Download - Old Farmers, Invisible Farmers

CYNTHIA WOODSONG

OLD FARMERS, I N V I S I B L E FARMERS:

A G E A N D A G R I C U L T U R E IN J A M A I C A

ABSTRACT. Increases in both the percentage and absolute numbers of elders, originally observed in industrialized countries, are now a concern for a growing number of developing countries. At present, most elders are found in rural areas, where many remain active in agriculture to very advanced years. There is concern that the rural concentration of elders may have negative consequences for agricultural production. This paper presents ethnographic material from Jamaica, where agriculture occupies an important place in the life course of many elders. Contrary to popular perceptions, farming is not exclusively the domain of elderly Jamaicans, but rather occurs at various stages in the life course in ways which make such activity 'invisible' to farm surveys and agricultural development policy. Such policies fail to account for the special abilities and needs of elder farmers.

Key Words: economic activity, agricultural development, domestic cycle, Caribbean, Jamaica

Issues related to aging in the developing world have increasingly commanded the attention of social scientists, especially since the United Nations' 1982 World Conference on Aging. In many countries, elders are found primarily in the countryside, their children gone to the cities or overseas in the search for work (Myers 1982). It is estimated that in developing countries three-fourths of the elderly population aged 60 and over resides in rural areas (UN 1982). Evidence from many parts of the world indicates that the elderly population continues to work in agriculture to very advanced years (International Labor Organization 1982; UN 1985; Kinsella 1988). Since the 1940s, at least, the average age of full-time farmers in Jamaica has been reported to be in the early 50s (Edwards 1961; LeFranc 1986), with farmers generally not cutting back on their farming activities until they pass the age of 65 (Carloni 1984). Therefore, it is important to understand the elderly population's role in agricultural production, as this has implications for the well-being of elders as well as the national agricultural sector.

This paper presents ethnographic material from Jamaica, where agriculture is a primary economic activity for older adults. Data from a farm survy conducted by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is then interpreted in light of these ethnographic materials. I argue that both agricultural development and the situation of older farmers could be improved by addressing the following three points:

1. Although young adults do not generally enter into full-time farming, many of them eventually do become farmers. Up to that time, they may be engaged in agricultural activities that are 'invisible' to general economic surveys.

2. The older farmer (as we shall see) may have a 20 year or more career of

Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 9: 277-299, 1994. �9 1994 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

278 CYNTHIA WOODSONG

full-time farming ahead of her/him, which is a period of time deserving appropriate consideration in agricultural policy.

3. In Jamaica, and perhaps elsewhere where economic options and formal arrangements for old age care are limited, participation in the agricultural economy substitutes for retirement.

Data from a farm survey conducted by the Food and Agricultural Organiza- tion of the United Nations (FAO) is then interpreted in light of these ethnographic materials.

AGE AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

The impetus for addressing the social issues surrounding the role of elders in society has been provided by the increase in the absolute numbers of the elderly worldwide. Although aging populations were first observed in industrialized countries, the need to take stock of the position of elders has now become a concern in developing countries. In recognition of this need, the UN's general policy recommendations include the following statement:

It is imperative that, when considering the question of aging, the situation of the elderly should not be considered separate from the over-all socio-economic conditions prevailing in society. The elderly should be viewed as an integral part of the population. They should also be considered within the framework of population groups such as women, youth, the disabled, and migrant workers. The elderly must be considered an important and necessary element in the development process at all levels within a given society. (UN 1982:56)

To date, research on the elderly has centered on concern for their health and well-being (objectively and subjectively defined), on such topics as health care, kin and community support networks, and the increased costs to governments of dependent care (Maddox 1982; Mancini and Blieszner 1989). Persistent and negative stereotypes of the aged portray them as unproductive members of society, stubborn and/or a burden to their children (Estes 1980; UN 1991). As a disturbing corollary to their 'unproductive' status, elders are sometimes seen by their compatriots as contributing, through chronic and catastrophic illnesses, to the rising cost of health care (Estes 1980).

The role of elders in processes of economic development has not been extensively studied (Halperin 1987). Treas and Logue (1986) identify several perspectives with regard to development policy toward the aged, among them the observations that the aged are a low priority in development efforts and the aged are viewed as constituting an impediment to development. However, they note that conventional wisdom acknowledges that older persons are a potential resource as purveyors of knowledge. This paper supports the view that the aged are a potential resource, not only for their possession of agricultural knowledge and potential usefulness in transmission of such knowledge, but also for their active role in agricultural production.

AGE AND AGRICULTURE IN JAMAICA 279

JAMAICAN CASE STUDY

Persons aged 55 and over constitute 12% of Jamaica's 1982 population of approximately two million. This rate is similar to other Commonwealth Caribbean countries (Brathwaite 1989). However, as Figure 1 illustrates, the Caribbean is one of the world's 'oldest' regions. This agedness becomes most apparent in the rural areas, a characteristic commonly observed in developing regions (UN 1985). In Jamaica, almost two-thirds of persons aged 60 and over reside in rural areas. Figure 2 illustrates the urban and rural population structure, with rural areas less populated by the 25 to 50 age group. This population has most likely migrated to Jamaica's urban areas, or overseas (Planning Institute of Jamaica [PIOJ] 1988).

20-

15 o) 03

r ~ 1 0 0 �9

5

i !

1988 2005 2020

Year

Caribbean

Asia

Latin America

Africa

Fig. 1. Percentage of total population Age 55+: 1988 to 2020.

