family farming, farm labour and rural employment. who works where? an international comparison

Family Farming, Farm Labour and Rural Employment. Who Works Where? An

International Comparison 1 Bruno Jean

LlniuersitP du QuPbec ri Rimouski, Rimouski, QuPkc

Faniilv .farnirng provides emplo-ynient but we are not seeing a trend toward more paid agricultural workers. However, farnib farming appears to he the best w q ~ of maintaining a &namrc rural milieu and helping to establish the preconditions for the dtvelopment of rural emplo.cment. In addition, a family .farming structure creates a demand jbr offfarm (rural) emploevnient$ir familvmembers who want to use their time more profitably. Traditionally, rural c~~nimu~i t i e s were built aroundfarming. Today, farming families depend upon employment in rural comniunitres. The changing interdependent relalionship may provide a new creative J:vnergv.

1 . INTRODUCTION Family farming llas formative socio-economic impacts in many rural areas and in these areas, llarmonious rural development is impossible without a significant contribution by farming (Houde, 1989) or forestry as in the case of for- ested rural areas. wluch are common in Quebec. The problem with th~s view lies in determining what a "sigruficant contribution" is for a particular rural area as agriculture no longer generates as many jobs as it used to.

To study the relationships between family farming and rural employment, we must ask directly whether the survival of rural communities is ensured by family farming orwhether it is rural communities that make possible the continued existence of families on farms. In a nutshell. that is the research question to be ex- plorcd in this paper. We will look for some answers. ho\vever incomplete. in the results of an international comparison of how farming families operate .

The conventional view is that farming families ensure the socio-economic vitality of rural communities. However. we may also ob- serve that rural communities today are the strongest supporters of fanning families. Tlus

2

idea is reflected in such phenomena as the increasing tendency among farmers to take off- farm jobs in nearby rural communities. The relationship between family farming and employment is nothing short of paradoxical: whle it is well understood that modern farms in so-called advanced countries consume many goods and selvices and thus have a mul- tiplier effect on employment (in bothupstream and downstream industries and services), many farming families depend for their survival on a local off-farm job market to employ family members because their productivity at farm work has increased and given them more time to work off-farm. It m y be a question of family survival where faim income has become too meagre to generate a decent standard of living.

This tacitly raises the issue of multiple employment in modem farming families. Each model of multiple employment generated by our international study gave rise to aconsistent self-image of farming as an occupation. In other words, farmers' attitudes toward off- farm work are a formative dement of the view that groups of farmers have of their own occupation. Ingeneral,the more workafarmerdoes

Can J Agric Pcon 44 41 1-319 41 1

412 CANADIAN JOIJRNAL OF AGKICIJL.TIJRAL ECONOMICS

offthe farm. thefurtherremoved~sorherimage bccomcs from tlut of a farmer as an independent worker, or craftsman or small business owner. Conceptions of farming as an occupation with tittlecontrolofitsowndes~dominatetheself- image universe of farm operators who do off- farm work.

In this paper. wc will attempt to address these questions about the relationship between off- farm employment and farming, especially family fanning, which has an important place in our agriculhual economies. We will begm by examining the employment situation in rural areas and in farming in Quebec. as well as job seelung by farmers themselves. Then, drawing on the data from our international comparison, we will see how tlus issue is rapidly coming to the fore in the five countries. And we will conclude with some thoughts about family farming and rural employment in an effort to shed some light on the questions posed above.

