ECN 360 chaper 9

Agrarian system

How landownership, farming, and agricultural labor are organized.

Cash crops

Crops grown mainly to sell for income rather than family consumption

Diversified farming

Growing multiple crops or raising livestock to spread risk and income

Diversified (mixed) farming

Producing both food for the family and crops for sale.

Family farm

A farm primarily operated by family labor, typically employing 2–4 people.

Green Revolution

Agricultural productivity gains from improved seeds, irrigation, fertilizer, and technology.

Integrated rural development

Improving farming, nonfarm jobs, education, healthcare, infrastructure, and rural living conditions.

Interlocking factor markets

When one party, often a landlord, controls land, credit, labor, or crop sales.

Landlord

An owner who rents farmland to others.

Land reform

Redistributing land ownership or use rights to farmers with little or no land.

Latifundio

A very large landholding, generally employing more than 12 workers.

Medium-size farm

A farm employing approximately 4–12 workers.

Minifundio

A farm too small to fully employ or support one family.

Moneylender

A person who provides loans, often at high interest rates, to farmers.

Scale-neutral technology

Technology that can work effectively on both small and large farms.

Sharecropper

A tenant who pays the landowner a percentage of the harvest.

Shifting cultivation

Moving to new farmland while previously cultivated soil recovers fertility.

Specialized farming

Producing mainly one crop for commercial sale and profit.

Staple food

A basic regularly eaten food such as rice, corn, or wheat.

Subsistence farming

Growing food mainly to feed the farmer's family.

Tenant farmer

A farmer who rents land rather than owning it.

Transaction costs

Costs of arranging, supervising, and enforcing economic exchanges.

Why is agriculture important for development?

It reduces rural poverty, improves food security, and supports industrial growth.

What are Kuznets's four agricultural contributions?

Product, foreign exchange, market, and factor contributions.

Product contribution of agriculture

Provides food and raw materials for industry.

Foreign-exchange contribution of agriculture

Agricultural exports earn foreign currency for imports.

Market contribution of agriculture

Higher rural incomes increase demand for manufactured goods.

Factor contribution of agriculture

Provides labor and investment capital for industry.

Agriculture-based countries

Agriculture remains a major source of economic growth; common in sub-Saharan Africa.

Transforming countries

Agriculture contributes less to growth, but most poor people remain rural; common in Asia.

Urbanized developing countries

Agriculture plays a smaller role and more poverty is urban; common in Latin America.

Main agricultural problem in Latin America

Highly unequal landownership, including latifundio-minifundio systems.

Main agricultural problem in Asia

High population density and increasingly fragmented small farms.

Main agricultural problem in Africa

Low-productivity subsistence farming, weak irrigation, and soil degradation.

Three stages of agricultural development

Subsistence farming, diversified mixed farming, specialized commercial farming.

Why are subsistence farmers risk-averse?

A failed harvest can threaten survival, so stable yields may be preferred

Minimum consumption requirement (MCR)

Minimum food consumption necessary for physical survival.

Low mean vs. high variance crop yields

Poor farmers may prefer lower but reliable yields over higher but risky yields.

Marshallian sharecropping approach

Sharecroppers supply less labor because they keep only a fraction of their marginal product

Cheung's monitoring approach

Landlords can enforce effort through monitoring and contracts, potentially maintaining efficiency.

Screening hypothesis of sharecropping

Contract choices help reveal differences in farmers' abilities.

Risk-sharing explanation for sharecropping

Sharing the harvest divides production risk between tenant and landlord.

Ali Shaban's sharecropping finding

The same farmers used fewer inputs and produced less on sharecropped land than owned land.

Why can secure land tenure increase productivity?

Farmers have stronger incentives to invest when they expect to keep future benefits.

What is agricultural extension?

Training, information, and technical support provided to farmers.

What is mechanized agricultural technology?

Labor-saving machinery such as tractors and harvesters.

What is land-augmenting technology?

Improved seeds, irrigation, and fertilizer that raise output per hectare.

Why can mechanization harm poor rural workers?

It may replace abundant labor and increase unemployment.

Why might the Green Revolution increase inequality?

Large farms may receive credit, irrigation, and inputs unavailable to small farmers.

Why can low government-controlled crop prices hurt farmers?

They reduce incentives to produce more and invest in improvements.

What is the entitlement approach to famine?

Famine can occur when people cannot obtain food even if food exists.

What did the 2011 Somalia famine demonstrate?

Drought combined with conflict, weak governance, and high food prices can cause famine.

Why are women important in agricultural development?

They provide major farm labor and support household food security.

What challenges do women farmers face?

Limited access to land, credit, inputs, training, and control over income.

What is the unitary household model?

The assumption that households act together to maximize shared objectives.

Why can gender inequality reduce farm efficiency?

Inputs may be allocated unequally, lowering total household production.

What are the three core requirements for rural development?

Land rights, supportive policies and inputs, and integrated rural development.

Why is land reform alone insufficient?

Farmers also need credit, technology, infrastructure, markets, and fair prices.

What is social learning in agriculture?

Farmers adopt or adjust techniques using information from other farmers.

What is land grabbing?

Large-scale foreign acquisition or long-term leasing of farmland, potentially displacing local farmers.