Small Scale Farmers — The People Left Behind?

Extract

Over the past few years there has been a heightened interest in small scale agriculture. Increasing food costs, concern for the quality of food, a concept of self-sufficency, and a reawakening of interest in the positive attributes of rural life are among the reasons for this new attitude. At the national level, the problems of small farms has been explicitly recognized in the 1977 Farm Bill. The following amendments to the Rural Development Act of 1972 were enacted (U.S. Congress, 1977):

“(c) SMALL FARM RESEARCH PROGRAMS – Small farm research programs shall consist of programs of research to develop new approaches for initiating and upgrading small farmer operations through management techniques, agricultural production techniques, farm machinery technology, new products, new marketing techniques, and small farm finance.”

“(d) SMALL FARM EXTENSION PROGRAMS – Small farm extension programs shall consist of extension programs to improve operations of small farmers using, to the maximum extent practicable, paraprofessional personnel to work with small farmers on an intensive basis to initiate and improve management techniques, agricultural production techniques, farm machinery technology, marketing techniques, and small farm finance, and to increase utilization by small farmers of existing services offered by the United States Department of Agriculture and other public and private agencies and organizations.”