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Smallholders, Householders: Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive, Sustainable Agriculture
Abstract
Contrasting the prevailing theories of the evolution of agriculture, the author argues that the practice of smallholding is more efficient and less environmentally degrading than that of industrial agriculture which depends heavily on fossil fuel, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. He presents a convincing case for his argument with examples taken from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, and demonstrates that there are fundamental commonalities among smallholder cultures. "Smallholders, Householders" is a detailed and innovative analysis of the agricultural efficiency and conservation of resources practiced around the world by smallholders.
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“In all cases, regime shifts in land system productivity are driven not by technological innovations in themselves but rather by demographic or social demands for surplus production or reduced labor inputs, usually well after the requisite technologies have become widely available (45).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [45]
In the citing paper
“By this model, hunter-gatherer’s use of fire to enhance foraging success is a form of land-use intensification, as is land clearing for shifting cultivation, wet rice cultivation, the moldboard plow, and contemporary use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and mechanization (44, 45).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [45]
In the citing paper
“In less densely populated regions, agricultural productivity was generally much lower, as in the pre- and postcolonial Americas, Australia, and New Zealand (44, 45, 74).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [45]
In the citing paper
“Agricultural yields within the most densely populated and productive preindustrial land-use systems compared well with modern yields and were sustained in some regions for centuries to millennia, even though they also tended to require extreme inputs of labor and other socially unsustainable hardships (43–45, 92).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [45]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Netting, R. M.
- Corresponding author
- Netting, Robert McC.
- Venue
- Stanford University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Stanford University Press
- Published
- 1993-09-01
- OpenAlex
- W4206967838
- Cited by
- 756
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 46 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 26
- FWCI
- 49.26
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Stanford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Development › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
- Social Sciences › Development › Rural Development and Agriculture
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Agriculture
- Keywords
- smallholder farming, small farms, industrial agriculture, agricultural efficiency, environmental degradation, resource conservation, fossil fuels, mineral fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, evolution of agriculture, household farming
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