Sustainable agriculture constitutes an internationally recognized critique of conventional agricultural practices. The criteria defining sustainable agriculture are diverse and, in some cases, contradictory. However, proponents of sustainable agriculture do not aggressively question such diversity in the movement. This study attempts to highlight the variation in subjective meanings attached to sustainable agriculture, reflected in its goal to improve quality of life. The social construct of gender makes a difference in how these farmers define quality of life. This social construction in turn affects participation in the sustainable agriculture movement. At the root of these gendered differences is that life goals and daily experiences for men farmers within the family have changed significantly as their involvement in the movement has intensified. Much of what men emphasize in describing quality of life reflects the values the sustainable agriculture movement itself espouses; the collective identity of the sustainable agriculture movement resonates with these male farmers. For their wives, descriptions of quality of life are largely entwined with their multiple and highly elastic gendered roles and responsibilities on the farm, in the household, and in paid and unpaid work in the community, and much less with their involvement in the movement. Women’s life experiences on the farm and in the community are different from their husbands’ experiences, lending a distinctively gendered shape to quality of life. They report indicators of quality of life outside of the movement’s collective identity boundaries. Because women’s unique contribution to the farm and family are not institutionally recognized and addressed by the sustainable agriculture movement, the collective identity of the movement is gender-specific, reflecting a male normative. / Master of Science

LD2668 .T4 1966 E47 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 G52 / Master of Science

This study examines change in the family farming sector through the lens of succession. It explores empirically the succession expectations and intentions of farmers and their children in a changing contextual landscape. The research is underpinned by two theoretical concepts: the ‘farm adjustment strategy’ facilitated the development of structural reference points in respect of the family farm business and household; and application of tenets of van der Ploeg’s (1994) ‘styles’ work enabled analysis of structural change in the farm business to be viewed through a qualitative succession lens. A ‘pragmatist’ mixed-methods approach comprised a farmer survey and next generation in-depth interviews. The analytical approach accommodated issues of temporality and facilitated the linkage and study of multiple components of change. It was found that immense variability exists in terms of how succession is managed in practice. The structural characteristics and capacity of the farm business clearly impact upon succession choices and positions, but intrinsic drivers also have a very significant bearing on succession and its potential outcome. The research revealed three broad outcomes of next generation succession intention, each forming the basis of a succession style: a desire and intention to succeed to the family farm, reflected in more traditional succession modes; an intention to leave the family farm, thus opting out of farming per se; and part-time succession, characterised by off-farm professional work, flexibility and a lifestyle preference that encompasses aspects of farming and non-farming worlds. The findings presented in this thesis suggest that, through succession, forms of farm management and operation are evolving. Family farming entities are adapting and becoming increasingly heterogeneous. Through a contemporary succession lens, the notion of the family farm now comprises an assortment of family-owned and family-managed businesses with an array of diversified business, amenity and farming interests.

