Effect of information formats on information services: analysis of four selected agricultural commodities in the USA

We analyze sources of information in agricultural markets to understand patterns of demand for decision support services and the division of labor in the supply of these services. Information formatting—qualitative variation that determines accessibility and relevance of information in specific contexts—prohibits universal access to informational content. Information formats give rise to both transaction costs and complementarities reflected in patterns of information exchange in commodity systems. Controlling for actors' structural roles and levels of education, we develop a hedonic model of information demand such that actors seek information that is formatted to meet their needs and capabilities. Employing survey data, we explain elements of observed patterns of information exchange in four commodity systems in the USA. Results point to opportunities to expand our understanding of socioeconomic processes underlying production and consumption of decision support.     

农业信息社会化服务结构性失衡的影响因素分析

随着中国国内市场经济的发展,农业愈来愈迫切需要市场信息的扶持.文章以新疆10个县28个乡为调查研究区域,使用二元logistic模型从户主特征、家庭特征、地区经济发展水平和其他特征研究影响农业信息服务内容供求结构性失衡的因素.研究表明:不同经济发展水平的地区信息内容失衡程度差异显著,经济发展水平越高,对降低农户所需要的农产品价格、供求方面的信息失衡有显著影响;汉族、年龄大、受教育程度高和家庭社会关系越多,对降低信息服务内容失衡有显著影响;手机、联网电脑等新兴媒介对降低农户信息服务失衡无显著影响,而传统媒介电视仍在农户搜集信息方面起到重要作用,但作用有限,合作社和农民信息协会在失衡影响因素中表现并不显著,这表明现有信息服务体系仍不健全,政府应根据农户特殊需求建立有效的信息服务平台,并提供更加完善的服务.通过分析发现:政府需要在欠发达和不发达地区加大信息供给强度,引导信息服务市场化;完善农户信息需求表达机制,针对农户的需要提供真实有效的信息;丰富服务方式,完善手机、电视、网络等平台为农户提供信息;完善农村信息供给渠道,增强合作社、农民信息协会提供信息服务的功能等建议.     

An Analysis of Public Agricultural Research in the Canadian Prairie Provinces

This study has developed a four-equation model of agricultural research in Canada using some aspects of special interest theory, institutional theory and economic variables. The demand, supply and allocation equations were developed with special reference to the Canadian agricultural research sector and the more restrictive prairie agricultural research sector. The conceptual model developed is designed to explain the allocation of public expenditures on commodity specific applied research. The reduced-form equation of the model was estimated for 6 commodity classes (2 crops, 4 livestock groups) to test the applicability of the model over the commodity groups.
The evaluation of the reduced-form equation model and the implications that derive from it give an interesting view of the Canadian research sector. Some variables did perform as a priori expected with relative consistency and certain equations performed very well. These results lead to some implications for the Canadian agricultural research sector.
The general performance of the reduced-form equation and its ability to explain the total variation of expenditures on commodity specific agricultural research gives limited support to the model developed. Nevertheless the results tend to indicate that agricultural research is responsive to economic and institutional variables.     

PRODUCTION-ORIENTED INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR AGRICULTURAL SUBSECTORS: PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES

The existence of problems which are peculiar to agricultural subsectors explains the presence of organisations associated with individual commodities or commodity groups. Modern developments in information systems can contribute to meeting organisations' information requirements, but it is necessary to design systems consistent with both the principles and techniques of economic analysis and the general methodology. Following the definition of a subsector, a review of the principles for information systems and the relevant economic concepts shows the formal equivalence of many basic ideas. Despite reservations which have been expressed about the current potential for quantitative techniques, an input/output approach could have an important role as a flexible component of subsector information systems.     

Human behavior and the use of experiments to understand the agricultural,resource, and environmental challenges of the XXI century

The use of laboratory¹ experiments in economics, and their later deployment in the field as a tool for exploring how actual decision‐makers respond to information, incentives or institutions has brought a revolution to how we model economic systems, and design policies for them. This new century will bring challenges for the study of agriculture, natural resources and the environment, where it will be necessary to have a better understanding of human behavior, in a world where climate on the one hand, and land, labor and food markets are ever more unstable. This article reviews the intellectual history of a rich dialogue between theory and experiments with a particular focus on its relevance for agricultural, resource and environmental issues. Special attention will be given to the case of common‐pool resources where this dialogue between models, field work and laboratory experiments continues to provide a rich cross‐fertilization for the advance in the understanding of the economic systems that governs these resources. I will close by arguing that agricultural, environmental and resource economists will have to take part of this behavioral revolution by embracing experiments in their teaching, their research and their policy design.     

