focused commodity crop production to organic vegetable polyculture systems. We analyse their motivations and the effects these changes have had on their households and community and find similarities with other small-scale agrarian communities reclaiming peasant modes of farming. The farmers of Mae Ta are primarily driven by an increased aversion to the cycles of debt, poor health, and restricted autonomy that accompany industrialized production. Those who have transitioned to organic polyculture have largely rid themselves of cyclical debt and persistent health maladies, feel more empowered and satisfied in their farming systems, and speak of broader impacts on the overall community.     

农业职业教育对养殖农户收入增加影响的研究———基于陕西省面板数据实证分析

文章基于农业职业教育与农户收入增加的影响关系,依据2009年陕西省养殖农户调查数据,采用Probit模型考察基本变量对农户参与养殖的行为影响,研究结果表明人力资本状况是决定养殖户获得养殖收益的关键因素,个体特征对于农户收益的影响有限。在接受教育程度、有过接受培训经历及技能水平等方面具有优势的农户,其养殖收益比较高。尤其是获得过职业技术培训,取得一定技能的养殖农户,在收益提高方面成效明显。年龄偏大的农户,其获得收入的渠道与数量稳定性相对较好,年龄与其收入水平之间呈现出一种持续上升的关系。健康状况指标与农户收入指标之间没有呈现出显著的对应关系,这可能与参与调查的农户身体健康状况普遍较好有关。基于此,提出通过文化教育促进农户综合素质提升;改进政府服务功能,加强农业职业教育培训;完善农业职业教育长效机制,促使农业职业教育落到实处;加大投入力度,改善农村医疗保健服务设施等建议。     

基于韦伯二重合理性的农户生态耕种行为分析

目的 基于韦伯二重合理性理论框架,通过对传统农业大省江西省农户生态耕种行为理性的评价,分析农户生态耕种行为主要因素的影响规律,为农户生态耕种激励政策的制定提供参考。方法 文章以江西省农户为调查对象,采取分层抽样和随机抽样相结合的方式选取样本农户,针对户主或是参与农业经营决策的家庭主要成员开展访谈和问卷调查相结合的入户调查。利用获取的1 488份有效问卷数据,通过层次分析-熵值定权法确定农户生态耕种理性评价指标权重并进行评价,得出农户生态耕种行为理性的评价值。运用Order-Probit模型分析二重合理性理论框架下农户生态耕种行为的工具理性、价值理性及其交互以及其他主要因素的影响规律。结果 （1）样本农户平均采纳生态耕种行为4.735项,工具理性评价均值为0.546 8,价值理性评价均值0.354 2,丘陵区农户生态耕种行为工具理性和价值理性值比平原、山地区更高。（2）当前,工具理性在农户生态耕种行为采纳上起到消极的抑制作用,价值理性起到积极的促进作用,而二重合理性的冲突减弱了农户生态耕种采纳率。（3）家庭劳动力占比越高、耕地收入占比的提高,农户采取生态耕种行为的可能性越高,而促进小农户向新型农业现代经营主体的转变是提高农户生态耕种行为采纳的有效途径之一。（4）农户保留仅供自家消费的耕地说明其对耕地生产的安全性持有疑虑,更加愿意进行生态耕种以保持耕地和农产品健康。结论 需要积极落实生态农产品的补偿,完善有关法规制度和质量监管,实现生态耕种的产品价值,以达到农户追求效益的工具理性与耕地保护的价值理性之间的协调统一。     

Do farmers really like farming? Indian farmers in transition

Few studies of agrarian transition examine what farmers themselves feel about farming. Are they cultivating out of choice or a lack of options? What distinguishes farmers who like farming from those who do not: their personal/household characteristics and endowments? The local ecology and regional economy? Or a mix of these and other factors? Understanding farmer satisfaction is important not only for assessing citizen wellbeing but also for agricultural productivity, since occupational satisfaction can affect a farmer’s incentive to invest and reveal production constraints. Using a unique all-India data-set which asked farmers, ‘Do you like farming?’ this paper provides answers and policy pointers, contributing a little-studied dimension to debates on the smallholder’s future and subjective wellbeing.     

