Abstract
Panel data from a survey of small-scale farmers in the North Carolina Piedmont are used to investigate the survival of black smallholders. Results of a multivariate analysis show that owning tobacco quota and having high gross farm income, high amounts of on-farm household labor and small household size increase the propensity to survive in agriculture. Over the five-year period studied, approximately 50 percent of the original respondents were no longer actively operating farms. These results point to the complex problems that policies designed to assist minority and small-scale farmers must address.
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Michael D. Schulman is Professor of Sociology at North Carolina State University. From 1978–1990 he was co-Director of the North Carolina Farm and Rural Life Study. In addition to surveys of North Carolina smallholders, he has conducted panel studies of North Carolina farm operators to investigate the social consequences of the farm crisis. His current research focuses on farm family health and hazards and on labor market inequality. A co-edited book,Hanging By a Thread, on the Southern textile industry, appeared in April, 1991 from the Institute of Labor Relations Press of Cornell University.
Barbara A. Newman received her Master's degree in Rural Sociology from North Carolina State University. She is currently a Research Analyst at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia.
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Schulman, M.D., Newman, B.A. The survival of the black tobacco farmer: Empirical results and policy dilemmas. Agric Hum Values 8, 46–52 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01591842
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01591842