ABSTRACT
This chapter explains to test several socioeconomic and farm-related variables as predictors of a farm operator's level of poverty. It aims to determine the extent to which selected socio-economic and farm-related variables are adequate predictors of a farm operator's poverty status. Thus, access to off-farm employment provides greater opportunities for improving the financial well-being of farm operators, particularly small scale producers. The educational attainment of farm operators represents an important human capital resource. Co-ops represents a strategy employed by farm operators to alter the structural diaracteristics of the agricultural system to redress inadequacies and inequities therein. The number of farms declined 23 and 39 percent in South and North Carolina, respectively from 1969 to 1982. The socioeconomic and farm characteristics of the North Carolina farm poor may resemble the characteristics of farm nonpoor more than the characteristics of a poverty population, as a whole.
