Does climatic crisis in Australia’s food bowl create a basis for change in agricultural gender relations?

An ongoing crisis in Australian agriculture resulting from climate crises including drought, decreasing irrigation water, more recent catastrophic flooding, and an uncertain policy environment is reshaping gender relations in the intimate sphere of the farm family. Drawing on research conducted in the Murray-Darling Basin area of Australia we ask the question: Does extreme hardship/climate crises change highly inequitable gender relations in agriculture? As farm income declines, Australian farm women are more likely to be working off farm for critical family income while men continue to work on farm often in circumstances of damaged landscapes, rising debt, and limited production. This paper examines the way gender relations are being renegotiated in a time of significant climate crisis. Our research suggests that climate crises have indeed led to changes in gender relations and that some changes are unexpected. Whereas one would logically assume that women’s enhanced economic contribution would increase their power in gender negotiations, we argue that this does not necessarily occur because their contribution is viewed as a farm survival strategy. Men are committed to prioritizing the farm and view women’s income generating work as critical to this purpose and yet, paradoxically, long for a return to traditional farm roles. We find that women are actively resisting traditional gender relations by reshaping a role for themselves beyond the farm—in the process moving physically and mentally away from a farm family ideology, questioning gender inequalities, and by extension their relationships.     

The U.S. farm crisis: Program responses and alternatives to them—the case of Michigan

The current crisis in U.S. agriculture has broadcast a rather simplex message. It is that the traditional family farm is in serious trouble. This message is apparent in the agricultural programs that have emerged in direct response to the farm crisis. Using Michigan's experience as illustration, these programs are shown to share similar objectives supported by a singular policy orientation. They utilize a ‘farm as firm’ model and treat the small farm operation as the unit of problem analysis and remedial action. They focus attention inward upon the ‘victim’ and attempt to change the victim's behavior through improved farm and farmer management. The paper considers the limitations inherent in this prevailing orientation. At the same time, it argues for the utility of an alternative perspective—one that places the farm in a wider context and considers the relationships between the farmer/victim and those who are more powerful—locally, nationally, and internationally. It advocates the need for research and programs that question these extra-farm relationships and their implications for farmer behavior. If agricultural programs are to assist the family farm, on any but a short-term basis, it is these relationships, and not the farmer, that must be changed.     

Can organic farmers be ‘good farmers’? Adding the ‘taste of necessity’ to the conventionalization debate

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in the rate of conversion from conventional to organic farming, as organic farming shifted from an alternative production approach practiced by a small number of idealists, to the de facto alternative to mainstream conventional production. Although there has been considerable academic debate as to the role of agri-business penetration into the production and marketing chains of organic farming (‘conventionalization’), less is known about how the economic drivers of conventionalization are negotiated into practices at the farm level. Drawing on Bourdieu’s conceptualization of economic and cultural capitals, the direct connection between symbols of ‘good farming’ and the economic requirements of maintaining a viable farming business (i.e., the ‘taste of necessity’) is demonstrated. Findings indicate that conventional and organic farmers in the study sites identified a similar range of cultural symbols, but organic farmers emphasized different symbols within this range. This diversity and selectivity demonstrates the fragmentation and contestation of ideals resulting from economic challenges at the time of the study. Economic capital is important to the decision to consider conversion to organic farming, but formal conversion reflects re-weighting of forms of cultural capital. The author argues that recognition of the impact of economic pressures on conventional farming, which in the study sites often led to reduced input use rather than intensification, is missing from the conventionalization debate. The mainstreaming of organic farming production has presented conventional farmers with a set of alternative or re-weighted symbols and a crucible for reflexive consideration of their own standards and practices of farming.     

My decision to sell the family farm

This paper presents a discussion of my personal experiences of selling a family farm and analyses those experiences using the layered account form of autoethnographic writing. I describe how the cultural influences from family farming led me, a farmer’s son, to also become a farmer, why farmers may choose to continue in their occupation sometimes against increasingly negative economic pressures, why I continued farming for as long as I did, and the thoughts and feelings associated with my decision to sell my farm and exit the industry. I discuss the emotions that I experienced and place them in a theoretical context that makes them more understandable to others. Because this paper examines the effects from my decision to retire from farming it makes a contribution to the limited literature on farmers’ retirement.     