Like many Third World countries, the primary economic endeavor of the rural population is agriculture. The agricultural sector I is the largest employment sector, accounting for 39% of Jamaica's labor force. There are 2.7 million acres of land in Jamaica, of which 1.2 million are suitable for crops and pasture lands (Ventkataswamy 1987:6), and much of this is on hillsides which require careful cultivation if soil degradation is not to occur (USAID 1988). The great majority of Jamaica's farms are small (less than 5 acres) and located in the island's hilly interior (Armstrong, Bims, Kernan, Manrique, and Mitchell 1985). Farms of 100 acres and over have, for most of this century, occupied from 48% to 57% of Jamaica's farmland, while the farms of less than five acres have occupied a


16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

males percent females

Rural

I m

16 " 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

males percent females Urban

Fig. 2. Rural and urban population of Jamaica by age and sex, 1982.


meager 13% to 16%. Another way to look at this inequality is to consider that for the period 1954 to 1978, 3% of Jamaica's farmers have controlled from 60% to 75% of the total farmland (Pollard and Graham 1985). Despite their size, however, the small farms produce 80 to 90% of the country's domestic food crops. They also produce a substantial amount of export crops, including 68% of Jamaica's sugar, 59% of the citrus, 88% of the coffee, and 62% of the cocoa (LeFranc 1986:22).

Compared to other Caribbean and Latin American countries, productivity levels in Jamaica are low. Both the traditional farming practices and the advanced age of traditional farmers have long been and still are considered by the government and development community to result in poor yields and destruction to the environment (USAID 1988).

Since the 1950s, a steady stream of programs for agricultural development has been designed with the dual goal of increasing productivity while introducing new technologies to halt erosion and improve the sustainability of production. 2 However, analyses of agricultural projects and programs conclude that for the most part development efforts have had little positive impact (Armstrong et al. 1985; Blustain 1985; LeFranc 1986); furthermore, the programs have not met even their stated goals. Agricultural production has not been increased, erosion control has not been effective, and standards of living in rural areas have not been appreciably improved. As LeFranc aptly states, "In postwar Jamaica, the extraordinary large sums expended on the agricultural sector have brought forth relatively little fruit" (1982:9).

There is evidence that living conditions in Jamaica have actually deteriorated, for malnutrition and maternal mortality rates have increased, and health and education services have been drastically cut (AID 1988; Fox and Ashley 1985; LeFranc 1989). Social conditions are also reflected in income disparities, which in Jamaica are especially pronounced. The United Nations Development Program 1990 Human Development Report shows Jamaica having the highest levels of income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient 3) of the 28 countries for which the figure was available (UNDP 1990:54). Over the past 15 years, agricultural performance in Jamaica has been, for the most part, stagnant or declining.

Elders in Agriculture

Jamaica's small scale farmers have, for most of this century, been mostly older adults, and it has long been acknowledged that young adults do not enter into independent farming. Given this persistent element in the social organization of agricultural production in Jamaica, it is perhaps not surprising that government and foreign-assisted efforts at improving agricultural performance identify the age of the Jamaican farmer as a limiting factor. It is interesting that such reports do not as a rule consider age in relation to reduced work capacity or health concerns, but rather focus on the farmer's attitudes and cultivation practices. Age is perceived as an obstacle which results in resistance to innovation,


tradition-bound attitudes and techniques, and reluctance to invest or seek credit (Edwards 1961; Institute for Social and Economic Research [ISER] 1980; Robotham 1969). Consider the following quotes from two recent project papers.

In line with the national trend, the farmers within the project area were relatively advanced in age ... The age of the farmers had important implications for development, since it could be expected that there would be greater resistance to change among older farmers (FAO 1989:6)

The challenge, then, is how to move the hillside farmer, in a non-coercive manner, from a risk-averse, subsistence, tradition-bound agriculturalist to one who is adaptive, innovative, and economically motivated (USAID 1988:H14).

This view is frequently expressed in the agricultural development literature, beginning with agricultural extension in the 1950s (Henry 1980) and continuing through early efforts of Jamaica's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA 1963) to the present (FAO 1989; USAID 1988), although some recent research has begun to question this position (Armstrong et al. 1985; Carloni 1984; LeFranc 1986).

Life Cycle and the Formation of the Small Farm

As others have noted (Fry 1990; UN 1991), there is no set age at which one becomes 'old' or 'aged', but rather this status varies physiologically, cross- culturally, and, within cultural groups, among individuals. For this reason, no uniform definition of old, elder, or aged will be used here. To understand the roles elderly individuals can potentially play in economic life, they should be viewed in a social context, within household groups. It then becomes possible to follow the domestic cycle of households and observe the process of aging and its implications for economic activity. For many, participation in agriculture takes place at different stages in the life cycle and with varying degrees of intensity.

An understanding of the formation of a farm in conjunction with the developmental cycle of the household can aid in interpreting the types of data gathered in more general farm surveys. Various government and foreign aid agencies conduct surveys, but these data are seldom analyzed at the household level. In this section of the paper I will use two data sources: (1) ethnographic material which I collected in central Jamaica during fieldwork from 1988-1989 and (2) farm survey data collected by FAO. These two sources will show how the formation of a Jamaican small farm follows a developmental course loosely related to the domestic cycle of the household.

