6.1 Socio-economic Characteristics of the Sample Farm Households^[25]

6.1.1 Demographic and Farm Characteristics of Dairy Farm Households

Characteristics of Indian dairy farm households. Almost all the households in the sample were male-headed with an average family size of six members per household. Family size did not vary significantly across farm size and between regions (see Tables 6.1 and 6.2). Likewise, the average age of household heads is above 40 years old and did not vary significantly across regions; however, average age of household heads of commercial dairy farms was lower compared to other farm size categories, which indicates that younger farmers have strong preference for milk production activity.

As for education, over 90 percent of households in the western region and nearly two-thirds in the northern region were literate. Across farm size, large-scale farm household heads are better educated than small-scale household heads. The literacy ratio was higher in male-headed households compared to female-headed households in both regions (Sharma et al., 2003).

The sample households had fairly long experience in dairy farming, and farmers (mostly smallholders) had, on average, 20 years of experience in milk production. More than one-third of commercial farmers had less than 10 years of experience. The smallholder dairy farming system in rural areas is closely interwoven with crop farming activity as a secondary occupation based on crop residues and by-products, using bullocks (buffalo or cattle) for draft power and transport, and applying cow manure on fields as fertilizer. Commercial farms, on the other hand, are motivated by market factors such as increasing demand for dairy products in urban areas, easy access to inputs, and better market opportunities.

There are striking differences in primary sources of occupation across farm size and between regions (Tables 6.1 and 6.2). A large proportion of smallholders (69 percent) in the northern region were hired farm laborers, and about 44 percent of smallholders in the western region had dairying as their primary occupation. Nearly all (98 percent) of the spouses of household heads on small farms take care of milk production activities. In the case of commercial farms, milk production was the main occupation in both regions (68 percent in the north and 93 percent in the west). Across farm size, crop farming was a primary source of occupation (55 percent) in the northern region; and 61 percent of the farmers in the western region had dairy farming as a primary occupation. This is possibly due to differences in agricultural development between these two regions.

Table 6.1 Demographic characteristics of sample households in Indian dairy farms, northern region, 2002

Source: Sharma, V.P., et.al., Annex III.

Table 6.2 Demographic characteristics of sample households in Indian dairy farms, western region, 2002

Source: Sharma, V.P., et.al., Annex III.

Indicators of infrastructure such as information on average distance to milk collection centers, the nearest market, and roads were gathered. Access to milk collection centers is better in the western region, where about 95 percent of the households belonging to the medium, large and commercial farms have easy access, mainly due to the good network of dairy cooperative societies. In the northern region, more than 50 percent of the commercial farms are slightly removed from milk collection centers (1-2 km), while 72 percent of the small-scale farms are closer to the milk collection centers by less than one kilometer. The average distance to a paved road was also shorter in the western region (£1 km) than in the northern region (3-5 km) (Tables 6.1 and 6.2).

Land is an important asset of farmers, although in the case of dairy production, purchased or exchanged feed and fodder can be substituted for land holdings. The average size of land holding was smaller (1.1 has) in the northern region than in the western region (1.9 has) (Tables 6.1 and 6.2). It ranged from about 0.4 ha in the case of small farms, to about 2.6 ha in the case of large farms. In the western region, it ranged from 0.9 ha for small farms, to 4.2 has for commercial farms. However, land productivity in the north is higher than in the western region, due to better irrigation facilities and other resources. Most of the commercial farms are landless and thus, are highly dependent on market-purchased feeds and fodder.

Characteristics of dairy farm households in Thailand. Contrary to the findings in India, the average age of farm household operators for large and medium-sized farms (with 21-50 cows) are older than in the case of small farms (Table 6.3). Almost all farm operators are literate but do not have college education. Operators of large-scale farms, however, are more educated than are smallholders. Furthermore, the operator's experience in dairy farming typically increases with farm size. This is plausible since most farms began as small-scale farms and have successfully expanded through the years.

Farm production activities are typically dependent on family labor. This is true not only for smallholders but also for large-scale farms. In fact, large-scale farms use hired labor at a maximum of five mandays (Poapongsakorn et.al., 2003).

As for farm location, most of the farms are located near the community (about 3 kms) and public waterways (about 1 km). In terms of investment, medium-scale farms had the highest average annualized fixed expenditure per kilogram of milk. Land is an important source of fresh roughage. About half of the Thai dairy farms sampled are greater than 20 rais (equivalent to 3.2 has). The large-scale and small-scale farmers appear to have more landholdings per cow (or farm density) than medium-scale farms.

