1,721,039 research outputs found
Keeping the Name on the Land: Patrilineal Succession in Northern Irish Family Farming. In M. Lobley and J. Baker (eds.)
No full textForgotten Farm Workers: Contemporary Farm Labour and Sustainability in the South West of England
Full text linkThe mass decline in agricultural labour in Britain since the industrial revolution has, ultimately, led to it becoming a significant ‘blind spot’ in the agricultural research agenda. Data regarding those who actively work at the ‘frontline’ of agriculture, and how they interrelate with other agents in their network to achieve multiple national and global agendas, is minimal. This thesis contributes and develops a comprehensive body of knowledge concerning the composition of labour on farms in the South West of England, as well as identifying and exploring contemporary relationships between farm labour contributors, the community; and the land, through the examination of the lived experience of different contributors to agricultural labour. These changes are considered under the lens of agriculture’s ever-encroaching challenges of productivity, labour skills shortages and sustainable intensification.
A mixed-methods approach was adopted, incorporating a postal survey of 1251 farms, as well as 45 semi-structured interviews with farm labour contributors via a case study approach. Quantitative data provides a useful picture of those contributing to labour on farms in the South West of England, and brings attention to associated labour issues experienced by farmers. Qualitative data fleshes out these results with the guidance of Actor Network Theory. The concept of the lifescape is utilised to achieve this most pictorially while principles from the Human Capability Framework are applied to weaknesses in network chains that were revealed during the research process.
Results reveal how new worker profiles have arisen from the increasingly flexible labour market, with contractors exposed as playing a progressively more crucial role to the survival of the industry. Due to an impending labour crisis, rapid technological development, and disparities in knowledge between farmers and other labour contributors, relationships of independence and interdependence between the various cohorts were discovered.
Multiple actors within the lifescape of the farm labour contributor mean that clear distinctions cannot be made between farm, land, nature and community, with no single element more important than the other in the playing out of behaviours. Similarly, that same array of actors is seen to contribute significantly to the capacities, opportunities and freedoms available to farm labour contributors, and where a match between the two fails, substantial issues can be seen to arise.
The research makes a valuable contribution to rural sociology through understanding the lifescape of the farm worker from the ground up. Overall, it addresses the importance of incorporating farm workers and contributors into the agricultural and more specifically, the sustainable intensification research agenda, particularly emphasising the importance of agricultural research and policy-making parameters being inclusive of all individuals who actively contribute to the land, rather than exclusive.John Oldacre Foundatio
Watery land: the management of lowland floodplains in England
No full textLowland floodplains, deliver a range of benefits, both market and non-market goods and services, to society. Though some of these benefits can be delivered simultaneously (in synergy), other benefits tend to conflict with each other and are either exclusive or have to be compromised. The management of lowland floodplains is clearly a product of policy interventions that have promoted particular objectives at different times. Once the recipient of large scale public investments in agricultural
flood defence and drainage, lowland floodplains are now recognised as providing a range of valued ecosystems goods and services, including water regulation, carbon sequestration, landscapes and wildlife, and recreation and amenity. As we argue here,these latter interests are finding expression in new policy initiatives which attempt to integrate land and water management in flood prone areas, such as for example Defra’s Making Space for Water and Catchment Sensitive Farming.
The example of the Beckingham Marshes illustrates the potential advantage of an ecosystem framework for assessing land and water management options. It is clear that the type of goods and services rendered by floodplains reflect dominant stakeholder interests and influences, as shaped by prevailing incentives and property rights and entitlements. An ecosystems approach could help to reinforce the value and importance of non-market goods and services provided by floodplains, with policies that target particularly outcomes independently of agriculture.
However, using an ecosystems framework requires a much more integrated, joined-up approach to natural resource management. This may imply a restructuring of the current institutional framework as policies and entitlements tend to focus on one or two ecosystem functions only. New disaggregated property regimes may be required whose various elements explicitly refer to particular uses and services, giving separate entitlements, possibly at different time of year, to different services such as agricultural use, flood storage, conservation or public access. In this respect, clear insights are required into both the demand for and supply side of ecosystem services, at present and in the future.
This begs answers to the questions raised in the Great Land Use Debate (RELU, 2008b), namely: what is land for, who should decide, and what is the best way of ensuring that the future stock of land and water resources, including those in floodplains, provides the diverse flows of services required to meet future needs
People Helping People - an Assessment of the Market Towns and Related Initiatives and the Extent to Which They Addressed Rural Poverty
No full textThis study evaluates, by means of face to face interviews and a postal survey, aspects of the Market Towns Initiative (MTI), the Beacon Towns Programme (BTP), and related programmes of community-led work, the majority of which arose from the British Government’s Rural White Paper of 2000. Particular emphasis is placed on: participants’ experiences, achievements and opinions about the programmes; their understanding of rural poverty; the extent to which they thought that the programmes should have had poverty alleviation as an aim, and to which they believed that the programmes had helped to identify and address rural poverty.
A review of the literature relating to rural policy reveals that political interest (and, therefore, policymakers’ interest) in the functions of England’s country – “market” - towns, and their place in the settlement hierarchy, has waxed and waned since the Second World War. During this period the nature of government, in particular the balance between the various tiers, has tilted in favour of central government. Consequently, the powers available to County and District/Borough Councils, if not Town/Parish Councils, have reduced. Central government has increasingly looked to partnerships formed from public, voluntary, and private sector organizations to implement policy. It is governance, therefore, rather than government, that has grown in importance in recent years. The MTI/BT programmes were both designed for implementation by broad-based partnerships of professionals and volunteers.
