Describes the historical and social events which accompanied the rise of the agricultural advisor in France. (Text is in French.) (AM)

The Rural Development Center (Salinas, California) trains farmworkers in the business and science of farming. The nonprofit program provides a rigorous course in agronomy, farm management, organic certification, and produce marketing to primarily Mexican American farm laborers, followed by a 3-year "apprenticeship" on leased land, and…

This report examines the demographic and employment characteristics, geographic distribution, and earnings of the agricultural work force in the United States as of 1985. Data are from the Agricultural Work Force Supplement to the December 1985 Current Population Survey. The three components of the agricultural work force--hired farmworkers, farm…

Analysis shows that Mexican cities typically contain large proportions of agriculturalists, but variation exists by size, regional location, and degree of metropolitanization. Underemployment and a preference for urban living are seen as contributing factors to this phenomenon. (Author/KR)

Due to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's definition of a farm as an "economic unit which produces at least $1,000 worth of agricultural products a year", more than 570,000 farms were eliminated from the 1975 agricultural census. In addition, over 12,000 farms went out of business, continuing a trend begun in 1940. Although American food prices…

On July 22, 1971, the subcommittee initiated the hearings, noting that "the problems of the most severely disadvantaged people in rural America--migrant and seasonal farmworkers--cannot be described, much less solved, unless examined in the light of the larger difficulty in agricultural America--rural poverty." Questions set forth at…

The Green Certificate Farm Training Program is on-the-job training with instruction delivered on a farm site, requiring the employer-farmer to serve as trainer. Trainees learn operational as well as management and entrepreneurial skills upon completion of a test and are certified at the levels of farm worker, foreman, or farm business manager. (SK)

Drawing upon information provided by a continuous sample of social security records for the 1955-59 period, this study traced year-by-year employment experience of workers who left agriculture, and described their age, race, income, and job status. Estimates of backflow to farms were also studied. The gross out-movement from farm employment was…

Obtaining a sufficient supply of labor when it is needed is a problem faced by most farmers annually because of the very seasonal nature of farming. Even with mechanization and family labor, most farmers need to hire some help. This report summarizes the results of a survey conducted in 1966 to determine: (1) methods used to obtain seasonal…

An interagency system, geared to improve and create jobs for farm workers in Fresno County, California, is described. Key parts of the system include short training courses for workers, teacher training for bilingual agricultural specialists, and labor management workshops for employers. (Author/MS)

The author spent a year doing a participant observation and in-depth interviewing project in southeastern Colorado. Although exploratory, the material provides an initial sketch of the female farming population. (BR)

Such factors as type of farm, farm production region, and farm size affect the percentage of farms hiring workers, the number of hours worked by hired workers, the length of the farm workweek, and the hours of labor used per $100 of sales. Labor costs and shortages most directly affected farms that sold $20,000 or more of farm products in 1964 and…

Utilizing data obtained from the 1970 and 1966 June Enumerative Surveys, the U.S. farm population (both operator and nonoperator) was identified by race, tenure, and value of farm products. Data were analyzed in reference to the following questions: (1) How many and what proportion of farm people live on farms of adequate and/or marginal…

The purpose of this paper is to determine major characteristics of selected part-time farmers and determine factors affecting off-farm supply of labor by farm operators. Part-time farmers were found to be relatively younger, more educated and to have a higher total family income, operating smaller-sized farms as compared to full-time farmers.…