Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating the Impacts of Labor and Land Allocation Strategies on Small-Scale Farming

小农是农业研究中用来描述从事小规模、永久性农业的农村家庭的一个术语。小农农业被广泛认为是农业可持续发展的一种模式，尽管这个利基经常发现自己受到更大规模经济的挑战。随着对某些主要经济作物需求的增加，农户如何适应和管理经济需求的问题出现了。有文献记载的小农保持竞争力的一种策略是合作使用土地的策略。另一个涉及在多个尺度上改进劳动力策略。本项目探讨了在小农一级成功管理的主要经济作物市场中这两种战略的交集。了解小农如何适应这些双重力量，可以为旨在支持农户的农村经济发展政策提供见解。该项目将通过STEM教育培训为扩大代表性不足群体的参与提供必要支持。它还将鼓励一种经验的、跨学科的方法来模拟社会和农业变化。调查结果将得到传播，以帮助为家庭、社区和州一级的政策和规划提供信息。本研究考察了主要农业市场在个人、家庭和社区层面的合作劳动策略的扩张。该地点自1950年代以来一直是重要经济作物的主要生产国，最近已成为主要出口国。该基地的生产主要以家庭规模组织。然而，人们对出口经济作物的扩大对农业所依赖的社会制度的影响知之甚少。通过比较三个经济作物种植参与率从低到高的社区，调查人员将依靠卫星图像、人种学研究和家庭调查来评估生产对合作劳动策略的影响。研究者假设较少的经济作物生产涉及更多的家庭内部合作（家庭成员之间的工作），但较少的家庭间合作。然而，扩大经济作物种植需要较少的家庭内部合作，但需要更多的家庭间合作。本研究的结果将为理解农户如何适应农业变化提供一个可推广的模型，该模型可应用于经历类似转型的其他情况。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Smallholders is a term used in agrarian studies to characterize rural householders engaged in small-scale, permanent agriculture. Smallholder farming is widely recognized as a model for sustainability in agriculture, though this niche frequently finds itself challenged by larger economies of scale. As the demand for certain major cash crops increases, questions arise about how farming households adapt and manage economic demands. One documented strategy that smallholders use to remain competitive is a strategy of collaborative land use. Another involves refinements in labor strategies across multiple scales. This project explores the intersection of these two strategies in a major cash crop market that has been successfully managed at the smallholder level. Understanding how smallholders adapt to these dual forces can provide insights for policies aimed at rural economic development to support farming households. This project will provide essential support to broaden the participation of groups underrepresented in through STEM education training. It will also encourage an empirical, inter-disciplinary approach to model social and agricultural change. Results will be disseminated to help inform policies and planning at the household, community, and state level.This study examines the expansion of a major agricultural market on cooperative labor strategies at individual, household, and community levels. It will be done at a site that has been a major producer of important cash crops since the 1950s and has recently become a leading exporter. Production at this site is primarily organized on the household scale. However, little is known about the impact export cash crop expansion has on the social institutions in which farming is embedded. Comparing three communities from low to high involvement in cash crop farming, investigators will rely on satellite imagery, ethnographic research, and household surveys to assess the impacts of production on cooperative labor strategies. Investigators hypothesize less cash crop production involves more intra-household cooperation (work among household members) but less inter-household cooperation. Greater cash crop farming, however, entails less intra-household cooperation but more inter-household cooperation. Results from this research will provide a generalizable model to understand how farming households adapt to agricultural changes, which can be applied to other contexts experiencing similar transitions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.