Identify Customer Involvement During Organic Food Purchase Through FCB Grid

The study measures the level of customer involvement related to Organic Food (OF) purchase through FCB Grid. A conceptual model was developed to identify the location of OF in FCB Grid by testing the sequencing of Knowledge, Attitude and Purchase Behavior effects. Two scales were adopted from a study by Ghosh et al. (2016 Ghosh, S., Datta, B., &; Barai, P. (2016). Modeling and promoting organic food purchase. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 22, 623–642. doi:10.1080/10454446.2016.1141138[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to measure Knowledge and Attitude pertaining to organic food. Similar such scale with minor moderation was formed for Purchase behavior. 868 responses were analyzed through Structural Equation Model, which indicates that OF falls on the first quadrant of FCB grid and is a high involvement product. This implies Knowledge drives Attitude and Attitude drives Purchase Behavior and demands informative strategy where economic considerations prevail prior to purchase. Organic food production is a sustainable process and positively impacts the livelihood of marginal farmers and will improve the quality of the soil and health of the consumers.     

Analysing inefficiency in a non-parametric spatial-dynamic by-production framework: A k-nearest neighbour proposal

This paper accounts for spatial effects by benchmarking farms against their k-nearest neighbours (KNN) and measuring their inefficiency in a non-parametric dynamic by-production setting. The optimal number of neighbours $k$ against which farms are compared corresponds to the value of $k$ that maximises the Moran I test for spatial autocorrelation of the good and the bad output of the farms' two sub-technologies. The inefficiency scores for farms' good output, variable inputs, investments and bad outputs are then computed and compared with those calculated based on a global technology, which benchmarks all farms together. The application focuses on an unbalanced panel of specialised Dutch dairy farms over the period 2009–2016 that contains information on their exact geographical locations. The results suggest that the inefficiency scores exhibit statistically significant differences between the KNN and the global model. Specifically, the inefficiencies are generally deflated when a KNN technology is considered, suggesting that ignoring spatial effects can overestimate inefficiency.     

基于地理探测器的内蒙古耕地水资源短缺时空变化特征及驱动力分析

[目的]明晰干旱半干旱区耕地水资源短缺的时空变化特征及驱动因素，是实现区域水资源可持续利用的首要前提，对保障区域乃至全国粮食安全和生态健康有着重要意义。[方法]文章以内蒙古为典型研究区，以水足迹理论为依据，通过构建耕地水资源短缺指数（Arable Land Water Scarcity Index,AWSI），分析2000—2018年内蒙古耕地水资源短缺指数时空格局及变化特征，并进一步借助地理探测器模型定量揭示研究区内气候、植被、地形、人口密度等11个自然和社会经济因素对耕地水资源短缺时空变化的影响差异。[结果]（1）内蒙古耕地水资源短缺指数总体呈西高东低的分布特征，西部耕地缺水压力较大。2000—2018年内蒙古耕地水资源短缺指数呈增加趋势，增加区域占总面积82%以上，主要分布在东部和中部地区。（2）自然因素主要决定内蒙古耕地水资源短缺的空间格局，其影响明显大于社会经济因素，但是2000—2018年社会经济因素的影响力在呈增大趋势。（3）自然因素中以蒸发量、年均温、降水量为主的气候因子在生态探测中共有19组显著差异，占据了影响因子中的主导地位。而在社会经济因素与自然因素的交互作用下，...     

An empirical Coasian study on the socio-economic profiles of two politically sensitive informal settlements: Kowloon Walled City and Rennie’s Mill

Informed by the “corollary of Coase Theorem” (Lai and Hung, 2008; Lai et al., 2007), for a better understanding of the self-help post-war development of two politically sensitive and vanished places in Hong Kong, the so-called “Kowloon Walled City” (Lai, 2016; Lai and Chua, 2017; Lau et al., 2018) and Rennie’s Mill (Lan, 2006), which have attracted academic interest but remained under-researched in terms of empirical scrutiny, this study:

• •Identify and compare their institutional arrangements by archival research;
• •identify and compare their development outcomes, as measured by census and other official data including mapping and photographic information, supplemented by published oral history of witnesses; and
• •establish and discuss the relationship between the differences in institutional arrangements and development outcomes in terms of a landlord-tenant analogy.

