Farmer participation in agri-environmental schemes: Regionalisation and the role of bridging social capital

European agri-environmental schemes are being criticised for reinforcing rather than negating an opposition between agricultural production and environmental production, and for assuming instead of securing a public willingness to pay for agri-environmental change. This paper explores if a regionalisation of agri-environmental governance may contribute to overcome these criticisms. The paper empirically explores three regionalised agri-environmental schemes from Flanders, Belgium, with the use of 40 qualitative interviews with farmers and other relevant stakeholders. Building on the Bourdieusian theory of capital and the conceptual distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, the paper analyses whether and why the regionalised arrangements incited farmers to integrate environmental production in their farm management to meet other regional stakeholders’ demands for agri-environmental change. In doing so, the paper particularly focuses on the role of bridging social capital in fostering farmer participation in agri-environmental governance, which is a topic that—despite a growing scholarly recognition of the importance of social capital in mediating farmers’ environmental behaviour—has to date received scant conceptual and empirical attention. The paper reveals that farmers principally participated in the regionalised agri-environmental schemes to enhance the long-term viability of their agricultural businesses by building up more cooperative and appreciative, bridging social ties with other regional stakeholders. Notably, such participation is only likely to be substantive and lead to long-term, pro-environmental behaviour change of farmers, if farmers actually succeed in building up bridging social capital by receiving other regional stakeholders’ appreciation for their agri-environmental work. The paper ends with discussing the implications of these findings for the future design and implementation of socially and ecologically robust agri-environmental schemes.     

Understanding the adoption of climate change adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers: Evidence from land reform beneficiaries in South Africa

Climatic change has a negative impact on people’s livelihoods, agriculture, freshwater supply and other natural resources that are important for human survival. Therefore, understanding how rural smallholder farmers perceive climate change, climate variability, and factors that influence their choices would facilitate a better understanding of how these farmers adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. A Zero-inflated double hurdle model was employed to estimate the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of adaptation strategies and intensity of adoption at the household level in South Africa. Different socioeconomic factors such as gender, age, and experience in crop farming, institutional factors like access to extension services, and access to climate change information significantly influenced the adoption of climate change adaptation strategies among beneficiaries of land reform in South Africa. Concerning intensity of adoption, age, educational level, farming experience, on-farm training, off-farm income, access to information through ICT and locational variables are the significant determinants of intensity of adaptation strategies. Thus, education attainment, non-farm employment, farming experience are significant incentives to enhance smallholder farmers' adaptive capacity through the adoption of many adaptation approaches. This study therefore concluded that farm-level policy efforts that aim to improve rural development should focus on farmers’ education, on-farm demonstration and non-farm employment opportunities that seek to engage the farmers, particularly during the off-cropping season. The income from non-farm employment can be plough-back into farm operations such as the adoption of soil and water conservation, use of improved planting varieties, insurance, among others to mitigate climate variability and subsequently increase productivity. Policies and investment strategies of the government should be geared towards supporting education, providing on-farm demonstration trainings, and disseminating information about climate change adaptation strategies, particularly for smallholder farmers in the country. Thus, the government, stakeholders, and donor agencies must provide capacity-building innovations around the agricultural extension system and education on climate change using information and communication technologies.     

Promoting nature conservation by Dutch farmers: a governance perspective†

Reconciling productive agricultural practices with nature conservation is not only an ecological challenge, but also a demanding matter of governance. This paper analyses the potential as well as the limitations of various governance arrangements, and explores ways to enhance the governance of nature conservation in agricultural landscapes. We assume four conditions to contribute to the performance of these arrangements: farmers should be motivated, demanded, enabled, and legitimized to participate in arrangements that promote nature conservation by farmers. We analyse 10 distinct Dutch governance arrangements in the period 2000–2016, including agri-environment schemes but also privately initiated arrangements. The arrangements target a large but unknown share of farmers and farmlands, but nature conservation ambition levels are generally low to moderate. The expected low-to-moderate performance is associated with a low-to-moderate motivation, demand, and ability. Underlying are stronger forces driving towards intensification and problems farmers face in recuperating the cost of nature conservation. New greening requirements in the EU Common Agricultural Policy and in agri-food supply chains are first, cautious steps addressing these fundamental drivers of ecological degradation. More ambitious greening requirements may contribute to a higher motivation and ability of larger groups of farmers to implement nature conservation measures.     