The literature also reveals that the post-war period has seen research into poverty become increasingly nuanced and sophisticated, with definitions moving away from the relatively simple to understand (eg lack of money) to more complicated notions of disadvantage, deprivation, and social exclusion. The factors that affect rural poverty have, since the 1970s, been remarkably constant (eg access to services, affordable housing, low income self-employment). The problems of rural poverty have not been solved.
It is argued, based on the results of the data acquired from this research, that community-led development programmes such as the MTI/BTP, have the potential to inform the development of policy and practice relating to community-led development and poverty alleviation, to add to the body of knowledge about rural poverty, and to improve the overall understanding of the functions of England’s small towns. Despite the potential of partnerships to effect change, the important role of local authorities as democratically accountable organizations, and contributors to partnerships’ success and effectiveness, is noted
Rising to the Food Security Challenge: An Investigation into Family Farm Succession in the South West of England
No full textDriven by global population growth and anticipated increases in demand for food as well as a number of other goods and services, the issue of food security has recently (re-)emerged in both policy and academic contexts. Using a modified political economy perspective, this study recognises the role of the family farm as policy operatives in this context and considers the potential influence of intergenerational farm transfer on the delivery of food security objectives. It also explores how the food security agenda, described by some as the renaissance in agriculture, is influencing the farming community and in particular, the appeal of succeeding to the family farm. Broadly, it seeks to add to, and develop the body of knowledge relating to family farm succession, and explores the linkages between succession and the food security agenda.
The study used 1941-1943 National Farm Survey data and maps as a tool to facilitate semi-structured interviews with farmers, and where applicable their potential successors, in Hatherleigh and surrounding parishes, Devon, UK. The study also highlights the absence of the potential successor from family farm research and subsequently resolves definitional issues surrounding the term by presenting a conceptual framework, including a definition of the potential successor.
The findings indicate that family farming continues to be largely hereditary, and demonstrates how the occupancy of Hatherleigh and surrounding parishes has been shaped by traditions and expectations that socialised incumbent farmers into succeeding. Despite contemporary concern about the desirability of intergenerational farm transfer, participating farmers understood passing on the farm to a next generation as desirable. Many of whom framed their optimism in the context of the food security agenda and the anticipated opportunities for the industry.
Drawing on in-depth interviews, this thesis questions the notion of the so called ‘succession crisis’, and identifies a number of positive adaptations and outcomes associated with successor identification which it discusses in the context of delivery of food security objectives. Two broad types of transfer of managerial control were identified and a typology is offered that suggests types of transfer are the product of potential successors’ ages and the subsequent nature of their upbringing. The thesis critically considers the types’ respective merits in the context of food security objectives and an original conceptualisation is offered as a contemporary way of understanding the types of transfer of managerial control in Hatherleigh and surrounding parishes.
As well as influencing the transfer of managerial control, the study attributes significant differences in potential successors’ motivations according to the fundamental societal shift from a ‘society of duty’ to a ‘market place of opportunity’. Critically, the thesis revealed how, unlike their older counterparts, younger potential successors were motivated by the renaissance in agriculture, particularly elements such as the renewed public interest in, and respect for, farming as well as, opportunities farming for food security may offer.
Overall, the thesis highlights the importance of considering the family farm and the influence of succession on the industry’s response to food security policy measures. It proposes that, at an aggregate level, ‘effective succession’, measured in terms of the identification of a successor and the timely and appropriate transfer of managerial control, are likely to be key factors in the delivery of food security objectives. It also recognises how succession and successor ‘creation’ are changing as society increasingly prioritises the individual and that the changing image of farming associated with the renaissance in agriculture is influencing younger potential successors. From these conclusions, suggestions are made for areas of further work, particularly with regard to understanding the implications of the different types of transfer of managerial control on long-term farm business performance, and some practical options for continuing to attract potential successors into the industry and facilitating effective intergenerational transfer are offered.John Oldacre Foundatio
Un-accomplishing the Rural Future
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to provide a short critique of an emergent set of policy practices concerned with the envisioning of rural futures. It does so by inspecting recent efforts to storyboard the futures of ‘English countryside’, a category whose meanings and functions are being recast within the ordinary policy realm as well as being increasingly opened up by new forms of experimentation in space-time
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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The impact of COVID-19 on farmers’ mental health: a case study of the UK
Full text linkObjectives
In this paper, we use a UK case study to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health (emotional, psychological, social wellbeing) of farmers. We outline the drivers of poor farming mental health, the manifold impacts of the pandemic at a time of policy and environmental change, and identify lessons that can be learned to develop resilience in farming communities against future shocks.
Methods
We undertook a survey answered by 207 farmers across the UK, focusing on drivers of poor mental health and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also conducted 22 in-depth interviews with individuals in England, Scotland and Wales who provide mental health support to farmers. These explored how and why the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of farmers. These interviews were supplemented by 93 survey responses from a similar group of support providers (UK-wide).
Results
We found that the pandemic exacerbated underlying drivers of poor mental health and wellbeing in farming communities. 67% of farmers surveyed reported feeling more stressed, 63% felt more anxious, 38% felt more depressed, and 12% felt more suicidal. The primary drivers of poor mental health identified by farmers during the pandemic were decreased social contact, issues with the general public on private land, and moving online for social events. Support providers also highlighted relationship and financial issues, illness, and government inspections as drivers of poor mental health. Some farmers, conversely, outlined positive impacts of the pandemic.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic is just one of many potential stressors associated with poor farming mental health and its impacts are likely to be long lasting and delayed. Multiple stressors affecting farmers at the same time can create a tipping point. Therefore, there is a need for long-term support and ongoing evaluation of the drivers of poor mental health in farming families
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