SURVIVAL IN AGRICULTURE - LINKING MACROLEVEL AND MICROLEVEL ANALYSES

Critical studies of agriculture in advanced industrial societies ident ify either macrolevel or micro-level forces as causes of farm operator survival. The structure of agriculture, the structure of non-farm ind ustry, and the structure of land ownership define the macro level cont ext of survival. Individual demographic characteristics and farm enter prise characteristics related to household and farm labour, debt, and vulnerability define the micro-level context of survival. Using two pa nel data sets on North Carolina farm operators collected during two di fferent farm crisis periods, we combine micro-level survey data with m acro-level data on county agricultural, industrial, and landholding st ructures in multivariate analyses of farm operator failure/survival. T he two types of data allow us to examine individualized action within farm and county contexts. For the first panel, operator on-farm labour is the only significant predictor of farm operator failure. For the s econd panel, farm scale and large farm county agricultural structure a re the significant predictors of farm operator failure. The results ar gue against a single deterministic explanation of farm operator surviv al and for the integration of time and spatial context with micro- and macro-levels of analysis.