ABSTRACT
The main reason for differences in cut-back strategies of shade and non-shade producers, however, is that the shade producers — all but one full-time farmers —underwent a further differentiation process in the process of searching for a substitute money crop after the demise of shade tobacco. Due to the high capital requirements and volatility of the market for tomatoes, however, only a fraction of them survived as full-time farmers through 1982. Debt and debt to asset ratios of the full-timers, however, also increased significantly; whereas debts of the part-timers and retired farmers did not change and those of the non-farmers decreased significantly. Although the ratio of net farm income to debt for the full-timer is better than the same ratio for the part-timer, the ratio of total family income to debt for the part-timer is much better than the same ratio for the full-timer.