农业龙头企业对合作农户的关系治理

本文将中国农业龙头企业与农户间的合作视为一种特殊的供应链关系:多个农户个体与单个企业组织分别为供应链的上游与下游;双方的关系治理由企业主导。借鉴国外供应链关系治理研究的相关理论与方法,本文试图探讨在中国农业龙头企业与农户合作的特殊情境下关系治理的作用机制及对企业合作满意度的影响。实证分析发现,中国农业龙头企业对合作农户的关系治理包含信任、互惠、互动强度和伦理4个因素;其中,前3个因素直接促进了企业合作满意度的提高,而企业对农户伦理感的增强则将增进信任与互惠,从而间接影响其合作满意度。总体来说,关系治理对合作绩效具有显著的正向影响,其作用甚至超过了正式治理的影响。     

Municipal commonage policy and livestock owners: Findings from the Eastern Cape,South Africa

The new African National Congress government announced after 1994 that municipal commonage would be a pillar of their land reform programme. The Department of Land Affairs spearheaded this by acquiring new land to complement the existing ‘old’ commonages. The aim of old commonage was to supplement the income of poor urban residents through the subsistence user system whereas new commonage was intended as a ‘stepping stone’ for emergent farmers. We investigated the differences between old and new commonage farmers as well as how they perceived the Makana local municipality's capacity to manage the commonage. The results showed that local institutions were weak. Only 46% of the old commonage farmers were members of a local livestock association whereas 74% of the new commonage farmers were members. Most old commonage farmers (59%) were dissatisfied with local government's management of the commonage. In contrast, only 37% of the new commonage farmers were dissatisfied with the management of the commonage. There were no differences between old and new commonage farmers in terms of livestock owners’ characteristics and mean annual net direct-use value of livestock. There were also no differences in the age of the two types of commonage farmers. Furthermore, there was no association between the type of commonage and level of education. The mean annual net direct-use value of livestock on old commonage was R6308 compared with R9707 on new commonage. Although the income from livestock for new commonage farmers varied slightly from that of old commonage farmers, the annual productive output per farmer on old commonage was R473 ha⁻¹, three times higher than that of new commonage farmers which was R134 ha⁻¹. We suggest that new land policy legislation is needed in which poverty as well as the legal arrangements between all stakeholders is clearly defined. Furthermore, national departments need to be more involved with local municipalities to increase local management capacity.     

Determinants of climate change adaptation strategies and its impact on the net farm income of rice farmers in south-west Nigeria

A multivariate probit (MVP) model was used to analyse the determinants of strategies adopted for adapting to climate change in a sample of smallholder rice farmers in south-west Nigeria. An efficient endogenous switching regression model (ESRM) was used to estimate the impact of climate change adaptation strategy on the net income of rice farmers. The MVP results show that the socio-economic factors, the institutional factors, and locational variables of some households statistically influenced the choice of climate change adaptation strategies employed. Complementarities among all the adaptation strategies used by the farmers were revealed by the positive pair-wise correlation matrix of the MVP model. The study also indicated that farmers affected by prolonged drought and incidences of flood were more likely to adopt adaptation strategies on their farmlands. The ESRM treatment effect indicated that the average net income per rice farm of those who adopted the strategies was significantly higher than that of those who did not. Thus, the government, stakeholders, and donor agencies must provide capacity-building innovations related to agricultural extension systems and climate change education through information and communication technologies. This investment in education is essential for development and would encourage farmers to adopt appropriate climate change adaptation strategies.     

网络治理视角下农业科技创新发展的路径研究——基于农业试验示范站的实践分析

[目的]农业科技的广泛应用是农业现代化发展的重要标志,农业试验示范站是提升农业科技水平的重要手段。[方法]文章以杨凌农业科技示范推广模式的典型代表——试验示范站作为研究对象,借助网络治理理论研究我国农业技术推广模式的特征和经验,分析农业技术推广过程中涉及的多方主体的职能定位,构建农业技术推广治理网络,同时通过深入分析市场机制和宏观调控机制的作用机理和作用过程,研究各方利益相对主体的关系,为创新农业科技示范推广机制构建提供理论支持。[结果]从网络类型的视角看,试验示范站是政府推动、基层农技试验示范站具体操作实施的政府参与型的网络治理模式;从网络主体的视角看,以试验示范站为主体,联动政府相关部门、普通农户等各个主体在技术推广过程中的行为;从网络运行的视角来看,通过从网络治理的主体因素、关系因素和环境因素等方面分析影响杨凌农业试验示范站网络治理效果的一些具体因素。[结论]政府参与型的农业科技示范推广模式通过政府推动、基层农技试验示范站具体操作实施、普通农户参与落实等一系列的技术推广过程实现了农业科技创新发展,该模式是最有效的农业科技创新发展路径之一。     

