During the last 30 years, China has witnessed rapid economic growth and dramatic urbanization, with about 1.2 x 107 rural people migrating annually into urban areas. Meanwhile, especially since 1995, the rural populat...During the last 30 years, China has witnessed rapid economic growth and dramatic urbanization, with about 1.2 x 107 rural people migrating annually into urban areas. Meanwhile, especially since 1995, the rural population has been declining, which is closely linked to land circulation and the increase in farm size in many villages. Increasing scale of farming operations is often regarded as a key to avoiding the abandonment of farmland and to increasing the income of rural farmers. However, until now, there has been little research on the spatial and temporal variability of farm size at the national level in China. Using data from the national agricultural cen- sus and rural household surveys, this study examines the characteristics of land use circulation and the consequent changes in the area of farmland per household. The results show that： 1） 12.2% of rural households were involved in land circulation at the national level. The highest amounts of land circulation have occurred in those provinces where the farmland per capita is more than 0.2 ha or less than 0.1 ha; 2） over 80% of households operate less than 0.6 ha of farmland; 3） the proportion of mid-sized farms （between 0.2 ha and 0.6 ha per household） has decreased while the smallest and the largest farms have increased. This bears some similarity with the phenomenon known as the ＇disappearing middle＇, referring to the changes in farm size. This study establishes a framework for interpreting the factors affecting the changes in farm size in China, which include two promoting factors （urbanization and agriculture） and four hindering fac- tors （agricultual land system, household registration, stable clan system, and farmland loss）.展开更多
Low fertilizer use efficiency is commonly found in China’s agriculture sector. It is critical to understand the drivers of fertilizer use in order to increase fertilizer use efficiency(FUE). The purpose of this paper...Low fertilizer use efficiency is commonly found in China’s agriculture sector. It is critical to understand the drivers of fertilizer use in order to increase fertilizer use efficiency(FUE). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between farm size and FUE based on farm-level data in China. The results suggest a positive farm size–FUE relationship. The estimated elasticities of farm size for rice, maize, wheat–maize, and rice–maize are similar, and the average elasticity of farm size is around 0.2. Statistically, a 1% increase in farm size is associated with a 0.2%increase in FUE. The positive effect of farm size on FUE is not due to the increase in yield, but the reduction in fertilizer use while keeping yield largely unchanged. The findings suggest that promoting the expansion of farm size may increase FUE, and thus reduce environmental pollution caused by fertilizer overuse.展开更多
Inefficient use of fertilizer has caused serious environmental problems and unsustainable development of agriculture in China.To meet the increasing food demand in the future without damaging the ecological environmen...Inefficient use of fertilizer has caused serious environmental problems and unsustainable development of agriculture in China.To meet the increasing food demand in the future without damaging the ecological environment,Chinese government officially launched the Action Plan for the Zero Growth of Fertilizer Use in 2015.At the same time,China released a series of policies aiming explicitly at expanding farm size and a great number of large scale farmers emerged recently.However,whether the expansion of farm size will be beneficial for the increase of fertilizer use efficiency still remains to be investigated.In this study,we comprehensively explored the relationship between fertilizer use efficiency and farm size.Based on the 4281 farm households’survey data collected by the National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC)of China from 2004 to 2016 in Jiangsu Province,China,this paper applies a stochastic frontier production function to estimate fertilizer use efficiency across farm size and uses a regression model to analyze the influence of farm size on fertilizer use efficiency.The results show that:(1)the average fertilizer use efficiency of whole samples was only 0.60,much lower than the average technical efficiency,indicating that on average half of the fertilizer utilized are excessive in China;and(2)the smallest farm size group get the highest fertilizer use efficiency score.We also provide some possible explanations for the inverse relationship between farm size and fertilizer use efficiency.展开更多
The cow stock of smallholder farmers with less than 100 cows still accounted for nearly 50% of total cows in China. Since the milk scandal occurred in 2008, raw milk safety has become focus for the sound development o...The cow stock of smallholder farmers with less than 100 cows still accounted for nearly 50% of total cows in China. Since the milk scandal occurred in 2008, raw milk safety has become focus for the sound development of the Chinese dairy industry. Adoption of on-farm milk safety measures by smallholders is a key for ensuring milk safety, and these measures are largely voluntary in nature. The recent survey conducted in northern China reveals that an overall adoption rate of various milk safety measures by smallholders is close to 48% with wide variations across the dairy farmers. We employ the Poisson regression model to study the determinants of farmers' adoption of voluntary milk safety measures. Compared with backyard dairy farmers, dairy complex and scaled dairy farms adopted more milk safety measures. Moreover, the empirical result indicates that farmers' adoption of raw milk safety measures is positively affected by farm size. These findings suggest that the changing dairy production structure towards larger farms and away from backyard dairy farming prompts smallholder dairy farmers to adopt more raw milk safety measures. This lends some support to the role of recent policy initiatives towards larger farms and away from backyard dairy farming on increasing the farmers' milk safety practices and reducing on-farm incidence of milk safety.展开更多