     

Smallholders download and share videos from the Internet to learn about sustainable agriculture

Of 1,211 farmers and their representatives registered on www.accessagriculture.org, 142 participated in an on-line survey in November 2017, designed to learn farmer’s opinions of Access Agriculture, an NGO which hosts a digital platform where anyone can watch or download videos and other information for free. These farmer learning videos all convey practical information on sustainable agricultural innovations, to encourage farmer experiments. Previous experience showed that smallholders liked having their own copy of videos (e.g. on DVD), but this study showed that farmers are now starting to find their own way to the internet to pro-actively search for information. Although some farmers learn about on-line videos by social contacts, most of the farmers found the videos on www.accessagriculture.org by surfing the web. This suggests that limitations of reaching farmers with traditional forms of video distribution (e.g. DVDs and village screenings) will be partly overcome by the Internet. Youth have become the new information brokers for communities, as elders may lack the digital technology skills needed to use the Internet to get agricultural information. To share videos with other community members, youth will benefit from additional tools, such as an app, to allow easy download and sharing with limited data consumption.     

A scale invariant model for the expansion of agricultural land and government spending on the agricultural sector

The expansion dynamics of the agricultural surface is a complex process, since it requires decisions among different actors under a multitude of socioeconomic and natural conditions, expectations, and risks. This paper shows that despite this complexity, and at odds with the intuition, the density of agricultural lands and the government spending to foster agriculture around a human settlement displays a simple power-law relationship regarding the distance to such a settlement. The theoretical proof of this relationship is based on theoretical and empirical findings made by several authors on the expansion of population centers, river networks, species and ecosystem’s distribution. The empirical proof is made by fitting a simple power-law model having as response variables: density of agricultural land; government spending coverage, and government spending per unit of agricultural surface, while the distance to the centroid settlement is used as independent variable. Results show that the scaling exponents of the power-law relationship estimated from those models, with data from rural settlements in Mexico, are similar statistically to the expected values from theoretical models for the three expansion processes tested. Three applications of the scale-invariant attribute characterizing the expansion process of agricultural lands are presented:

• i)monitoring agricultural activities at the territories;
• ii)a proxy to estimate the expected growth of the agricultural surface; and
• iii)a typology to characterize government assistance at local level.

     

A communication framework for climatic risk and enhanced green growth in the eastern coast of Ghana

Progresses made in global responses to climate change shows that adaptation is gradually finding its way into development planning, yet delays are generally expected from competing priorities of several sectors, policy and knowledge challenges. To understand these dynamics, a pathway for enhanced climatic risk communication, which is a form of a non-structural adaptation, was analyzed in Ghana’s coastal zones. Two learning platforms, the Community-based Risk Screening Tool for Adaptation and Livelihoods (CRiSTAL), and U-Learning (Theory U-Process) were used to engage the state level policy-making process in governing development within coastal zones in the face of increased climatic risks and climate change impacts. Local livelihood priorities showed that a national level development planning framework that excluded local contexts of climatic risks face possible maladaptation. Subsequently the process that was engaged in the local contextualization of climatic risks and development in selected Districts culminated in the consensus framework, Coastal Zone Green Growth (CZGG), informed mostly by concerns over clean energy usage and ecologically compatible use of coastal resources. Therefore the CZGG potentially provides co-benefits for enhanced ecosystem services, livelihoods and adaptation. Thus, it constitutes a denominator for measuring climatic risks and adaptation to potentially inform the policy-making process towards sustainable coastal zone management practices. Except for the desired goals of CZGG being far reaching and futuristic, they overlapped with goals of the adaptation strategies of the local population, which are similar to development goals. Therefore communicating localized contexts of coastal climatic risks of which sea level rise is seen often as remote to planning, could strengthen risk management in integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) and enhance resilience of vulnerable communities. However, this will require the designation of a body which is accustomed to the local issues to facilitate, harmonize and coordinate multi-sector actions and diverse stakeholders’ interests for the CZGG to become a reality in contributing to ICZM in Ghana.     

