Sharefarming

Sharefarming is an umbrella term for various systems of farming in which sharefarmers make use of agricultural assets they do not own in return for a percentage share of the products.

Occasionally, the term sharefarmer is used to denote a farmer who receives a wage (fixed per hour, week, month, or area) from the landlord, although such a person is normally considered a tenant farmer or farm labourer. Two common implementations of the sharefarming concept are sharecropping and sharemilking, although it has been applied to other sorts of agricultural assets. Another form, known as métayage or mezzadria, was, and remains, practiced in southern France, in Italy, and in Canada.

Sharefarming was common in colonial Africa, in Scotland, and in Ireland. While sharefarming as practiced in many poor parts of the world can be seen as a form of oppression similar to feudal serfdom, it is not inherently exploitative.