The general trends outlined below should not be taken to represent the only avenues to household and farm formation in concert with economic activities. One hallmark of the Caribbean household is its flexibility (Solein 1960). Nevertheless, others have outlined this general course of events for Caribbean farming households (Comitas 1973; Edwards 1961; Smith 1973).

Young adult males in rural areas begin to establish their independence from their parental household 4 around age 15, as they contribute less to the labor


needs of their household's farm, preferring to work for pay on the farm of a non- household member (unless more desirable non-agricultural work is available). Young adult females explore their options for additional education and training while continuing to reside at home, assisting with domestic activities of the household, including some agricultural work. This is also the period when labor migration begins, with both young men and women moving to urban areas as well as overseas. A woman's first child is often born while she still resides at her parental home. Grandparental support provides a substantial economic resource for children born to teenaged mothers, and the labor of these grandchildren substitutes for the declining labor contributions of the farmer's teenaged children as they age out of the household.

As individuals reach their 30s and 40s, a wide range of economic options is explored. Land is acquired, a house is built in gradual stages, and a household is most often first established when a procreative relationship becomes co- residential. During this stage farming is likely to be combined with off-farm economic activity. Investment in the purchase of land usually precipitates the formation of a new household, and subsequent purchases can establish a viable farming venture.

As a result of the gradual build-up of a small farm, the majority of Jamaican farmers cultivate more than one parcel of land. The multiple plots are usually held under multiple tenurial arrangements which may change over time. The presence of various land tenure types - ownership, rent/lease, 'captured land', family land 5 - can allow a farming household to expand or contract farm size in accordance with the availability of household resources. Full-time own-account agricultural production is essentially the domain of more mature adults who have established families and common-law unions. As mentioned earlier, the average age of full-time farmers is in the 50s. By this time the farmer's household may well include three generations, or at least some grandchildren of the farmer and his/her spouse.

One final point concerning the domestic cycle of households should be mentioned here. As discussed above, many individuals spend their first few decades of adulthood in a variety of jobs, some of them agriculturally based, before returning to farming. Comitas uses the term "occupational multiplicity" in describing rural Jamaican society:

Characteristic of this population is occupational multiplicity, or plurality, wherein the modal adult is systematically engaged in a number of gainful activities, which for him form an integrated economic complex ... Affected by the insecurities of own-account cultivation on minuscule, sub-standard fields, the labor demands of plantations and large farms, and the irregularity of other wage employment, these people developed a way of life based on a system of occupational multiplicity which maximizes as well as protects their limited economic opportunities and which in turn influences the nature of their social alignments and organization (1973:157, 164).

Comitas further notes a positive correlation between age and occupational multiplicity. He perceives young men to postpone, to the extent possible, labor-


intensive income-generating activities until they begin to assume responsibility for a family. At this point, multiple economic options are pursued, either simultaneously or serially, thoughout the adult life course as part of a flexible strategy for survival (Carnegie 1987). As these options diminish with age, full- time farming assumes greater importance. Farming in Jamaica is known for low levels of remuneration and low social prestige. However, when economic ventures of the younger years prove insufficient to sustain a person later in life, farming constitutes a default option for economic activity.

To provide a better understanding of the social processes involved in the developmental cycle of a Jamaican small farm and to provide a contextual backdrop for the quantitative data that follow, ethnographic case study material is presented below. In the following cases the formation of a small farm follows a pattern typical in Jamaica and is correlated with the farmer's life course.

Mr. Stewart, 6, age 54, farms three plots. A one-acre plot is located adjacent to the family land belonging to descendants of his stepfather. Mr. Stewart began farming this small plot when he first began to establish himself as an independent young man, for this plot was next to the land he had helped his stepfather cultivate during his childhood and teen years. Since he continued to live at home and assist with his stepfather's farm, the neighboring plot was a convenient place for him to test his wings. He eventually bought this section. Mr. Stewart's second plot, 2.5 acres extending up a hillside almost to the border of the first plot, was the site of a house (no longer standing) he constructed for his first cohabiting relationship when he was in his late 20s. He leased and then later bought this land. House construction and the farm's initial start up was financed by earnings from migrant agricultural labor. During his migrant experience he continued to participate in agriculture in Jamaica until he began his full-time farming career in his late 30s.

The next case features a common tenurial combination of bought, captured, and family lands in a household which includes two generations of full-time farmers.

Mr. Hawkins, age 65, owns one large plot of land, approximately seven acres, that borders the homesite. During the Hawkins's stewardship the plot has gone through several tenurial transformations. One section of the land is family land, on which ancestors are buried and the Hawkins's two adult sons have built a small house where they sleep (they eat and work out of the main house). The remaining section of land was once two pieces, one purchased and one captured. The boundaries of the Hawkins farm are loose, for the sons continue to capture some additional sections, dependent on the market for certain crops and their labor-time constraints. Mr. Hawkins as a young adult had first rented and then purchased land adjacent to his parents' farm, and by staying nearby was able to exercise the major claim to use family land upon his parents' death. 7

Farm Survey Data

An understanding of the social processes involved in the formation of a farm can aid in interpreting the types of data gathered in more general farm surveys. I shall now turn to survey data collected by FAO in 1988 for its "Integrated


Development of Small Scale Farms" project and will supplement this information with ethnographic material. The purpose of the F A t study was "to establish a basis for bottom-up planning and create opportunities for a more realistic extension delivery system" to small hillside farmers ( F A t 1989:1). Research efforts concentrated on the nature of the farming system, particularly the profitability of the major crops and livestock in the area. Data were collected at the same time and in the same district where I conducted fieldwork, and an agreement was reached to share information. 8

Only households that reported farming to be their major source of income were included in the F A t sample of 90 households. As we shall see, this introduces a bias against some of the types of farming activities which are 'invisible'. Nevertheless, this bias is commonly found in farm surveys, and the F A t data do provide a rich source of information on elderly farmers. Median farm size was 5 acres, and the average age of farmers was 52. I analyzed data on the 90 households with regard to three topics - farm data, household composition, and cash income composition - to determine correlations that might point to discernible strategies employed by the different households. Analysis of the relationships between age and (1) farm size, (2) percentage of farm under cultivation, and (3) income composition revealed that age had little to do with the farming regimes covered in the survey. Each of these relationships will be discussed in turn.

