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

小农是农业研究中使用的一个术语，用来描述从事小规模、永久性农业的农村家庭的特征。小农农业被广泛认为是农业可持续发展的模式，尽管这一利基市场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的需求增加，出现了农户如何适应和管理经济需求的问题。小农用来保持竞争力的一项有据可查的战略是合作利用土地的战略。另一项涉及对多个规模的劳动力战略进行细化。该项目探讨了这两种战略在一个已在小农一级成功管理的主要经济作物市场中的交集。了解小农如何适应这些双重力量，可以为旨在发展农村经济以支持农户的政策提供见解。该项目将通过STEM教育培训，提供必要的支持，以扩大代表不足的群体的参与。它还将鼓励采用经验性、跨学科的方法来模拟社会和农业变化。研究结果将被传播，以帮助为家庭、社区和州一级的政策和规划提供信息。这项研究调查了一个主要农业市场在个人、家庭和社区层面上合作劳动力战略的扩展。这将在一个自20世纪50年代以来一直是重要经济作物主要生产地的地点进行，最近已成为主要的出口国。这个场地的生产主要是按家庭规模组织的。然而，人们对扩大出口经济作物对农业所在的社会机构的影响知之甚少。通过比较三个社区对经济作物种植的参与度从低到高，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战略的影响。研究人员假设，经济作物生产减少涉及更多的家庭内部合作(家庭成员之间的工作)，但家庭之间的合作更少。然而，更多的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。这项研究的结果将为理解农户如何适应农业变化提供一个概括性的模型，可以应用于其他经历类似转变的环境。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.