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This study aims to investigate the landscape of family-based organic farm businesses in the Kashmir Valley, India, analyzing the factors that either facilitate or hinder their adoption. The research also intends to uncover sources of information seeking. The primary purpose is to provide qualitative evidence to address existing knowledge gaps and offer insights for promoting sustainable farm practices in the region.

The research employs a qualitative approach, drawing on focus group interviews. The study thoroughly explores the background and relevant literature, utilizing a comprehensive research framework. Data is collected from family based farmers engaged in organic farming practices in the Kashmir Valley. The data is analyzed using content analysis ensuring a robust and thorough exploration of the subject matter.

This study reveals a notable transition in the agricultural landscape of the Kashmir Valley, showcasing a widespread adoption of organic farming on considerable land. The study reveals that key facilitators for organic farming among family-based farms are farm productivity, entrepreneurial intention, governance, environmental consciousness, and health concerns. The exchange of information, both through formal and informal channels, is found to be a crucial factor influencing the adoption of organic farming. The study also unveiled significant inhibitors that hinder the adoption of organic farming on commercial scales, including on-farm challenges such as difficulties in acquiring inputs and facing reduced yields, market-related concerns, and a lack of support and assistance from government agencies.

This research contributes significantly to the existing literature by advancing the understanding of organic farm business and agri-entrepreneurship. It unveils key factors that either support or hinder family-based organic farms, identifying crucial information sources and presenting valuable insights for policymakers. Furthermore, this study provides practical guidance for overcoming obstacles, enhancing infrastructure, and translating identified facilitators into successful agri-ventures in the Kashmir region.

This chapter examines changes in smallholder agriculture in terms of processes of de-agrarianization in a rapidly changing regional economy of Costa Rica long characterized by small-scale commercial coffee farming.

The study is based on multiple periods (1990–1991, 1993, 2006, 2010–2012) of ethnographic research on household economic strategies among farming families in two districts in the canton of Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica.

Though occupational multiplicity and non-farm-based livelihoods are on the rise, smallholder agriculture continues to play a substantial role in the livelihood strategies of both young and old and in the regional economy, not in spite of these trends, but because an expanding business sector and an increase in non-farm employment opportunities are creating a demand for agricultural produce and providing new opportunities for smallholders to diversify agricultural production, stabilize their incomes and maintain a significant presence in the regional economy. Specific historic conditions and state policies have been important factors in shaping rural economic change, livelihood strategies and smallholder agriculture in this region.

Sample sizes are relatively small and some data on children’s economic activities were obtained second hand from siblings and/or parents.

This research has implications for policy makers, planners and social activists interested in agrarian change.

This research provides an important longitudinal lens on the economic strategies of farming households, processes of de-agrarianization and the persistence of small-scale family farmers in today’s world.

The contemporary production, distribution, and consumption of food is today interconnected at the global level in the form of a global food chain, constituted by the relations between all the producers, distributors, and consumers of food in the World. A chain where the international trade law constitutes a conditioning element, which through the legal adoption of neoliberal ideals facilitates the strengthening of the agribusiness sector.

The present article aims to assess the environmental impact of the global food chain and engaging in the discussion of the adoption of more sustainable methodologies in the agriculture sector. By mobilizing the experience of participation in Civil Society Network for Food and Nutrition Security in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (REDSAN-CCPL), we will critically expose the causal link of the activities of transnational corporations of the agribusiness sector with its environmental and public health impacts, particularly with cases in Global South countries (countries of the Community of Countries of Portuguese Language, CCPL).

At the end, and, following closely the current discussion at the United Nations level for the creation of a Declaration of the Rights of Peasants, and the creation, in 2017, of a legal regime for family farming under the CCPL, we will present a defense for the legal recognition of family farming at the international level, as a legal and political strategy to preclude the negative environmental impacts of the agribusiness sector.