农地禀赋、行为能力对农户经营收入的影响

基于广东省部分农户的问卷调查数据,采用有序多分类Logistic模型,实证分析农户农地禀赋、处置能力、交易能力对其农业经营收入的影响,结果显示,农户所在村庄地形地势、承包耕地的面积、肥力与交通条件、农户家庭务农人数、参加农业培训次数、技术服务满意度、雇工人数与农机设备价值、农户家庭在村级事务中发挥作用程度、运销加工服务能力等对其经营收入有显著正向影响;农户承包耕地的块数对其经营收入有显著负向影响;而农户耕地灌溉条件、农户间相互帮助、农资购买服务、农业生产服务以及农户是否加入合作组织对其经营收入的影响未能通过显著性检验。为此,要增加农户经营收入,应建立健全农地流转机制,推进农地有序流转,引导农户实现适度规模经营;同时,要继续加大对农业基础设施的投入力度,不断提高农业技术服务水平,增强农产品加工能力,并持续强化农业中介服务能力。     

Landscape services as boundary concept in landscape governance: Building social capital in collaboration and adapting the landscape

The landscape services concept provides a lens to study relations within the social-ecological networks that landscapes are, and to identify stakeholders as either providers or beneficiaries. However, landscape services can also be used as a boundary concept in collaborative landscape governance. We demonstrate this by analysing the case of Gouwe Wiericke in the rural west of the Netherlands. Here, a collaborative landscape governance process started off with low levels of trust between farmers and regional governments, as a result of previous processes. The introduction of the landscape services concept helped to bridge social boundaries, which eventually resulted in collective action: farmers and governments reached an agreement on adapted management of ditches and shores to improve water quality and biodiversity. However, we propose that bridging the social boundaries was achieved not merely due to the landscape services concept, but also due to the fact that multiple boundaries were managed simultaneously, and additional arrangements were used in boundary management.     

The role of rural producer organizations for agricultural service provision in fragile states

This article assesses the extent of external linkages and the provision of agricultural services by rural producer organizations in a post‐conflict setting. Using new survey data collected by the International Food Policy Research Institute in three provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this study finds that various internal and external factors affect the capacity of organizations to interact with external organizations. External linkages, ability to collect financial support from their members, management capacity, and formal governance structures all contribute to explaining relative performance in agricultural service delivery. We also find that exogenous events affect the relative performance of rural producer organizations. Our results suggest that closeness to conflict reduces the capacity of producer organizations to provide agricultural services.     

Will future land based food and fibre production be in family or corporate hands? An analysis of farm land ownership and governance considering farmer characteristics as choice drivers. The New Zealand case

Family farming in various guises has been the dominant ownership and governance system in primary production over recorded history. This outcome has been controlled by farmers and their families, possibly due to tradition, opportunities, personal characteristics, skill sets and the nature of primary production. Of these, it is hypothesised that the farmers’ personal characteristics play a major part in the choice, and continuance, of current ownership and governance systems. Equally as important, they, and therefore the land ownership system, play a part in the efficiency of production systems and improvement of the biological and production environment.The benefits and difficulties of commonly used ownership systems in Western society are reviewed. Using a sample of New Zealand (NZ) farms, a comparison of the managers’ features for owner/operator, partnership and corporate based systems is presented. There were significant differences in many variables including the farmers’ age, education, number of children, asset levels, years on the current farm, and similar, but more importantly, the farmers in the ownership system groups had differing personal characteristics. Significantly, despite the corporate based farms employing more professional assistance, the profit levels were similar across ownership systems leaving the farmers’ characteristics the main factors correlating with system choice. However, governance systems per se are only marginally correlated with production systems and efficiency.As successive generations of farmers are unlikely to have different characteristics, and corporate based systems continue to exhibit similar profit levels, relatively simple family based systems will continue to dominate farm land ownership and control. The trends suggest family farms will increase in size and involve family conglomerates facilitating the management of larger, and in many cases multiple, farms. While currently there are few differences in biological efficiency between ownership systems, given the efficiency benefits of size and scale, this could well change with the increase of family conglomerates. Relative to increasing corporatisation, the continuance of family based ownership and governance will also be of benefit to the environment. When developing land policies, these highlighted relationships should be taken into account. This study is a first to consider personal characteristics relative to ownership.     