‘正午’牡丹核型分析及减数分裂的染色体行为观察

目的芍药属牡丹组革质花盘亚组与肉质花盘亚组间的远缘杂交是现代牡丹育种的重要方向之一。然而,亚组间杂种普遍高度不育,很难继续用于杂交育种。‘正午’牡丹是一个观赏性好、适应性强的亚组间杂交品种,虽然其通常高度不育,但仍被用作亲本培育出一些优异的杂交后代,表现出一定的育性。研究其减数分裂的染色体行为,可为揭示其极低育性的形成机制提供重要的信息。方法本研究以‘正午’幼嫩花蕾中的雌蕊为材料,进行体细胞染色体核型分析;以花药为材料进行花粉母细胞减数分裂观察。结果‘正午’牡丹为二倍体,核型公式为2n = 2x = 10 = 7m + 1sm + 2st（1SAT）。其花粉母细胞可通过正常的减数分裂形成四分体及小孢子,减数第一次分裂中约有70%的花粉母细胞发生染色体行为异常,包括单价体及多价体、染色体桥、断片、落后染色体、不等分裂等,其中染色体桥出现频率最高;减数第二次分裂中,染色体行为异常率同样高达70%,常见的异常类型包括纺锤体定位异常、不同步分裂、染色体桥、断片、落后染色体等,最后形成二分体、三分体、微核或特小的额外小孢子。结论‘正午’减数分裂存在大量异常可能与其高度杂合的核型有关。普遍存在的单价体及多价体引起的不等分裂和染色体桥及断片造成的染色体片段缺失等染色体行为异常可能是导致‘正午’牡丹高度不育的重要原因。同时,仍有一小部分花粉母细胞能够顺利完成减数分裂,形成小孢子。其中一部分通过二分体或三分体形成未减数小孢子,表明其具有用于培育多倍体牡丹的潜力。      

具有社会性别敏感性的农业科技传播模式探索——以项目村夫妻劳动分工为例

"倡导社会性别敏感的参与式科技传播,深化科技入户工程项目"是一个具有社会性别敏感性的农村生计项目。在项目实施过程中,特别关注女性和当今农业女性化实际。以夫妻劳动分工为例,在项目村,家务劳动分工呈现出责任化、层次化、理性化的特点;一般农活中重体力活、对技术要求高的活主要由丈夫承担;在果园劳动方面,妻子承担的份额和丈夫相当;男性村民外出打工的居多。目前,虽然项目村夫妻劳动分工仍然是传统的男主外、女主内模式,但是这种模式已经发生了重大的变化。     

From sharecropping to crop-rent: women farmers changing agricultural production relations in rural South Asia

This paper explores changing production relations in agriculture in context of increasingly widespread and longer-duration male outmigration, as against previous, short-duration and seasonal migration. It investigates how de facto women-heads of households (WHHs) are changing a resilient crop-sharing system in absence of adequate access to productive assets, formal training or experience in farming, and while contributing labour to farming and coping with gendered demands on their time. Based on qualitative inquiry in one of the poorest parts of South Asia, the Eastern Gangetic Plains, the paper shows that a section of WHHs are replacing sharecropping arrangements with fixed-value rental arrangements that resemble commercial contracts. The paper ends with a discussion on the implications of this emerging development.     

环京津山区农业产业化升级与农户增收——一个基于Probit模型的实证分析

运用环京津山区6个县519个农户的调查数据,通过建立Probit模型,分析了农业产业化促进农户收入增长的影响因素。研究表明：农业产业化经营对增加农户家庭收入的作用确实很明显,其中,家庭农业劳动力数量、家庭耕地数量、龙头企业规模、中介组织数量、生产加工基地数量和产业化覆盖农户数等变量是产业化经营影响农户增收的主要因素。     

论当代中国统筹城乡发展背景下户籍制度改革的路径

我国现行的户籍制度是城乡分割的二元户籍制度。这种户籍制度将户口划分为"农业户口"与"非农业户口",将城乡居民分别纳入两种不同的管理体系。这种划分绝不只是称谓的不同,而是意味着户籍背后所附着的各种地位、机会和福利待遇等的不同。近几年来,一些省市将"农业户口"与"非农业户口"统一为了"居民户口",但户籍背后的利益问题并未得到很好的解决,二元户籍制度的本质并未根本改变。二元户籍制度是特定     