基于InVEST模型的太湖流域水源涵养服务价值评估

在气候变化与人类活动共同影响下,全球水生态系统现状不容乐观。以太湖流域为例,采用In VEST模型,动态评估了太湖流域水源涵养服务价值。结果显示:太湖流域2000年水源涵养总量为320.50亿m3,高于2010年的314.18亿m3,相应经济价值分别为1 958.48亿元和1 919.86亿元;太湖流域2000年与2010年的水源涵养量在空间分布特征上基本保持一致,均为:Ⅷ区Ⅰ区Ⅸ区Ⅲ区Ⅴ区Ⅵ区Ⅳ区Ⅶ区Ⅱ区。进一步剖析对影响水源涵养服务价值变化的驱动机制,研究表明:气候因素以及土地利用/覆被因素直接影响了太湖流域水源涵养总量与空间分布规律,而社会经济特征则是影响太湖流域水源涵养服务价值的间接因素。     

Coastal areas and climate change: A decision support tool for implementing adaptation measures

Climate change will be one of the main global challenges in the future. In this context cities play a key role. If, on the one hand, cities cause climate change, on the other hand, they are the places where climate change impacts are most evident, as it deeply affects the quality of life of its inhabitants. Climate change impacts are particularly relevant for coastal areas. These are characterized by a higher concentration of buildings and people in comparison to inland areas. In particular, one of the forecasted effects of climate change in these areas is the increase in coastal flooding due to rising sea levels and storm surges. The implementation of strategies and actions for the adaptation of urban areas to the impacts of coastal flooding is essential to ensure the liveability of coastal communities. Urban planning plays a key role in cities’ adaptation. However, even though the interest in this topic has been increasing, operative support and tools for planning urban adaptation in cities are in short supply, especially in coastal cities. In light of this, it has become necessary to focus on the definition of new tools responding to the needs of urban planning.Based on these observations, this paper, starting from the existing literature on coastal vulnerability indices, has developed a new index: the Coastal Resilience Index (CoRI). Thanks to the CoRI and to the use of technological innovations applied to urban planning (in particular, Geographic Information Systems), a decision support tool has been developed to identify adaptation measures aiming to reduce the impacts of coastal flooding, caused by rising sea levels and storm surges.     

基于“多规合一”的海岸带综合管控研究

研究目的:针对当前海岸带规划管理体系庞杂、矛盾不断、资源利用率低的问题,提出构建基于"多规合一"的海岸带综合规划,剖析其内涵、特征和战略定位,并构建相应的框架、技术路径、协调机制与管控策略。研究方法:文献分析和综合分析法。研究结果:当前海岸带综合规划编制存在规划管理体系庞大、事权不清、空间部署差异大和陆海关联度低等问题。编制基于"多规合一"的海岸带综合规划,建立统筹协调的海岸带管理机制,是解决海岸带规划冲突、提高资源利用率的现实需求,也是实现中国海陆统筹战略的现实需求。研究结论:海岸带综合规划是海岸带规划体系中的顶层设计,处于核心地位,在空间上、规划间以及系统间实现统筹,具备战略性、综合性、统一性、适应性和民主性5大基本特征。提出海岸带综合规划总体框架和"多规合一"的技术路径,认为基于既有行政架构的组织机制协调是当前阶段有效的协调机制。保障规划成果落地的重要管控策略包括:确立海岸带综合规划的实施主体、建立健全的监督、反馈与问责机制以及构筑海岸带"多规合一"依法管理体制。     

Impediments to inland resettlement under conditions of accelerated sea level rise

Global mean sea level rise (GMSLR) stemming from the multiple effects of human-induced climate change has potentially dramatic effects for inland land use planning and habitability. Recent research suggests that GMSLR may endanger the low-elevation coastal zone sooner than expected, reshaping coastal geography, reducing habitable landmass, and seeding significant coastal out-migrations. Our research reviews the barriers to entry in the noncoastal hinterland. Using three organizing clusters (depletion zones, win-lose zones, and no-trespass zones), we identify principal inland impediments to relocation and provide preliminary estimates of their toll on inland resettlement space. We make the case for proactive adaptation strategies extending landward from on global coastlines and illustrate this position with land use planning responses in Florida and China.     

