Farmers the world over face many common problems in the early part of the 21st century. However there are none so dependant on farming for their very survival than many smallholders in Africa, who often rely entirely on production from their limited land area to provide both staple foodstuffs...

The most dramatic change occurring in agricultural production is the change in business strategies. In the US, family farmers have traditionally made decisions with whatever information they could independently gather. Today, the ability to assimilate an overload of data into decision making...

Semi-arid and arid lands cover approximately two-thirds of Australia. These heartlands are the focus of a 7-year research project (Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre - DK-CRC) that has the vision of developing a sustainable future through the development of thriving desert knowledge...

The ability to adapt to changing circumstance is a determinant of future farm prosperity. Managers need to assess the performance of their current farming system and alternative farming options to identify possible profitable management changes. This paper uses the STEP (Simulated Transitional...

Benchmarking is the practice of establishing the relative performance of a business or enterprise against an appropriate standard, generally industry standards derived from a survey of farms. The Policy Commission into the Future of Farming and Food (2002) highlighted a need to spread and...

Hungary and Poland are two applicant countries, which know the date of the admission into European Union, but the problems of the agriculture are great in both of them. The ways to the recent conditions were different, but the economic situation is similar. In Poland, mainly on the Eastern part...

This paper is a summary of a project that compared the relative profitability of existing, emerging and prospective agroforestry systems with profitability of conventional agricultural land uses in the cropping zones of Western Australia and New South Wales. The project explored the economic...

Business strategy is very important to small and medium family businesses as many are both fragile and vulnerable; strategy provides a solid foundation for survival. Various studies have identified that businesses that engage in strategic management outperform those that do not. Despite this...

The U.S. will soon see many farmers retire and younger farmers taking their place. These younger farmers would prefer to purchase the land rather than rent because of the advantages associated with ownership. However, these farmers need to determine how many acres they need to rent in order to...

The family farm is a complex interaction overtime between the three major or macro components; the farm business, ownership and the farm family. Failure by the farm family to understand or appreciate the complexity of the interaction or be aware of the potential effects each components may have...