2. FAMILY FARMING AND PAID WORK Variations in the use of paid work have always been the downfall of analyses that hastily con-

cluded that capitalist industrial production would gradually replace family farming. In Quebec, Michel Morisset (1987) has tried to demonstrate this supposed trend toward paid labour in agriculture. But over the long haul, what we are seeing is not an increase in hired agricultural workers but a decline in the workforce employed in modern fanning, including family helpers. According to estimates from Statistics Canada's censuses of agriculture, there were 19.01 7 full-time paid farm workers in Quebec in 1941, and 10,117 in 1976. In a comprehensive inventory in 1977, Quebec's ministry of agriculture found only 4,407 full- time employees who were not a close relative of the farmer and 19,000 other farm workers who were family members (spouse, cluldren). The ministry has also provided more recent information: a 1993 study of farm registration records held by the Direction de la formation ef de la main-d'oeuvre en bioalrmentarre (Agri-food Training and Labour Directorate) counted 5,140 full-time jobs. Of the 37,942 farms in the register, only 14,114 reported using outside labour.

Table 1. Quebec farm employment by type of farm enterprise, Quebec, 1993 ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~~~ ~ ~. - ~~ ~~~~~~~ .. ... ~ ... .

Paid workers Family . (FrE/yr) ... __ Paid workers

'['ypc of farm Number of workers pmt Total workers as a % of t p l enterprise farms (FTE/yr) workers Seasonal (FTE/Y~) -~ ~ ~ . .~ .-. ~~

Dairy 12,331 27,488 1,187 2,743 31,418 12

l:ruit/veg 4,414 7,181 1,428 5,630 14,239 50

Cattle 7,382 11,283 256 455 1 1,994 6

Hog 2,332 4,371 1,173 249 5,793 24

Grain 3,588 4,850 112 605 5,567 13

Maple sugar 2,509 2,515 80 203 2,798 1 1

Poultry 968 1,591 1,03 1 154 2,776 43

1 lorse 772 1,201 238 67 1,506 20

r u r 1,596 1,681 27 74 1,782 6

20 -~ 35,892 62,161 5,541 10,180 77,873 ~ . ~~~

TO'I'AL Hased on the 1993 farm registration data supplied by the Ministhe de I'Agricdture, des Pkcheries et de I'Alimentation de Quebec (MAPAQ). aThe number of seasonal and permanent employees (full-time equivalent (FTE)) as a percentage of the total number of workers.

~

WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS 413

What Morisset obsewed is more properly a trend toward paying wages to family helpers, whichdoes not reflect theextensionofthe classical capitalflabour relationship to farming but rather an adaptation to current socio-economic conditions. In fact. there is something quite odd about the phenomenon of paying wages to family members - one wonders in some cases whether the wages are actually paid, or whether the payments exist only on paper so that farm workers can qualify for Unemploy- mcnt Insurance benefits. The conclusion is very clear - family labour remains a permanent part of the agncultural production proc- css. According to our estimates, full-time paid employment currently makes up about 14 percent of total frlrm employment; inQuebec, this translates into a paid work force of between 4.500 and 5.200. This is less than the total number of Quebec farmers working on the fann - fanners collectively take more jobs than they help to create. The situation is sum- marized in Table 2.

Why does family farming create so few paid jobs? Thcrc are many reasons, but in the case of Qudbcc the n ~ n reason is the high cost of labour. Current wage levels (the minimum wage is about $6 an hour) encourage farmers to rcplace non-family workers with machnery and equipment.

With the advent of computers and their many applications in agriculture, it seems that the process of mechaniz.ing farm work, whch began immediately after the Second World War. is not yet complete. The success of any innovation appears to be related to its ability to resolve the issue of non-family labour. There is no question that by eliminating paid work, these machnes have brought about productivity gains in agriculture.

The second reason is that even if a farmer is willing to pay the price, he will have diffi- culty finding workers interested in takmgajob on his farm. Most agricultural work is seasonal. and it is made even less appealing by the fact that the employment period - the number of weeks worked - is too short for labourers to quallfy for Unemployment Insur- ance benefits. Farmers have to take the risk of hiring inexpcrienced labour or resign them-

selves to doing double duty during peak periods. The problem of finding hired help also arises among Quebec’s multitude of dairy farmers -it is not unconunon for dairy farmers to report that they riever take holidays. Some manage to get awa.y for a week if they have neighbours willing to spell eachotheroff. In a 199 1 survey conducted by the Union des Pmducteurs Agncoles (IJPA) in preparation for the conference on the state of rural Me in Quebec (.??tats gkneraux tiu monde rural), the labourproblem was cited i.egularly in response to an open question asking respondents to identify the main problems in farming today. Th~s survey was camed out in an area known for its record levels of uncmployment and un- deremployment.

