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Abstract
The growth of market capitalism and the technological advances of the last two centuries underlie the relentless
process of structural change in agriculture. Substantial occupational migration out of farming and geographical
migration from rural to urban areas is a characteristic of most, if not all, economies in the 20th century. The process
of rural-urban migration, and the resulting urban problems have received considerable attention. The fate of the
residual farm population has received less scrutiny and is less well understood. In the United States we observe
considerable farm poverty, increasing farm-size inequality, and a disturbing decay of rural communities. For the last
half century, the problem of low farm incomes has been perceived as a farm problem amenable to solution by
appropriate farm policy. In this paper, a model is proposed which suggests that farm poverty and inequality are
inevitable consequences of a rural-urban migration process in which two types of human capital play a fundamental
role. General human capital determines a person's expected nonfarm income, while farming-specific human capital
determines hisjher productivity in farming. It is argued that inadequate human capital combined with positive
rural-urban migration cost, positive farm technology adoption costs, and inelastic demand for farm output, can
explain persistently high levels of farm poverty, and increasing farm size inequality. The model suggests that
traditional farm policies are inappropriate. Programs that directly address the problems of inadequate human capital
are advocated.