Differentials in Productivity and in Farm Income of Agricultural Workers by Size of Enterprise and by Regions

Excerpts from the report Introduction: Certain important problems for post-war agricultural policy necessitate careful consideration of both the expected and the desirable levels of efficiency at which agriculture as an industry may or should operate. Post-war planning for agriculture is essentially a process of translating general goals of full employment in the economy as a whole and adequate standard of living for farm people into concrete aims and courses of action. Formulation of the ends sought as well as the means for attaining them are made conditional upon the existence of certain assumed basic conditions. One important assumption, for example, is that relating to the size of the labor force needed for a given volume of agricultural production in the post-war period. Obviously this will depend upon the distribution of the aggregate agricultural production among farms operating at given levels of output per unit of labor. For a given level of production, the total size of the farm working force could vary greatly depending on the assumption as to the average level of gross labor productivity, as the range of levels existing within agriculture as a whole is very great. Another equally important assumption is that relating to the net income level to be obtained from farming by farmers and farm workers, which depends to a large extent upon the net value of production per worker. Regional differences in gross and net production per farm worker are so significant that a realistic approach to post-war agricultural planning must formulate these necessary assumptions in the light of regional variations. Thus the ensuing estimates and their analysis not only afford a description and interpretation of the differentials in farm labor productivity and levels of living existing in the United States in 1939, but also are relevant to an examination of the effects of alternative assumptions with respect to some of the factors involved in any projected post-war goals. The fundamental variables which enter into equations of post-war agricultural planning are the amount of agricultural production desired, the number of farm workers which would represent a balanced distribution between agriculture and other occupations, and the levels of living to be achieved by persons engaged in agriculture. The measures of gross productivity presented in this report afford converting factors for possible equations between volume of production and number of workers. The measures of net productivity, similarly, afford a basis for expressing quantitatively the interrelations of the total national agricultural production and total number of farm workers with the resulting levels of net farm income per worker.