Organic Consumption as a Change of Mind? Exploring Consumer Narratives Using a Structural Cognitive Approach

An innovative qualitative approach to analyze consumer narratives and biographies was applied to gain insight into consumer decision making and dynamic behavioral patterns in the purchase of organic foods. We adapted Gardner's (2004 Gardner , H. ( 2004 ). Changing minds: The art and science of changing our own and other people's minds. Cambridge , MA : Harvard Business School Press . [Google Scholar]) change-of-mind framework to organic food consumption. Regular consumers trust organic products because they believe that they are healthier and tastier than the equivalent nonorganic product. This belief is built upon day after day by their experiences and by word of mouth: a growing stock of information supports their food choice and confidence in organic food. Occasional consumers have strong beliefs about the better taste and the higher quality of organic food in general. The choice to (regularly) buy organic food is a matter of largely unnoticed inner development. The results allow us to draw some conclusions relating to the determinants of the future demand for organic food in Italy.     

Negotiating climate change responses: Regional and local perspectives on transport and coastal zone planning in South Sweden

Putting climate change policy-integration into practice is challenged by problems of institutional misfit, due to, inter alia, deficient vertical administrative interplay. While most focus within the field of climate change research has targeted the national–local interplay, less is known about the interface of regional and local perspectives. Here, the aim is to study that interface with a specific focus on the relation between regional and local spatial planning actors, through a case-study of transport and coastal zone management in a Swedish municipality. The article is based on interviews (focus group and single in-depth) and official planning documents. The material reveals a tricky planning situation, replete with conflict. In practice, various institutional frameworks, claims and ambitions collide. The attempts to steer the local spatial planning initiatives from the regional level led to conflicts, which in turn seems to have hampered the overall work for climate change management through spatial planning. Furthermore, there are few traces of prospects of a smooth vertical institutional interplay able to support the overall aims related to integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation in spatial planning.     

Drivers to Nurturance: Application and Extension of FWB in India

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the choice of healthier foods in India through observation of 250 consumers in a feast arranged with most of the millet-based food items, followed by a focus group study of nine selected consumers from the feast. Although much of the work about healthier food choices have been done in the western countries, their replication is not possible for the Indian consumers due to the differences in perception, culture, and consumption patterns. This paper attempts to highlight the importance of indigenous culture of a land in influencing one’s food choice. The findings of the qualitative study match with the Food as Well Being (FWB) dimensions proposed by Block et al., 2011 Block, L. G., Grier, S. A., Childers, T. L., Davis, B., Ebert, J. E., Kumanyika, S., … &; Pettigrew, S. (2011). From nutrients to nurturance: A conceptual introduction to food well-being. Journal of Public Policy &; Marketing, 30(1), 5–13.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. Food perception emerged as another important factor from this study and furthermore an extended model of FWB is proposed for the Indian consumers.     

Marketing and Pricing Dynamics in the Presence of Structural Breaks: The Hungarian Pork Market

The study of marketing margins and price transmission on various commodity markets has been a popular research topic of the past decades (see Meyer & Von Cramon-Taubadel, 2004 Meyer , J. , & Von Cramon-Taubadel , S. ( 2004 ). Asymmetric price transmission: A survey . Journal of Agricultural Economics , 55 ( 3 ), 581 – 611 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], for a recent survey). However, with a few exception these studies focused on developed economies. This article examines this phenomena on the Hungarian pork market. The Johansen (maximum likelihood, 1988 Johansen , S. ( 1988 ). Statistical analysis of cointegrating vectors . Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control , 12 , 231 – 254 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) or Engle and Granger (2-step, 1987 Engle , R. F. , & Granger , C. W. J. ( 1987 ). Cointegration and error correction: Representation, estimation and testing . Econometrica , 55 , 251 – 276 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) cointegration tests do not reject the no-cointegration null hypothesis between the Hungarian pork producer and retail price series. Therefore, we applied the Gregory and Hansen (1996 Gregory , A. W. , & Hansen , B. E. ( 1996 ). Residual-based tests for cointegration in models with regime shifts . Journal of Econometrics , 70 , 99 – 126 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) procedure with recursively estimated break points and Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) statistics and found that the prices are cointegrated with a structural break occurring in April 1996 Gregory , A. W. , & Hansen , B. E. ( 1996 ). Residual-based tests for cointegration in models with regime shifts . Journal of Econometrics , 70 , 99 – 126 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. Exogeneity tests reveal the causality running from producer to retail prices both in the long and short run. Homogeneity tests are rejected, suggesting a markup pricing strategy. Price transmission modeling suggests that price transmission on the Hungarian pork meat market is symmetric in the long run but asymmetric in the short run; that is, processors, wholesalers, or retailers might take temporary advantage should price changes occur.     