Table 6.3 Farm characteristics of dairy farm households in Thailand, 2002

Note: N is number of farms.

Source: Poapongsakorn, N., et.al., Annex IV.

Characteristics of dairy farm households in Brazil. The age structure of dairy farm households indicates that the average age of farm managers varied across regions and across farm sizes. The average ages of medium-scale and large-scale farm managers are higher than is the case for small-scale farm managers, which suggests that older farmers are more likely to be engaged in milk production activity, as well as the other way around (Table 6.4). Large-scale farm managers also have a longer number of years of experience than small-scale farm operators. Similarly, large-scale farm managers are more educated than small-scale farm managers. The low level of education of the small-scale farmers is compensated with the higher percentage of attendance in training courses on dairy farming.

In addition, the small-scale farms use more family labor per hectare and per cow, while large-scale farms employ hired labor to work on dairy farming activities, because they are engaged in off-farm business. A general observation though is that milk farms are typically not managed by the owners, but by another family member.

As an alternative source of income, dairy farmers also grow a variety of crops such as corn, soya, rice, and beans on their farms. In the southern region, corn is the main crop among smallholders and large-scale producers; soya is likewise an important crop in the area. Corn and soya also dominate the cropping pattern in the South and Central West regions, but a larger proportion of land area is allocated to grazing land intended for pasturing mixed herds.

Table 6.4 Demographic characteristics of dairy farm owners, Brazil, 2002

Note: GO is Goiás in the Central West; MG is Minas Gerais, and SP is São Paulo in the Southeast region; the South region includes the states of Rio Grande de Sul (RS), Santa Catarina (SC), and Paraná (PR).

Source: Camargo Barros, G.S., et.al., Annex V.

6.1.2 Demographic and Farm Characteristics of Poultry Farm Households

Demographic and farm characteristics of Indian poultry farm households. Table 6.5 summarizes the survey results on farm characteristics of the layer and broiler farm households in India. In terms of attendance in training in agriculture or poultry, large-scale layer farm households have a higher percentage of attendance than dosmall-scale layer farm households. This does not hold true for broilers though, since it is the small-scale households who reported a higher percentage of attendance at training course compared to large-scale farm households. This is probably due to the greater prevalence of contract farming in the broiler sample than in the layer sample.

Most of the sample households (for both layer and broiler) are literate; at least half of them had finished primary and secondary levels of formal education. It is also worth noting that in the case of layer farm households, large-scale household heads attained higher formal education (more than 10 years) compared to small-scale household heads. The reverse is true for broiler farm households, where the majority of the smallholders have attained a higher level of education. In the case of layer farm households, more than 60 percent of the large-scale households and 40 percent of the small-scale households have more than 10 years of experience in operating the poultry, the rest have less than 10 years of experience. As for broiler farm households, about 53 percent of the large-scale households and 32 percent of the small-scale households have experience of six to 10 years while others have more than 10 years or less than six years. On average, majority of the households across farm size have more than six years of experience in operating poultry farms.

The age structure of sample farms is likewise shown in Table 6.5. About 36 percent of the poultry farms have been operating within the range of only 5 to 10 years. Out of 161 layer farms sampled, 83 farms are at least 10 years old. On the other hand, 63 broiler farms (out of a total of 159) have been operating for at least 10 years.

The average distance from the small-scale poultry farms to the nearest town is at least five kilometers. Large-scale poultry farms are located farther from towns as expected, but are closer to national or state highways. The average distance from the sampled layer and broiler small-scale farms to the nearest highway is 71 km and 34 km, respectively.

There are two types of management in poultry production in India: proprietorship and partnership. It was observed that proprietorship is the most popular form of industrial organization among all sample farms. Of the 320 poultry farms, 309 are managed by a proprietor.

Demographic characteristics of layer farm households in Thailand. Similar to other livestock farms, it is not surprising that the large-scale layer farms are likely to have a bigger land area. Most of the large-scale farms sampled (46 percent) operate on an area over 20 rais (3.2 has) (Table 6.6). Some 37 percent of medium-scale producers own more than 20 rais of farm area and only 17 percent of small-scale producers own more than 20 rais.

Table 6.6 shows that more educated household owners operate large-scale farms. More than half of the owners of small-scale and medium-scale farms have attended primary education. In comparison, almost 57 percent of large-scale farm owners graduated from vocational schools. None of the sample farm owners have reached a high level education such as baccalaureate degree.