Ethiopia is among the poorest countries in which poverty, land and resource degradation appear to feed off each other. The irony is that Ethiopia is a country with high biodiversity and distinctive ecosystems and the ...Ethiopia is among the poorest countries in which poverty, land and resource degradation appear to feed off each other. The irony is that Ethiopia is a country with high biodiversity and distinctive ecosystems and the natural resource base is critical to the economy and the livelihood of a high percentage of the population. Being the owner of varying agro ecology, the country’s agricultural production system had practiced for decades with a maximum potential. However, because of the presence of interrelated problems, the productivity had not sustained as its potential. From the interrelated problems, land degradation takes the first and challengeable problem in many countries. Land degradation refers to a temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land, or its potential for environmental management as a result;the long-term biological and environmental potential of the land has been compromised. Land degradation in the Ethiopian highlands (i.e. areas above 1500 m.a.s.l.) has been a concern for many years and is a great threat for the future that requires great effort and resources to ameliorate. It had adverse effect on lowering of livestock production by shrinking grazing land, the fertile soil types were washed and the grazing land was dominantly covered by unpalatable pastures and grasses which had low nutritive value and fertility for crop-livestock production system. In other cases, degradation induces farmers to convert land to lower-value uses;for instance, cropland converted to grazing land, or grazing lands converted to shrubs or forests. Equitable and secure access to land is a critical factor for the rural poor, especially livestock owners, who depend on agriculture and animal-related activities for their livelihood. Having secure access to land for agriculture and pastoral activities reduces their vulnerability and enhances their opportunities to invest in land for agriculture and livestock activities. Historical patterns of feudal ownership of land followed by government ownership and despite policy change uncertain status of land ownership. These land distribution and ownership patterns coupled with continuous fragmentations and degradation disrupt the balance between crop, livestock, and forest production. These things nowadays enforce Ethiopian farmers to put more land into crop production than working on livestock sector. Livelihoods are complex, dependent on animal and crop production based on land and water resources, with emerging market opportunities. And from year to year, the size of farms is getting minimized because of land degradation and segmentations, and these make a change in farm size dynamics and farming shift. Currently, there is a great scenario towards the land policy pattern and agricultural production system, which is the backbone of the country’s economy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to review the effect of land degradation on farm size dynamics and crop-livestock production since the impact of these things is not well measured.展开更多
Reducing agricultural carbon emissions is important to enable carbon emission peaking by 2030 in China.However,China's transformation towards large-scale farming brings uncertainties to carbon emission reduction.T...Reducing agricultural carbon emissions is important to enable carbon emission peaking by 2030 in China.However,China's transformation towards large-scale farming brings uncertainties to carbon emission reduction.This study quantifies the carbon emissions from cropping based on life cycle assessment and estimates the effects of farm size on carbon emissions using a fixed effects model.Furthermore,the variations of the carbon emissions from cropping driven by the changes in farm size in future years are projected through scenario analysis.Results demonstrate an inverted U-shaped change in total carbon emission from cropping as farm size increases,which is dominated by the changes in the carbon emission from fertilizer.Projections illustrate that large-scale farming transformation will postpone the peak year of total carbon emission from cropping until 2048 if the change in farm size follows a historical trend,although it is conducive to reducing total carbon emission in the long run.The findings indicate that environmental regulations to reduce fertilizer usages should be strengthened for carbon emission abatement in the early stage of large-scale farming transformation,which are also informative to other developing countries with small farm size.展开更多
The study analyses the theoretical mechanism through which environmental regulation affects the dairy industry’s technological progress,with a particular focus on how the effect is conditional on farm size.Using the ...The study analyses the theoretical mechanism through which environmental regulation affects the dairy industry’s technological progress,with a particular focus on how the effect is conditional on farm size.Using the input–output data of dairy farms of different sizes from 2009 to 2019 in 10 Chinese provinces/autonomous regions in China and the quantitative measurement index of environmental regulation,the study estimates environmental regulation’s heterogeneous influences on the dairy industry’s technological progress by dynamic panel data models.The empirical results suggest that,first,environmental regulation has a U-type influence on the technological progress of dairy farming.The U-type influence means moving from pollution control’s high cost and low technology progress to the high profit and high innovation input generated by optimizing the breeding structure.Second,the promotion of dairy farming technology depends on farm size.The effect of environmental regulation on technological progress in moderately large-farms showed a U-type relationship.In contrast,the effect in free-range and large-size dairy farms showed a linear and positive relationship.The government should further strengthen environmental regulation based on advancing moderately large-farms in compliance with market mechanisms in the long run.Particular attention should be paid to the forms of environmental regulation so that dairy cattle breeding technology can break through the inflection point of the“U”curve as soon as possible and ensure the significance of the rising stage.Along the way,technical support should be provided for realizing environmental protection and economic growth.展开更多
