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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact on household and farming systems of government efforts to modernise production, build scale and develop specialisation in the Tibet dairy industry.

An overview of policy strategies and industry developments is used to frame detailed micro-level analysis of household and farming systems where impacts on households are explored from both a comparative static and dynamic perspective.

Specialisation and intensification improve household returns but elicit major changes in the farming and household systems and engagement with external markets. For instance, scaling up from three to ten improved cows increases returns from farm activities by one-half but shifts households from a state of food self-sufficiency to one where they need to sell two-thirds of their dairy products and buy three-fifths of their livestock feed.

The diversity among Tibetan farm households and the dynamic changes occurring in farm productivity, product markets and agrarian systems means that the empirical results are used as illustrative rather than definitive.

Relative to the large attention on the Chinese dairy industry with regard to food safety and industry development, the impacts of dairy specialisation on smallholders especially in western China have been overlooked. The case highlights several issues relevant to agrarian transition and development including changing labour use, risk exposure and engagement with external markets.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse factors that determine farmers’ intention to commercialise vegetable-based agribusiness ventures in rural areas and assess the effect of commercialisation on farmers’ income.

The study used a regression approach. Market participation and farmers’ income were hypothesised to be dependent on other external factors. This study employed data compiled from a quantitative survey of 357 farm households located in four major vegetable producing regions of rural East Java and Bali, Indonesia.

Results indicate that household attributes, business environment, supporting facilities and farm characteristics determined farmers to commercialise vegetable farming. Access to credit, seed technology and farm site played high contribution to the market participation. Ultimately, commercial vegetable farming provides an economic advantage regarding increased income. Land fragmentation and status of landholding were identified to influence the net revenue of vegetable farming.

This study has a limitation concerning the number of samples and the availability of data and information. The number of samples is 357 which is about 4 per cent of the total population.

Establishment of vegetable agribusiness terminals with all market infrastructures, adequate access to market information, credit and human capital investment through training and extension services are also required, will boost market participation. Re-structuring land ownership might be the best step to augment farmers’ income, through consolidation of fragmented fertile lands devoted to intensive vegetable farming.

This study was purposely conducted in rural areas where there were subsistence farmers, as this is to improve farmers’ income by commercialising vegetable crops. A novel feature of this finding is the role of access to credit in the commercialisation of vegetable farming and the impact of landholding status on the profitability of intensive farming of high-valued vegetables.

Participation in politics or the public domain has often been linked to material benefits. Looks at farm households in Ireland and concludes that those which are the most exposed to economic risks participate more in the public domain. Those most active in the agricultural debate are those whose business interests are the most vulnerable to changes in the political and economic environment surrounding farming.

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.

Purpose – This study aims to analyze the contribution of revenue and consumption cost of soybean farmers.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Data analysis was done by quantitative descriptive analysis. Data were obtained in the form of numbers then the results of the obtained data were presented in the form of a systematic description. The sample in this study is the entire population of soybean farmers in Muara Batu, Aceh Utara by using census method as much as 50 farmers.

Findings – The results showed that the contribution of soybean farm revenue amounted to 6.94%, non-soybean farming amounted to 48.12%, and out farm activities amounted to 44.94%. This indicates that soybean farming activities are enough to contribute to increase the family revenue. Meanwhile, the average amount of household cost for food is 16,696,800 IDR/Year and for non-food is 8,397,500 IDR/Year. The analysis shows that although the contribution of soybean farming revenue is the lowest than the other farms’ revenue, it is very helpful to the farmers for fulfilling the needs of family consumption cost every year.

Research Limitations/Implications – The object of this research is to study all the farmers who utilize the land for soybean farming in Muara Batu. The research limitations are income contribution and consumption cost of soybean farmers.

Practical Implications – The amount of soybean production produced by farmers is much lower. However, the farmers can still increase their income if the amount of production can be increased by more intensification of soybean farming as tough as the use of superior varieties of soil processing, organic fertilizer on soil, balanced and integrated pest control, and harvesting and post-harvesting to reduce food loses.

Originality/Value – The farmers earned revenue not only from soybeans, but also from non-soybean farm and out farm. Soybean farming activities aim to increase revenues in order to meet the needs of the family that consist of food and non–food consumptions.

Poverty is endemic in rural Nigeria and gender disparity in access to productive resources is a major cause of poverty in the area. Poverty status of rural households along gender line was, therefore, investigated in this study.

Panel data from 2010/2011 (wave 1) and 2015/2016 (wave 3) of the Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) for Nigeria were used for the study. Data were analysed using Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty indices and binomial panel logistic model.

Poverty measures for women-led households in farming activities were 58.5, 27.8 and 17.1%; men-led farming households had 59.8, 27.4 and 16.3% gender-neutral had 56.8%, 27 and 16.9% in the first panel. Poverty indices increased in the women-led and men-led farming households in the second panel. Poverty incidence was higher amongst farming households than the non-farming counterparts. Correlates of poverty status differ amongst the gender-groups were household size, farming, tertiary education, access to credit and geographical locations.