采纳生态种养技术对农户脆弱性的影响——以长江中下游地区稻虾共作技术为例

[目的]脆弱性是贫困的深层次原因,也是贫困的重要表现,识别和降低农户的脆弱性是解决相对贫困、长效性脱贫问题的关键。[方法]文章基于湖北、湖南、安徽3省974份农户调研数据,运用内生转换模型,分析了农户采纳稻虾共作技术对其脆弱性的影响。[结果]（1）农户采纳稻虾共作技术能切实降低其脆弱性,采纳该技术的农户较未采纳时脆弱性降低280.659%,未采纳该技术的农户若采纳该技术脆弱性将降低44.255%。（2）非农就业水平在农户技术采纳和脆弱性之间起到正向的调节作用。（3）农户的个体特征、家庭特征、社会服务便利性及村庄特征均会显著影响农户的稻虾共作技术采纳决策和脆弱性。[结论]农户采纳稻虾共作技术能有效降低其脆弱性,但随着农户非农就业水平的提高,稻虾户反而更脆弱,因此要完善农技推广机制,健全非农就业保障和帮扶机制,进而发挥稻虾共作技术长效脱贫功效。     

Understanding the adoption of climate change adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers: Evidence from land reform beneficiaries in South Africa

Climatic change has a negative impact on people’s livelihoods, agriculture, freshwater supply and other natural resources that are important for human survival. Therefore, understanding how rural smallholder farmers perceive climate change, climate variability, and factors that influence their choices would facilitate a better understanding of how these farmers adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. A Zero-inflated double hurdle model was employed to estimate the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of adaptation strategies and intensity of adoption at the household level in South Africa. Different socioeconomic factors such as gender, age, and experience in crop farming, institutional factors like access to extension services, and access to climate change information significantly influenced the adoption of climate change adaptation strategies among beneficiaries of land reform in South Africa. Concerning intensity of adoption, age, educational level, farming experience, on-farm training, off-farm income, access to information through ICT and locational variables are the significant determinants of intensity of adaptation strategies. Thus, education attainment, non-farm employment, farming experience are significant incentives to enhance smallholder farmers' adaptive capacity through the adoption of many adaptation approaches. This study therefore concluded that farm-level policy efforts that aim to improve rural development should focus on farmers’ education, on-farm demonstration and non-farm employment opportunities that seek to engage the farmers, particularly during the off-cropping season. The income from non-farm employment can be plough-back into farm operations such as the adoption of soil and water conservation, use of improved planting varieties, insurance, among others to mitigate climate variability and subsequently increase productivity. Policies and investment strategies of the government should be geared towards supporting education, providing on-farm demonstration trainings, and disseminating information about climate change adaptation strategies, particularly for smallholder farmers in the country. Thus, the government, stakeholders, and donor agencies must provide capacity-building innovations around the agricultural extension system and education on climate change using information and communication technologies.     

Managing conflicting goals in pig farming: farmers' strategies and perspectives on sustainable pig farming in Sweden

Industrial meat production has several negative environmental effects. Governments’ agricultural policies aim for cost efficiency combined with high environmental and animal welfare, which puts farmers in a difficult situation trying to navigate between sometimes contradictory requirements. This paper studies how Swedish pig farmers resolve or cope with conflicting goals in pig farming. We have analysed the regulations governing EU and Swedish pig farming. We have also interviewed five Swedish pig farmers about their views of the different goals of pig farming and strategies for resolving conflicts between the goals of low environmental impact, high animal welfare and enough profitability to continue farming. The greatest divide was between the conventional farmers, who emphasized natural resource efficiency, and the organic farmers who stressed animal welfare, multifunctionality and ecosystem service delivery. We suggest four strategies to contribute to resolving some of the conflicting goals: improve communication about different types of pig farming; use public procurement as a driver towards more sustainable pork production; work towards improving the Common Agricultural Policy, perhaps by implementing payments for ecosystem services or multifunctionality; and finally, decrease the total production of pork to lower the emissions per land unit.     

The work of local culture: Wendell Berry and communities as the source of farming knowledge

When Wendell Berry and others criticize contemporary agriculture, their arguments are often dismissed as naive and grounded in longstanding agrarian myth, rather than engagement with contemporary problems. But Berry's proposals developed in response to a series of learning methods he encountered, and options for advocacy he explored, during the 1960s and 1970s. Agricultural institutions sought to assign more power to institutionalized scientific knowledge, shrinking the role of farmers. Berry sought an alternative definition of knowledge, drawing upon his training as a writer, as well as his experiences with manual farm work and the methods of environmentalist organic growers. He eventually concluded that only a community of farmers could produce and store effective knowledge and insisted that knowledge must be tacit -- largely situated in locality, skills, and culture. His ideas had little influence on most people employed in contemporary agriculture. However, those ideas profoundly shape the work of sustainable food advocates, such as Michael Pollan, who like Berry fear reductionism and celebrate the values of traditions.     

Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils: Discounting for Uncertainty

The study presents a conceptual model of an aggregator who selectively pays farmers for altering farming practices in exchange for carbon offsets that the change in practices generates. Under the assumption that the offsets are stochastic and that the aggregator maximizes the sum of the offsets from the purchase that he/she can rightfully claim with a specified level of confidence subject to a budget constraint, we investigate the optimal discounting of expected carbon offsets. We use the model to empirically estimate of the optimal discounting levels and costs for a hypothetical carbon purchasing project in the Upper Iowa River basin.     

Risk pooling cooperative games in contract farming

Contract farming can be an effective measure to deal with agricultural production risks. This study provides a two‐stage stochastic programming model to analyze farmers’ cooperation in the context of contract farming under uncertainty. It provides a fair cost allocation policy for a coalition of farmers using a stochastic linear duality approach. A fair cost allocation implies that no subset of farmers has an incentive to leave the coalition. Thus, a fair allocation policy ensures the stability of a coalition. Meanwhile, the risk pooling game is shown to have population monotonicity, which means that, every time a coalition adds a new member, each farmer within the coalition will incur a smaller cost. Hence, the population monotonicity gives an incentive for coalition expansion. Our results not only provide a simple way to design fair cost allocation policies for collaboration strategies in contract farming, but also play an important role in the sustainable development of farmers’ coalitions.     

Farmers in a deregulated dairy regime: Insights from Ireland's New Entrants Scheme

While the impending review of the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is set to have an impact on all farming sectors across Europe, particularly transformative change is sought by policies relating to dairy farmers. EU milk quota abolition in 2015 will fundamentally revise the terms of dairy production, transitioning from policies of subsidy and protection to a scenario where farmers will produce milk on the open market. Dairy quota abolition essentially represents an economic but also socio-cultural disruption for a sizeable cohort of farmers, requiring adaptation to more market-driven production strategies. Agricultural policy-makers in EU member states are demonstrably preparing for this imminent change and dairy farmers are considering and strategising their responses at farm-level. Our focus in this paper is the interplay between quota abolition and farm-level decision-making in the pre-abolition period. Drawing from a broader mixed-methodological and multi-disciplinary research project, this paper uses qualitative narrative analysis to identify the key determinants arising in dairy farmers’ decision-making processes. How are farmers currently strategising their responses to dairy quota deregulation? Using the qualitative Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM), we examine the range of factors determining how a particular group of dairy farmers are strategising their positions on the impending open dairy market. Our analysis highlights how, in the advent of a deregulated dairy production regime, dairy farmers are carefully deliberating their responses at farm level, drawing from policy and market related information, their own personal speculations, and conventional wisdom shared with other members of the farming community. We find that the dairy farmers are influenced not only by motivations to increase productivity and scale but by a tenacious approach to farm sustainability and resilience that is informed by past experiences of farming and seeks to preserve and promote socio-cultural farming values. The paper is of particular interest to policy makers and academics interested in the interchange between policy and farmer behaviour, particularly in the context of current CAP reform.     

A Market-Forces Policy for the New Farm Economy?

This paper first discusses the changes that are bringing about the New Farm Economy. A wave of consolidation has shifted agricultural production to larger, lower cost producers in almost all sectors of agriculture. At the same time, supply chains represent a new form of ownership and control that is replacing commodity markets as the preferred way to market farm output. Both consolidation and the development of supply chains offer the possibility of producing a greater variety of safer, cheaper food. The paper argues that farm policy, crafted for the agriculture of the 1930s, is no longer necessary to raise or stabilize farm incomes, and is largely ineffective anyway. Moreover, farm policy impedes the market forces driving innovation and efficiency in the farm economy. Letting market forces guide the evolution of the farm economy, unfettered by outdated government programs and unnecessary farm subsidies, is the best way to harness the benefits of the New Farm Economy. Getting rid of government subsidies and control will lead to dramatically fewer farmers in agriculture: a policy to deal explicitly with those who will leave agriculture is needed. A transition policy is described that focuses on helping reduce the number of farmers by offering a buyout to farm producers which subsidizes their exit from farming and prevents reentry.     