Age and farm size. It might be expected that elderly farmers would have larger farms (MOA 1963; Robotham 1969; USAID 1988) as a result of the gradual process by which a farm is established, especially since it is not customary for land to be allocated to future heirs until after the farmer's death (Cartoni 1984). However, age was not found to be significantly related to farm size (Pearson's r = 0.01969, p < 0.8539). I conclude that smaller farms axe not observed for the younger farmers in part because farming as a major economic activity does not usually occur early in an individual's life course, as described in the above section. Farm surveys generally focus on persons who identify themselves as farmers, and this was true for the F A t study. Those farmers just beginning to establish their farms and who are engaged in other economic pursuits would not have been included, and would therefore be 'invisible' to the survey. Only 22% of the sample was under 40 years of age, and only 4% under age 30. Given that the average age of F A t farmers is 52, it is likely that the farms surveyed already approximated their maximum size.

Farm size alone can not provide a good indication of the level of farming activity in which elderly farmers are engaged. F A t collected data on not only total farm size but also the amount of land under cultivation. It was thus possible to test the hypothesis that age would influence the percentage of the total farm under cultivation. No clear empirical relationship was observed, although there is some evidence that the percentage of land cultivated drops off after age 65. The average percentage of farm land in cultivation by three age groups is 52% for those under 40, 71% for farmers aged 40 to 65, and 37% for those 65 and


over.

Age and income. A critical issue for the status of elderly farmers is their income status. In the FAO study, total household income was positively correlated with farm size (Pearson's r=0.40045, p<0.0001), as was income from crops (Pearson's r = 0.41408, p <0.0001). One might expect to find an association between age and income, with a peak in later years, followed by a decrease in advanced (semi-retirement) years. Since each individual's retrospective income history is not portrayed in the data, I cannot say if there has been a steady rise in income over the years for separate households. The FAO data, though, show no clear relationship between total cash income and age (Pearson's r =-0.15369, p < 0.1481), and no age group appears to be more economically successful than others. There is only a weak negative association between income and age for the very oldest farmers (over age 70).

Composition of household income. Although income levels do not vary much in relation to age, the composition of household income should be examined. The literature on Caribbean farming households, as confirmed by the ethnographic study, suggests that the sources of household income shift with age of household head and stage in the domestic cycle. The FAO data show that age is associated with the household's livelihood strategy in a pattern which follows the domestic cycle of the household farm. FAO collected data on five income categories for each household: (1) crop income, (2) livestock income, (3) off-farm income of the household head, (4) off-farm income of household members other than the head, and (5) remittance income. Caution must be used when interpreting income data such as these. The dollar amounts informants report probably underestimate total income from the various sources, while some sources are probably omitted entirely. This can be attributed to informant evasiveness, inaccurate bookkeeping, or poor memory, as well as FAO's one-shot interview approach. Nevertheless, certain trends are indicated, and when supplemented with ethnographic information, the invisibility of economic activities again becomes apparent.

For example, one might expect that as a farmer ages, income from livestock would increase, reflecting growth in the size of the herd and expansion of the farm enterprise. However, a negative relationship was observed (Pearson's r = -0.23340, p < 0.0268), which warrants further examination. In Jamaica one way of building capital assets for young people is the keeping of lifestock. A young boy may begin tending his own goats when he reaches his teen years. In this way, children (mostly boys) 9 are incorporated into the care of cows and goats so that they learn livestock management skills and an appreciation for the income which can be thus realized. If successful, by the time a boy has grown to adult status, he will probably have some animals of his own. The profits from which can be used to launch other economic pursuits either on or off the farm. There may indeed be livestock tethered on the farms of older farmers, but the cash income from such animals may not accrue directly to the farmer's


household, and as such would not have been detected in the FAO survey) ~ This activity serves as a sort of apprenticeship in the farm economy and constitutes a form of invisible farming.

It might be expected that the practice of occupational multiplicity would result in shifts in the composition of household income with regard to sources of off-farm income as the farmer ages. As the farm becomes more established and the farmer gains experience, farm revenues should increase, thereby reducing the need for off-farm income sources. As expected, off-farm employment of the 'household head' did decrease with age (Pearsons's r - - -0 .24489, p < 0.0200), although the total household income did not.

The case studies indicate a shift away from off-farm labor in conjunction with the aging of household heads. The best known scenario in Jamaica occurs when temporary migrant farrn workers withdraw from the international farmwork programs and begin farming on their own in Jamaica, as documented by Griffith (1988)) 2 A shift of this type is illustrated in the case study below.

