Marketing activities and problems of part-time farmers

This study was designed to explore one aspect of this peculiar set of problems with which part-time farmers are faced-that of marketing surplus agricultural products from their small farms. It must be recognized that the products marketed sad the markets used by part-time farmers are in general the same products and the same markets involved in marketings from full-time commercial farms. However, the thesis of this study was that the nature of part-time farming particularly with respect to (1) small scale marketings, (2) the secondary interest of the part-time farmer in his off-farm relative to his off-farm job, and (3) the labor com-petition between the off-farm job and the farm created many unique market situations not generally experienced by commercial farmers.It was also recognised that the primary interests of most part-time farmers in their farms were to produce food for home consumptions, provide for future security, or the desirableness of rural living rather than to increase cash income for their family. This fact had been fairly well established by ether studies.² Consequently, the interest of part-time farmers in markets is not likely to be very intense. However, the fact that many part-time farmers have surplus production which is or could be marketed. Many part-time farmers produce certain products, such as tobacco, specifically for the market. In addition, the rather limited use of agricultural resources (particularly physical resources) on many parttime farms suggests the possibility of further development of commercial enterprises on these farms.

The purpose of this study can be stated as follows:

1. To show what part-time farmers sell, where they sell, and method of marketing.

2. To determine the relationship between certain factors (such as size of farm, family size and composition, and age of operator) and what is produced and sold from part-time farms.

3. To determine and appraise marketing problems and limitations encountered by part-time farmers.