An Economic Analysis of Tenure in East Anglia Using Qualitative Data

For many years, the most commonly used data concerning tenure in England and Wales has dichotomised between two types: tenancy and owner occupation. However, other contract forms have become highly popular and landowners and farmers are faced with more than a simple two-way choice. This paper focuses on the share farming agreement which has proven to be very popular in East Anglia. Economic models have shown the efficiency of choosing share agreements when some market imperfection exists. In particular, when there are unmarketed inputs into the production process and two agents have a complementary distribution of these inputs, a contract which apportions the profits of farming - such as the share arrangement - would prove efficient given the presence of transactions costs. The endowments of the unmarketed input is often unobservable and agents only have subjective indicators of their distribution in a prospective contractor. The paper explores this qualitative feature of share farming. The research uses results from tape-recorded interviews to highlight the existence of unmarketed inputs and the importance farmers attach to accurately assessing this variable. The qualitative analysis also provides evidence that contract transactions costs are reduced through reputation building and signalling.     

西部地区农村流动人口土地流转行为的决策逻辑基于推拉理论视角

[目的]分析农村流动人口土地流转行为的决策逻辑,对于促进土地流转、提高土地利用率、加速农业现代化、加快流动人口市民化、推动城乡一体化具有重要意义。[方法]文章基于推拉理论视角,利用2017年中国流动人口动态监测调查数据,运用Logistic模型并综合实证调研,分析城乡融合发展背景下西部地区农村流动人口土地流转行为的决策因子及决策逻辑。[结果]（1）西部地区农村流动人口土地流转比例偏低,仅30.6%的农户发生土地流转行为。未发生土地流转的农户中,将土地闲置或种植林木的比例达21.1%,土地抛荒、非粮化问题较为突出。（2）西部地区农村流动人口兼具“农民”和“市民”双重身份特征,其土地流转行为决策逻辑契合推拉理论,受个人自身特征、流动范围以及流出地、流入地特征“二维四要素”影响。（3）男性、年迈、重视老家风俗习惯、流动空间跨度大、在流出地存在家人照料问题、在流入地面临歧视或存在买房问题的农户,土地流转意愿偏低,而在流入地拥有高收入的农户,土地流转意愿则较高。[结论]在诸多决策因子的影响下,农户遵循“乡土情怀维系、基本生存保障和流转风险规避”决策逻辑,对于离土离乡卷入城市化浪潮的农户而言,土地...     

Soil conservation in Swiss agriculture—Approaching abstract and symbolic meanings in farmers’ life-worlds

This paper explores the significance of ‘life-worlds’ for better understanding why farmers adopt or reject soil conservation measures and for identifying basic dimensions to be covered by social learning processes in Swiss agricultural soil protection. The study showed that farmers interpret soil erosion and soil conservation measures against the background of their entire life-world. By doing so, farmers consider abstract and symbolic meanings of soil conservation. This is, soil conservation measures have to be feasible and practical in the everyday farming routine, however, they also have to correspond with their aesthetic perception, their value system and their personal and professional identities. Consequently, by switching to soil conservation measures such as no-tillage farmers have to adapt not only the routines of their daily farming life, but also their perception of the aesthetics of cultivated land, underlying values and images of themselves. Major differences between farmers who adopt and farmers who reject no-tillage were found to depend on the degree of coherence they could create between the abstract and symbolic meanings of the soil conservation measure. From this perspective, implementation of soil protection measures faces the challenge of facilitating interactions between farmers, experts and scientists at a ‘deeper’ level, with an awareness of all significant dimensions that characterise the life-world. The paper argues that a certain level of shared symbolic meaning is essential to achieving mutual understanding in social learning processes.     

Determinants of Smallholders’ Decisions to Leave Land Fallow: The Case of Kosovo

This article investigates why farmers in Kosovo leave land fallow when their farms’ total land area is small and households, almost fully dependent on farming for their livelihoods, are large. It uses a comprehensive survey carried out during the agricultural year 2005/2006 to explore agricultural households’ perceptions of production, market conditions and general security 6 years after the end of the military conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Several locational, household and farm characteristics empirically approximate the significance of different factors for the amount of land left idle. Two different econometric models are used to address the characteristics of the dependent variable distribution by accounting for endogeneity. The main determinants of the share of land left fallow are found to be related to the economic and institutional structure, and to the general feeling of insecurity.     

