Women farmers’ participation in the agricultural research process: implications for agricultural sustainability in Ethiopia

Empowering women farmers to participate in agricultural research is a key strategy for sustainable agricultural development. Women empowerment has the potential to improve their roles in agricultural production while enhancing nutrition and food security. Although new agricultural development policies are focusing on improving women engagement in agriculture, there is limited literature on women empowerment in relation to agricultural research. This study used mixed methods to analyse women farmers’ participation in four stages of the agricultural research process – design, testing, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation. Two hundred and thirty individual interviews with women farmers and 16 focus group discussions with men and women farmers were conducted in four Woredas (districts) of Ethiopia. Quantitative data were analysed using binary and multivariate probit models. Qualitative data were analysed using line-by-line coding. The results showed that several empowerment indicator variables significantly (p?≤?.001) influenced women’s participation in different stages of agricultural research. Specifically, input in production decisions, autonomy in plot management, membership to farmer groups, and ability to speak in public enhanced women’s participation in different stages, in addition to access to information and extension services, education and land size. Cultural norms hindered women’s empowerment and engagement in research. To foster sustainable agriculture development, it’s important to integrate holistic and proactive gender perspectives into research strategies to increase women’s participation in farmer research groups, access information and knowledge, have voice and challenge constraining cultural norms and traditions.     

Agriculture and the city: A method for sustainable planning of new forms of agriculture in urban contexts

Contemporary cities are threatened by urban development decreasing the overall environmental quality and fragmenting natural and agricultural landscapes. As a result of this fragmentation the number of Non Urbanized Areas (NUAs) present in urban contexts is dramatically decreasing. These areas include cultivated land, Abandoned Farmlands, Grassland, Woods and Shrubs that are often located at the peri-urban cities’ fringes. Among NUAs, farmlands and other forms of urban and peri-urban agriculture provide all three major categories of ecosystem services, provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Recently, New Forms of Urban Agriculture (NFUA) have gained increasing attention from researchers for their promising multifunctionality. Incorporating NFUA into the urban environment will thus improve the sustainability of cities, taking advantage of the multiple benefits and services they can provide.This paper presents a method for the characterisation of NUAs in terms of their physical, ecological and social features. These areas are analysed with different criteria and related indicators structured according to a GIS-based Multi Criteria Suitability Model. The proposed model checks the suitability of transformation of the NUAs toward NFUA, thereby enhancing their ecological and social function as well as accessibility and overall connectivity. Different scenarios of spatial configurations for NFUA have been explored with a sensitivity analysis on the values of used indicators. The method was tested for the municipality of Catania, south Italy, an urban context characterised by a relevant shortage of public green spaces and services.     

Valuation of ecosystem services provided by irrigated rice agriculture in Thailand: a choice experiment considering attribute nonattendance

This research investigates how the public of a middle‐income country, Thailand, values ecosystem services associated with irrigated rice agriculture using a choice experiment. The results show a significant willingness to pay for services such as drought mitigation, water quality and the environment and maintenance of rural lifestyles and rice landscapes. The iterative procedure developed to fully analyze the incidence of attribute nonattendance (ANA) improved the model fit when compared with a multinomial logit model or an ANA model with potentially only one attribute ignored at a time (ANA‐1). Moreover, the inferred probability of the class of respondents having attended all attributes was 45%, compared to 9% with ANA‐1 model. However, it also suggests that 55% of the respondents made their choices by considering only two of the five attributes. Finally, this research also suggests that failing to consider ANA does not change the public ranking of scenarios contrasted by the services they would provide but would overestimate the WTP for these scenarios.     

“一带一路”背景下新疆农业资源配置效率及优化

[目的]通过测算新疆农业资源配置效率,并提出优化方案,以期抓住"一带一路"建设机遇实现新疆农业的可持续快速发展。[方法]采用DEA分析方法,在兼顾经济效益和生态效应的原则下选取3个产出指标和7个投入指标,选取2010~2015年新疆16个市州区作为研究样本采用B2C静态评价模型研究新疆农业资源配置效率,并提出从纯技术效率或规模效率入手优化资源配置的优化方案。[结果]新疆16市州区除了克拉玛依市、吐鲁番地区和生产建设兵团综合技术效率的值为1外,其余的都未达到生产前沿面,说明新疆大部分市州农业资源配置与经营规模不适应,农业资源未到达最优配置,存在浪费现象;新疆16个市州区的综合技术效率均值为0.714,说明新疆农业资源配置效率总体状况低效。[结论]新疆农业资源配置总体效率较高,但仍存在地区差异,部分地市的农业资源投入均不同程度出现冗余,其中化肥、农药和农膜使用量过剩现象较突出。同时发现,"一带一路"发展战略的实施给新疆农业发展提供了良好的发展机遇。     

我国区域农业生态文明及其协调度的时空分异研究——以典型省份为例

农业生态文明是我国生态文明建设的重要组成部分。由于我国区域自然生态条件、社会经济发展水平差异明显,农业生态文明的各项支撑要素也存在显著差异。文章在构建我国农业生态文明指数评价指标体系的基础上,基于离差系数原理构建区域农业生态文明协调度评价模型,选取黑龙江、河南、四川作为典型区域,运用2007~2013年统计数据,对3个省的农业生态文明指数及其协调度进行评价,并分析其各子系统支撑作用的演化特征。研究认为,我国开展生态文明建设以来,3个典型省农业生态文明指数及协调度均得到了显著提升,且均已先后进入"良好协调"阶段,但农业生态文明各子系统支撑作用演化的时空分异明显。因此,在推进农业生态文明建设过程中,应充分认识不同区域的发展水平、优势条件及薄弱环节,把握发展规律与特点,因地制宜、因区施策,提高农业产业发展与资源环境、社会经济条件的匹配度,改善和提升农业供给侧水平。     

