Value-Added Agricultural Enterprises in Rural Development Strategies

Abstract

From 1910 to 1990, farmers' share of the overall GDP of the food and fiber system fell from 21% to 5%, while the share contributed by the agricultural input and distribution subsectors rose from 13% to 30%.Congress is concerned about how these and other changes in agriculture are affecting rural America and the role valueadded agricultural production might play in future rural economic development strategies.Value-added production is a legislative concern in the 107 th Congress; the rural development title in the 2002 enacted farm bill (P.L.107-171) includes provisions for the development of value-added agricultural enterprises.By adding to and capturing the value in commodities grown and processed locally, proponents of value-added production argue that farm households, rural businesses, and rural communities will benefit through new and higher-wage employment, new markets for agricultural commodities, and more vibrant rural and regional economies.U.S. agriculture is also changing rapidly from a sector characterized by production of undifferentiated bulk commodities sold in spot markets to one of specialized markets driven by new end-user demands.As production shifts away from commodity agriculture to product agriculture, vertically integrated agribusiness firms are increasingly organizing production into agro-food value chains to synchronize all stages of production from seed to supermarket.Value-added production is a central element of agro-food value chains, and control over specific "identity preserved"(IP) traits is basic to the development of product agriculture.Many farmers and ranchers are beginning to consider how they might reorganize their operations to better anticipate these changes and to participate in them, for example, by forming "new generation" value-added cooperatives, and engaging in increased contract relations with value chain integrators.Some producers see IP traits and contract production as sources of new markets, lowered risks, and higher farm and ranch incomes.Emerging opportunities for biomass-based fuels and materials processing facilities, new food processing plants, and alternative farming systems (e.g., organic) could create important new markets for producers.Smallerscale producers too may find new opportunities in regionally-branded products, farmers markets, new specialty crops, ethnic markets, or in establishing direct marketing links between farms and regional groceries While capturing more of a commodity's value at the site of primary production can have positive impacts on some farm household incomes and farm-related businesses, important questions arise regarding the extent to which value-added agriculture might become a significant rural development strategy for the future.These identified opportunities, however welcome, are unlikely to significantly alter the diminishing role production agriculture plays in most rural economies.Moreover, because of its comparatively low wages, low net employment generation, and low labor-skill requirements, value-added commodity manufacturing may not become as effective a driver of broad, sustainable rural economic development and new competitive advantage as rural communities and advocates might hope for.1 This report is the second in a series of reports on rural development issues requested by the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.Jean Yavis Jones, Specialist and Head of the Agriculture and Food Policy Section, Resources, Science, and Industry Division, was the supervising manager.This report builds on the extended discussion of the changing relations between agriculture and rural areas in the first report.See, The Changing Structure of Agriculture and Rural America: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges.CRS Report RL31172, October, 2001.2 Value-added expresses the difference between the value of goods sold and the cost of materials or supplies used in producing them.The term is applied to manufacturing processes where raw commodities are initially processed into intermediate goods which are then processed in further stages, adding increasing market value at each stage.In this report, the term retains that meaning, but also refers to other processes that add or might add market value through product differentiation.Foods grown and processed organically or in environmentally benign ways, regionally-branded food products, hormone/antibiotic-free livestock, processing waste products into goods, and renewable energy production can also constitute agricultural value-added processes and products.Value-added production in forestry and fibers is not considered in detail here, but the same logic applies to those products as well.

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