Q. How has farmers' use of rented land changed over
time?
A. Farming operations need access to
land in order to produce agricultural products. Access
may be obtained through renting as well as through outright
ownership, and the share of farmland that is rented has
changed over time. Farm operators leased 41 percent of
total farmland in 1997, down slightly from 1992 (43 percent),
but higher than in most census years since the turn of
the century, except during the Great Depression.
In 1997, 29 percent of rented land was leased to tenants
(who rent all the land they farm) and 71 percent was leased
to part owners (who own some of the land they operate,
but also rent additional land). Earlier in the century,
the percentages were reversed. In 1900, for example, about
73 percent of rented land was leased to tenants, and 27
percent was rented to part owners.
Leasing land was traditionally viewed as the bottom rung
of the tenure ladder. Young farmers would begin their
careers by leasing all their land, often from relatives.
As they grew older, they would buy some land, but continue
to rent. The oldest farmers would cut back on farming
by no longer leasing and concentrate on the land they
owned (Hoppe et al., 1995; Wunderlich, 1994).
Renting land has changed from a method of entering into
farming to a way of controlling additional land. Farms
may rent land to avoid debt and risks of ownership (Reimund
and Gale, 1992; Wiebe et al., 1997) and to enable rapid
response to changing markets. Pinpointing when this shift
occurred is difficult, but it was probably underway by
the 1950s. Until then, farm tenancy was considered a serious
social problem, particularly in the Southeast, and full
ownership was viewed as the ideal form of tenure (Janssen,
1993).
Removing this stigma from renting enabled farmers to
absorb the land of exiting operators without actually
buying it. Most of the decline in farms was accounted
for by full owners and tenants, with the decline in tenants
beginning in 1935, about 10 years earlier than that in
full owners. Part owners' share of land in farms increased
from 36 percent in 1950 to 55 percent by 1997.
References
Hoppe, Bob, Bob Green, and Gene Wunderlich. "Farmland
Rentals: Central to Farming," Agricultural Outlook.
AO-220. U.S. Dept. Agr., Econ. Res. Serv. July 1995.
Janssen, Larry. "Empirical Analysis of Tenure Patterns
and Farm Structure," Size, Structure, and the
Changing Face of American Agriculture. Arne Hallam
(ed.), Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993.
Reimund, Donn A., and Fred Gale. Structural Change
in the U.S. Farm Sector, 1974-87: 13th Annual Family Farm
Report to Congress. AIB-647. U.S. Dept. Agr., Econ.
Res. Serv., May 1992.
Wunderlich, Gene. "Landownership,"
Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators.
Margot Anderson and Richard Magleby (eds.), AH-705, U.S.
Dept. Agr., Econ. Res. Serv. Dec. 1994.
Wunderlich, Gene. "AREI Updates: Farmland Tenure."
AREI Updates, No. 7. U.S. Dept. Agr., Econ. Res. Serv.,
1995.
Wiebe, Keith, Roger Claassen, and Abebayehu Tegene. "Land
Tenure," Agricultural Resources and Environmental
Indicators, 1996-97. Margot Anderson and Richard Magleby
(eds.) AH-712. U.S. Dept. Agr., Econ. Res. Serv., July
1997.
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