Farming practice, capital and landcare: subsumption and control

There are a number of features of agriculture in contemporary Australia that few farmers, social scientists, environmentalists, or even economists, would dispute. Farm numbers are dropping, tightening terms of trade necessitate constant productivity gains, and there is an increasing awareness of widespread and massive land degradation. Despite periodic forecasts of improving commodity prices, most farms remain unprofitable (Beare, 1995), and many face severe financial difficulty. Declining rural populations lead further to rationalisation of services in both the public and private sectors, and reduced accessibility to these services for those who remain on the land or in small country towns, often when they are needed the most (Lawrence and Williams, 1990; Stone, 1992).

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Social Change in Rural Australia

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978-1-875902-36-1

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