土地流转、规模经营对农业社会化服务需求的影响分析*——基于江汉平原393个水稻种植大户的调查

［目的］在土地流转加快、农业适度规模经营不断推进背景下，研究种植大户农业社会化服务的需求状况及其影响因素对现代农业发展意义重大。［方法］文章以江汉平原水稻种植大户为研究对象，采用排序模型重点考察土地流转、规模经营因素对农资服务、技术服务、信息服务、农业贷款、基础设施、农业保险、加工销售等7种农业社会化服务需求的影响。［结果］江汉平原农业社会化服务需求总量还有进一步提升的空间； 土地流转年限、土地规模对农业社会化服务需求有着积极影响； 土地流转价格、土地细碎化程度对农业社会化服务需求产生消极影响。［结论］建议政府加快农业社会化服务供给侧结构性改革，完善土地流转市场，规范土地流转方式，降低土地细碎化程度，推进适度规模经营。     

“互联网+”背景下农产品供需信息平台建设博弈分析

[目的]农产品是关乎国计民生的必需品,在"互联网+"背景下,国家大力提倡农业信息化建设,为农业现代化发展提供新一轮契机。但由于我国小农经济、农地分散、农民素质普遍不高、农业技术化程度总体较低等多方原因,造成长久以来我国农产品供给与需求不对称情况,频繁出现"菜贱伤农、菜贵伤民"现象,如何利用现代信息技术改善农产品供需信息不对称现象成为社会关注的焦点。[方法]文章在文献研究基础上,主要运用完全信息静态博弈及冷酷战略模型对农产品信息共享平台建设的必要性进行分析。[结果]博弈分析结果显示,供应链上下游组织间共享信息次数只要有足够多,就可以在供应链中建立起良好的互动关系,通过信息共享可以有助于供应链条上企业合作,实现共赢。[结论]信息共享平台建设可以有效提升农产品信息沟通效率,有效解决农产品供需信息不对称问题。     

Agricultural Commodity Price Shocks and Their Effect on Growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Commodity price shocks are an important type of external shock and are often cited as a problem for economic growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa. We choose nine Sub‐Saharan African countries that are heavily dependent on a single agricultural commodity for a significant portion of their income. This paper quantifies the impact of agricultural commodity price shocks using a structural non‐linear dynamic model. The novel aspect of this study is that we determine whether the response of per capita GDP for the selected Sub‐Saharan African countries is different to unexpected increases in agricultural commodity prices as opposed to decreases in prices. We conclude that there is very little evidence that an unanticipated price increase (decrease) will lead to a significantly different response in per capita incomes.     

Adoption of Agricultural E-Marketing: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

In this study, the authors used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a base model to determine how attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control predict the intention of agricultural services professionals to adopt e-marketing of agricultural commodities. A convenient sample of 146 professionals from the public (n?=?61) and private sectors (n?=?85) were surveyed. Overall, results showed that the TPB model explained 94% and 71% of the variation in behavioral intent for public professionals and private professionals, respectively, with the remaining 6% and 29% relating to the other factors. Results for the public professionals showed that subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have a more important effect on adoption and that the effect of attitude was very small among professionals in private sector. Both groups selected the information services model as an appropriate in agricultural electronic marketing for local farmers so that agricultural services firms can offer only information services of farmers’ products without a direct role in buying and selling. Based on the results, it is recommended that to accelerate the adoption of e-marketing, its user-friendliness and advantages should be demonstrated to users via different platforms such as video presentations and workshops. In addition, the technology should be made available to potential users, and they should be encouraged and motivated to use it to ensure efficiency in the processing of transactions.     

Agriculture,transportation, and the COVID-19 crisis

In this short paper, I assess how COVID-19-related disruptions in transportation services, as well as new demands for transportation services, could impact Canadian agricultural supply chains. The brief analysis reveals that agricultural access to bulk ocean freight, rail movement, and trucking has generally improved in the pandemic, bolstered by the reduced demand for these transportation services by other sectors of the economy. The intermodal containerized movement of grains and food products has seen some disruption from the lack of empty containers in North America. The widespread consumer adoption of physical distancing measures has vastly increased the demand for retail food pickup and delivery services to the point where these services are being rationed by long wait times. From a policy perspective, there is an apparent need for (a) continued supply chain monitoring and industry engagement, (b) the proactive development of strategies to deal with absenteeism and other potential threats to the supply chain, and (c) an assessment of the economic and health merits of providing additional public resources to provide greater access to grocery pickup and delivery services.     

Commodity price bubbles and macroeconomics: evidence from the Chinese agricultural markets

This article investigates the links between commodity price bubbles and macroeconomic factors, with an application to the agricultural commodity markets in China from 2006 to 2014. Price bubbles are identified using a newly developed, recursive right‐tailed unit root test. A Zero‐inflated Poisson model is used to analyze the factors contributing to bubbles. Results show that (a) there were speculative bubbles in most Chinese agricultural commodity futures markets during the sample period, though their presence was infrequent; (b) economic growth, money supply, and inflation have positive effects on bubble occurrences, while interest rates have a negative effect; and (c) among all macroeconomic factors considered, economic growth and money supply have the greatest impact in triggering bubbles. Our findings shed new light on the nature and formation of bubbles in the Chinese agricultural commodity markets.     

A real options analysis of Australian wheat production under climate change

A significant portion of the world's agricultural systems currently operate at the extreme end of the climate conditions that are considered to be suitable for crop and livestock production. Under these conditions, even moderate climate changes are anticipated to drive substantial transformational changes to agricultural systems. Transformations require new investments and infrastructure and can leave some assets stranded. These transformations can be partially or wholly irreversible, and hysteresis effects can make switching difficult and mistakes costly to reverse. This study demonstrates how a real options decision framework, ‘Real Options for Adaptive Decisions’ (ROADs), can be used to investigate how uncertainties about the climate affect the adaptation and transformation of agricultural systems. By building upon recent developments in the mathematics of stochastic optimisation, we extend traditional economic analyses of agricultural investment decisions based on net present values to better represent incomplete knowledge and uncertainty. We report results from a case study in South Australia that describes the transition pathways farmers might follow as their industries are transformed in response to climate change.     

On the Demand for Information Services: An Application to Lowbush Blueberry Producers in Eastern Canada

Information needs have rapidly evolved in agricultural markets but little is known about how information is transmitted to agricultural producers. Producers must collect information to better manage their production, marketing and financial decisions. Using survey data obtained from a questionnaire distributed to lowbush blueberry producers in eastern Canada, we analyze how producers' individual characteristics impact their demand for different information services. Minimum distance estimation of the structural ordered probit equations indicates that:

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  Confidence in the information service is a central determinant of the frequency at which a producer refers to a specific service.

       
  
  

A REVIEW OF THREE RESEARCH PROGRAMS IN QUANTITATIVE MODELLING IN THE BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS*

Elements of three of the BAE's research programs in economic modelling of the rural sector, namely, the modelling of agricultural production systems, rural commodity markets and agriculture within a general equilibrium framework, are reviewed with emphasis on the use of such models in policy work. Suggestions are made for further modelling in these areas.     

基于信息生态理论的农业产业链优化路径研究

[目的]当农业信息生态处于失衡状态时,农业产业的价值增值效率就会受损,文章应用信息生态理论研究农业产业链的延伸、整合与提升,由此探索现代农业产业链的优化路径,以期更好地促进我国农业的现代化、信息化和产业的可持续发展。[方法]该文以点、线、面的逻辑递进思路,从信息生态位视角研究了农业产业链中信息的功能生态位、资源生态位和时空生态位;从信息生态链视角分析了农业产业链中信息流转映射出的物和资金的运转问题;从信息生态系统视角剖析了农业产业链中信息资源、信息主体和信息环境3个系统构成要素的相互关系。[结果](1)农业产业链的横向与纵向延伸是实现其优化的基本路径,合理布局和增加其中的信息生态位,可有效提升产业链的优化效率;(2)农业产业链中各环节的有机整合是提升其价值增值的关键举措,而基于信息生态链监控下的人、财、物等资源的合理配置和有效协同则成为必然选择;(3)实现农业产业链整体素质的提升是其优化的终极目标,从信息生态系统的高度统筹规划产业链发展是农业信息化和现代化的现实需求。[结论]对柑橘产业链的实证研究表明,国家现代农业产业技术体系的发展为运用信息生态理论优化农业产业链提供了良好的契机,构建相应的产业信息生态系统理论框架对提升产业竞争协作力和可持续发展能力意义重大,无论在宏观政策制订和微观产业指导中都应予以足够重视。     

Integrated economic-hydrologic water modeling at the basin scale: the Maipo river basin

Increasing competition for water across sectors increases the importance of the river basin as the appropriate unit of analysis to address the challenges facing water resources management; and modeling at this scale can provide essential information for policy makers in their resource allocation decisions. This paper introduces an integrated economic‐hydrologic modeling framework that accounts for the interactions between water allocation, farmer input choice, agricultural productivity, non‐agricultural water demand, and resource degradation in order to estimate the social and economic gains from improvement in the allocation and efficiency of water use. The model is applied to the Maipo river basin in Chile. Economic benefits to water use are evaluated for different demand management instruments, including markets in tradable water rights, based on production and benefit functions with respect to water for the agricultural and urban‐industrial sectors.     

Monetary policy shocks and the dynamics of agricultural commodity prices: evidence from structural and factor‐augmented VAR analyses

Fluctuation in commodity prices is a significant and timely issue to be studied. This study is to examine the impact of monetary policy and other macroeconomic shocks on the dynamics of agricultural commodity prices. The major contributions of this study are twofold. First, unlike other studies that use indexes, this study analyzes the commodities individually, affording the inclusion of commodity‐specific fundamentals such as the level of inventory—an important determinant of commodity price—in a structural VAR framework. Second, it exploits a rich data set of agricultural commodity prices which includes commodities that are usually overlooked in the literature, and extracts a common factor using the dynamic factor model to understand the extent of comovement of the prices and to gauge the extent to which macroeconomic shocks drive the “comovement” in a factor‐augmented VAR (FAVAR) framework. The findings show that monetary policy, global economic conditions, and the U.S. dollar exchange rates play an important role in the dynamics of agricultural commodity prices.     

农业绿色生产社会化服务模式探析

[目的]在当前全面推进农业绿色发展、以绿色发展引领乡村振兴的农业发展新阶段,绿色生产社会化服务是促进小农户与现代农业发展相衔接、全面迈入农业绿色发展轨道的重要途径。为研究提出适合我国当前农业绿色发展需求的绿色生产社会化服务模式。[方法]文章首先对农业绿色生产社会化服务内容、种类与潜在供求关系进行了初步界定,并对绿色生产社会化服务与传统生产社会化服务进行了比较分析,明确了绿色生产社会化服务的特殊性;其次基于浙江、黑龙江、湖北等地农业绿色发展社会化服务典型实践,进行实证分析。[结果]提炼分析出4种主要的绿色生产社会化服务模式,并对每种模式的适用条件以及需要重点关注的问题进行了深入探讨。[结论]在此基础上提出当前进一步完善绿色生产社会化服务的政策建议,对于加快服务规模化引领绿色发展,带动小农户走上农业绿色发展轨道具有重要的决策参考价值。     

A Family of Differential Input Demand Systems with Application to Greek Agriculture

This paper develops a family of input demand systems via alternative parametrisations of Theil's differential model. Each member of this family is as flexible as any other locally flexible functional form. More importantly, selection among the competing family members is possible via simple parameter restrictions. The family of differential input demand systems is applied to the agricultural sector in Greece for the period 1961–96. Formal tests suggest that the model with the CBS-type effects dominates the alternative models. Divisia and price elasticities are calculated from the selected model and a decomposition of changes in the demand for inputs into technical change, total input volume, substitution, and residual effects is performed. The empirical results are quite reasonable. Overall, the analysis in this paper indicates that, in certain cases, the differential approach may provide an attractive alternative to the dual approach in modelling production behaviour.     

Agricultural extension,trust, and learning: results from economic experiments in Ecuador

Using an artefactual economic experiment and a randomized training intervention in Ecuador we test if trust conditions a farmer’s decision to learn during an agricultural training. We present a simple model of farmer behavior during the agricultural training in order to link play in the laboratory to behavior in the field. We find evidence that farmers who trust agricultural technicians relatively more than community farmers in the trust game learn more during training. The results provide insight into the design of agricultural extension services in Ecuador.