Mr. Ripley (age 67) spent several seasons in the U.S. and Canada as a young man working as a temporary farm laborer. He finally saved enough money to invest in land and build a house for his family. As a youth he had learned butchering, and after establishing his farm in Jamaica, he also began to earn money as a butcher. In addition to livestock owned by members of his household and extended family, he buys livestock for slaughter, paying cash to the producer, and then selling the meat in the weekly market. During the 1980s Mr. Ripley saw his profits from butchering fall. At the same time, his seven children were beginning to leave home, thus reducing the household's income and food needs. All this, combined with his advancing age has contributed to a gradual withdrawal from butchering activities. Whereas he once butchered at least one cow, goat, and pig each week, he now usually relies on his younger brother who lives nearby to butcher the cows, and has even scaled back the frequency of slaughter of the other animals. He still cultivates three acres of sugarcane, and maintains two additional plots of permanent tree crops. His adult migrant children regularly remit money and household goods.

In the Ripley household, occupational multiplicity of the farmer is being replaced by remittance income as Mr. Ripley ages. This was observed in the larger FAO study. One reason why household income does not drop with age and withdrawal from off-farm income generating activities is that remittance income is positively associated with increased age (Pearson's r=0 .25187 , p < 0.0166). In Jamaica there is a strong cultural mandate to assist aged parents, especially through remittances. 12 Remittances are part of a set of activities which are relevant to the farming household's economic strategy, yet are often 'invisible' to survey research.

Invisible Activities

Thus far a number of invisible attributes have been mentioned which contribute to the perceptions that young people are not becoming farmers and that agriculture is the domain of old and inefficient farmers. One of the simplest and


perhaps most pervasive types of invisible fanning is actually a conceptual oversight. LeFranc (1986) notes that persons engaged in other economic pursuits are not likely to state farming as their primary occupation, in part because of the low prestige accorded agricultural labor. Under-reporting of farm work is also partially attributed to folk conceptualizations of the terms 'unemployed', 'work', and 'income'. These terms have come to be almost exclusively used in reference to cash income. For example, it is common for full-time farmers to refer to themselves as unemployed or not working, and other household members use the terms as well in reference to the farmer. Below is an example from my case study material.

During an interview on the topic of income at the Stewart home, Mr. Stewart (age 54) came in from the fields where he had been working since dawn. As I talked with his wife, who had also just come in from her job as a domestic in the nearby town, Mr. Stewart wiped his brow, drank a cool drink, and caught his breath. Mrs. Stewart and I had been going through a list of income sources that included foods grown and shared, child care reciprocation, and migrant remittances, to come up with household income. The calculations before us included previous information Mr. Stewart had given me on sales of his sugarcane and vegetable crops. Mrs. Stewart used the phrase "since [Mr. Stewart] is unemployed", and then later said, "I'm the only one who is working". I finally mentioned that judging by the mud on Mr. Stewart's boots and the sweat on his shirt, he had been working quite a lot. They both laughed and said, "is true, but is just farming".

There were numerous examples of this type of 'invisibility' of farming in the case studies. Mr. Ripley calls himself a butcher, although he also has been farming all his life and currently cultivates a five-acre plot, Miss Whitehead considers herself to be a domestic worker, for she cleans a doctor's office two days a week, although she rents a one acre plot on which she cultivates sugarcane, maintains her four acre family plot, and raises pigs and chickens. Mr. Hawkins is a taxi driver, yet he cultivates two plots of land near his house where he plants food crops for domestic consumption and sale. The FAO study and other farm surveys are likely to miss the agricultural activities in such households.

It is not the age of the farmer per se that determines shifts in agricultural production over time, but rather the changing composition of the household. The economic assets of household members, the availability of their labor, and their consumption needs bear heavily on the production strategy that a farmer pursues, regardless of age. Household members may, at different times in their lives, be engaged in agricultural activities, yet not consider themselves to be farmers. When only those who self-identify as farmers are included in data sources on farming activity, a distorted view of farmers as elders is presented.

A full exploration of the types of invisible support to the farming sector is beyond the scope of this paper. However, one additional support, 'higglering', which does have relevance to the topic of elders in agriculture, will be mentioned. As indicated earlier the majority of domestic food production in Jamaica occurs on small farms. This produce is marketed by 'higglers', most of them


women, who come to the farms, assist in harvesting the produce to be marketed, and assume responsibility for transporting the goods to the market where they are sold to individual consumers (Durant-Gonzales 1976). In many cases the higgler is the spouse of a farmer, who sells her own husband's produce as well as that of neighbors. The pervasiveness of this practice frees elderly cultivators from the tasks of transporting and marketing their goods. On the other hand, the higgler herself may often be an elderly Jamaican. The harsh conditions under which higglers pursue their activities have been recognized (LeFranc 1985; Bolles 1986), but not in terms of the potentially advanced age of the higgler.

The tendency for women's work to be 'invisible' has been widely noted (Fox 1980; Beneria 1991; Waring 1988), and this tendency is equally evidenced in the Jamaican setting. Because farming activities overall are not accurately accounted for, it is difficult to determine how many people actively engaged in agriculture are women. The 1978 agricultural census counted women as approximately 20% of all farmers, most of them farming plots of one acre or less (LeFranc 1986). However, we do not know how many of these micro- farmers were elderly women.

Agricultural Policy and Agenda for Action

Now that the social context of Jamaican agriculture has been outlined, it is possible to examine more closely the role of the aged in processes of agricultural development. Since full-time independent farming has for decades been the domain of elders (who lack alternate sources of employment), we might expect agriculture to continue to be a significant economic option for Jamaica's elderly population. Furthermore, if the average age of farmers is around 50, we know there are also many younger farmers. Since we only see a decline in land cultivated after age 65, it appears that on average an individual's own-account full-time farming career may span 20 years or more.