3. OFF-FARM WORK BY FAMILY MEMBERS

If there was one major phenomenon that emerged with unexpected: frequency early in our international cornparisson of farming families, it was off-farm work. This used to be re- ferred to as part-time fanrung which is a mis- nomer because it is actually multiple employment or pluriactivite, since self-employment on the fann ma:y also be combined with employment in a business or with con-

Although our samples are not repre- sentative of the national pi.cture in each country, we found that the proportion of farm owners who reported doing off-farm work regularly, but not necessarily full time, ranged from roughly 20 percent to 45 percent. These figures are consistent with national agricultural statistics.

The 45 percent figure, which is very high, takes into account pluriactivite not only by farm operators but also by family members (spouses and working-age children). An- swers to our questions abclut how the income generated by this outside work is used indi- cate that the money goes toward meeting family needs first, then pcrsonal needs, and lastly farm requirements. While 90 percent of respondents who reported working off the farm cited family needs as the reason, the requirements of the fami itself were men-

WdCt work.

414 CANADIAN JOIJKNAI, OF AGRICIJLTURAL ECONOMICS

~~ __.__ -. - Table 2 Highlights of farm employment 111 Quebec

~ __ - -~ _ _ Family workers are in the majority by a wide margin, accountrng for 80,449 of the 135,481 persons employed in agriculture. Of the 55,032 hired workers, most were employed for less than five weeks Per Year. The familial character of the agricultural workforce is even more evident when the following facts are considered:

1. If we think of the work done by family members as work done by full-time permanent employees, family work generates the equivalent of some 62,1 GI full-time jobs, while work by hired employees accounts for only 17,721 To measure the contribution of agnculture to rural employment, it is especially important to take into account the number of full-tune paid workers. Accordmg to the MAPAQ data, there are 5,54 1 people employed full time in farming in Quebec and this number makes up less than 10 percent of the agricultural workforce. Only 13,580 farms in Qukbec reported employing full-tune or part-time help.

2.

3 .

Farm employment is unevenly distnbuted by type of farm enterprise and consequently also by type of farming region 1 Ihe horticultural sector employs half of the seasonal farm workers (24,766) in Quebec even

though it accounts for only 10 percent of the farms It is the largest employer of p a d farm workers providing as much employment, m terms of full-tune equivalents, as the dauy, cattle, hog, grain and maple sugar sectors comblned Regarding permanent jobs, the 4,414 hoficultuml holdlngs employ 1,428 full-bme workers (25 percent of the permanent a d workforce) while Quebec’s 12,331 dam farms generate

2

only I , 187 permanent p a d jo ! s (9 percent of the workforce)

Ihe remamrng sectors follow the same pattern as dalry farms w t h less permanent p a d labour relabve to seasonal labour (on a full-tune equivalent (FTE) basis) ?he poultry sector is an exception where full-bme workers outnumber farm owners Production methods and the organlzabon of work on poultry farms are a long way from the classical agncultural model Employment lasts for shorter and shorter penods m the tradihonal part of the horticulture sector (mostly fruit and vegetable operahons, which account for 94 percent of the jobs m the sector) and m area? where Lertain ~~ forms _~____ of mdustnalizabon are present m theproduckon processes

tioned by 60 percent of them, which is a huge percentage.

h a sectionofthesurvey thatconcemedthe self-image of family farmers, we asked them whether, to succeed in farming, it was necessary to invest more, &versify their products, have a large family, or have outside income. The last item was considered important by 78 percent of respondents in B~azil, 36 percent in Canada. 39 percent in France, 56 percent in Tunisia, and 44 percent in Poland. We can use these data to support the hypothesis that the more modernized, specialized and intensive farming becomes (as in Canada and France), the more it tends to change farmers’ attitudes

toward off-farm employment. Alternatively, we might ask why, in these modem agricultural systems, whch have to a large extent put all but the best farmers out of business, at least a thrd of all farm operators - and this has been the case for several decades - consider outside employment and income essential to sustain their family on the farm.

