Labour allocation in smallholder agriculture in the Shamva District: a household economic approach
Abstract
Studies on agrarian transformation under the impact of wider economic force
in small economies have tended towards one of two interpretations. The first is
that agricultural mechanisation and commercialisation lead to economic
differentiation within the rural population creating two classes: a small land
owning class and an increasingly marginalised one. In addition to this process
rural populations find themselves being rapidly displaced as many individual
are forced to look for work outside agriculture. The second view emphasize
the importance of understanding persisting forms of organisation such as the
family farm, which uses non-wage household and extra-household labor.