None of the sample farms feed parent stock to produce chicks. The chick-producing business in Thailand is in the hands of a few agricultural conglomerates. From the sample of 96 households, almost 60 percent buy day-old chicks (DOC) from these conglomerates and raise them as layers (Table 6.6). The rest (41 percent) buy mature hens from other farms and feed them to lay eggs. Most of the large-scale and medium-scale farms, at the proportion of 91 percent and 66 percent respectively, commit both in the process of growing chicks into mature hens and eventually as layers. Only 37 percent of the small-scale farms grow chicks for layers. This suggests that larger-scale farms tend to integrate these two types of activity to yield a better profit.

Table 6.5 Demographic and farm characteristics of Indian poultry farm households, 2002

Source: Mehta, R., et.al., Annex II.

Table 6.6 Demographic and farm characteristics of Thai layer farm households, 2002

Note: N is number of farms. One ha=6.25 rais

Source: Poapongsakorn, N., et.al., Annex IV.

None of the sample farms were hatcheries. The chick-producing business in Thailand is in the hands of a few agricultural conglomerates. From the sample of 96 households, almost 60 percent buy day-old chicks (DOC) from these conglomerates and raise them as layers (Table 6.6). The rest (41 percent) buy mature hens from other farms and feed them to lay eggs. Most of the large-scale and medium-scale farms, at the proportion of 91 percent and 66 percent respectively, commit both in the process of growing chicks into mature hens and eventually as layers. Only 37 percent of the small-scale farms grow chicks for layers. This suggests that larger-scale farms tend to integrate these two types of activity to yield a better profit.

More than 90 percent of the sample farms are independent farms (Table 6.6). This reflects the nature of an underdeveloped contract farming system in layer industry, especially among large-scale farms, which are all independent farms. Also, less than 10 percent of the producers in both small-scale and medium-scale farms are involved in subcontracting.

Of the 6 subcontract farms, 5 of them are under the Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, the biggest agricultural conglomerate in Thailand. All the subcontractees' contracts are under forward price-guaranteed contract (see Chapter 3 and Poapongsakorn et.al., 2003). In addition, most of the subcontractees are large-scale modernized farms, using the evaporative cooling houses and capital-intensive machinery.

As for employment, nearly 25 percent of the small-scale farms operate using family labor, the rest hire up to six workers (Poapongsakorn et.al., 2003). Large-scale farms hire 10 to 20 laborers (even more than 20), which are generally permanent workers.

Demographic characteristics of farm broiler households in Thailand. The average age of farm operators is similar across farm sizes, although operators of farms with more than 10,000 birds are older than those of smaller farms (Table 6.7). However, most of them do not have college educations. The typical farm operator's years of education and years of experience increases with farm size. This is probably because most broiler farms (excluding large-company farms) began as a small farm and have productively expanded.

The sampled broiler farms are situated at an average of 3 kms from the community. This is not very surprising, since most of the larger farms with over 20,000 birds use closed-system housing, which are probably less polluting than most of the smaller farms. Large farms with more than 20,000 birds are located farther from public waterways than smaller farms, which is probably why they use pumped ground water.

In terms of investment, very small farms with 5,000 birds or less had a higher average annualized fixed cost per kilogram of chicken produced than other farm sizes. A possible explanation for this is the investment of large farms on evaporative cooling systems that allows more capacity of chicken per house.

While sample composition is representative of the domination of contract farmers in the broiler business, the samples did not include farms directly owned by integrators, which are small in number but are significant in size, due to the scattered location of these farms, and difficulties in gaining access to them. The size classifications in Table 6.7 are representative for most farm sizes, even though the distribution is not entirely representative for the largest farms, because of lack of integrator farms.

Based on our samples, about three-fourths of contract farmers have less than 10,000 birds (based on stock figures recorded during our survey). Ten thousand birds is usually a minimum size for a farm to use an evaporative cooling system, although some farms of this size still use a conventional housing system. As for integrator farms, most, if not all, use evaporative cooling houses (Poapongsakorn et.al., 2003).

Table 6.7 Characteristics of broiler farm households in Thailand, 2002

Note: N is number of farms.

Source: Poapongsakorn, N., et.al., Annex IV.

Characteristics of the broiler farm households in the Philippines. The mean age of the household head, or farm decision-maker, was 42 years. This was more or less even across the sub-samples (Table 6.8). The average household size was about five. This average was about even among all subgroups. Household heads were mostly men (88 percent). However, the independent producers differed somewhat from the contract growers in this respect. While almost all contract grower households were headed by a man (95 percent), about 20 percent of the independent producer households were female-headed.