The chapter seeks to reflect on the dynamics of the reconstruction of family farming and peasant agriculture in agrarian reform settlements (“assentamentos”) in Brazil, exploring the limits and potential of government food purchases from family farming, particularly the Food Acquisition Program (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos – PAA), in the creation of alternative paths of rural development. The work analyzes the different strategies through which farmers and their organizations mobilize public policy instruments and market connections, expanding their room for maneuver and agency capacity. Research was conducted in the Baixo Sul Territory of the state of Bahia, focusing the heterogeneous web of social organizations involved in the implementation of the Food Acquisition Program in this setting.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how entrepreneurial bricolage empowers smallholder commercial farming, from a family business perspective.

The study employed a multiple case study design to analyse entrepreneurial bricolage in smallholder commercial farming in Uganda. It used multiple data collection methods and applied content analytical tchniques to establish cross-case correlations, patterns and relationships to aid in theory development and testing.

The study shows that entrepreneurial bricolage empowers smallholder commercialization through resource reallocation, improvization and prioritization as interconnected, self-reinforcing bricolage processes in smallholder farming. It provides evidence of how smallholder farms may not enact institutional limits, and overcome constraints imposed by their resource environments. It further reveals that smallholder commercial farms can be construed as family businesses given the interconnected relationship between farming business, family and smallholder farm(er).

The study was conducted in smallholder farms hence results may be used cautiously in other sectors and economies where resource environments are not structurally defined. However, it provides lessons for family businesses in developed countries particularly the micro- and small businesses. It also renders smallholder farming as a lucrative area for family business research.

This study deepens our understanding of bricolage in smallholder farming and provides a springboard for scholarship in enhancing smallholder commercialization. It proposes a model for entrepreneurial bricolage in smallholder commercial farming.

This chapter focuses on the Swedish agriculture policy from the 1940s to 1960s. Which gender visions were explicitly and implicitly expressed in Swedish agricultural policy discourse during the formative period of the welfare state? In what way were farming women, men and families represented in debates in the Swedish Riksdag (the Parliament) in the parliamentary processes, in bills, proposals and protocols? The point of departure is the concept of family farm, its introduction and the different understandings and discussions it was met with.

At one end, family farming is seen as important for incentivizing local ­development. At another end, the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is a social assistance policy that provides food and nutrition for students enrolled in public schools. In 2015, the program fed 41.5 million students across the country. In 2009, these two worlds – family farming and school feeding – were connected through a public policy implemented by law. This law defines that 30% of the financial resources for the acquisition of school feeding, transferred by the federal government to states and municipalities, must be spent on items produced by family farming. However, even considering the legal requirement and many of the changes it has brought, many municipalities still do not meet this minimum requirement. In 2015, more than half of the 5,570 Brazilian municipalities, about 54%, did not reach the 30% minimum; that is, over 3,000 municipalities failed to meet that legal threshold. This context raises some questions: Why is the law not effective? What are the social structures that hinder the implementation of this public policy as it was conceived? One of the theoretical frameworks that could sustain such questioning is Structuration Theory (ST; Giddens, 2003). It brings the concept of structure duality, stating that there is no prevalence between social structure and human action, but rather a reciprocity. In this theory, the structure can be distinguished into three dimensions (signification, domination, and legitimation) and the interaction of these dimensions can lead to either transformation or continuity. Using the lenses of ST, our aim is to identify, analyze, and understand the reverberations of this public policy on social practices and how these reverberations could explain this state of things. For this, we conducted a preliminary field research, based on interviews with key agents involved in the school feeding program in a municipality in the Midwest of Brazil. The preliminary results revealed that the change induced by the law reflected on those agents, altering social practices. New procedures were adopted that transformed social practices pertaining to the dimension of signification. Nevertheless, challenges related to logistics (transport and storage), trust, training, and bureaucracy are still hindering the effectiveness of the intended public policy. As a limitation, we were not under conditions to grasp the changes while they occurred because our point of attention is the scenario after the enforcement of the relevant Law. Beyond that, our study uses ST to deal with the resistance of social structures to change even in a scenario of mandatory law enforcement.