4. PAID LABOUR ON FARMS: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Using the data from the comparative survey we conducted in five countries and 13 research tracts, we can identify the main patterns in the use of paid labour and the role of the farming


sector in gcnerating rural employment. On the whole. paid labour is not very significant: it is generally used in the peak periods of the agricultural cycle. In many cases, it fluctuates with the availability of family labour, whch varies according to the age of the farmer. In other cases, unusual approaches to the use of paid labour have their roots in local history.

France Althoughpaid farm labour has existed invari- ous forms olzr the centuries in France, overall it is losing ground as mechanization and relative labour costs increase. When we surveyed holdings in Brittany and the Marais region of Poitou and sheep farms in the Causses area, most of the workers appeared to be family members. Only a few absentee farmers employed a paid workforce of no more than one full-time workcr. Generally, the use of paid labour is confined to peak periods of agricultural production. Paid labour may also take the form of contract work done by employees of busi- nesses that provide services to farms.

The key factor that determines how work is organized appears to be the type of farming involved. In livestock fanning, more use is made of family and "female" labour than in field crop fanning. where many workers have been replaced by machines.

Our French colleagues also noted that farn- ilv farmers have lugli expectations concerning the organization of work, especially how in- tense and demanding it is. Thus the improve- ment of working conditions becomes a prime objective, dlctating how production strategies are formulated. Increasing one's income or taking care of one's cluldren's future - whch often motivate production decisions elsewhere -are of lesser importance in France.

The fruit growing region of Provence has a long tradition of luring paid labour. %s long- standing form of employment is being replaced by family labour and, surprisingly, by moonlighting, which leads to black market sales. The objective is to avoid paying local and employment taxes. Tlus may be one of the many responses withm agriculture as farming becomes subject to the new "deregulated" rules imposed by the GAIT.

Yet froma broaderperspective inspaceand time, it is perhaps not so surprising to find people moonlighting. In eveiy place and era, farming has been able to rely o n unpaid o r underpaid labour that has gone unrecognized by society. In France, wc were told, this work is done by unemployed people who were re- ceiving meagre unemployment benefits and wanted some extra money. In some rural areas of Canada. ths practice is quite common and has in fact become a way of life.

Canada We mentioned earlier tkit the use of paid labour varies with the famw's age. In general, there is more paid help when the operator is young; tlus is followed by a period during which "female" labour reaches its peak, after which some of the load is taken by the children as they grow older, especially the son who showsadesire toeventually takeoverthefarm. But having permanent employees is fairly rare because of the hgh cost. And farmers who are willing to pay that high cost have great diffi- culty finding workers. Many (potential) workers are only interested if the job lasts long enough (between 12 and ;!O weeks, depending on the region) that they can claim Unemploy- ment Insurance benefits forthe rcst of the year. Jobs offered by Canadian ;farmers are typically much shorter in duration, covering only peak periods in the production cycle.

In fact. there is an important distinction to be drawn between Quebec farmers and Sas- katchewan grain producers: the relationship between farm work and off-farm employment is completely different. It appears typical in Saskatchewan for the farm owner to have an outside job. If one looks at the books, one finds that in many cases what is :supposed to be extra income is in fact the household's main source of revenue. if not a means (of financing chroni- cally money-losing agricultural operations.