Most (84 percent) of the household heads were married, with a more or less even distribution across the sub-samples except for commercial contract growers, whose proportion of married household heads was highest at 94 percent. There were differences between the smallholder and commercial samples in the household head's number of years of schooling. Just as in Thailand, the average years of schooling among smallholders was lower, at 11 years, compared to 14 years for household heads in the commercial sample.

Most of the household heads reported the broiler business as being their main occupation. The broiler business was, however, significantly more important among contract growers of all sizes and independent commercial producers. In these categories, more than 90 percent listed the broiler enterprise as their main occupation. Among the independent smallholders, about 26 percent of household heads had income sources other than the broiler business. Close to half (48 percent) of household heads were involved in a secondary occupation outside the broiler business. The incidence of the household heads having a secondary source of income was highest (55 percent) among the commercial contract growers.

The average years of experience of household heads in the broiler business were lowest for the independent smallholders, at about eight years. The rest of the categories had nine to ten years of experience in the business, which is about the average number of years of other poultry household heads in other study sites.

The commercial producers had higher exposure to formal education in animal science or business management. Close to half (48 percent) of household heads on independent commercial farms, and close to 30 percent of commercial contract growers, had formal exposure to animal science and business education. In contrast, some 90 percent of smallholder household heads had no exposure to formal education in these fields.

Only commercial contract growers had much experience with formal livestock and business training programs in the last two years. About 70 percent reported having attended at least one training program. Less than half of the rest of the household heads had had any exposure at all to such training programs in the last two years.

On average, the independent smallholder farms were closer to their main output market (11 km). The rest were at least three times farther away. The small farms were also much closer to their source of feed (5 km) than were the commercial farms (31-39 km). Evidently, the independent smallholder farms obtained their feeds from the closest town, while the small contract growers had their source of feed a little father away (11 km). Commercial farms did not source their feeds from the closest town.

In terms of distance to the main output market, the contract growers and independent commercial farms had a main output market far away from the closest town (more than 30 km away on average). Smallholders, in contrast, sold their output at a market much closer to the production site (11 km away). Thus, commercial producers and contract growers appear to have a different output market from the independent smallholders.

As for employment of hired workers, few smallholders hire labor, mostly contract farmers hiring a maximum of two persons per farm. On average, large-scale independents hire about six persons per farm.

Table 6.8 Characteristics of farm household heads in broiler production, Philippines, 2002

Source: Costales, A., et.al., Annex I

Broiler farms were categorized as smallholders having 10,000 birds or less, and commercial farms having more than 10,000 birds. The dominant manner of phasing production activities among the broiler farms was the "all-in, all-out" mode, covering 93 percent of the entire sample. The contract growers had a higher turn-around rate in the production cycle, and were able to turn out an average 5.3 batches per year. Independent smallholders could manage 4.3 batches per year (Costales et.al., 2003).

Characteristics of poultry farm households in Brazil. Poultry (layer and broiler) production in Brazil operates mostly under contract with integrators. Our samples consisted of farms having contracts with integrators or with cooperatives, and independents. For broilers, 51 percent operate under contract, 30 percent operate independently, and 19 percent are integrated with cooperatives (Camargo Barros et.al., 2003).

Table 6.9 gives an idea on the level of education of household heads engaged in poultry production. Large producers, on average, finished the secondary level of education, which is significantly higher than the level of education obtained by smallholders. Those large-scale producers who have higher education tend to be involved in off-farm activities, thus using more hired labor to work for poultry farming activities. Smallholders, on the other hand, hardly use hired labor because of the availability of family labor.

In terms of average farm area operated, the sampled large-scale farms operated on 85 has, which is much higher than the landholdings of small-scale farms (20 has). About 81 percent of the land operated by large-scale holders is owned, and the rest is either under lease or partnership (Camargo Barros et.al., 2003).

Table 6.9 Level of formal education of poultry farm managers by scale, Brazil, 2002

Source: Camargo Barros, G.S. et.al., Annex V.

6.1.3 Socio-Economic Characteristics of Swine Farm Households

Demographic characteristics of swine farm households in Thailand. More than 51 percent of the total farm household heads have no formal education, 30 percent have only primary education, and the rest have secondary (and higher) level of education (Table 6.10). Further, Table 6.10 shows that the owners of the larger farms tend to have higher educational attainment. This low level of education was compensated with better farming skills learned from work experience. About 62 percent of the farm owners have more than eight years of experience. The majority (68 percent) of swine farmers are above 40 years old, on average. Only 10 percent are younger than 30 years old. Most (68 percent) owners are male, particularly the owners of large-scale farms (Poapongsakorn et. al., 2003).