Spatial Integration in the Broiler Market in Peninsular Malaysia

The broiler sector in Peninsular Malaysia is marked by many structural elements of imperfect competition, particularly increasing vertical integration. This study adopts the Enders and Granger (1998 Enders , W. , & Granger , C. W. J. ( 1998 ). Unit root tests and asymmetric adjustment with an example using the term structure of interest rates . Journal of Business and Economic Statistics , 16 ( 3 ), 304 – 311 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) threshold autoregressive model to analyze market integration and pricing efficiency in the broiler sector. Results indicate that market integration exists in the broiler sector in spite of the structural rigidities that are present. However, asymmetries in price transmission are evident between the central market and regional wholesale markets.     

Land change in the Brazilian Savanna (Cerrado), 1986–2002: Comparative analysis and implications for land-use policy

The Brazilian Cerrado, a biodiverse savanna ecoregion covering 1.8 million km² south and east of the Amazon rainforest, is in rapid decline because of the expansion of modern agriculture. Previous studies of Cerrado land-use and land-cover (LULC) change imply spatial homogeneity, report widely varying rates of land conversion, use ambiguous LULC categories, and generally do not attempt to validate results. This study addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing moderate-resolution, multi-spectral satellite remote sensing data from 1986 to 2002 in two regions with identical underlying drivers. Unsupervised classification by the ISODATA algorithm indicates that Cerrado was converted to agro-pastoral land covers in 31% (3646 km²) of the study region in western Bahia and 24% (3011 km²) of the eastern Mato Grosso study region, while nearly 40% (4688 km² and 5217 km², respectively) of each study region remained unchanged. Although aggregate land change is similar, large and contiguous fragments persist in western Bahia, while smaller fragments remain in eastern Mato Grosso. These findings are considered in the current context of Cerrado land-use policy, which is dominated by the conservation set-aside and command-control policy models. The spatial characteristics of Cerrado remnants create considerable obstacles to implement the models; an alternative approach, informed by countryside biogeography, may encourage collaboration between state officials and farmer-landowners toward conservation land-use policies.     

加强科技创新 提高农业用水生产力

随着我国人口增长和经济发展,农产品消费需求将呈刚性增长。与此同时,耕地减少、水资源短缺、气候变化等因素对农业生产的约束日益突出,特别是水资源短缺问题将成为对我国农业可持续发展的严峻挑战。提高农业用水生产力,要发展生物性节水技术,开发旱作节水技术,发展现代节水灌溉技术,解决水质性缺水问题,提高节水装备水平,加强管理制度和机制创新。     

How farmers perceive and cope with bowalization: A case study from West Africa

Bowal, a particular form of land degradation occurs only in tropical regions. This study aims at assessing the perceptions of farmers on the causes and consequences of bowalization and the developed strategies to cope with it in semiarid and sub-humid climate zones in Benin. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Representatives from 279 households of nine ethnic groups in the semiarid zone of Benin (Peulh, Bariba, Dendi, Nagots and Mocolé) and in the sub-humid zone (Fon, Mahi, Holli and Adja) were interviewed. Pearson Chi-square Test was performed to analyze the perceptions on the causes, consequences and coping strategies with bowé in the two climate zones. Simple correspondence analysis was used to evaluate the coping strategies according to the ethnic groups. Bowalization was reported to be induced by non-adapted land use and soil erosion. An increase of farmed land and animal-drawn tillage was more perceived in the semiarid zone as cause of bowalization. Bowalization leads to loss of biodiversity in the two climates zones. Its consequences for the production of crops consist mainly in reducing water retention capacity of the soils, rooting difficulties for crops and increase of soil temperature. Farmers in the semiarid zone have adopted planting of cowpea and groundnut on bowé. Adapted cropping techniques in the semiarid zone consist in using a hoe for manual tillage and weed control. Ethnic groups of both climate zones that depend mainly on livestock herding have to practice transhumance and use food supply for the animals. The Bariba and Dendi in the semiarid zone modified their practices of tillage, weed control, sowing, fertilization, and livestock feeding most. The Mahi, Holli, Fon and Adja of the sub-humid zone mostly reduced their farmland, changed the crops and fields and adopted new off-farms activities. The Peulh mostly practiced transhumance independent from the zone. The type of coping strategies to bowé is dependent on the climate zone and ethnic group.