As mudanças no uso e na cobertura da terra, principalmente em áreas florestais, causam alterações ambientais em diversas escalas. Uma das suas consequências negativas é a fragmentação de habitats, que causa desequilíbrio nos diversos ecossistemas e perda de espécies e populações. Investigar os fatores que influenciam o aumento da cobertura florestal e as suas consequências para a conservação da biodiversidade é fundamental para o planejamento de políticas públicas ambientais, principalmente em regiões de ocorrência de espécies ameaçadas de extinção. No caso do muriqui-do-norte (Brachyteles hypoxanthus), um primata neotropical criticamente em perigo de extinção, a existência de conectividade entre fragmentos florestais remanescentes é um dos maiores limites para a sua conservação, pois mudanças no uso e na cobertura da terra serão necessárias. A conservação desse primata requer estratégias mais integradas do que apenas a criação de áreas protegidas, sendo necessário o envolvimento dos proprietários rurais, juntamente com os tomadores de decisão. A aplicação de instrumentos políticos econômicos, como compensações e pagamentos por serviços ambientais, pode ser uma estratégia para estimular proprietários rurais a participarem de programas de conservação da biodiversidade em terras privadas. O problema da pesquisa deste trabalho foi identificar os fatores que levaram ao aumento de áreas florestadas em propriedades rurais em regime familiar de exploração e as suas consequências à conservação da biodiversidade. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida no município de Santa Maria de Jetibá, ES, onde ocorrem populações do muriqui-do-norte e predominam as propriedades agrícolas familiares, nas quais tem ocorrido aumento de áreas florestadas, muitas delas fragmentadas. O trabalho foi dividido em três partes: Análise das mudanças de uso e da cobertura da terra entre 1970 e 2005, identificando os principais indutores do aumento da cobertura florestal em uma região de ocorrência do muriqui-do-norte; Descrição do perfil socioeconômico, da percepção e das motivações dos proprietários rurais para a conservação de serviços ecossistêmicos; Proposição de corredores estruturais para sete populações de muriqui-do-norte, baseada na permeabilidade da matriz e na aceitação dos donos da terra. Foram utilizados mapas de uso e cobertura da terra, censos agropecuários, entrevistas semiestruturadas, métodos de valoração e compensação de serviços ambientais baseados no mercado de bens substitutos e na preferência declarada, além de simulações dos corredores ecológicos no programa LORACS. A decisão de deixar áreas naturais na propriedade rural é fortemente influenciada por fatores econômicos. O aumento da produtividade, possibilitada pela tecnificação agrícola, permitiu a ampliação da cobertura florestal no município de Santa Maria de Jetibá. O perfil socioeconômico dos agricultores entrevistados e as características das propriedades nos permitem inferir sobre a importância dos instrumentos políticos econômicos, do tipo de agricultura praticada e da percepção ambiental para criar oportunidades de conservação da biodiversidade. Programas de conservação que têm como meta a efetivação de corredores de vegetação em áreas privadas e, consequentemente, a perda de áreas produtivas, podem utilizar instrumentos políticos econômicos, baseados na disposição a receber, no custo de oportunidade da terra e no custo de restauração ecológica, para serem mais atrativos aos proprietários rurais, motivando-os a romper as barreiras para sua aceitação. / The changes imposed in land use and land cover, especially in forest areas, produce environmental changes at various levels. One negative consequence is the habitat fragmentation, followed by disturbance in many ecosystems, such as the loss of species and its populations. The study of factors influencing the increase of forest cover and its consequences for the conservation of biodiversity is essential for the planning of environmental policies, particularly for the regions where endangered species occur. One critical factor for the conservation of the spider monkeys (Brachyteles hypoxanthus) - a neotropical primate critically endangered, is the connectivity between remaining forest fragments, because necessary changes in land use and land cover will happen. The above mentioned conservation requires more integrated strategies than just the creation of protected areas, whereas the involvement of landowners and decision makers are needed. The use of economic policy instruments, such as compensation and payments for environmental services, can provide a strategy to encourage landowners to participate in biodiversity conservation programs on their lands. The present research consists in identifying the leading factors to the increase of forested areas on lands in family regime of exploitation and its consequences for biodiversity conservation. This study has been conducted in Santa Maria de Jetibá, a county of Espírito Santo, Brazil, where there are populations of spider monkeys inside little farms, whose forested areas have been increased, but fragmented. This work comprehends three parts: - Analysis of land use and land cover change between 1970 and 2005, identifying the main drivers of forest cover increase, in a region where spider monkeys occur; - Study of the socioeconomic profile, the perception and motivations of landowners for the conservation of ecosystem services; - Proposition of structural corridors for seven populations of spider monkeys, based on the matrix permeability and acceptance of landowners. The employed resources are: land cover maps, agricultural census, semi-structured interviews, and methods of valuation and compensation of environmental services based on the market of substitute goods and the declared preference, as well as simulations of ecological corridors in LORACS program. The decision to leave natural areas on the farm is strongly influenced by economic factors. The increase in productivity enabled by agricultural mechanization, allowed the expansion of forest cover in farms of Santa Maria de Jetibá. The socioeconomic profile of farmers and the characteristics of their properties prompted the influence of economic policy instruments, the type agriculture and the environmental conscience among farmers, to create biodiversity conservation opportunities. Conservation programs aiming to lay vegetation corridors in private land and, consequently, the loss of productive areas, can be implemented by economic policy instruments, based on the economical compensation, in the land opportunity cost and cost of ecological restoration, bring down barriers of landowners against conservational programs.

This study focuses on the identities of family farm operators and the challenges to maintaining viable farm operations in today’s agricultural economy. Employing a grounded qualitative approach, the author conducted 18 in-depth interviews with principal farm operators from Iowa and Tennessee. Using the insights of farmers from geographically different agricultural regions, this study notes how preserving family histories, socialization processes, and farming as a moral career inform operators’ understandings of themselves and the work they do. The analysis also focuses on how family farm operators contend with a globalized agricultural economy and the moral and ethical concerns of managing a farm. Farm operators implement various tactics and framing mechanisms for resolving and, in some cases, circumventing these challenging issues in order to maintain their farms, identities, and family farm legacies.