Family labor is dominantly used in farm production activities both for smallholders and for large-scale farms. Most (84 percent) of the farms, 16 percent of which are contract farms, either grow piglets or raise fattened pigs for sale, (Table 6.10).

Fattening farms have the largest number of pigs per farm, while the piglet farms have the smallest farm size (Table 6.10). This is not surprising, since growing sows and weaning piglets are labor-intensive activities. Pig fattening farms can exploit economies of scale from bulk purchase of feeds and mechanization better than piglet farms. The average size of contract farms is almost three times as large as the piglet farms, but 50 percent smaller than the fattening farms.

Table 6.10 also shows the size of landholdings and the pig density by farm size. Landholdings by farm size range from 3 rais to 28 rais, with large-scale farms having the highest landholdings. Among all sample farms, the smallholders have the smallest number of pigs per farm and also the smallest pig density.

Demographic characteristics of hog farm households in the Philippines. On the hog farms, the mean age of the household head, or farm decision-maker, was 46 years. The medium independents were a relatively younger group with mean age of 40 years, while the large independents were relatively older at 52 years of age on average (Table 6.11). The average size of households involved in hog production is more or less even at six persons. A relatively higher involvement by other household members was observed among smallholders (2-3 members) compared to commercial producers (1-2 members) involved in the business. This may reflect a greater opportunity cost of the commercial farm household members. In relation to this, large-scale farms employ up to 11 workers to work in their farms; while smallholders use mostly family labor.

Household heads were predominantly men, except for smallholder contract growers, of which 52 percent were women, and large independent producers, of which 53 percent were women. There seems to be no gender bias in the decision-making aspect of the hog-raising business, although for large contract producers this may be scale-dependent. The household heads in the sample were mostly married, with a more or less even distribution across sub-samples except for smallholder independents among which the proportion of married household heads was highest at 93 percent. The average number of years in school of the household heads in the smallholder sub-sample was 10-11 years. The household heads in the commercial sample were relatively more highly educated with, 12-14 years of schooling on average.

Table 6.10 Demographic and farm characteristics of Thai swine farm households, 2002

Note: * One ha=6.25 rais; N is number of farms.

Source: Poapongsakorn, N., et.al., Annex IV.

Household heads were predominantly men, except for smallholder contract growers and large independent producers, of which 52-53 percent were women. There seems to be no gender bias in the decision-making aspect of the hog-raising business, although for large contract producers this may be scale-dependent. The household heads in the sample were mostly married, with a more or less even distribution across farm sizes except for smallholder independents among which the proportion of married household heads was highest at 93 percent. The average number of years in school of the smallholder household heads was 10-11 years. The household heads in the commercial sample were relatively more highly educated with 12-14 years of schooling on average.

Hog production appears to be a more serious business undertaking for contract growers, regardless of scale. Smallholders and large contract producers devote, respectively, 91 percent and 70 percent of their efforts to the occupation. This is in contrast to the independent smallholders and large producers, which devote 54 percent and 65 percent, respectively, of their efforts to hog raising. Large contract growers engage least in secondary occupations (27 percent) compared to the other subgroups, whose engagement in a secondary occupation ranges from 53 percent to 62 percent. These figures reinforce the observation that hog production is serious business among large contract growers.

The average years of experience of household heads in the hog business was highest for the smallholder contract growers at 17 years compared to the rest of the subgroups, whose years of experience ranged from 9 to 13 years. With regard to education and training, the commercial producers had much higher exposure to formal education in animal science or business management (71-74 percent), compared to only 39-58 percent for smallholders. The distribution of attendance at livestock or business training programs in the last two years is relatively even. Exposure is relatively high, at least 65 percent, in each subgroup. Access to training as such appears to be non-discriminatory.

The average landholdings of smallholders ranged from 0.3 to 1.8 has, compared to 3.6 to 6.0 has for commercial producers. Landholdings of commercial contract growers were relatively large at an average of 6.0 has. These figures raise the question as to whether ownership of land assets is key to accessing commercial hog contracts, or simply a reflection of their greater access to capital and wealth.

Table 6.11 Characteristics of farm household head, hog production, Philippines, 2002

Source: Costales, A, et.al., Annex I

Just as in broiler farms, the independent smallholder hog farms were relatively closer to their main output market (4-15 km), while the commercial producers were located much farther out (62-76 km). Similar to broiler farms, the independent smallholders were selling their output at a market much nearer their production site (usually the closest town) while the commercial producers had a main output market at some distance away. Smallholder farms were likewise closer to their main source of feed (3-7 km) than the commercial farms, which were at least ten times farther away (35-70 km).