This report provides an overall assessment of land fragmentation problems in East Africa. Many parts of East Africa have become highly fragmented, putting development systems and activities in these areas at risk of c...This report provides an overall assessment of land fragmentation problems in East Africa. Many parts of East Africa have become highly fragmented, putting development systems and activities in these areas at risk of complete collapse. Land fragmentation occurs when land gets converted for agriculture, industrialization, or urbanization, invaded by non-local plants, or enclosed for individual use and by subdividing farmlands into subsequent smaller units called parcels with varying average farm sizes. Fragmentation results from inappropriate agricultural development processes and ineffective land use planning that fails to recognize how farmland is used, and the importance of its interconnected areas. Insecurity of tenure and resource rights are key factors in making this possible. Land fragmentation is one of the key reasons why the ability of most resources in East Africa becomes scarcer, and those remaining become “privatized” by more powerful community members—keen to maintain their access to them. Such individualistic attitudes are new and disadvantage the poorest even further by affecting the traditional customary safety nets and agricultural outputs. Neither the government nor customary governance systems effectively protect resource access for the poorest. This review summary report identifies the key causes, measures, and implications, government interventions, and the common remedies to land fragmentation problems in the East African Countries of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania including neighboring Ethiopia, and the Sudan. The findings indicated from 2005 to 2015, the population kept increasing for all the named countries in East Africa with Rwanda and Uganda having a substantial increase in population density. The study review further explores the trend in the performance of agriculture by average farm sizes within the intervals of five years by highlighting their strong linkages and found that the average farm size has declined drastically, especially for Kenya. This can only mean that small farms kept becoming smaller and smaller and that there were more small-scale farmers. The results further depicted that the major and commonly cultivated food crops among the East African countries include maize, sorghum, rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, Irish potatoes, beans, peas, etc., with maize yields (Mt/ha) in 2003 for Uganda being the highest (1.79 Mt/ha) and the lowest in Rwanda (0.77 Mt/ha) respectively. Therefore, from the review results, recommendations are being made as to how the negative impacts of land fragmentation on agricultural productivity can be reduced or mitigated. One way is by community sensitization and awareness about the importance of land consolidation and its proposition on farm productivity.展开更多
South African agricultural farming systems are characterised by a duality in which there exists large-scale commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farmers, historically identified as capita...South African agricultural farming systems are characterised by a duality in which there exists large-scale commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farmers, historically identified as capital intensive and characterized by the size of the landholdings, are considered as the main drivers of national food security. Small-scale farmers on the other hand are viewed as important drivers of food security at the household level. These two main farming systems can be found within the Vhembe district municipality of the Limpopo Province and are characterised differently according to land descriptors. The study used an analysis of primary data obtained from in-depth interviews and secondary data obtained from an agricultural database to identify and characterize large- and small-scale farming systems within the Vhembe district. The study examined the land resource namely farm size and land ownership, topography and soil description, rainfall and its variability and threats and hazards used under three different high value crop (HVC) commodities, macadamia nuts, mangos and avocado pears. The study further examined yield and income from farming as drivers of production that would ensure the sustainability of long-term food security at both national and household level. The study revealed that gender of farmers within the farming systems was predominantly (79%) male across all commodities. Age distribution results showed an aging population of farmers mostly (90%) above the age of 51. Communal land ownership was the dominant (74%) land ownership amongst participants. Yield is not solely dependent on farm size and requires consideration of a broader array of land management aspects. There was a strong, significant correlation between income and farm size. These factors have implications for sustainability of the two farming systems and illustrate how certain aspects of land as a driver of production such as land ownership, rainfall variability, yield and income from farming can impact sustainability.展开更多
