Food Industry eJournal最新文献

{"title":"Effects of Social Network Structure on the Diffusion and Adoption of Agricultural Technology: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia","authors":"Y. Todo, P. Matouš, D. Mojo","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2447208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2447208","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the effects of social network structure on the diffusion of agricultural technologies using household-level panel data from Ethiopia. We correct for possible biases due to the endogeneity of social networks using a social experiment in which we provide mobile phones to randomly selected households. We find that the effect of social networks varies depending on the network structure and characteristics of the technologies considered. The diffusion of information on a simple technology is determined by whether farmers know an agricultural extension agent. However, the diffusion of information on a more complex technology is not promoted by simply knowing an extension agent but by knowing an agent that a particular household can rely on and by clustered networks in which most friends of the household are friends of each other. This finding suggests that knowing and understanding more complex technologies require strong external ties and flows of the same information from multiple sources.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"162 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121559714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Estimate of Russia’s Potential for Increasing Grain Exports by Means of Reclaiming Abandoned Lands","authors":"V. Saraikin, V. Uzun, R. Yanbykh","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2444616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2444616","url":null,"abstract":"From the largest importer of grain that the country used to be in the Soviet times, Russia has evolved into its net exporter. The potential for increasing grain exports by means of reclaiming abandoned lands is being examined. There are as well opportunities for boosting grain production by means of improving yields and applying modern technologies on already cultivated lands.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"437 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115560957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social and Economic Up and Downgrading in Brazil's Hortifruiticulture","authors":"Andre Luis Funcke, G. Mascarenhas, J. Wilkinson, Paulolinto Pereira","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2456611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2456611","url":null,"abstract":"Within the framework of the Capturing the Gains research network, which adopts a global value chain (GVC) perspective, this article analyses developments in the hortifruiticulture sector and Brazilian food retail with the aim of identifying processes of social and economic up and downgrading as a result of participation in GVCs. Recent literature on these questions in Latin America and Brazil, which has largely been conducted within the retail transnationalization perspective developed by Reardon and colleagues, is first reviewed. We then analyse recent data on the retail sector, highlighting the shift of the dominant actors to non-food sales and the growth of local and regional outlets in response to the increased purchasing capacity of low-income groups. Retail is recognized to have decreased the number of farm produce suppliers and increased quality demands. Our research, however, has identified substantial informal subcontracting, with positive effects on inclusion but raising doubts on the efficiency of standards. In revisiting Brazil’s most important and most studied fruit export pole, Petrolina, we conclude that the agricultural sector has increased its bargaining power within the GVC given the opportunities opened up by an expanding domestic market. This has similarly led to farmworker economic upgrading via longer production periods. Even though working conditions are harsh, trade union negotiating strength in the current political conjuncture has been significantly improved, leading to important measures of social upgrading.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121759022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Support to Agriculture in India in 1995-2013 and the Rules of the WTO","authors":"L. Brink","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2434812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2434812","url":null,"abstract":"India has submitted notifications to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on domestic support to agricultural producers in 1995-2003. This paper reviews India’s notifications and summarizes the related discussion in the WTO Committee on Agriculture of some key issues relating to the rules of the Agreement on Agriculture on domestic support. It calculates price gaps for rice, wheat, cotton and sugarcane in 1995 to 2013 under four scenarios regarding the external reference price and calculates the resulting market price support using total production and procurement quantities. It compares the associated Aggregate Measurements of Support (AMSs) to their limits based on value of production. The AMSs show large excesses above their limits over many years until 2013 for several crops under some readings of the Agreement but much less so if certain adjustments are made. This highlights the differences among alternative interpretations of the Agreement in determining compliance with a country’s obligations, in particular the understanding of the fixed external reference price and the production eligible to receive the applied administered price. The paper puts India’s administered pricing in the context of the 2013 decision of WTO ministers regarding protection under some conditions against challenge under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"84 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133610589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Farmer in Chief: Obama's Local Food Legacy","authors":"S. Morath","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2420105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2420105","url":null,"abstract":"As criticism over America’s food policy has grown, many scholars have offered suggestions for reform. Complementing this body of scholarship, The Farmer In Chief identifies and assesses recent changes to federal laws and policies as they affect ‘local food’ and describes local farmers’ awareness of and reaction to these changes. These changes and the farmers’ responses show greater recognition of local food by the President and federal government in three ways: increased inclusion of local food in legislation and policy discussions; increased awareness of the benefits of local food production and consumption; and increased consumer access to local food. But the farmers’ responses also highlight areas where improvements can be made. Specifically, farmers need to be better informed about funding opportunities and funding opportunities need to be available to a greater number of farmers.