Farm Diversification and the Restructuring of Agriculture

Abstract

The intensive farming that has been a feature of western agriculture since the Second World War has led to increased productivity but also to overproduction and a consequent fall in prices. Government-imposed constraints to regulate production have had only limited success and farm incomes, in real terms, have fallen. To retrieve the situation, increasing numbers of farmers have diversified their interests into activities periperhal to the main stream of agriculture.