No description available.

Australian farmers are supplementing traditional practices with innovative strategies in an effort to survive recent economic, environmental, and social crises in the rural sector. These innovative strategies include moving towards a technology-based farm management style. A review of past literature determines that, despite a growing awareness of the usefulness of computers for farm management, there is concern over the limited demand for computer-based agricultural decision support systems (DSS). Recent literature indicates that women are the dominant users of computers on family farms yet are hesitant to use computers for decision support, and it is also unclear what decision-making roles women assume on family farms. While past research has investigated the roles of women in the Australian rural sector, there is a dearth of research into the interaction of women cotton growers with computers. Therefore, this dissertation is an ontological study and aims to contribute to scholarly knowledge in the research domain of Australian women cotton growers, agricultural DSS, and cotton farm management. This dissertation belongs in the Information Systems (IS) stream and describes an interpretive single case study which explores the lives of Australian women cotton growers on family farms and the association of an agricultural DSS with their farm management roles. Data collection was predominantly through semi-structured interviews with women cotton growers and cotton industry professionals such as DSS developers, rural extension officers, researchers and educators, rural experimental scientists, and agronomists and consultants, all of whom advise cotton growers. The study was informed by multiple sociological theories with opposing paradigmatic assumptions: Giddens' (1984) structuration theory as a metatheory to explore the recursiveness of farm life and technology usage; Rogers' (1995) diffusion of innovations theory with a functionalist approach to objectively examine the features of the software and user, as well as the processes of technology adoption; and Connell's (2002) theory of gender relations with its radical humanist perspective to subjectively investigate the relationships between farm partners through critical enquiry. The study was enriched further by drawing on other writings of these authors (Connell 1987; Giddens 2001; Rogers 2003) as well as complementary theories by authors (Orlikowski 1992; Orlikowski 2000; Trauth 2002; Vanclay & Lawrence 1995). These theories in combination have not been used before, which is a theoretical contribution of the study. The agricultural DSS for the study was CottonLOGIC, an advanced farm management tool to aid the management of cotton production. It was developed in the late 1990s by the CSIRO and the Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), with support from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC). CottonLOGIC is a software package of decision support and record-keeping modules to assist cotton growers and their advisors in the management of cotton pests, soil nutrition, and farm operations. It enables the recording and reporting of crop inputs and yields, insect populations (heliothis, tipworm, mirids and so on), weather data, and field operations such as fertiliser and pesticide applications, as well as the running of insect density prediction (heliothis and mites) and soil nutrition models. The study found that innovative practices and sustainable solutions are an imperative in cotton farm management for generating an improved triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social outcomes. CottonLOGIC is an industry benchmark for supporting these values through the incorporation of Best Management Practices (BMP) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) principles, although there were indications that the software is in need of restructuring as could be expected of software over five years old. The evidence from the study was that women growers are participants in strategic farm decisions but less so in operational decisions, partly due to their lack of relevant agronomic knowledge. This hindered their use of CottonLOGIC, despite creative attempts to modify it. The study endorsed the existence of gender differences and inequalities in rural Australia. Nevertheless, the study also found that the women are valued for their roles as business partners in the multidisciplinary nature of farm management. All the same, there was evidence that greater collaboration and cooperation by farm partners and advisors would improve business outcomes. On the whole, however, women cotton growers are not passive agents but take responsibility for their own futures. In particular, DSS tools such as CottonLOGIC are instrumental in enabling women cotton growers to adapt to, challenge, and influence farm management practices in the family farm enterprise, just as CottonLOGIC is itself shaped and reshaped. Hence, a practical contribution of this study is to provide non-prescriptive guidelines for the improved adoption of agricultural DSS, particularly by rural women, as well as increasing awareness of the worth of their roles as family farm business partners.

No description available.

Coffee production in Costa Rica has brought prosperity to many small farmers, but conflicts of interest with the companies which process and market coffee are still a problem. In addition, producers and processors are plagued by the periodic market cycles of agricultural commodities. Various agencies have promoted cooperatives to help small farmers deal with these problems, but they often fail due to poor management and lack of participation. / This thesis, a multi-layered study of coffee production, processing, and marketing, examines how household producers manage the constraints and opportunities posed by the international market, the Costa Rican state, and the coffee tree itself. A comparative analysis between cooperative and private coffee processors; between two rural communities; and among households in these communities provides the ethnographic context in which the effectiveness of cooperatives as mediating institutions between producers and the world market is analyzed.