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117073638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the Governance of Corporations: Linking Theory and Practice Through an Examination of the Factors Shaping UK Supermarket Strategies on Climate Change","authors":"A. Gouldson, Rory Sullivan","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2425860","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2425860","url":null,"abstract":"This paper starts from the premise that our understanding of the extent to which, and of the conditions under which, we might rely on new or neoliberal forms of governance beyond the state to deliver particular public interest objectives is limited, especially when they seek to instigate changes in corporate behaviour. In response, we briefly explore some of the key elements of debates on ‘governance from the outside’ where public, private and civic actors engage in activities that seek to shape the behaviour or performance of a corporation, and ‘governance from the inside' where the behaviour of a corporation is shaped by, for example, its structures and systems, resources and opportunities and cultures and values. We hypothesise that the ability of a particular set of governance conditions to change the behaviour or performance of a business will be shaped by the strength and alignment of a) the range of external governance pressures surrounding the business and b) the internal governance conditions within that business. We then consider the reasons why firms within one key sector (UK supermarkets) have responded to one key issue (climate change) in recent years. We argue that a specific set of governance conditions brought about a step change in the UK supermarkets’ approach to climate change in 2007/8, and that this has triggered a period of improvement in their climate-related performance. However, we suggest that this process of improvement is bounded by the presence of a business case that simultaneously supports incremental change and constrains the potential for more transformative change. We conclude by suggesting that if the business case dries up, then governance conditions are likely to be characterised either by collective inaction or by socially-led governance, with its influence being determined by whether the diverse forms of social pressure that are central to it are stronger and better aligned than any associated forms of business resistance. We argue that this has significant implications for our understanding of the extent to which new or neoliberal forms of governance beyond the state can be relied upon to ensure that corporations - or indeed other actors - might help to deliver public interest objectives.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122114465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Working the Land with 10 Acres: Small Acreage Farming in the United States","authors":"D. Newton","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2502872","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2502872","url":null,"abstract":"According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, 294,000 farms operated on 10 or fewer acres in 2007. While most small acreage (SA) operations did very little farming, approximately 50,000 SA farms had gross sales of $10,000 or more in 2007; 3,600 reported grossing $500,000 or more. Thus, a limited land base does not necessarily translate into low sales. This report focuses on SA farms, especially those grossing $10,000 or more in a given year, and examines such characteristics as production strategies, types of products, sales, household income, and financial performance. The 46,000 SA farms with sales between $10,000 and $500,000 in 2007 were primarily active in floriculture, tree nurseries, and fruits and vegetables, while the 3,600 SA farms with at least $500,000 in sales were primarily active in confined livestock production. SA farms produce only small amounts of field crops, such as wheat, corn, or cotton, which require larger amounts of land.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130418610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Agricultural Policy Processes and the Youth in Malawi","authors":"M. Mapila","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2417321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2417321","url":null,"abstract":"Evidence exists which shows growing disillusionment with and disinterest in agricultural-based livelihoods among the youth in Africa south of the Sahara. This disillusionment raises concerns for the future of agriculture for the developing world as it can lead to higher rural urban migration, unemployment and lowered agricultural productivity. The engagement of youth in agricultural policy formulation processes is seen as one avenue for motivating youth engagement in agriculture. This research seeks to develop a contextual understanding of the level of engagement of youth in agriculture thus providing evidence which can be used to stimulate youth involvement in the sector. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study analyzes the determinants of the engagement by southern African youth in agricultural policy processes using Malawi as a case study.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"72 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131575241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Crop Diversification in Assam and Use of Essential Modern Inputs Under Changing Climatic Condition: Indication of a Retrograded Option","authors":"U. K. De, Kamal Bodosa","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2472581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2472581","url":null,"abstract":"The objective of this paper is to analyse the crop diversification and crop concentration in Assam in the last 50 years. It is pursued through measuring crop diversification and crop concentration index. We have used Herfindahl Indices to measure diversification and locational quotient to measure crop concentration. The result shows that in all most all districts, crop specialization is taking place and more so in the last phase of our study. The hilly and backward districts recorded more diversification but towards lower value crops, in accordance with the changing water availability, weather pattern, access to credit and risk. It goes against the normal feature of crop diversification where farmers diversify in favour of high value crops. Employing an ordinary least square method chemical fertilizer and growing erratic rainfall found to play important role in determining inter-zonal variation in crop diversification. Whereas, the slow progress of irrigation did not help in crop diversity, particularly in off-monsoon seasons.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130508343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Agricultural Development in Bihar: Some Empirical Evidences","authors":"R. Singh","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2408418","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2408418","url":null,"abstract":"During last five years, the annual growth rate of State AgGDP has been around 5.9 per cent whereas State Gross Domestic Product recorded growth of 10.9 per cent during the period which was higher than corresponding growth achieved at national level. But the growth has not been sustainable, mainly due to floods in 2007 & 2008 and draughts in 2009 & 2010. Despite almost stagnant irrigated area, a substantial increase in productivity of principal crops has been achieved during Eleventh Five Year Plan which was made possible due to increased seed replacement rate and more use of fertilizer. Use of organic manure and animal power declined but use of agricultural machineries increased in crop production, mainly due to uneconomic keeping of bullock on tiny land holdings. In this process marginal farmers are being exploited by resourceful farmers due to irrational hiring rate of agricultural machineries in rural Bihar. A number of central sponsored projects have already been initiated in the State but they have not yielded the desired results. The strong monitoring system of agricultural projects, investment in irrigation and research, improving access of farmers to inputs and agricultural development programmes, increased agricultural credit to small peasants and tenants and, of course, increased generation and improved transmission of electricity are the prerequisites for higher and sustainable agricultural growth in the State. In the absence of these, desired rate of growth will remain elusive. Agriculture Extension officials should also be trained for modern agriculture technology and package of practices.","PeriodicalId":107048,"journal":{"name":"Food Industry eJournal","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122891684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}