SUMMARY


1. The current USDA definition of small farm is based on the following

 factors:

 -- Family net income from all sources (farm and nonfarm) is below

 the median nonmetropolitan income of the state.

 -- The family is dependent on farming for a significant, though

 not necessarily a majority, of their income.

 Family members provide most of the labor and management.

 This is a useful definition for the purposes of identifying those small-

 scale farm facilities most in need of assistance. There are an estimated

 1 to 1.3 million farms that fall within the context of this definition

 (pp. 39-41). However, there are an estimated 700,000 small-scale farmers

 (sales less than $20,000) with net family income above the median non-

 metropolitan income. These farms should also be viewed as users of

 information and technology that is developed by the agricultural science

 and education system for small-scale farmers.

2. The actual level of USDA and land-grant institutions' (LGI's) small

 farm effort is not known with any great degree of accuracy. Summarized

 from various sources, resources by performing institution and major type

 of activity for FY 1980 are estimated to be as follows (pp. 21-23):

 SEA Units and LGI's ($ mil.)

 Total SEA Total USDA
 AR CR E & LGI's ESCS & LGI's

 Technology
 oriented 3.0 0.7 32.5 36.2 36.2

 Nontechnology
 oriented -- 1.1 19.5 20.6 0.3 20.9

 Total 3.0 1.8 52.0 56.8 0.3 57.1