Throughout history, farming has been a family enterprise, with most farmers taking care of their own needs, and maybe producing a little extra to sell or trade. In the latter half of the 20th century, the trend in the more developed nations (and increasingly in the less-developed nations) is toward corporate farms. The Green Revolution made impressive gains in crop yields, but the new methods and technologies often bypassed smaller farmers, who did not have the resources to acquire the costly inputs needed to grow Green Revolution hybrids.Vertical integration: We have seen that agriculture has several phases to a growing and consuming cycle: planting, cultivating, harvesting, storage, transport, processing, and marketing. Traditional farming practices have emphasized the farmer's participation in the phases actually connected with the growing and harvesting of crops. Often, local specialists would be involved in other phases, such as transport or marketing.
A modern trend, however, has been toward vertical integration: one company being responsible for all, or most, phases in the cycle. Large agribusiness companies are manufacturing inputs (such as seed, fertilizer, and pesticides); acquiring farms; managing the transport, processing, and marketing of their products; and researching new ways to improve their products through processes such as genetic engineering.