中国粮食作物家庭农场适度规模的比较研究

推进家庭农场适度规模经营是发展现代农业、建设社会主义新农村的必然趋势。选取粮食作物家庭农场为研究对象,对我国粮食作物家庭农场适度规模相关文献进行归纳与总结,主要针对粮食作物家庭农场的适度规模进行了比较,提出需确保粮食作物家庭收入达到当地城镇居民收入水平;种植水稻家庭农场的适度规模,应该约为10 hm~2,小麦的适度规模约为30 hm~2,无法达到规模的地区,应考虑种养结合、或者不同农作物的轮作和套种来实现适度规模经营;地理位置较偏远的山区,可考虑发展种植经济作物的家庭农场和农业合作社,利用合作社的优势为家庭农场的发展提供产业链服务,以期为我国的农业生产实践提供指导建议。     

家庭农场发育的内在机理、政策演化与推进策略

家庭农场作为一种新型农业经营主体,不仅在形式上体现了对传统家庭经营形式的继承与转化,对农村社会阶层分化的适应与调整,更在内容上反映了农业现代化和社会化的发展需求,是对农业生产经营体制的创新与发展.国内有关这一经营形式的相关政策在历经一系列的发展变化后开始逐渐明晰,但当前家庭农场在融资、保险、竞争、政策、培训等领域还面临诸多问题.对此,提出了推进家庭农场发育的具体策略,包括完善土地流转机制、加强对家庭农场的政策支持、建立健全农业社会化服务体系、大力培育新型职业农民等.     

What is so disturbing about Jan Smiley's A Thousand Acres?

Jane Smiley's award winning and disturbing novel, A Thousand Acres, invites a critical appraisal of a popular assumption for proponents of sustainable agriculture: that family farming and sustainable agriculture are (at least indirectly) mutually reinforcing. This process begins with a plot that presents an Iowa multigenerational farm family headed by an acutely dominant father. Consequences of this dominance include subjugation of everyone involved with the farming operation, varieties of abuse of the daughters, and primitive non-environmental farming. Also in the novel three structural components of the family farm/rural setting aggravate the nightmarish situation: multigenerational participation in one farming operation, children remaining on the farm, uninterrupted, into adulthood, and the power of community appearances. It is argued that these components contribute not only to the family problems, but also to making the poor farming that emerges in this family not very coincidental. This analysis, if correct, raises many issues about farm structure and farming practices. They include how the younger generation(s) of family farm structures cope with their situations, whether aspects of family farms skew who decides to remain to farm, family farm ownership and transfer structure, how well farmers understand their own farms, and the case for voluntarism regarding environmental issues in farming. One theme throughout the essay is that the novel enables better recognition and appreciation of the subtle relationship between family problems and farming practices.     

民国时期广西农村耕畜借贷探析

耕畜借贷是高利贷借贷的一种方式,在中国农村极其流行。由于耕畜分配的严重不均等原因,民国时期广西农村的耕畜借贷也广泛存在。广西农村的耕畜借贷既有地主、富农等阶层的放贷,也有土司、养牛户、中农的参与,还有耕畜缺乏者之间的联合。耕畜借贷的利息支付有实物方式,也有以劳役偿还等形式。耕畜借贷是高利贷借贷用于生产领域的一种,因此,它既有残酷的剥削性,又在某种程度上具有一定的积极意义。     

Values and policy conflict in West German agriculture

Family farming became a major social force in the Federal Republic following World War II. Several political, economic and social factors facilitated the development of a unified political representation within the farm sector. The German Farmers Union (Deutscher Bauernverband) became the main representative of the farm sector. Its platform included the preservation of family farms and it attempted to realize this goal through the promotion of commodity price support policies. Political support for these programs was legitimized with the elaboration of a system of values espousing the positive qualities of family farms. Price support policies were opposed by free market advocates with an alternative system of values that fundamentally contradicted those of family farm advocates. Although commodity price supports promoted by partisans of family farming dominated agricultural policy formation in the 1950s and 1960s, fiscal crisis in the EEC and economic differentation within the farm sector began to undermine the position of family farming as a social force. But economic stagnation also prevented the free market position from gaining dominance. Economic differentiation within the farm sector has had an important regional dimension, and this has served as a basis for policy compromise. Economic changes over the post-WWII period have undermined the family farm as a social force. Nevertheless, values associated with family farming continue to have a place in agricultural policy. However, family farming is valued less as an end in itself, and more as a means to the realization of more practical ends such as the preservation of rural landscapes for recreational purposes.     

