Inadequate agricultural capital

Agricultural diversification would involve purchasing more machinery, hiring more labour and increasing the amount of both labour and capital needed to manage a more complex operation. Without creating a financial reserve, there can be no loan structure, credit union or bank. In many small communities, despite an intensive drive for capital resources, the low income generated by most family production units means that they are unable to generate new capital, and they struggle to purchase supplies and to market products on their own. Subsistence-level income and lack of community capital prohibits investment, since an immediate return on investment cannot be assured and the tax base of land owners is often too low to support the building of necessary facilities or provide local fire, police and ambulance services. The limited availability of resources leads people to clear the land with only what is at hand, and market only the crops one person can carry into the village to sell.