THE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF VEGETABLE PRODUCTION FOR LIMITED RESOURCE FARMERS IN SOUTH CENTRAL ALABAMA
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The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of vegetable production to enhance the declining farm income of limited resource farmers. A survey of 60 limited resource farmers in south central Alabama was undertaken to carry out this evaluation. Results of the survey show that 95% of the farmers had an annual farm income of less than $12,000. Linear programming methodology was applied to perform a whole-farm analysis of a representative farm developed from the data. The overall results show that vegetable production will significantly increase the annual income of these farmers. Some specific conclusions are that: (a) the total return from vegetable production depends on vegetable mixes; (b) vegetable production is labor intensive and sensitive to change in labor cost, implying that an increase in minimum wage might affect the return from vegetable production; and (c) development of labor-saving technology in vegetable production could be considered as a long-term solution to increase the returns of vegetable producers.