{{Short description|Time of low crop prices and low farm incomes}} An '''agricultural recession''' describes a period of low [[crop prices]] and sharply reduced [[farm income]]s. Consequences may include second order effects such as [[rural flight]] of people to towns and also had political effects.
A common feature of agricultural recessions, in contrast to [[famine]]s and [[crop failure]], is a link to market conditions, such as the opening up of new areas of production or crops reaching markets previously protected, either by transport costs, or a war blockade (as after the Napoleonic and First World Wars).<ref name=Paxton>https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/p/paxton-fascism.html</ref>
==Examples==
An early agricultural recession was the [[Post-Napoleonic Depression]] where British agriculture was faced with cheap grain from Europe as Continental producers could freely export grain after two decades.<ref>Lord Ernle, ''English Farming Past and Present''. Fifth Edition. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd. 1936), [https://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/01aglibrary/010136ernle/010136ch15.htm Chapter XV: Agricultural Depression and the Poor Law 1813-37]</ref> This led to the introduction of the [[Corn Laws]] to protect farmers.
The [[Great depression of British agriculture]], which had parallels in other European countries like France<ref name=Paxton /> and Italy, was largely as a result of [[globalization]] as railways and [[steam ship]]s together with some [[Reaper-binder|farm mechanisation]] meant that fertile but sparsely populated areas such as the [[Settlement of the Great Plains|Great Plains]] and [[Agriculture in Ukraine|Ukraine]] could now export grain far further from harvest to market without it rotting.
After the [[First World War]] there were agricultural recessions, most deeply [[Interwar farm crisis|in the United States]], but in many other countries both traditional exporters like Australia but also in traditional importers like France.<ref name=Paxton />
The [[1980s farm crisis]] in the USA was more localized as the strong dollar, high oil prices and the [[United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union|grain embargo against the Soviet Union]] conspired to raise farming costs and lower grain prices.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1980s Farm Crisis |url=http://site.iptv.org/mtom/classroom/module/13999/farm-crisis |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410045108/http://site.iptv.org/mtom/classroom/module/13999/farm-crisis |archive-date=Apr 10, 2016 |website=Iowa Public Television}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
[[Category:Agricultural recessions|*]]