Gender disparity is perceived in this study along the line of differences in gender composition of rural households. A gender-blind approach to poverty alleviation programmes likely will not enhance reduced poverty in rural Nigeria. Closing the gender poverty gap will ensure achievement of the first sustainable development goal of poverty eradication.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of food insufficiency and its determinants among farming households in Southwestern Nigeria.

A combination of cluster and systematic random sampling was used to select 40 households in each local government area of the selected two states. This gives a total of 160 households per state and 320 households in all for the first data collection. Visiting the same households during the second data collection, only 150 households’ data were useful for analysis. Panel primary data were adopted and they were collected in two periods of late and early rain, respectively, over a period of nine months. Primary data were collected with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire, administered on farming households in the area of study. The needed information was collected through the use of interview schedules/questionnaires.

The transition of food insufficiency households to food sufficiency indicated a differential of 4.25 percent, and the transition of food sufficiency to food insufficiency a differential of 9.33 percent. During the agricultural harvest season more households moved to food sufficiency status (16 percent), while off season insufficiency status was 25.3 percent. The probability of households escaping food insufficiency is 0.25, and the probability of households entering food insufficiency is 0.38. The study provides evidence of transient and high incidence of food insufficiency.

Past studies of this nature only captured the food insufficiency status of households using a snapshot study. Hence, this study brought in innovation by examining the dynamics of food sufficiency/insufficiency in two periods. Therefore the question this study asks is: can a farm-household be food sufficient over a particular period of time and food insufficient in other time?

The purpose of this study is to first examine the factors affecting the intra-household perception of climate change. Second, the study investigates the impact of the perception of climatic stress on the operators’ and spouses’ intra-household adaptation strategies (farm and household financial strategies).

The study uses household survey data from Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. The study uses probit and negative binomial count data approaches to evaluate the empirical model.

Results confirm the existence of intra-household gender differences in the adaptation strategies. The authors found that although spouses perceive climatic stress, they are less likely to adapt to such stresses when it comes farming enterprise, but more likely to adapt to household financial strategies. In contrast, farm operators, in the presence of climatic stresses, undertake both farm and household finance adaptation strategies.

Investment in climate smart agriculture can help households in managing climatic stresses.

A farmer in Asia, and Vietnam in particular, faces significant risks from climatic changes. In Vietnam, agriculture is easily affected by natural disasters and climatic changes. This study provides insights into the perception of climatic changes by operators and spouses in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Perceived changes in the climate have a greater impact on women because they typically lack the necessary tools to adapt to climate change. The current findings could be useful in managing climatic risk in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and be helpful to policymakers in designing risk management strategies in response to climatic changes.

This chapter opens the second part of the Volume, focusing on the small farms' role and dynamics within the evolving food system. Assessing small farmers' actual and potential contribution to the change towards a sustainable food and nutrition security requires a deep understanding of their strategic decision-making processes. These processes take place in a context highly conditioned by internal and external conditions, including the complex relations between farm and household, which are mapped and described. Building on an adaptation of Porter's model (Porter, 1990), the chapter investigates how farmers, given those conditions, define their strategies (in particular their innovation strategies) aimed at economic and financial sustainability through a multidisciplinary analysis of scientific literature. Internal conditions are identified in the light of the Agricultural Household Model (Singh & Subramanian, 1986) which emphasizes how family farming strategies aim at combining business-related objectives, and family welfare. Then, a comprehensive set of external conditions is identified and then grouped within eight categories: ‘Factors’, ‘Demand’, ‘Finance and Risk’, ‘Regulation and Policy’, ‘Technological’, ‘Ecological’, ‘Socio-institutional’ and ‘Socio-demographic’. Similarly, six types of strategies are identified: ‘Agro-industrial competitiveness’, ‘Blurring farm borders’, ‘Rural development’, ‘Risk management’, ‘Political support’ and ‘Coping with farming decline’.

The number of farms engaged in grain production in China has been declining in recent years. Limited efforts have been devoted to examine why producers quit from grain production and how such exits affect China's grain output. Such information, however, is invaluable in understanding whether the exit from grain production should be encouraged and if so, how. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence farmers' decision to quit from grain production, with a view to drawing implications for devising policies to deal with such exits.

Both descriptive statistics and econometric techniques are used to analyse a set of unique and comprehensive farm‐level survey data to identify key factors that affect farmers' decision to quit from grain production.

Key factors that influence a farm to quit from, or stay in, grain production include: family size, the share of farming labour out of total family labour, per capita arable land, the proportion of land used for grain production, the share of family income from grains. It was also found that the level of grain prices and the sunk cost in farming, chiefly in grain production, also affect the likelihood that a household will stay or exit from grain production. Further, farmers in more economically developed regions are more likely to quit from grain production.

The paper's findings clearly indicate that farms with a larger scale of grain production and earning higher income from grain are the major contributors to China's grain production. Potential exists for China to raise its total grain output if the land from those exiting farmers is readily made available to larger producers, enabling them to further benefit from the economies of scale.