The large contract farms were located at the greatest average distance to the nearest water body (1.1 km), but the rest of the subgroups were relatively close (0.3-0.7 km). Likewise, smallholder farms were closer to residential communities (0.2-0.3 km) compared to commercial farms (0.8 km).

Small contract growers specialize in grow-to-finish (Type 3) operations, in which the integrator provides weanlings and feeds, and the animals are fattened to produce slaughter hogs. Close to half (47 percent) of independent smallholders are engaged in farrow-to-finish (Type 2) operations and one-third (33 percent) are engaged in piglet production (Type 1: farrow-to-wean) (Costales et.al., 2003). The rest combine the above operations where feasible and desired, with dual output of mostly slaughter hogs and piglets.

Commercial (or large) contract growers specialize only in grow-to-finish activities. Medium and large independent producers specialize in farrow-to-finish operations or a combination of activities, with dual output of slaughter hogs and piglets. None engaged in pure grow-to-finish (Type 3) operations, and they rarely engaged in pure piglet production (Type 1).

Characteristics of swine farm households in Brazil. The Brazil swine industry has three production arrangements: integrated (or contract farming), cooperative (or integrated with a cooperative), and independent. Almost 50 percent of the smallholders (those with 200 sows or less) are operating as contract farmers and about 30 percent are independent farms (Table 6.12). About half of the large-scale farms (those with more than 1,200 sows) are independent and the rest are either contract farms or integrated with a cooperative.

Sample farm households are involved in three types of production activities. These are finisher (grow-to-finish), piglet producers (farrow-to-wean), and complete cycle (farrow-to-finish). All independent growers (mostly large-scale holders) operate in complete cycle activity, while the cooperative and integrated farms either produce finishers or piglets.

Large-scale swine producers have higher level of education than smallholders. Independent farmers have finished an average of 11 years of schooling, which is significantly higher than the integrated farm owners' level of educational attainment (Camargo Barros et.al., 2003).

Table 6.12 Percent distribution of swine farm households by production system across farm size, Brazil, 2002

Source: Camargo Barros, G.S. et.al., Annex V.

Demographic characteristics of farm households across countries. Comparisons across countries between large-scale and small-scale farms are based on the groupings made by each country that differ across countries, since they are selected based on country-specific herd distribution. Thus, "small-scale" dairy farms in India are very small compared to "small-scale" farms in Thailand and Brazil. In fact, large-scale farms in India having 10 or more animals are classified as small-scale farms in Thailand and Brazil. This is also true in the case of broiler, layer, and swine farms, where Brazil has by far the largest farm sizes within each size category (see Table 5.2).

Large-scale farms attained higher levels of formal education compared to small-scale farms (except in the case of broiler small-scale growers). The sampled large-scale farmers from the Philippines have the highest educational attainment relative to those from other countries (India, Brazil, and Thailand). Consequently, large-scale farmers are more involved in off-farm activities.

In general, large-scale farmers have longer years of experience compared to smallholders, ranging from 10 to 15 or more years. Across countries and across livestock commodities, the average age of farmers is generally more than 40 years old, and in almost all cases, it is the large-scale farmers who are older, except for large-scale dairy farmers in India where smallholders are older (and have earned more years of experience) than large-scale and commercial farmers.

The sampled households used family labor as well as hired labor. It is typical in India and Thailand for the owner to manage his farm, but in the case of dairy farming in Brazil, other family members manage most of the farms. Comparatively, smallholders used more family labor than did large-scale farmers. Large-scale farms also employed permanent laborers, as in the case of Indian and Thai broiler farms, to manage the day-to-day activities in the farm.

Across countries and livestock commodities, large-scale farms have higher landholdings per ha than small-scale farms have. All sampled farms from India and Philippines have smaller size of landholdings compared to Thailand where on average, swine large farms have 3-4 has of landholdings, and even more so compared to Brazil where on average, large poultry farms have 85 has of operational land. As for dairy farmers, land is important to them as they use it for grazing or pasturing herds, crop farming, and as source of roughage.

Large-scale farms are located farther away from towns or communities and from public waterways than are small-scale farms. Also, small-scale farms tend to be located closer to market outlets compared to large-scale farms. This is an advantage especially for perishable products such as milk, where distance to market outlet is vital.