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.4097111241161140352)Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China(No.STSN-09-04)
文摘During the last 30 years, China has witnessed rapid economic growth and dramatic urbanization, with about 1.2 x 107 rural people migrating annually into urban areas. Meanwhile, especially since 1995, the rural population has been declining, which is closely linked to land circulation and the increase in farm size in many villages. Increasing scale of farming operations is often regarded as a key to avoiding the abandonment of farmland and to increasing the income of rural farmers. However, until now, there has been little research on the spatial and temporal variability of farm size at the national level in China. Using data from the national agricultural cen- sus and rural household surveys, this study examines the characteristics of land use circulation and the consequent changes in the area of farmland per household. The results show that： 1） 12.2% of rural households were involved in land circulation at the national level. The highest amounts of land circulation have occurred in those provinces where the farmland per capita is more than 0.2 ha or less than 0.1 ha; 2） over 80% of households operate less than 0.6 ha of farmland; 3） the proportion of mid-sized farms （between 0.2 ha and 0.6 ha per household） has decreased while the smallest and the largest farms have increased. This bears some similarity with the phenomenon known as the ＇disappearing middle＇, referring to the changes in farm size. This study establishes a framework for interpreting the factors affecting the changes in farm size in China, which include two promoting factors （urbanization and agriculture） and four hindering fac- tors （agricultual land system, household registration, stable clan system, and farmland loss）.
基金supported by the National Social Science Fund of China(16AJY013)。
文摘Low fertilizer use efficiency is commonly found in China’s agriculture sector. It is critical to understand the drivers of fertilizer use in order to increase fertilizer use efficiency(FUE). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between farm size and FUE based on farm-level data in China. The results suggest a positive farm size–FUE relationship. The estimated elasticities of farm size for rice, maize, wheat–maize, and rice–maize are similar, and the average elasticity of farm size is around 0.2. Statistically, a 1% increase in farm size is associated with a 0.2%increase in FUE. The positive effect of farm size on FUE is not due to the increase in yield, but the reduction in fertilizer use while keeping yield largely unchanged. The findings suggest that promoting the expansion of farm size may increase FUE, and thus reduce environmental pollution caused by fertilizer overuse.
基金supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (14ZDA037)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71333008)+1 种基金the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (2018M631508)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University, China (2662018QD008)
文摘Inefficient use of fertilizer has caused serious environmental problems and unsustainable development of agriculture in China.To meet the increasing food demand in the future without damaging the ecological environment,Chinese government officially launched the Action Plan for the Zero Growth of Fertilizer Use in 2015.At the same time,China released a series of policies aiming explicitly at expanding farm size and a great number of large scale farmers emerged recently.However,whether the expansion of farm size will be beneficial for the increase of fertilizer use efficiency still remains to be investigated.In this study,we comprehensively explored the relationship between fertilizer use efficiency and farm size.Based on the 4281 farm households’survey data collected by the National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC)of China from 2004 to 2016 in Jiangsu Province,China,this paper applies a stochastic frontier production function to estimate fertilizer use efficiency across farm size and uses a regression model to analyze the influence of farm size on fertilizer use efficiency.The results show that:(1)the average fertilizer use efficiency of whole samples was only 0.60,much lower than the average technical efficiency,indicating that on average half of the fertilizer utilized are excessive in China;and(2)the smallest farm size group get the highest fertilizer use efficiency score.We also provide some possible explanations for the inverse relationship between farm size and fertilizer use efficiency.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71361140369)
文摘The cow stock of smallholder farmers with less than 100 cows still accounted for nearly 50% of total cows in China. Since the milk scandal occurred in 2008, raw milk safety has become focus for the sound development of the Chinese dairy industry. Adoption of on-farm milk safety measures by smallholders is a key for ensuring milk safety, and these measures are largely voluntary in nature. The recent survey conducted in northern China reveals that an overall adoption rate of various milk safety measures by smallholders is close to 48% with wide variations across the dairy farmers. We employ the Poisson regression model to study the determinants of farmers' adoption of voluntary milk safety measures. Compared with backyard dairy farmers, dairy complex and scaled dairy farms adopted more milk safety measures. Moreover, the empirical result indicates that farmers' adoption of raw milk safety measures is positively affected by farm size. These findings suggest that the changing dairy production structure towards larger farms and away from backyard dairy farming prompts smallholder dairy farmers to adopt more raw milk safety measures. This lends some support to the role of recent policy initiatives towards larger farms and away from backyard dairy farming on increasing the farmers' milk safety practices and reducing on-farm incidence of milk safety.