While, as in France, mecharuzation seems to have dimmed the prospects for the expan- sion of farm employment, the changing role of women on the farm will also influence the evo- lution of the relationship between farm work and off-farm employment. Traditionally, farmers married women from a fanning back-

416 CANADIAN JOIJKNAI. OF AGRICIJI.TIJRAL ECONOMICS

~ -~ _ _ _ - __ ~

1 able 3 Iqmi emplovment - mdexes, Canada, 1989 Quebec (Lower St Lawence area)

9 pcrrcent reported havmg a permanent employee

5 ptment reported havlng tanporary workers

25 percent employed no workers (except family)

Avcmge duration of temporaryjob 46 days

Saskatchewan (Iturdl Muniupality of hmerald)

6 percent reported havlng a permanent employee

40 percent reported having temporary workers

60 perctnt employed no workers (except family)

Average duration of temporary job 25 davs - _ _ ~

ground but as the number of farms has shrunk, so has the marriage market. As a result, today's farmer may many a woman who already has a career. which she may not give up when she moves to the farm to live with her husband.

Poland Our surveys date back to the late 1980s, just before the fall of socialism in Poland. At that time, agriculture was composed of large state farms or cooperatives and a family farming sector. Family farmers were attempting to sur- vive the vagaries of socialist agricultural policy in which they were considered an anach- ronism. albeit a useful one since they contributed a substantial portion of the country's food supply.

With regard to the organization of farm work. family labour was of major importance. Only 20 to 30 percent of Polish farms employed hued help and that was for v e ~ y brief periods. Family farms offered seasonal jobs for reasons connectcd with the peasant economy: the labour was purchased not for the expected valued added but to get through periods of heavy workloads.

Family fanners in the periurban Zator region engaged in intensive market gardening and at the same time held full-time jobs in the neighbouringcity. Needless to say, every member of the family had to work on the farm. I n addition, there were some very long-standing forms of solidarity among these farmers. whichexplains the fact that mu-

tual assistance was more common here than anywhere else.

The situation in Poland was appreciably more complicated because of the collectivist agricultural policy, against which family farming constituted a kind of resistance, as well as a "safe haven" on both the symbolic and economic levels. Hence the prerequisites were there for the emergence of double or multiple employment, which is particularly prevalent in Poland. As a result of subdivision, the farms arevery small. which precludes any sigxuficant mechanimtion and makes it impossible for the occupants to make a decent living from farming.

Tunisia As in a number of other developing countries with a colonial past, agriculture in Tunisia is split between two systems: very large holdings, whichonce were colonial estates inmany cases; and various forms of family farms with labour-intensive agrarianstructures. In the two examples used in our survey, dry and imgated market gardening, luring paid labour is fairly common and absolutely necessary. Thus. the agricultural system in Tunisia generates an ap- preciable amount of employment, on both large farms and small.

While the employment of outside workers appears to play a sigruficant role in the opera- tion of some farms. especially those involved in intensive farming, it is by no means univer- sal. Inoneofourtwo researchareasinTunisia,


over 50 percent of the farms do not use paid labour. in the other. 88 percent of the farms have employees. though the numbers vary widely. We also observed that cooperation among farmers is rare here. and where it exists, it is essentiallv a case of mutual assistance between family members rather than between neighbours.

Brazil Brazil is a huge count9 with a number of very dffcrent forms of family farming, ranging from the kinds of agriculture that are typical of the Third World to the most advanced types of modern farming. I t should be pointed out that the temin is responsible for those dffer- enccs and that one ofthe few common features is the importance of family labour in farming operations.

In Cariri, a semi-arid subregion in north- eastern Brazil. we observed two communities of very poor peasants canying on a traditional system of mixed-crop/livestock farming or a combination of this system and intensive ini- gation farming established with development assistance from donor countries. The use of paid labour is systematic in the latter case. Hence there is genuine farm employment, though we must be cautious in analyzing the data. Antllropological research shows that the employees arc treatedas family members; they might better be described as "helpers" or "do- mestics". whose "bosses" are, paradoxically, very poor people. It should be noted. however, that the cost of labour. which is prohibitive elsewhere. is exceedingly low here and there- fore witlun reach of people of very modest means. Therc is also a considerable degree of cooperation in Cariri.