This chapter deals with family/household relevance as a stakeholder institution in rural (farm) communities. The data collection approach is qualitative. Families in Japan and the Philippines’ rice-cultivating communities were the subjects of the study. Results revealed that households in the two sites were experiencing a unique ontological crisis vis-á-vis farming communities. The crisis pointed to the problem of farm families’ relegation as secondary stakeholders in the farming sector. Despite the struggle for survival in the farm sector, farm families were differently adaptive and enduring in dealing with the modern development – that is, selective technology adoption, farmland redefinition, struggle and resistance against farm policies, and community group accommodation, to name a few. This endurance contributes to farm family persistence as a relevant institution in Japan and the Philippines.

The agricultural sector has undergone extensive changes in the 20-30 years since the peak academic debate on family farming. Still today, the understanding and concept of family farming has political implications in the processes of rural and agricultural policy. The purpose of this paper is to study the development of agrarian structure by analysing the gendered and family relations of family farming.

This paper examines the concept of the family farm and its utilisation and diversity in the current Swedish agricultural sector from a gender perspective, using empirical data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. The paper operationalises a situated agrarian typology and examines the gendered position and temporalities of family farms in Sweden, based on patterns of labour use.

A workable, fruitful typology of the agrarian structure suitable for future comparative studies is revealed. It also demonstrates the gendered time in the farm labour process, the different temporalities involved and their interconnection between gender, family and various spheres. The spatial and geographical implications, as well as the increased dependence on family and hired labour in different farm types, are emphasised.

The focus of this study contributes to the understanding of spatial-temporal relations of family farm business and organisation in general and in Sweden particularly. It also provides empirical basis for developing and gender mainstreaming rural and agricultural policies.

Digitalisation is perceived as a new process that may add value to firms. Current theoretical understanding assumes it should be part of a firm's strategy to respond to multiple pressures in the business environment. This paper explores the occurrence of digitalisation in a rare context, that of the English agricultural industry in the United Kingdom, a place disproportionality filled with family firms. The general understanding of digitalisation in family firm settings remains embryonic. The authors' explorations make theoretical contributions to research at the intersection of rural entrepreneurship, family business and innovation.

Utilising a purposive, qualitative approach, primary data was collected from multiple interviews with 28 UK family farms, and secondary data from another 164. Interview transcripts were coded using NVivo, along with secondary data from reports, observations and websites.

The authors present empirical evidence illustrating how digitalisation manifests incrementally and radically in different types of family farms. The authors present a model that shows the areas of farming that have, and continue to be, digitalised. This increases analytical precision when identifying digitalisation activities that differ depending on the strategy to either scale or diversify. The authors propose that incremental digitalising occurs to a great extent during a scaling strategy, and that radical digitalising occurs to a smaller extent during diversification strategies in family farms.

This research uses a sample of family-run farms from the UK agricultural sector to explore nuanced elements of digitalisation. It should therefore be explored in other types of family firms located in different sectors and geographies.

This research is important because family farms are under increasing pressure and have limited financial resources to deal with the digitalisation agenda. Therefore, empirical evidence helps other farms in similar situations. The authors found digitalisation investments, that tend to be capital intensive, only matter for scalers and less so for diversifiers. Family farms can use the model presented as a tool to evaluate their farm. The tool helps them define what to do, and ideate the potential activities that might be digitalised, to feed into their wider strategy.

Family firms, in particular farms, are critical to many economies. The general consenses currently assumes all family firms should digitalise, yet the authors' evidence suggests that this is not the case. It is important to create policies that are sensitive to the needs of different types of businesses, in this case between family firm scalers and diversifiers, instead of simply incentivising digitalisation using a blanket approach usually by offering financial aid. Understanding how digitisation can support (or not) family firm resilience and growth in an effective and efficient manner can have significant benefit to individual firms, and across industries.

The proposed model extends theoretical understanding linking strategy, digitalisation activity and innovation in family farms. It shows that digitalisation is a key building block of scaling strategies, maximising digitalisation to increase efficiency. Yet, diversifying family farms minimise digitalisation, whereby they only digitalise a small amount of the farming activity. This empirical evidence contrasts with the wider narrative that farmers are slower at using new technology. This research found that some are slower because it does not align with their strategy. However, sometimes digitalisation aligns with their strategy during external changes, in which case the diversifiers are quick to act.