Farmers and Social Innovations in Rural Development: Collaborative Arrangements in Eastern Brazilian Amazon

Brazilian small-scale farmers are seeking new types of collaborations and economic opportunities amid a changing world. Market opportunities, however, have incurred demanding environmental, financial and labor requirements, and created trade-offs between expanding cash crops and maintaining livelihood security. We analyze the Tomé-Açu region in the Brazilian Amazon, where different collaborative models between small-scale farmers and other social agents (industries, government, non-governmental organizations) have emerged. Local farmers are engaging in collective actions and pursuing different types of partnerships, which facilitate knowledge exchange and access to market niches, also helping them overcome the infrastructural and logistical deficiencies that have historically limited rural development in the region. In particular, we discuss the diffusion and adoption of agroforestry and oil palm production systems among small-scale farmers. We examine the challenges and opportunities these partnerships and social innovations have created for local farmers, who are part of heterogeneous groups with distinct roles, assets and contexts. The state-led oil palm program posed challenges to small-scale farmers who experienced asymmetrical relationships within their partnership with private companies. On the other hand, the farmer-led agroforestry model opened new opportunities for farmers who had more flexibility in deciding their production arrangements, developing new agroforestry techniques, and pursuing commercialization pathways. Despite their limited power, small-scale farmers have been able to overcome some structural barriers through innovations, entrepreneurship, and renegotiation of oil palm contract farming. Thus, their ability to engage in both farmer-led agroforestry and state-led oil palm programs provides concrete examples of the potential of local governance based on collaborative arrangements to support sustainable farming production systems.     

农户兼业化程度对农业保险偏好的影响机理与实证分析

目的 随着农业结构调整深入推进,农户的收入来源逐渐多元化,文章通过研究农户兼业化程度对不同类型农业保险偏好的影响,为针对性推广农业保险提供依据和参考。方法 以湖北、湖南、河南3省粮食主产区的732份农户调查数据为基础,运用Logit模型和多元Logit模型分析农户兼业化程度对保险种类偏好的影响,讨论种植规模在务农收入占比和保险种类选择之间的调节效应,以是否有固定非农工作将农户分为不同类型的兼业农户进行异质性分析。结果 （1）务农收入占比高的农户偏好传统的物化成本保险,务农收入占比低的农户更喜欢新型指数保险。（2）兼业化程度相同的情况下,大规模农户比小规模农户更愿意保成本、保产量。（3）不同类型的兼业农户保险偏好存在差异,有固定非农工作的兼业农户比没有固定工作的兼业农户更愿意选择新型指数保险。结论 有必要在务农收入占比高、种植规模大、没有固定非农收入的农户中推广传统的物化成本保险;在务农收入占比低、种植规模小、有固定非农收入的农户中推广新型指数保险。     

耕地利用“大棚化”的时空特征及影响因素分析

目的 我国以“大棚化”为代表的耕地利用转型不断深入,意味着传统的露天耕作已逐渐被设施农业取代。少有研究在宏观层面上对耕地“大棚化”的影响因素进行探究,特别是其与新型职业农民转型间的关系。方法 文章以2006年和2016年中国大陆31个省级行政区为对象分析了耕地利用“大棚化”的时空特征,并通过多层线性模型对2016年全国209个地级行政区耕地利用“大棚化”的影响因素进行了探究。结果 ①2006—2016年中国大陆耕地利用“大棚化”整体呈上升趋势,在空间上呈现出东高西低的分布态势。②大棚用地面积影响因素中,人口密度、城镇化水平和新型职业农民有显著正向影响,而坡度有显著负向影响。③“大棚化”率的正向影响因素与大棚用地面积的相同,而负向影响因素中新增了降水量、一产比重和人均经营耕地面积。结论 人口密度是耕地利用“大棚化”转型的重要拉力因素,而新型职业农民培育可以主动有效推进耕地利用“大棚化”转型。     

Information about Climate Change Mitigation: What Do Farmers Think?

The adoption of new practices by farmers is one of the key strategies to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food production. In this context, effective knowledge transfer systems are essential to inform farmers about climate change, and to convince them of the benefits of new technologies. In this article, farmers’ opinions about climate change, their own efforts to mitigate climate change, and their suggestions on how to improve agricultural advice were assessed. To this end, a survey with over 500 livestock farmers was conducted in Ireland. The findings reveal a high awareness of the urgency to address climate change in general, but many farmers also think agricultural GHG emissions are an overstated problem. In addition, half of the surveyed farmers believe that implementing GHG mitigation measures will lower their profits. These findings underline the need to provide effective knowledge transfer to facilitate the uptake of GHG mitigation measures. When asking farmers directly, by way of text analysis, it emerges that simple messages, group and practical advice that is tailored to individual farming situations is important to farmers. As such, this article provides important insights that are of relevance for designing advisory campaigns to promote climate change mitigation.