Viable objectives for smallholder programs: Variation by social strata

The purpose of this paper is to relate social strata membership and viable objectives for smallholder programs. The first section of the paper introduces the farming systems approach. The next section explains subsistence and commodity producing enterprises. This distinction is essential to the conceptual framework from which policy implications can be derived. Three principal strata of smallholders are identified—petty commodity producers, peasants, and semiproletarians—and a comparison of the main features of their enterprises is facilitated by a set of flow diagrams. These distinctions permit the identification of viable policy objectives, so that farming systems programs can implement strata-specific mechanisms to achieve national objectives and to benefit producers.