文摘Ethiopia is among the poorest countries in which poverty, land and resource degradation appear to feed off each other. The irony is that Ethiopia is a country with high biodiversity and distinctive ecosystems and the natural resource base is critical to the economy and the livelihood of a high percentage of the population. Being the owner of varying agro ecology, the country’s agricultural production system had practiced for decades with a maximum potential. However, because of the presence of interrelated problems, the productivity had not sustained as its potential. From the interrelated problems, land degradation takes the first and challengeable problem in many countries. Land degradation refers to a temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land, or its potential for environmental management as a result;the long-term biological and environmental potential of the land has been compromised. Land degradation in the Ethiopian highlands (i.e. areas above 1500 m.a.s.l.) has been a concern for many years and is a great threat for the future that requires great effort and resources to ameliorate. It had adverse effect on lowering of livestock production by shrinking grazing land, the fertile soil types were washed and the grazing land was dominantly covered by unpalatable pastures and grasses which had low nutritive value and fertility for crop-livestock production system. In other cases, degradation induces farmers to convert land to lower-value uses;for instance, cropland converted to grazing land, or grazing lands converted to shrubs or forests. Equitable and secure access to land is a critical factor for the rural poor, especially livestock owners, who depend on agriculture and animal-related activities for their livelihood. Having secure access to land for agriculture and pastoral activities reduces their vulnerability and enhances their opportunities to invest in land for agriculture and livestock activities. Historical patterns of feudal ownership of land followed by government ownership and despite policy change uncertain status of land ownership. These land distribution and ownership patterns coupled with continuous fragmentations and degradation disrupt the balance between crop, livestock, and forest production. These things nowadays enforce Ethiopian farmers to put more land into crop production than working on livestock sector. Livelihoods are complex, dependent on animal and crop production based on land and water resources, with emerging market opportunities. And from year to year, the size of farms is getting minimized because of land degradation and segmentations, and these make a change in farm size dynamics and farming shift. Currently, there is a great scenario towards the land policy pattern and agricultural production system, which is the backbone of the country’s economy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to review the effect of land degradation on farm size dynamics and crop-livestock production since the impact of these things is not well measured.
基金the Natural Science Foundation of China–Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation Joint Agricultural Research Project(NSFC–BMGF72261147758)+2 种基金the National Social Science Foundation of Chinathe China Resource,Environmental and Development Research Institute,Nanjing Agricultural University,Chinathe Research Funding Project of Anhui Agricultural University,China(rc402108)。
文摘Reducing agricultural carbon emissions is important to enable carbon emission peaking by 2030 in China.However,China's transformation towards large-scale farming brings uncertainties to carbon emission reduction.This study quantifies the carbon emissions from cropping based on life cycle assessment and estimates the effects of farm size on carbon emissions using a fixed effects model.Furthermore,the variations of the carbon emissions from cropping driven by the changes in farm size in future years are projected through scenario analysis.Results demonstrate an inverted U-shaped change in total carbon emission from cropping as farm size increases,which is dominated by the changes in the carbon emission from fertilizer.Projections illustrate that large-scale farming transformation will postpone the peak year of total carbon emission from cropping until 2048 if the change in farm size follows a historical trend,although it is conducive to reducing total carbon emission in the long run.The findings indicate that environmental regulations to reduce fertilizer usages should be strengthened for carbon emission abatement in the early stage of large-scale farming transformation,which are also informative to other developing countries with small farm size.
