關於小農的研究文獻中,缺乏創新能力似乎是小農的普遍特徵,但我們觀察到在東勢高接梨發展成重要經濟作物的過程中,具有創意的梨農開發的特用農具,是該產業興起、茁壯的重要條件。本文嘗試回答小農在高接梨的農具創新中所扮演的角色、創新的社會脈絡,以及這些創新與農業勞動力的交互作用。本文發現:共同祭祀、崇尚讀書和勤儉原則等客家文化特色,以及隨著戰後工業化而興起的商業活動,都為小農的創新提供有利的條件。各種農具的開發不僅是解決了擴大生產規模和提升水果品質等經濟問題,同時是為了解決家庭關係、改善勞動條件等生活品質的問題。本文提出,東勢高接梨的創新受惠於歷史偶然性。1977年的戒嚴時期氛圍造就任務取向的果農研究班,該研究班的運作形式契合技術創新的重要條件,形塑小農創新的特殊樣態。
Lack of innovation capacity has been characteristic of the peasant in literature of peasant studies. We observed that specified farm tools developed by creative farmers constitute condition for the rise and prosperity of top-grafted pear industry. This thesis aims to characterize the role of farmers in the development of farm tool innovation, social context of innovation, and consequences of interaction between innovation and agricultural labor. We find that Hakka cultural features including communal worship, upholding learning, and practicing frugality as well as commercial activities contingent upon postwar industrialization constituted seedbed for farmers' innovation. Various farm tools were developed not only to solve economic problems such as production capacity, scaling-up and quality improvement, but also to work out the problems of life quality, such as family relation and labor conditions. The thesis concludes with a remark that the innovation concerned with top-grafted pear benefited from the historical contingency. In 1977, the social atmosphere of Martial Law made possible a unique fruit farmers team oriented to innovation, so the the team worked the rule in accordance with the important condition of technique innovation, which shape the unique trajectory of Dongshih farmer's innovation.