Agriculture in Jamaica continues to attract government attention as well as that of the foreign aid community, where "on a sectoral basis, agriculture is the leading priority" (USAID 1988:28). Rather than continuing to give low priority to aged farmers, it would seem prudent to formulate policies to assist this segment of the population.

Continued participation in full-time farming at advanced ages may be an artifact of the limited opportunities for investment or accumulation that could result in the conventional Western model of 'retirement'. A study of small farm efficiency documented price disincentives for improving agricultural production and the absence of investment opportunities for the small farmer (Brann 1979). The lack of investment opportunities has also come to the attention of scholars working on the economic behavior of Jamaica's migrant farm workers. Studies note that monies earned from migration are generally funneled into home and farm and consumption expenditures (McCoy 1985) rather than allowing migrants "to accumulate the capital necessary to free them and their replacement generation from the migrant stream" (Griffith 1986:35). Thus the cycle of


agricultural poverty and migration continues.

Structural Obstacles to Small Farming

The quality of land that Jamaican small farmers cultivate constitutes a substantial obstacle to improvements in production. Their hillside lands are of poor quality, not accessible to mechanical cultivation, and prone to erosion. Research and development efforts have long called for awareness of the need for soil conservation measures (Blaut, Blaut, Herman, and Moerman 1959), but few Jamaicans can afford to implement the recommended regimes. The best, most fertile, and level lands axe, and have been for hundreds of years, concentrated in large holdings in the lowland valleys devoted to commercial agriculture (Critchlow 1989).

In addition to Jamaica's poor quality of soils and low agricultural yields, agricultural labor is disdained for other reasons. The work is hard, dirty and hot. There are no labor-saving devices on the average Jamaican hillside farm. Land is cleared with a machete, turned with a fork, planted with a stick or machete, weeded with a machete, and harvested by hand. Transport of crops off the farm is most often on the back of a donkey or the farmer. Surely when Chayanov (1977) wrote of the drudgery of farm work, he had this type of farming in mind. 13

The low priority accorded traditional agriculturalists is reflected in a number of ways. The technical inputs that might ease the drudgery of small farming as well as increase production have not been made accessible to small farmers. Chemical supplies are costly and irregularly available. Even basic hand tools are often in short supply. Credit is scarce, for government-sponsored agricultural credit programs have favored larger and more orderly farms (Hefferman and Pollard 1983).

In Jamaica, new technologies are often components of agricultural development programs, but - as is common for agricultural packages in developing countries - they usually have not been field-tested on lands similar to those of the majority of farmers, and they may require levels of capital or labor inputs that small farmers can ill afford (Blustain 1985, 1982b). Much agricultural research, both in Jamaica and elsewhere in the world, is oriented to large commercial farms producing monocrops for export.

Most Jamaican farmers have never been visited by an agricultural extension worker: the ratio is one extension person to 2,000 farmers (FAO 1989). The small numbers of extension workers reflect, in part, the low prestige of agriculture. Given the government's record for lack of appropriate production packages for hillside farmers, this lack of outreach may be a blessing in disguise, but it is certainly a missed opportunity.

Retirement in Agriculture

Farming may be an occupation of last resort, but it is one sanctioned by society


as appropriate for elders and made possible through the efforts of invisible supports. There are also psychic rewards to farming. Even though agriculture is disdained by youths as menial and highly undesirable, Jamaicans do value land ownership. Farmers are, and have long been, oriented to the market (Comitas 1973; Edwards 1961; LeFranc 1974), but farmers' emotional attachments to their "little piece of ground" is still a factor in the perpetuation of the fanning economy. The maintenance of an agricultural base provides an economic and psychological cohesion for Jamaicans regardless of where they live, in arenas of social and economic life which far outstrip government's recognition. The farm serves as a nexus for the economic activities of rural households, as well as a place to be born, raised, and buried. It provides important and often overlooked sources of food for household members. It serves as a safety net and occupies a specific and critical place in the domestic cycle.

However, this emotional attachment to the farm contributes to the persistent view that Jamaica's small farmers are not economically motivated in their operations, in spite of evidence to the contrary. Jamaica's agricultural records report that Jamaican farmers do not run their farms as a business, but rather consider farming as a way of life, to which they have become resigned (Mitchel 1985:15; Ministry of Agriculture 1986:47; USAID 1988). Given the high rates of export production mentioned earlier, this criticism is curious.

Nevertheless, since the earliest studies (Edwards 196t; Robotham 1969), farmers themselves have been observed to wish a life for their children off the farm. When elderly farmers in the ethnographic study were asked what they would like to see their children do, responses included "the government should put some factory here so people could get some work," or "the children must go a'foreign to look a job". In central Jamaica where this fieldwork was conducted, only tobacco, grown on contract with a private company, is generally seen as a crop worth the attention of someone aspiring to make a good living in agriculture. However, farmers in the area say that "you need plenty money to grow a big money crop".

Elders as a Resource

It is important to move forward from a recognition of the contributions and participation of elders in agriculture to an agenda which can effectively incor- porate this population in development policy. The trend for full-time farmers to be elders is very well entrenched in the Jamaican economy and society. Rather than ill-conceived or futile attempts at turning the situation around (by wooing younger adults into agriculture, or politically difficult policies of altering the distribution of the means of agricultural production), a more realistic plan for the government, with its limited resources, might be to explicitly embrace elderly farmers in agricultural development policy.