In Leme, in the State of Sao Paulo, we en- counteredanothcrunusual rural system. Fami- lies of European origin (German, Italian, etc.) grow crops such as cotton sugar cane and cit- rus fruit on fairly large farms outside the towns where they live. This is an extreme form of family farming where the family does not live on the farm. Employing large numbers of workers is commonplace, chiefly because of the need to pick cotton by hand. Harvesting takes at least 75 days. and the farms hre be-

tween three and 100 workers, the average being about 15. In tlus system, women take prac- tically no part in agricultural work.

In Ijui, in Rio Grande do Sul, we discovered an instance of decidedly modern farming in a recently opened-up area se:ttled by immigrants from Eastern Europe. On well-equipped, hgNy mechanized farms, they grow soya beans and similar crops for the international market. These crops are sold through powerful cooperatives that are hooked up electronically to the Chicago grainexchange. Very little paid labour is used in this system. for much the same reasons as in Canada: mechanization re- duces the number of jobs, available, and the limited amount of work to be done is per- formed by the farmer and hs family, wluch tends to be rather large. Interestingly, we also found that the idea of self,-sufficiency has re- mainedalive here ina modern farming system. Since most jobs in Brazil pay very low wages, it is more advantageous fix a farmer's older children to work at producing goods for the family's own consumption than to try to earn a decent income working elsewhere. In this part of Brazil, then, there is a strong tendency toward family labour, with substantial partici- pation by women, albeit nn traditional work rather than work involving machines, which is the preserve of the male population. There is also much cooperation between neighbours, often mixed with cooperation between rela- tives. Our respondents said without hesitation that they cooperated with one another because they wanted to avoid hring paid labour -even though the labour cost hen? is very low com- pared to northern countries.

5 . CONCLUSION By examining a number ofvery different cases in our research into family farming, we have demonstrated that this social means of organizing agncultural production is very much alive, productive, capable of multiple adapta- tions to diverse condltions and rewarding as a way of life and a career for farmers and their families. It is no surprise tlhat family farming has survived and provided solid occupations in the modem world where time-honoured craftsmanship is under siege.

418 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICIJLTURAL ECONOMICS

In this increasingly complex world, farming and the social form of organizing agricultural production have also become a more complex entity, which by its very nature, per- forms work or services that are useful to all of society. Elsewhere (Jean, 1994), I have pro- posed a new vision of family farming that rec- ognizes the many "ecological services" farmers provide to the whole of society (see also Sopuck. 1993). In Europe, it was not until mountain farming was eliminated by market forces that it was seen, in all its complexity and charm, as an activity that saves us from certain major environmental problems (such as erosion) and sustains a landscape that has value in its own right. In recent years, agriculture's contribution to landscape conservation has been gaining wider recognition in Europe an4 hesitantly, in Canada, as illustrated by the conference on the general state of the Quebec landscape ( h a t s generaux du pa-vsage), held in Quebec City in June 1995.

Clearly, we are asking one dimension of agricultural activity, the production of goods for agri-food markets, to pay for all the other di- mensions. Farmers arc providing labour that is only valued in terms of the commodity sold but whichprovides otherbenefits. This is start- ing to be recognized in some agricultural poli- ties designed to sustain farming in difficult areas, in order to consewe landscapes fortour- ism, for example, or for the sake of equity in national policies on regional development.

Yet, to the extent agricultural policy is based on the principle of cheap food, it is difficult to see how the market could be asked to compensate farmers the costs of delivering the environmental and social benefits of family farming. Our view is that family farming has a clear-cut advantage that guarantees it a future, since it has historically operated without passing on those costs by providing part of the farm labour to society for free. If it is willing to continue doing so, it is likely to keep its place in the agri-food system. In other words, family farming appears to be consistent with the perception of what "sustainable agriculture" is or should be.

