World of Agriculture 
Facts and Photos from every country of the world.

Medium scaled agricultural systems

Medium-sized farms are widespread and form the standard for agricultural systems. Their size depends on agroecological and socio-economic conditions. In some parts of the world, they can be less than 1,000 hectares in size, in others only about 10 hectares. These typical farms have followed different paths of development. Some were unable to develop further and remained low-yield farms. An economic basis can be provided by biotope management contracts or simp-ly by continuing to farm for as long as possible. Retirement is often the point at which this type of farming comes to an end. The second path is organic mixed farming with production restrictions in favour of ecologically sound measures. They achieve average yields but high market prices for their products to generate sufficient income. The usual development path of traditional agriculture was and is intensification with increasing inputs and high yields. Specialization is the path to economic success. Specialization can take place in arable farming or livestock farming. The example of intensive pig farming will be explained. The yields and profits of all these medium-sized agricultural systems can vary considerably for individual businesses. This depends on the quality of management and the objectives.

Photo 1: Traditional agricultural systems had and must always change. One development path is to leave farming, to give up. Many Irish farmers did so. They have left this area and migrated to USA because the conditions were so heavy.

Photo 2: Farms, who have given up became private housing places without or just hobby farming.

In many cultures, traditional farming has the image of poverty, stupidity, dirt and hard work. It is difficult to inherit or even sell those farms. Farmers children of traditional farms look very often for opportunities in jobs and livelihood. Transition is a process of usually one generation. The traditional farms are managed by the elder generation, the youngsters live on the farm, but do other things, but probably they help their parents as long as needed.


Photo 3: On the photo is a field with buck wheat, the staple food of poor farmers in moorland, acid sand soils. It is not easy to be a private full-time farmer in Belarus: the whole input-output market for agriculture is fixed and dominated by governmental plans like in the soviet period. A big hinderance in prospering agriculture - despite the natural frame conditions are good.


The process of ‘growth and decline’ can be well illustrated by the example of Germany. Before the Second World War, there were almost two million farms in Germany, most of which practised mixed farming. After the Second World War, both East and West Germany were plagued by hunger and misery. Agriculture was important.

In East Germany (GDR), the many small farms were merged into large agricultural production cooperatives. These were very large (several thousand hectares) and specialised. The mechani-sation and qualification of labour was quickly introduced. Hunger was thus quickly overcome. The traditional farming village structures were dissolved and transformed into village settlements. The large farms provided everything that the employees and their families needed. However, such state-controlled large farms with wage labour were only efficient up to a certain level. They lacked the entrepreneurial drive of family farms or companies in the food industry. They were only able to make limited use of the economies of scale offered by large structures. As a result, food shortages (in terms of quantity, choice and quality) eventually returned, leading to the collapse of socialism in the GDR in 1989. After reunification, however, the large structures were mostly retained, albeit with a changed orientation and equipment. They were now organised entrepreneurially and, in many cases, privately. Economies of scale could once again be exploited. However, far fewer people were employed on the farms. Many people moved away, the villages with their services died out, and much of the infrastructure and buildings fell into ruin. This has worked well to date and is now economically and socially established in eastern Germany.

In West Germany (BRD), a different path was taken. The farms were not expropriated and merged. They continued to be run as they had been before the war, but often without knowledge, as education had been inadequate during the war and many farmers had lost their lives as soldiers. Young men with little knowledge now had to earn their living here. Training as a farmer was not necessary here. All you needed was land and a willingness to work hard. At that time, most farms did not offer holidays or leisure time. Nevertheless, it was still possible to be content and enjoy a high quality of life. Even though many farms were small and labour-intensive by today's standards, they still provided enough income for a family. Over time, small farms became increasingly unprofitable, and many were abandoned. In most cases, the decision was necessary when the children did not want to continue farming and moved to places where they could find work and a new centre of life. The land was then leased to other farms that wanted to expand or sold outright. The parents usually remained on the farms until their death, but without farming. When they died, these farms fell into disrepair because they no longer had any value and no one wanted them.

These two very different development paths of ‘growth and decline’ coexisted successfully. Today, there are still 200,000 farms in Germany, or 10% of what there were before the Second World War. Successful family farms still predominate in western, southern and northern Ger-many. They have grown larger but earn their money through skill and specialization. In eastern Germany, there are successful large-scale structures due to the economies of scale of mass production and supplying large markets.

Photo 4: A typical East Frisian mixed farm with 20 hectares of drained moorland.

The next farm was 200 meters away. The nearest village with shops, schools, doctors and the like was four kilometers away. That was all that was needed. The farmers family with seven people lived with their cows and pigs under one roof in a Gulfhouse-style house. After the Sec-ond World War, this was the basis of life for a family. It was a lot of work, and the quality of life was not high. By today's standards, the 100 square meter dwelling was small, but in bombed-out post-war Germany it was large. Many families – mainly German refugees from the east German area and families from cities - lived in self-made simple mud huts. The water came from a moor well. There was no bathroom, rubbish collection or central heating. There were also only two stoves, one in the living room and one in the kitchen. They still heated with peat from their own moor. The small 8 m² kitchen was used to cook for seven people (and guests) and to eat (it was cramped, but warm and cosy). There was little or no free time. The nearest village was 4 km away and almost all of it was work. In the same building as the business was too small and none of the children wanted to take it over, the land was sold and after the parents died, the farm became a ruin.

Photo 5: Milk was important for many traditional farms in Germany. It did not require much land and was a reliable source of income all year round. Drained moorland regions were con-verted towards dairy farming. This was also the case on this example mixed farm in East Frisia. In addition to the main dairy farm with ten cows and young cattle, five sows and 50 chickens were also kept, and carp were farmed in ponds. Otherwise, arable farming was not profitable here either, and machinery was expensive and complicated (unknown). The first tractor was not yet trusted, so the plough horses were kept for another two years, just in case. The agricultural machinery had originally been purchased for horses and now had to be improvised, converted or attached to the tractor. A 1,000 m2 farm garden provided the family with vegetables, potatoes and other plant-based foods, which were supposed to be enough for the whole family, and much of it was preserved for the winter. The grandparents and children did most of the work here. Other work outside of agriculture also helped to achieve a good standard of living: communal work such as mowing roadsides, home slaughtering or casual work out on construction sites.