The role of elders as purveyors of traditional knowledge should not be overlooked. Although many traditional agricultural practices of Jamaican small farmers are condemned for their low yields and environmental degradation,


certain elements of the indigenous knowledge system for agriculture are probably adaptive to the harsh production constraints of hillside farming. As an example, Blaut et al. (1959) identified half a dozen widely used conservation techniques that the development community has in subsequent years rejected in favor of more costly interventions. In a study of Caribbean traditional agriculture, Hills (1988:1) observes that "the traditional food forest of the Caribbean ... is probably the most intensive and potentially the most productive agro-ecosys- tern in the tropical world". However, indigenous knowledge systems for agriculture (as well as in other spheres) are usually rejected out of hand (Brokensha, Warren, and Werner 1980).

It is easy to find fault with agricultural practices when they occur on marginal lands, but this misses the point. Given the record of failure with land reform (Critchlow 1989), there is no reason to expect government to be in a position to effectively alter the distribution of land or halt hillside cultivation. With nowhere else to go, and few other economic alternatives, cultivation is likely to continue to occupy large numbers of older adults, and the past century of experience in hillside agriculture merits a closer and more open-minded look.

Jamaica's National Report on Aging notes that "a feature of the Jamaican society is that older persons tend to employ their leisure time in community affairs as community leaders..." (Ministry of Social Security 1982:38). Active participation of elderly farmers in the country's various producers groups and associations in Jamaica was observed during my fieldwork and has been reported in the literature (LeFranc 1982; Blustain 1982a; Goldsmith 1980). Some creative incorporation of experienced farmers into the agricultural extension and educational process should be explored.

Age and Innovation

The United Nations (1991:55) notes two common reasons for the aged's low priority in a country's development strategy: elders are frequently seen as (1) a poor investment in the future and (2) too inflexible to learn new techniques (UN 1991:55). However, older individuals may be receptive to new information and techniques /f appropriate packages are developed. Training elders in new technologies may in some ways be more effective than training younger farmers, for they have a broader base on which to build new ideas (UN 1991:60).

Case study material furnishes an example of innovation, risk-aversion, and incidentally, attitudes towards development programs.

Mr. Stewart, age 54, is a full-time farmer. He recently obtained 100 citrus seedlings to plant on a section of his farm, for citrus has proven to be a successful crop for small farmers in the area. It is also less labor-intensive. Some farmers with plots near his land are switching to tobacco cultivation under contract with a large farm. Mr. Stewart says that if they have good results hemay try growing some, but at present he thinks cattle are a safer investment for his potential tobacco lands. On a repeat visit to his farm five months later, Mr. Stewart was harvesting a crop of peanuts to coincide with the Christmas season when demand is high. This was the second time he had tried a


crop of peanuts, having observed another farmer's success with the crop.

When asked if he participated in government programs for agriculture, Mr. Stewart said no and he pointed to some pine trees growing on a distant mountain ridge, saying they were part of a government program that failed. I asked him if the trees were being planted for erosion control (which they were). He said they were being grown for telephone poles.

Clearly this farmer is willing to try new crops and techniques, if they have been field-tested in his area. By planting peanuts, he demonstrated not only his responsiveness to market conditions but also his willingness to try a new crop. His strategy for accounting for labor constraints is reflected in his new citrus field, for his children have reached the ages at which they are beginning to leave the home. This receptivity to new crops does not prevent him, however, from carefully calculating the risks associated with a new crop (tobacco) grown under a totally different production system (contract farming). Furthermore, Mr. Stewart has not received clear information about government forestry programs to halt erosion in his district.

DISCUSSION

As we have seen, agriculture-related invisibility takes many forms. Farmers are not counted because they do not think of themselves as 'working', and throughout all age groups the practice of occupational multiplicity combined with the low prestige of farming ensures that other economic pursuits are self- identified over farming as one's occupation. As a corollary, the stereotyped view of old tradition-bound farmers persists. There is an incomplete understanding of and appreciation for the social processes of agricultural production which perpetuates these stereotypes and further invisibility.

In Jamaica, a major hurdle to be overcome is attitudinal. Farmers are distrust- ful of government interventions and weary of unfulfilled promises to improve their standard of living (LeFranc 1986; USAID 1988:52). Farmers - and many scholars - feel that development funds in Jamaica have served clientelistic purposes (Blustain 1982a), with larger and better-off farmers benefitting most (LeFranc 1982, 1986). The propaganda surrounding such programs has often been couched in nationalistic ideals, and much media fanfare accompanies the launching of a new program. Farmers aware of the existence of programs or services that do not benefit them thus feel increasingly disenfranchised as they age.

The government maintains a negative view of small farmers since, in spite of millions of dollars spent on agricultural development programs, there has been little progress in improving the situation of small-holder production. This attitude is symptomatic of a larger problem within the agricultural development sector, by no means peculiar to Jamaica. When rural development programs fail to meet their goals, project participants are often blamed, leading governments to label the rural farmer as tradition-bound and risk-averse, with an emotional


rather than economic attachment to the land. If the farming community is made up of elders, this label is even easier to apply. A perceived 'peasant orientation' may be put forth as the reason for stagantion and/or decline in agriculture, rather than poorly designed programs, competing labor demands, unfavorable local and national market conditions, and international trade agreements.