And where does employment enter the pic- ture? In our view, it is important to consider

the paradox of modem family farming and IU- ral employment. Although family farming itself creates very few jobs, it appears to be the best way of maintaining a dynamic rural milieu and helping to establish the preconditions for the development of rural employment.

Family farming provides employment, but we are not seeing a trend toward paid agricultural labour (about 20 percent of farm workers in Quebec are paid employees). Nevertheless, family farming does have formative effects on the level of rural employment as such. Year after year, some 60,000 people work on farms, half of them in the horticulture sector for less than five weeks. That equates to about 12,000 full-timejobs, inaddition to the 5,000 or6,000 actual full-time positions. With massive lay- offs in large industries and downsizing in the private and public sectors, the existence of 17,000 jobs in a traditional sector such as agriculture is remarkable, especially in view of the formative impact these jobs have in maintaining the socioeconomic fabric of rural areas; the workers live inthe local area and spend their income there. When th~s work is combined with other jobs and government assistance, the prospect of living in the country remains attractive, which helps ensure the vitality of rural communities. The mayors and residents of rural municipalities in decline tell us, whenwe travel around the countryside, that if there are two or three more jobs, families can send their children to a local school because it is not in danger of being closed, and the grocer andthe gas stationoperatorcan hope to have enough customers to keep their busi- nesses open.

We did not touch on a central issue in agricultural employment. The hstorical trend is toward the disappearance of agricultural jobs where many are transferred to the upstream and downstream sectors. By consuming increasingly complex inputs and delivering raw materials for increasingly intensive processing by the bio-food industry, farming is shifting the centre of gravity of employment in the agri- food c h to upstream and downstream enter- prises which may not have a rural location.

A family farming structure creates a de- mandforjobs since some farmers want to work


outside their farms either to use their free time profitably. to supplement modest incomes, to make ends meet by using their earnings to fi- nance investments that will produce income later. or forother reasons. The relationship between farming and rural communities is start- ing to deteriorate. Traditionally, rural communities were built around farming; today, farming is dependent onthe communities. In reality, thcrc is a nced for a new partnership -to use a shopworn term -between sustainable family farming and rural communities. Neither side would be subordinate to the other. Rather. we see an interdependent relationslup that may result in a new creative synergy.

NOTES 'The author would like to thank INRA (Institute national de la recherche agronomique) in France where the author wrote this paper as a 'guest re- searcher' during the 1995-96 academic year. 'This study, sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the International Development Research Centre, with additional fundmg from partner agencies, was conducted in 13 research holdings in five socially and politically &verse countries: Canada, France, Poland, Tunisia

and Brazil. Focusing on strategies for adaptmg family farmmg to variations in political and economic conditions, the m e y : s were carried out in 1988 and 1989 under the duection of teams of researchers from the countries involved. Analysis of the survey findings took several years and the results were reported in twcl major publicahons (Lamarche, I99 I , 1994).

REFERENCES Houee, Paul. 1989. Les poliriques de dheloppe- nient rural. Des annees de croissance au temps d 'incertitude. Paris: Economics. 249 p. Jean, Bruno. 1994. Decline o.rrenewal: Canadian agriculture and rural l$e at the crossroads. Ottawa: Canadian Federation (of Agriculture, Janu-

Lamarche, Hugues (coordinator) 1991. L 'ugri- culture familiale, Volume 1, IJne dalitt! polynor- phe. Paris: L'Harmattan. 304 p. Lamarche, Hugues (coordinator) 1994. L 'agriculture familiale, Volunie 2 , Du mythe a la realite. Paris: L'Harmattan. 303 p. Morisset, Michel. 1987. L hgiiculture familiale au Quebec. I'aris: L'Harmattan. Sopuck, Robert D. 1993. C'ommercial farming policies in Canada: impact o t~ rural renewal and biodiversity. Ottawa: National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

ary. 75 p.

family farming, farm labour and rural employment. who works where? an international comparison

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