Transformations of the Romanian agricultural paradigm under domestic economic policy reforms: An analysis during 1960–2011

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the transformations of the Romanian agricultural paradigm under the domestic economic policy reforms. An econometric approach is adopted by analyzing the evolution of Romanian agriculture between 1960 and 2011 from the perspective of its implications on residential land economy. This methodological choice relies on its high degree of applicability and its ability to reveal the massive transformation of the Romanian agricultural paradigm during the period under focus. Two regression models have been developed in the attempt to analyze the evolution of total value added and labor productivity in agriculture. The results obtained during the research confirm that Romanian agriculture exhibits determinant and significant elements able to trigger a massive change of paradigm.     

湖南省农村信贷现状及发展对策

根据对湖南省农村信贷现状的调查,进而对湖南农村信贷在发展中存在的问题进行了分析,并提出了完善湖南省农村信贷的发展对策.     

基于组合赋权的青海省水资源承载力模糊物元分析

以青海省为研究区域,以其所辖的8个行政分区作为研究单元,利用基于组合赋权的模糊物元分析法,从用水总量、用水效率、水质3个维度建立青海省水资源承载力的"三条红线"评价指标体系。结果显示:青海省水资源还具有较大的开发潜力,水资源承载能力较强。但是青海省水资源开发利用条件和程度呈现出区域性差异,西宁市和海东市水资源承载力已近饱和状态,而其余地区水资源承载力相对较强,必须因地制宜采取相应的改善措施。     

基于SBO-PP模型的水资源可持续发展能力评价模型及应用

为利用投影寻踪(PP)技术科学,客观评价区域水资源可持续发展能力,基于生态环境、水资源和经济社会因素选取20个指标构建区域水资源可持续发展能力评价指标体系。利用新型仿生群体智能算法——凉亭鸟优化(SBO)算法优化PP技术最佳投影方向,提出SBO-PP水资源可持续发展能力评价模型,并构建灰狼优化(GWO)算法-PP模型、人工蜂群(ABC)算法-PP模型、差分进化(DE)算法-PP模型、地理生物学优化(BBO)算法-PP模型、粒子群优化(PSO)算法-PP模型作对比,以云南省2006—2015年及2020年水资源可持续发展能力评价为例进行实例研究。结果表明:SBO算法优化PP技术获得的适应度值优于GWO、ABC、DE、BBO和PSO算法,具有较好的求解精度、稳健性能和极值寻优能力。SBO-PP模型对云南省2006—2007年水资源可持续发展能力评价为"较差",2008—2015年评价为"中等",2020年评价为"较强"。     

Do Community Supported Agriculture programmes encourage change to food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes? New evidence from shareholders

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programmes have recently received attention for their potential to influence food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, though studies have mostly drawn from small samples (n?t-tests assess if paired means are statistically different, and multiple regressions of paired differences on socioeconomic factors, self-reported health, and years of CSA enrolment estimate the effect of respondent characteristics on behaviour change. The results strongly suggest that CSAs have the potential to positively impact shareholders’ food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, and that those reporting ‘poor health’ prior to CSA enrolment exhibited the most change overall. These results should be taken as an initial, yet promising, analysis of the impact of CSA participation on shareholder food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes.     

Mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture in England and China,and the scope for policy transfer

This paper evaluates the existing policy frameworks for mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA) in England and China. With reference to a conceptual model of the process of policy transfer or international lesson drawing, and possible constraints to this, it assesses whether and how China can draw lessons to improve current policy from the supra-national and national provisions of the EU and a member state that by 2016 had comprehensively implemented EU agricultural and environmental policy. DWPA is first analysed as a public policy challenge to inform specification of a generic framework for its mitigation. The current policy frameworks for mitigation of DWPA in England and China are evaluated, and their potential for improvement is assessed. A number of barriers to lesson drawing for regulation, incentive payments schemes and advice provision are diagnosed. These barriers are potentially least in relation to advice provision and its use to promote voluntary action by farmers. Given its structure and capabilities the public agricultural extension system in China is also recognised as a key resource. A focus on three policy approaches to mitigate DWPA in China is recommended: i) targeted regulation to a ‘reference level’ of large intensive livestock, and ultimately other large commercial farms; ii) strategic use of incentive payment schemes to protect water resources from DWPA; and iii) re-orientation of the ethos and modalities of operation of the extension system, informed by international lesson drawing, with the aim of rebalancing farm productivity and environmental protection.     

Does the Decoupling Reform Affect Agricultural Employment in Sweden? Evidence from an Exogenous Change

This study uses aggregated municipality data, for the years 2001–2009, to explore whether direct payments to farmers affect agricultural employment in Swedish municipalities. The decoupling reform in 2005 included a new grassland support payment accompanied by management obligations that had unexpectedly high redistributive consequences as it greatly increased common agricultural policy payments to municipalities with large areas of grassland. In some municipalities, total payments more than doubled. Thus, since the reform seems exogenous to the behaviour of farmers and the regional economy, the reform can be used to identify a subsidy effect. We find that a permanent increase in agricultural employment can be attributed to the new grassland support. Our results indicate that the grassland support generates an additional job at a cost of SEK 250,000, relative to the average agricultural wage of SEK 333,000. However, the subsidy effect is largely keeping jobs in agriculture, i.e. the grassland support may be slowing down the process of structural change in grassland regions.     

河南省农民消费支出地区差异的实证分析

据2011年河南省统计年鉴调查数据表明,河南省各地区农民支出差异较大,且呈现出进一步扩大的趋势。文章从河南省农民消费支出地区差异的现状着手,对河南省农民消费支出地区差异进行实证分析,找出影响河南省各地区农民消费支出的主要影响因素,并提出解决河南省农民消费支出差异较大问题方案的模型,为合理调整河南省农民消费结构,尽快消除消费支出地区差异较大并继续扩大的现象,实现各地区经济均衡发展提供一定的科学依据。     

Influencing factors of farmers’ willingness to withdraw from rural homesteads: A survey in zhejiang,China

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the influencing factors on farmers’ willingness of withdrawal from rural homesteads (WRH). Methods that included field surveys, factor analyses and case studies were used for this paper. The results show that farmers have a strong willingness to own the property on which their homesteads sit. There are deviations between homestead systems and execution. It is common that the area of a homestead exceeds the lawful standard, and one peasant family owns two or more homesteads. Peasant families have many concerns about WRH, which include: reduction of employment, lack of supporting social security, high expenditure of new houses, low compensation criteria for homesteads, decline in standard of living and inconvenience in agricultural production. Among all means of compensation, peasants prefer allocated residences, and they pay more attention to public service facilities and fundamental facilities. The authors argue that implementing employment and social security policies and setting up linkage mechanisms of WRH could help to smoothly push forward WRH.     

The organic industry in Australia: Current and future trends

Accurate information is critical for investment, policy alignment and to support agricultural development. In Australia information relating to the size, growth, current and future value of the organic sector has been incoherent and, in some cases, contradictory. This study seeks to address this gap by synthesising industry and government data with the results of an online quantitative survey as well as a series of in-depth interviews to capture the value added component of the organic industry in Australia. By sub-dividing the total organic industry into thirteen categories which makes for meaningful analysis and interpretation, we aimed to estimate the compound average growth rate, the current value added and future trends in the Australian organic industry. This has resulted in some interesting findings, hence the methodology could potentially serve as a benchmark for the reporting of organic food growth globally. The findings also have important implications for various stakeholders including, growers of organic products, investors, land use policy makers and industry operators.