In Jamaica it is important for government (and development agencies) to more fully understand the organization of agricultural production in a small farming household. The circular rationale of not providing substantial inputs to agriculture because the farmers are too old to implement them only assures a continual cycle of low incomes and resultant low levels of interest in agriculture across all age cohorts. It is, of course, possible the government recognizes that the small farm serves as a retirement option. However, if this is the case, a more explicit recognition of the social importance of the small farm should be made and policies adjusted to this fact.

A negative perception of the potential of elderly farmers is pervasive even at the international level. In its background documents prepared for the 1982 World Assembly on Aging, the ILO (1982) and FAO (1982) consider aging to constitute a potential problem for agriculture. Observing that the elderly population is increasing worldwide and that elders are disproportionately found in rural areas, both organizations concluded that since the countryside is lacking in peak productive age workers, agricultural productivity can be expected to decline. Clearly, it is important to go further than this observation to devise positive plans of action.

To this end, the economic roles of the elderly in agricultural settings should be carefully studied. Social science information to date, has focused on the roles of elders as culture bearers and religious leaders, on the one hand, or as members of family units who are dependent to varying degrees on their relatives or government services for care, on the other. Additionally, much of the literature has focused on women, who constitute the majority of the world's elderly population. Given the propensity for elder women to be economically disadvan- taged, there is a need for research on elderly women farmers. There is also much to be learned cross-culturally about the interrelated processes of aging, economic activity, and economic dependency (Halperin 1987).

At the 1982 World Assembly on Aging, countries were urged to educate people about the need to plan for old age. One recommendation was to instill the concept of "preparation for retirement" (UN 1982). The evidence from Jamaica shows that, in the absence of formal arrangements for old-age care, elders will continue to prepare for their retirement by being active in agriculture. This practice appears to be prevalent in many other areas of the world as well (UN 1985).

As Heisel (1984:62) observes, "there is substantial evidence that not only are the old, for the most part, as capable of learning as those who are younger ... but government has made little effort to encourage the aged to become familiar with technological advances in agriculture which they could put into practice". In many areas of the world, elders are struggling through their retirement years on


their farms while continuing to be major actors in their country's agricultural

sector. With the aged comprising an increasing proportion of the population in

developing countries, it is prudent for governments to consider ways in which to

facilitate production by elderly farmers.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Financial support for this research was provided by the National Science

Foundation, and the Fulbright IIE fellowship program. I am especially grateful

for the cooperation I received from the Food and Agricultural Organization

office in Kingston, Jamaica, and the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute,

Mona, Jamaica.

NOTES

1 This sector also includes forestry and fishing. Reliable separate figures for agriculture are not available. 2 The spate of agricultural development programs is outlined and discussed in Armstrong et al. (1985), Blustain (1985), and Robotham (1969). 3 The Gini coefficient is "a measure that shows how close a given distribution of income is to absolute equality or inequality. Named for Corrado Gini, the Gini coefficient is a ratio of the area between the 45 ~ line and the Lorenz curve and the area of the entire triangle. As the coefficient approaches zero, the distribution of income approaches absolute equality. Conversely, as the coefficient approaches 1, the distribution of income approaches absolute inequality" (UNDP 1990:182). Jamaica's Gini coefficient is 0.66. The Gini coefficient is useful to consult in countries which have a relatively high GNP, as does Jamaica, for GNP figures alone can mask the extent of poverty and income inequalities. 4 I am using the term 'parental' to refer to the primary residence of childhood. s The term capturing land is roughly equivalent to squatting, although the farmer does not usually live on such lands, and they may not be cultivated with an idea to establish more permanent tenure. Family land is that which is inherited and shared by family members. Although each member of the owner's nuclear family is entitled to an equal portion of the land, these plots are not divided, but rather held jointly by all. Family lands are usually planted in fruit trees, and the family burial plot is located on this land. See Besson (1988) and Clarke (1971). 6 Fictitious names have been used throughout. 7 Inheritance of land in Jamaica is complex and cannot be discussed in detail here, for inheritance of farmland held under multiple tenure types is differentially influenced by geographical and emotional proximity of heirs. See Besson (1988) and Clarke (t971).

A more thorough discussion of the FAO survey that produced the data analyzed here is found in Woodsong (1992, appendix A). Both the ethnographic study and FAO's study were conducted in the central region of the parish of Clarendon, which is a primarily agricultural parish. 9 Women and girls do tend animals, mostly chickens and to a lesser extent pigs. Both are kept in the houseyard, chickens primarily used for home consumption, and pigs for consumption and/or sale. They are generally not part of an investment strategy of herd- building. 10 While all cash income from livestock may not be pooled with household income, it still may represent a savings to the household in the form of foregone expenses for the animal owners. Also, some of the meat and by-products of slaughter are likely to be


shared with the household, representing in-kind income. 1~ The British West Indies Temporary Alien Labor Program, in which men migrate seasonally and annually to the U.S. for agricultural work is described in Griffith (1986) and Rubenstein (1982). Similar migration to Canada also occurs. 12 It is important to recognize that not all migrant children remit regularly or in significant amounts to their parents - a topic which has special relevance for elderly Jamaicans but which lies beyond the scope of this paper. See Rubenstein 1988. 13 Chayanov would be interested to observe that when Jamaicans dress for a day of labor on the farm they put on what they call their 'drudgin' clothes.

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