基金supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,China(125D0301)。
文摘The study analyses the theoretical mechanism through which environmental regulation affects the dairy industry’s technological progress,with a particular focus on how the effect is conditional on farm size.Using the input–output data of dairy farms of different sizes from 2009 to 2019 in 10 Chinese provinces/autonomous regions in China and the quantitative measurement index of environmental regulation,the study estimates environmental regulation’s heterogeneous influences on the dairy industry’s technological progress by dynamic panel data models.The empirical results suggest that,first,environmental regulation has a U-type influence on the technological progress of dairy farming.The U-type influence means moving from pollution control’s high cost and low technology progress to the high profit and high innovation input generated by optimizing the breeding structure.Second,the promotion of dairy farming technology depends on farm size.The effect of environmental regulation on technological progress in moderately large-farms showed a U-type relationship.In contrast,the effect in free-range and large-size dairy farms showed a linear and positive relationship.The government should further strengthen environmental regulation based on advancing moderately large-farms in compliance with market mechanisms in the long run.Particular attention should be paid to the forms of environmental regulation so that dairy cattle breeding technology can break through the inflection point of the“U”curve as soon as possible and ensure the significance of the rising stage.Along the way,technical support should be provided for realizing environmental protection and economic growth.
文摘This report provides an overall assessment of land fragmentation problems in East Africa. Many parts of East Africa have become highly fragmented, putting development systems and activities in these areas at risk of complete collapse. Land fragmentation occurs when land gets converted for agriculture, industrialization, or urbanization, invaded by non-local plants, or enclosed for individual use and by subdividing farmlands into subsequent smaller units called parcels with varying average farm sizes. Fragmentation results from inappropriate agricultural development processes and ineffective land use planning that fails to recognize how farmland is used, and the importance of its interconnected areas. Insecurity of tenure and resource rights are key factors in making this possible. Land fragmentation is one of the key reasons why the ability of most resources in East Africa becomes scarcer, and those remaining become “privatized” by more powerful community members—keen to maintain their access to them. Such individualistic attitudes are new and disadvantage the poorest even further by affecting the traditional customary safety nets and agricultural outputs. Neither the government nor customary governance systems effectively protect resource access for the poorest. This review summary report identifies the key causes, measures, and implications, government interventions, and the common remedies to land fragmentation problems in the East African Countries of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania including neighboring Ethiopia, and the Sudan. The findings indicated from 2005 to 2015, the population kept increasing for all the named countries in East Africa with Rwanda and Uganda having a substantial increase in population density. The study review further explores the trend in the performance of agriculture by average farm sizes within the intervals of five years by highlighting their strong linkages and found that the average farm size has declined drastically, especially for Kenya. This can only mean that small farms kept becoming smaller and smaller and that there were more small-scale farmers. The results further depicted that the major and commonly cultivated food crops among the East African countries include maize, sorghum, rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, Irish potatoes, beans, peas, etc., with maize yields (Mt/ha) in 2003 for Uganda being the highest (1.79 Mt/ha) and the lowest in Rwanda (0.77 Mt/ha) respectively. Therefore, from the review results, recommendations are being made as to how the negative impacts of land fragmentation on agricultural productivity can be reduced or mitigated. One way is by community sensitization and awareness about the importance of land consolidation and its proposition on farm productivity.
文摘South African agricultural farming systems are characterised by a duality in which there exists large-scale commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farmers, historically identified as capital intensive and characterized by the size of the landholdings, are considered as the main drivers of national food security. Small-scale farmers on the other hand are viewed as important drivers of food security at the household level. These two main farming systems can be found within the Vhembe district municipality of the Limpopo Province and are characterised differently according to land descriptors. The study used an analysis of primary data obtained from in-depth interviews and secondary data obtained from an agricultural database to identify and characterize large- and small-scale farming systems within the Vhembe district. The study examined the land resource namely farm size and land ownership, topography and soil description, rainfall and its variability and threats and hazards used under three different high value crop (HVC) commodities, macadamia nuts, mangos and avocado pears. The study further examined yield and income from farming as drivers of production that would ensure the sustainability of long-term food security at both national and household level. The study revealed that gender of farmers within the farming systems was predominantly (79%) male across all commodities. Age distribution results showed an aging population of farmers mostly (90%) above the age of 51. Communal land ownership was the dominant (74%) land ownership amongst participants. Yield is not solely dependent on farm size and requires consideration of a broader array of land management aspects. There was a strong, significant correlation between income and farm size. These factors have implications for sustainability of the two farming systems and illustrate how certain aspects of land as a driver of production such as land ownership, rainfall variability, yield and income from farming can impact sustainability.