河南省农业面源污染成因分析

近年来,农业面源污染给我国农村生态环境造成了一定的破坏,挖掘农业面源污染的成因及问题对今后农业面源污染的治理具有重要意义。文章以河南省为探讨对象,首先阐述了农业面源污染含义及主要特点。利用文献分析和统计方法对河南省农业化学品投入使用及污染情况进行分析,2007~2014年河南省化肥及农药产量和使用量均呈上涨趋势,污染面积及范围进一步扩大,面源污染的主要来源是化肥、农药、秸秆及生活垃圾。而人口快速增长、经济利益驱使、政策方面不健全是造成农业面源污染主要原因。该文认为,解决农业面源污染应从推广减量技术,积极发展有机(生态)农业;提高思想认识,树立科学农业发展理念;大力推广精准农业,减轻面源污染程度;建立健全环境法规,完善政策及管理体系等4个方面入手,以期为其他地区农业面源污染治理提供借鉴和参考。     

基于城镇化视角下休闲农业发展路径分析——以山东省为例

作为我国经济结构的不断调整与我国城乡差距的逐步扩大等相关城乡问题的有效解决方案,城镇化建设对于我国农村地区经济社会的健康发展与缩小目前我国城乡差距,实现我国城乡协调发展至关重要。随着我国城镇化进程的不断加快,如何有效利用城镇化所带来的机遇,如何通过城镇化建设有效推进我国农村产业结构调整,实现农村经济的快速发展是在我国城镇化背景之下农村经济发展需要面对与急需解决的重大课题。休闲农业作为一种区别于传统农业的先进的农业生产模式其对于我国农村产业结构的调整至关重要。作为我国的农业大省与人口大省,如何实现休闲农业的长期健康发展是山东省在城镇化建设进程中继续解决的重要课题。文章通过文献查阅与实地调研相结合的方法对目前城镇化背景下山东省休闲农业发展路径进行系统研究并再对其中存在的诸多问题进行细致分析基础上提出相应的解决方案,旨在在城镇化快速发展背景下为山东省休闲农业的长期健康发展提供一定的理论与实践借鉴。     

Payments for environmental services to promote “climate‐smart agriculture”? Potential and challenges

Payments for environmental services (PES) have gained wide popularity as approaches to promote environmentally friendly land use or agricultural production practices. Yet academics have also voiced concerns against seeing PES as a panacea. This article discusses whether PES is an appropriate and promising approach to promote so‐called “climate‐smart agriculture” (CSA) practices, which we define as agricultural production practices that contribute to CO₂ emission reductions and/or removals and provide benefits to farmers via increased productivity and profits and reduced vulnerability to climate change. PES appears most promising for the promotion of CSA practices in small‐scale farming contexts with low incomes. Effective design, however, requires solid estimates of cost and benefit flows from CSA adoption over time, accounting for differences in socioeconomic and ecological conditions, and addressing the risk of leakage. Funding for such PES will likely have to come from public sources, and seems most promising where synergies with other objectives such as agricultural development, food security, and climate adaptation or other environmental services exist. The potential of alternative approaches for CSA support such as taxation with rebates for CSA practices, CSA‐related investment support such as microcredits, and hybrid approaches such as conditional microcredit should be further investigated.     

节能生态农业技术扩散机制研究

如何处理好经济发展与节约资源、保护环境的关系成为我国未来发展迫待解决的问题之一,党的十八大更是对建设资源节约型、环境友好型社会提出了更新更高要求,农业与农村节能减排是我国《节能减排"十二五"规划》中的主要工作任务之一,其工作重点是大力推广科学高效的节肥、节药、节水、节能及农村废弃物资源化利用技术,以实现农业与农村经济快速可持续发展。当前我国各地区、各部门在国务院统一决策部署下,加大工作力度,采取积极有效的措施,推动了农业技术进步,更多的先进技术成果得到推广,节能减排工作初见成效。然而节能生态农业技术在应用范围上仍然有限,推进相关技术的扩散仍是节能减排工作中的重中之重。文章对农业技术扩散理论加以阐述,通过分析当前我国节能生态农业技术扩散现状,研究并探讨适合我国节能生态农业技术扩散的有效机制与具体举措,以期为提升我国资源节约型农业发展水平提供参考。     

休闲农业研究述评

休闲农业作为一种旅游业与农业交叉的复合型产业,受到了国内外众多学者的关注。在梳理相关文献的基础上,文章对国内外休闲农业及其相关问题研究进行了较为详细的比较综述。研究认为,国内外学者关于休闲农业的研究路径颇不相同:国外学者普遍将休闲农业作为一种现象来研究,注重休闲农业发展中的经营主体、影响及社区居民的态度研究;而国内学者更多地将休闲农业作为转变农业生产方式的一种策略提出来,因而偏重于概念、发展模式、发展评价、规划与空间结构、需求主体、问题与对策等方面的研究。该文基于对现有文献的评析,对今后休闲农业研究的重点方向进行了展望:(1)应关注农民的参与意愿及经营行为研究;(2)要重视休闲农业产业集群化研究;(3)休闲农业产业链的拓宽、延伸及优化是未来研究需要关注的方向;(4)还需要深入探讨休闲农业发展中的土地流转问题。