This study employed qualitative research methods to explore the motivations, perceptions, and regional contextual factors that influence the management decisions of small-scale farmers in East Central Indiana (ECI). In-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 key informants and 29 farmers were recorded, transcribed, and coded using content analysis to understand the factors most relevant to small-scale farming in the region. Several important themes and subthemes arose in the data related to farming motivations, barriers to farm sustainability, and farmer learning and education. The results of this study complement the findings of previous work that describe the complex framework farmers navigate when making decisions on the farm. Still, this study identifies subtle regional factors (i.e., market conditions, farming culture, local economy)that significantly impact farmers’ decisions, and emphasizes the importance of local context in crafting agricultural policies and outreach efforts. Implications and recommendations for East Central Indiana are discussed. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management

Thesis (Magister Scientiae)--Universidade Federal de Viçosa. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-67).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 327-334). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 327-334). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: l. 80-81.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: leaves [437]-451. Bibliographical footnotes.

The sustainable use of the environment for agriculture has become a global priority, requiring urgent solutions in view of intensifying competition. The South African government and the agricultural sector drafted a strategic plan for South African Agriculture. In this plan it was argued that the potential for the horizontal expansion of agricultural production is limited with one of the limitations being that unused high and medium potential land is scarce. This implies that the challenge for higher agricultural production is immense because primarily it would have to come from increased efficiency. All businesses are confronted by change at some time in their history in which agribusiness in South Africa has been subjected to changes in its past. In this era of hyper competition, agribusinesses are faced with constant change. It is how businesses deal with that change that will determine how successful they will remain in the future. The main problem of this research was to determine if farmers in the Great-Kei Region have the appropriate strategies in place to manage environmental constraints effectively. Therefore, the identification and isolation of prominent environmental constraints, through literature review and survey data gathered and analysed, would assist agribusinesses in the planning and prioritising of investments. The investment would be aimed at facilitating the development and sustainable growth in the Great-Kei Region. In this study, a quantitative, descriptive and non-experimental research design was followed. The target population of the study was farmers with farming businesses operating in the Great-Kei Region. There was data obtained from the Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture provincial office in Komga servicing the Great-Kei Region. The data obtained were lists of registered commercial farmers from the Komga iv Agricultural Association and emerging farmers operation in the region. The data obtained did not include all the farmers operating in the Great-Kei Region. The combined sum of farmers from both lists was 38 farmers (N = 38). The population N = 38 was used as a sampling frame representing the population of farmers in the Great-Kei Region. The population of this study consisted of owners or farm managers running the farming businesses and excludes other farm employees employed at the farms. Farmers with agribusinesses in the area who produced either livestock farming or crop farming or both were included for the study. The results of the survey revealed key findings, which enabled the researcher to draw meaningful conclusions and recommendations. The recommendations suggested how farmers can overcome the identified macro, micro and internal environmental constraints affecting them in the Great-Kei Region. Further identification of strategies currently employed by farmers in managing environmental constraints and the competency levels, indicated where gaps resided with strategies currently employed by farmers and where possible change would be required.

The farm record keeping system is frequently used by the farm business manager for historical accounting, mainly to satisfy institutional requirements for information, particularly that of taxation. Little emphasis has been placed on the record system as an aid in forward planning. Farm planning aids frequently ignore the record keeping aspect of farm business management and are generally unrelated to record keeping systems used on the farm. The Canfarm Farm Record System and the various Canfarm Farm Planning Packages are likewise unrelated. This lack of a comprehensive Managerial Information and Decision System for the Canadian farm business manager may, in part, account for the slow rate of adoption of computerized record keeping systems and farm planning aids. The objective of this study was to integrate the Canfarm Farm Record System with a farm planning model, in order to suggest a format for the future development of an extension oriented Managerial Information and Decision System. The specific objectives were: 1) to identify the Canfarm Farm Record System, the statements that are generated from the Record System and the accounting items which make up these statements; 2) to construct, document and validate a linear programming farm model which incorporates the information contained in the Canfarm Farm Record System and generates output in statements that are consistent (identical) with the Record System statements; and, 3) to develop recommendations for standardization of projected financial reports that existing models could adopt, and which could be incorporated into future models. A significant cost of using any system is the investment in time required to become acquainted with that system. Consequently, the fewer the concepts to be learned, the lower would be the cost of learning for both the extension agent and the farm business manager. In addition to reducing the number of new concepts, integrating a record system with the planning function provides the control link through the comparison of planned versus actual values that is not available with fragmented packages. These considerations, in conjunction with management theory and theories of the firm formed the theoretical background to this study. Linear programming was chosen as an appropriate solution method due to its lack of conceptual complexity, the availability of a suitable algorithm and its maximizing capabilities. The Canfarm Farm Record System was described in terms of its accounting concepts. The flow of data was shown, from the farmer's journal entries, through the various detailed reports, to the summary financial statements and to the Balance Sheet. Four reports, the Farm Operating Statement, the Income Statement, the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Owners Equity (Balance Sheet), plus the Cash Flow Statement, were chosen as the basic reports to be generated by the model. The empirical work was shown to consist of several stages, from the capturing of the historical records, the formulation of the farm plan, the generation of the LP matrix, to the solution of the projected farm plan. A report writer converts the output from the LP solution and produces the four financial statements. The final stage is the control link, in which the projected reports are compared to the actual records as they become available. The model was designed to be applicable to a variety of farm planning situations, in addition to being able to link up with other models. It was therefore subjected to several tests, including a simulation run using case farm data from the Canfarm Farm Record System to test the model structure, integration with two different farm planning models to demonstrate its flexibility and comparison with the same data fed through the Canfarm Farm Record System. Once this stage was reached, other potential applications were outlined and then a recommendation was proposed for the adoption of a standardization base for future models as well as for wider applications of this model. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate