Economic Analysis of Animal Genetic Resources and the Use of Rural Appraisal Methods: Lessons from Southeast Mexico

Livestock diversity provides genetic alternatives that facilitate sustainable agricultural development. Despite this, animal genetic resources (AnGR) are being depleted at alarming rates. Subsidises available to production systems based on imported breeds are of several orders of magnitude greater than the costs of local breed conservation. Economic arguments for the conservation and sustainable use of threatened AnGR can be an effective means of establishing support for the development of appropriate enabling environments. Despite the importance of the economics of AnGR conservation, the subject has received limited attention. Reasons include: methodological difficulties inherent in valuing genetic resources; limited knowledge about appropriate analytical techniques; and lack of data regarding local breeds. As recent advances in economic valuation have eased methodological/analytical constraints, the issue of data availability has become critical. Data related to livestock keepers' preferences for different genetic resource attributes and the value placed on these across species, breeds and production systems are needed. Based on a study of a local pig breed in Mexico, this paper shows how the use of rural appraisal methods, in conjunction with recently developed analytical techniques, are capable of providing the data required for understanding the type and costs of interventions necessary to promote the conservation and sustainable use of AnGR.     

Consumer Demand for a Ban on Antibiotic Drug Use in Pork Production

Both bodies of the U.S. Congress have recently considered legislation to restrict use of antibiotics in livestock feed. Although several studies have addressed the costs of such restrictions, little is known about consumer demand. This study estimates consumers' willingness to pay for pork produced without subtherapeutic antibiotics and consumers' willingness to contribute to a reduction in antibiotic resistance by collecting data in a grocery store environment with mechanisms that involve the exchange of real food and real money. Results indicate that the welfare effects of a ban depend heavily on assumptions about consumers' current knowledge about antibiotic use in pork production and the extent to which consumers are currently able to purchase antibiotic-free pork.     

The Use of an Innovation Possibility Frontier to Evaluate an Applied Animal Breeding Research Project

This study was designed to develop and illustrate a method for evaluating individual applied research projects in agriculture. Since the individual entrepreneur must apply research results before society can benefit, a framework for project evaluation must be developed on the basis of opportunities facing him. Such a framework would permit researchers and research administrators to make sound decisions in planning, conducting, and directing their research. A partially completed animal breeding research project was chosen to illustrate this evaluation technique. Average cost disadvantages for various crossbreeds under different input price scenarios were computed. The sensitivity of the evaluation results to tentative data was assessed. This methodology provided encouraging results and could be employed by research teams. A researcher's prior knowledge can be incorporated to determine research areas where a higher payoff could be expected. Equally, research projects can be monitored periodically to estimate their progress toward economic goals. L'objectif de cette étude était de développer et d'illuslrer une méthode pour l'évaluation de projets de recherche appliquée en agriculture. Puisque chaque entrepreneur doit appliquer des résultats de recherche avam que la société ne puisse en bénéficier, il est nécessaire de mettre au point pour l'évaluation de tels projets. un cadre d'analyse se référant aux conditions auxquelles il est confronté. Un tel cadre d'analyse permettrait aux chercheurs et aux administrateurs de recherche d'effectuer de meilleures décisions dans la planification, l'exécution el I'adminislration de leurs recherches. Un project d'élevage sur le point d'être complété a été retenu pour illustrer cette technique d'évaluation. On a calculé le coût moyen des penes pour divers croisements selon différentes hypothèses sur le prix des intrants. La sensibilité des résultats aux données préliminaires a étéévaluée. Cette méthode a donné des résultats encourageants et pourrait être utilisée par des équipes de recherche. Les connaissances dun chercheur peuvent être utilisées pour déterminer les domaines de recherche qui présentent le plus grand intérêt. De plus, on peut contrôler périodiquement les projets de recherche afin d'apprécier leur progression vers des objectifs économiques.     

发展牧业经济致富职工群众

畜牧业是大农业生产的主体产业之一,包括肉、蛋、奶、毛、皮等畜产品的生产。发展畜牧业具有见效快、风险小、收益大的特点,是团场经济中最具活力和发展潜力的朝阳产业,也是致富职工群众的有效途径。农四师作为兵团的畜牧大师,牲畜存栏总量位居各师榜首,占全兵团的14.2%,肉类总产量占全兵团的11.3%。按照《农四师国民经济和社会发展第十个五年计划》,继续把畜牧业做大做强,由畜牧大师尽快发展成为畜牧强师,以实现致富职工群众的目标。一、农四师畜牧业发展的历程及存在问题(一)农四师畜牧业发展历程农四师畜牧业发展大体经历了起步、发展、…     

Activists and Animal Welfare: Quality Verifications in the Canadian Pork Sector

Animal welfare is an emotive topic. Although most governments legislate against outright animal cruelty, animal welfare organisations have actively lobbied for more stringent farm animal welfare regulations. Food retailers and restaurant chains have faced pressure from animal welfare organisations to implement more stringent animal welfare requirements for their suppliers. Is the demand for more stringent farm animal welfare protocols primarily determined by a subset of consumers with very strong preferences or does it signal a more fundamental underlying change in societal preferences? Given the credence nature of farm animal welfare, whom do consumers trust for credible quality assurances? This article analyses the role of quality verification in a market characterised by consumers with heterogeneous preferences for animal welfare. Of particular interest are the relative strength of preferences for humane animal treatment assurances and the credibility of these quality claims. Using data from a Canadian survey targeted at two distinct samples – a general population group and members of animal welfare organisations – a discrete choice experiment is used to assess consumer attitudes towards animal welfare assurances for pork products. The credibility of quality verification by public sector, private sector and third party agents is assessed. Evidence confirms that consumer preferences for farm animal welfare assurance and the source of verification are indeed heterogeneous. Although a portion of consumers remain largely indifferent to pork products with animal welfare assurances, a group of highly motivated consumers exist with an economic incentive to lobby for tougher animal welfare standards.     

发展现代畜牧业走产业化经营之路

2002年8月下旬,自治区党委在昌吉召开了畜牧业工作会议,会议提出,要加快新疆传统畜牧业向现代畜牧业转变.     

高职畜牧兽医专业人才培养模式的改革与实践

为适应广东畜牧业经济发展和市场需求，突出高职教育的职业性，本文通过广东科贸职业学院畜牧兽医专业对人才培养的改革与实践，提出了以工学结合为主导的“2＋1”人才培养模式，并进一步分析了其所取得的成效。     

Infectious Disease, Productivity, and Scale in Open and Closed Animal Production Systems

Trade in feeder animals creates externalities when animal diseases can spread beyond the purchasing farm. If growers choose between open and closed production systems, then Nash equilibrium likely involves excessive trading. While first-best equilibrium involves market-wide adoption of either an open-trade or closed-farm system, equilibrium may entail heterogeneous systems. If so, then the feeder trade should be restricted. Supply response to an increase in marginal costs may be positive. Within a farm, infectious disease risk can create decreasing returns to scale when the technology is otherwise increasing returns. Contractual procurement and damage control technologies will likely increase scale in finishing.     

关于土地利用规划本质、功能和战略导向的思考

研究目的:对土地利用规划本质、功能进行科学认知,对规划战略导向进行理性定位,有利于促进土地利用规划编制、实施和管理水平的进一步提高,实现有限土地空间的可持续利用。研究方法:文献资料法,归纳总结法。研究结果:从6个方面诠释了土地利用规划的本质,用优化模型表达了土地利用规划的功能,提出了新时期土地利用规划调控的战略导向。研究结论:规划本质从历史上看是人类文明用地的产物,从权利上看是对土地发展权的分配,从行政上看是对土地市场失灵的一种纠正,从宗旨上看是对未来土地利用的控制,从技术上看是对土地利用系统时空的优化,从管理上看是提高土地利用决策科学性的手段;土地利用规划最核心的功能是其对未来土地利用时空的导向,目前需要从单功能目标规划向多功能目标规划的导向转型;规划战略需要不断创新完善,即要明确3个基本判断和3个"兼顾"。     

兵团经济结构调整和银行信贷资金的有效配置

一、兵团经济的现状分析(一)地理、经济位置兵团的十三个农业师和一个建工师,分布在全疆各地(州),是自治区内的一个重要区域经济板块,具有自身的优势.概括地说就是资源优势、地缘优势、人才优势、基础设施优势、精准农业优势、轻纺工业优势、石河子国家级开发区的政策优势和集团优势.     

Asymmetric Information,Externalities and Incentives in Animal Disease Prevention and Control

Incentives influence behaviour while an understanding of farmer behaviour facilitates the control and prevention of infectious livestock disease. This paper lays out several perspectives on how information problems and other externalities affect biosecurity incentives. We use the principal–agent framework to examine livestock disease management in the presence of potential moral hazard and adverse selection. Moral hazard may apply to biosecurity decisions while adverse selection may apply to disease reporting. The example of compensation policies illustrates the importance of creating appropriate incentives: compensation must be sufficient to ensure early reporting but not so large as to discourage appropriate levels of biosecurity effort. Other cases of externalities are more diffuse than those modelled using principal–agent analysis, placing emphasis on third‐party effects and coordination problems. Three examples are provided. One concerns free‐riding when facing an endemic disease pool that can be managed by limiting sources and flows. Another regards coordination failure when securing against an exotic disease where farmer efforts complement and communicating actions are important. The last arises from absence of a risk market where an adverse infrastructural support externality could be managed by disease outbreak insurance.     

The Land Use Impacts of the EU Biodiesel Policy: Assessing the Direct,Indirect and Induced Effects

This paper deals with the controversial measure of indirect land use changes of the European biodiesel policy. Two studies sponsored by the European Commission find significant, but contrasted, land use impacts for the different vegetable oils used for biodiesel production. The first study uses an aggregate computable general equilibrium model capturing direct, indirect and induced effects. The second more recent study uses a biotechnical partial equilibrium model providing a detailed representation of the indirect effects occurring through the livestock sectors. We develop an original economic emulator to understand the diverging key results of these studies and test their sensitivity. We find that the direct and indirect effects on vegetable oil and land markets explain most of the differences. We also find that indirect effects on the feed markets and the induced effects have less influence on the biodiesel results. We finally argue that the development of emulators as done here can help to understand complex policy assessments.     

农村土地使用制度变迁:阶段性、多样性与政策调整

现阶段中国农地制度变迁的核心是土地使用权归属和界定问题，而使用权问题的核心是树立农户对土地使用的预期信念和土地资源合理配置问题。因此，本文将对农地制度变迁进行阶段性总结，并对农地使用制度的创新，尤其是对发生范围和影响较大的不同土地使用权制度和使用权流转形态进行剖析，然后对农地调整和使用权流转问题进行评述，最后对土地制度变迁进一步分析与说明。     

湖北省农、林、牧、渔业动态关系研究

农业、林业、畜牧业和渔业的产出主要由投入决定,但是各业之间也是相互作用和相互影响的。湖北省农、林、牧、渔业各业脉冲响应函数表明,除渔业外,各业自身1个单位标准误差信息对产值的冲击最大。预测方差分解表明湖北省畜牧业的发展对农、林、渔业发展的扰动最大。     

Fertilizer Use, Risk, and Off-Farm Labor Markets in the Semi-Arid Tropics of India

A two-period model is developed in which a risk-averse farmer uses off-farm labor to smooth consumption, leading to greater use of fertilizer. Fertilizer demand is shown to increase with the depth of the off-farm labor market. Controlling for exogenous weather risk, farmers use more fertilizer the lower the unemployment rate and the higher the share of nonagricultural work in total off-farm labor. The results suggest that off-farm labor markets and own-farm production may be complementary in risky production environments, so that policies which promote the depth of the off-farm labor market in low-income areas may also bolster farm productivity.     

浅淡畜力集材

1.问题的提出 随着天保工程的实施,木材产量的下降,采伐方式已由皆伐为主变为择伐为主,采伐强度降低,公顷出材量减小,作业小班个数多、地点分散,80%以上的木材产量都在冬季作业.面对这些客观存在的问题,如何选择适当的集材方式,直接影响到木材生产的劳动效率、经济效益和森林的生态效益.