日本农业生产主体的演变与现状分析

第二次世界大战后,日本确立了以土地私有为基础、家庭经营为生产主体的农业经营模式。战后经济的高度发展,使日本步入经济强国的行列,但也给日本农业带来了很多负面影响。影响之一就是农业劳动力数量的减少、质量的弱化。这一影响降低了家庭经营的主体地位,同时也促进了新的农业生产主体的成长。村落营农作为一种新型的生产主体,近几年呈现快速发展的势头。该文从组织建立的背景、过程、功能等方面剖析村落营农,通过对这一新型农业生产主体的剖析,指出日本农业和农村面临的现实问题。     

论生态农场建设与发展

发展生态农场是中国未来农业发展的重要方向和战略选择。基于这种认识,本文首先在查阅相关文献的基础上,认为国内最早提出“生态农场”一词是在1928年;在此基础上,简述了生态农场的概念与特征,指出：生态农场就是以生态学理论为指导建立起来的由新型农业生产模式和技术体系构成的农业生产单位或单元,生态农场具有界限明显性、生物多样性、结构复杂性、功能高效性、技术先进性和发展循环性的特征。国外生态农场的发展具有起步早、发展快、规模大、类型多、效益好的特点。中国生态农场的建设与实践大致可分为以下3个阶段：第一阶段,是新中国刚刚成立时,依据计划经济原则创办的国营农场;第二阶段,是上世纪80年代初开始,发展的生态农场;第三阶段,是进入新世纪,大力提倡发展的家庭农场,尤其是家庭生态农场。从当前国内外农业发展的现状及未来趋势看,中国加快生态农场建设与发展不仅重要而且紧迫,势在必行。最后,作者提出加快中国生态农场建设与发展的对策和措施是：一是提高认识;二是制定规划;三是加快实施;四是推广技术;五是开展合作;六是完善制度。     

New avenues of farm corporatization in the prairie grains sector: farm family entrepreneurs and the case of One Earth Farms

This paper addresses longstanding debates around changing patterns of farm ownership and structure on the North American plains. Over the last 150?years, the agrifood system has been transformed by a process of capitalist penetration through which non-farm capital has appropriated key links in the ??food chain??. Today, large, often transnational corporations dominate in the provision of farm inputs, as well as in food processing, distribution, and retailing. The paradox for food system scholars has been that primary food production (i.e., farming) has generally remained in the hands of independent, family-based operations, especially in the grains sector. This paradox has generated a substantial literature on the barriers to capitalist penetration in agriculture. I revisit these debates in light of two recent trends. First, I highlight the emergence of a class of farm family entrepreneurs comprised of very large, albeit family-owned, grain farming operations, in Saskatchewan. I provide a case study of a vertically integrated, family-based mega-farm to illustrate. Second, I discuss the implications of the launch of One Earth Farms, a corporate farming entity embodying altogether new strategies of land use, labor, and ownership. Structured as a partnership between a Toronto-based investment firm and nine First Nations bands, One Earth Farms brings together the interests of private investors who increasingly view agriculture as a profitable resource sector, and aboriginal communities hoping to redress the historical marginalization of First Nations farming. I interpret the significance of these new avenues of corporatization for ??family farms?? and prairie agricultural development.     

贵州有机农业生产中农户采纳行为的影响因素分析:以贵阳W村为例

以贵阳W村为例,对农户采纳有机农业生产行为的影响因素进行了分析.结果表明:项目推动和培训其提升意识对农户采纳有机农业生产可产生较大的推动作用,意识培养是基础,但市场的建立、培训不足、劳动力不足、经济收入低等仍然影响着有机农业的发展,相关的政策和行动应该制订出来,以推动其发展.     

试论月令体栽的中国农书

中国月令体裁的农书源远流长,在整个农书中又占有相当大的比重。所谓月令体裁的农书在这里是泛指用月令,时令以及岁时记等以时系事的一应有关体例写成的农书,除了全书整个结构,并对其中主要部分采用了这种体例的农书也兼所论及。分析这些农书先后之间的继承关系,比较这些农书的内容,找出各该农书所具的特点,不仅有助对加深对这些农书的理解,还可进而从中看到我国传统农业发展的一些侧影。