Farming systems and Conservation Agriculture: Technology,structures and agency in Malawi

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is advocated as an agricultural innovation that will improve smallholder famer resilience to future climate change. Under the conditions presented by the El Niño event of 2015/16, the implementation of CA was examined in southern Malawi at household, district and national institutional levels. Agricultural system constraints experienced by farming households are identified, and in response the technologies, structures and agency associated with CA are evaluated. The most significant constraints were linked to household health, with associated labour and monetary impacts, in addition to the availability of external inputs of fertiliser and improved seed varieties. Our findings show that such constraints are not adequately addressed through current agricultural system support structures, with the institutions surrounding CA (in both Government extension services and NGO agricultural projects) focusing attention predominantly at field level practice, rather than on broader system constraints such as education and health support systems. Limited capacity within local institutions undermines long term efforts to implement new technologies such as CA. It is vitally important that the flexibility of farmers to adapt new technologies in a locally-appropriate manner is not closed down through national and institutional aims to build consensus around narrow technical definitions of a climate-smart technology such as CA. To enable farmers to fully utilise CA programmes, interventions must take a more holistic, cross-sectoral approach, understanding and adapting to address locally experienced constraints. Building capacity within households to adopt new agricultural practices is critical, and integrating healthcare support into agricultural policy is a vital step towards increasing smallholder resilience to future climate change.     

农业产业组织模式的交易关系与治理机制——基于肉牛养殖企业的多案例分析

目的 农业产业组织模式是农业产业化发展的重要制度载体,考察企业控制型农业产业组织模式初期的合作问题,为助推小农户与现代农业融合发展具有重要意义。方法 文章以畜牧业生产加工企业为研究对象,通过采用多案例研究法,构建“交易特性—交易关系—治理机制”分析框架,探讨不同交易特性的农业企业与其他经营主体的交易关系与治理机制。结果 不同交易特性的农业企业与其他经营主体形成了不同联结程度的交易关系;在交易关系发展的不同阶段,其匹配的治理机制也有所改变,大多为复合治理机制且关系治理机制存在于多种交易关系中;准纵向一体化模式中要素契约治理机制和关系治理机制,有利于锁定双边的专用性资产投资,构建多元经营主体的长效利益联结机制。结论 政府需要不断优化农产品交易关系的制度环境、大力扶持与农户存在“乡土”关联的农业企业、加强农户自身能力建设。     

农民加入合作组织影响因素研究

[目的]从农户行为视角提炼农民加入合作组织影响因素,并试图找到影响农民加入合作组织的主要因素,揭露农民合作组织发展的规律。[方法]文章分析影响农民加入合作组织的主要因素有农民的受教育程度、可得模仿机会及地区的经济发展水平,并根据上述3个主要因素选取一系列变量,在对变量进行相关系数分析后,建立模型分析农户行为的正负影响。[结果](1)农民的受教育水平对农民加入合作组织是正的影响,即农民的受教育水平越高,其越愿意加入合作组织;(2)农民可得模仿机会越多,农民参加合作组织的比例越高,即通讯设备越普及、交通越发达、合作组织数越多、合作组织中成员数越多的地区,农民在合作组织中模仿学习的机会越多,农民加入合作组织的比例越高;(3)在经济发展水平越高的地区农民加入合作组织的比例越低,在经济发展水平较高的地区市场体系较为完善、农产品的销售渠道越多、农产品不存在滞销问题,农民加入合作组织的效益不高,因此农民不愿意加入合作组织。[结论]农民受教育水平和可得模仿机会对农民加入合作组织是正的影响,而地区的经济发展水平对农民加入合作组织是负的影响。     

Participatory computer simulation to support collective decision-making: Potential and limits of stakeholder involvement

System models in agriculture and natural resource management are usually developed by researchers to advise policy makers on the likely outcomes of alternative scenarios. Except for data collection, stakeholders—like farm households—are rarely involved in the research process. Companion modeling (ComMod) has been developed as a modeling approach to include various stakeholders in a continuous feedback loop between researchers and stakeholders. Whereas other ComMod approaches have used role playing games as an interface between researchers and stakeholders—assuming that stakeholders have difficulties understanding a computer model—this paper explores the potential of a participatory modeling approach in which stakeholders are directly confronted with the model by assessing its assumptions, interpreting simulation results, and suggesting scenarios.The approach is applied to two villages in a watershed in northern Thailand. One lowland village, populated by farmers of mostly Thai ethnic origin, depends partially on an upland village inhabited by farmers of Hmong ethnic origin for its water supply. Water scarcity has led to conflicts between these two villages in the past.In three rounds of participatory simulation sessions the potential of the ComMod model was tested. Our findings confirm that researchers face particular challenges in making local stakeholders understand the model as a reproduction of reality and not as reality itself. The idea of a scenario as a hypothetical situation was also difficult to convey. An ex-post analysis among participants showed that farmers who attended several sessions had a clear understanding of the model and one-third of the participants thought it useful to exchange points of view with the other community and to define new collective rules for water sharing. Applying ComMod in a context that is characterized by social tensions and power differentials, however, needs careful consideration of the potential implications on less powerful actors.     

