Prospects for collective farming

In many more countries, the interest in collective farming is growing, particularly in the so-called "developing countries." Governments, development agencies, political parties, and scientists working on socioeconomic problems all consider the collective farm a good remedy for difficult problems and a good form for technological and socioeconomic development in agriculture. It is not the idea of the peasants themselves. The author describes four types of collective farms: (1) collective farms created by believers in an ideology which puts a higher value on the noneconomic than on the economic goals; (2) collective farms created by landless families who were able to acquire the land but not to start individual family farms; (3) collective farms organized by governments in order to reach national economic and social goals; and (4) collective farms organized by farmers in order to get the advantages of a large operation -- lower costs of production, more effective use of land, of manpower, and of capital, etc. -- and consequently higher economic profits.