Farmers,institutions and technology in agricultural change processes: outcomes from Adaptive Research on rice production in Sulawesi,Indonesia

International agricultural research centres use approaches which aim to create effective linkages between the practices of farmers, introduced technologies and the wider environment that affects farming. This paper argues that such new approaches require a different type of monitoring as a complement to conventional approaches that tend to favour a quantitative assessment of adoption and impact at the farm level. In this context, we examined monitoring data from an Adaptive Research (AR) project highlighting complementary qualitative analysis. Our emphasis is to capture the improvisational capacities of farmers and to reveal social and institutional constraints and opportunities in a broader innovation system. Our approach provided clear insights into how rice farmers adjusted their practices and how actors involved linked (or not) with others in the innovation system. We also demonstrated how institutions such as policies, religious rituals or service provider arrangements pose conditions that establish or constrain practices aligned with introduced technologies. A broader perspective in monitoring AR therefore provides important additional insights into the factors which shape outcomes in farming communities. To expand outcomes, AR projects should also pay attention to designing and testing new institutional arrangements that create enabling conditions for agricultural innovation.     

Productivity growth and the returns from public investment in R&D in Australian broadacre agriculture

Investment in R&D has long been regarded as an important source of productivity growth in Australian agriculture. Perhaps because research lags are long, current investment in R&D is monitored closely. Investment in R&D has been flat while productivity growth has remained strong, relative both to other sectors of the Australian economy and to the agricultural sectors of other countries. Such productivity growth, at a time when the decline in terms of trade facing Australian farmers has slowed, may have enhanced the competitiveness of Australian agriculture. The econometric results presented here suggest no evidence of a decline in the returns from research from the 15 to 40 per cent per annum range estimated by Mullen and Cox. In fact the marginal impact of research increases with research over the range of investment levels experienced from 1953 to 2000, a finding which lends support to the view that there is underinvestment in agricultural research. These results were obtained from econometric models which maintain strong assumptions about how investments in research and extension translate into changes in TFP. Hence some caution in interpreting the results is warranted.     

Multinational supermarket chains in developing countries: does local agriculture benefit?

There is no consensus in the empirical literature on how entry of multinational supermarket chains affects farmers in developing countries. Econometric analyses struggle with causality issues and are unclear about the channel of effects. We quantify the dynamic effects of supermarket expansion on agriculture within a structural framework that clarifies the adjustment mechanisms involved. The model specification allows for endogenous interaction between agricultural productivity and supermarkets' choice of suppliers. Based on numerical simulations, two results emerge. First, we offer a possible interpretation of the conflicting evidence in the empirical literature. Whether farmers benefit from supermarkets or get stuck in a low productivity trap depends on the extent of local constraints related to production capacity and market access. Second, supply chain development initiated by supermarkets can help farmers escape the low productivity trap. While supermarkets face a short-run cost to supplier upgrading, they gradually gain from more productive local suppliers.     

Governing the transformation towards ‘nature-inclusive’ agriculture: insights from the Netherlands

It is becoming increasingly difficult to combine nature conservation by farmers with intensive and large-scale farming. The Dutch government recently adopted the new policy concept of ‘nature-inclusive’ farming, which aims at promoting more sustainable agricultural practices that minimizes negative ecological impacts, maximizes positive ones and at the same time benefits from natural processes. A transformation towards ‘nature-inclusive’ farming faces three key governance challenges that are elaborated upon in this paper. First, agri-environment schemes and other conservation arrangements need to become more effective. At the same time, nature conservation should be mainstreamed in agricultural policies and in agri-food chains. Second, we need shared meanings about nature-inclusive farming. Third, other forms of knowledge production for nature-inclusive farming are required that focus more on farmers’ knowledge needs.     

Expectations,supply response,and marketing boards: An example from Kenya

Whether farmers form price expectations adaptively or in a forward-looking manner has implications for supply response analysis and for the implementation of agricultural policy reform. This paper examines the formation of price expectations by Kenyan export-crop farmers who market their produce through a monopsonistic parastatal. The analysis allows for relaxation of the small-country assumption within a rational expectations framework. Production behavior is consistent with expectations of future prices based on indicators of aggregate supply and of the marketing board's purchasing capacity. The finding that price forecasts may be formed using information other than previous price levels implies that marketing reforms that raise prices may not raise the relevant price expectations. To elicit a positive supply response, market reforms should be sensitive to farmers' interpretation of institutional signals as well as previous prices.