对外直接投资逆向技术溢出与全球农业价值链地位提升——基于G20国家的经验研究

中国农业处于全球农业价值链的"微笑曲线"谷底,长期遭受不平等待遇。对农产品出口技术复杂度所作的测算显示,相对于G20国家而言,中国农业在全球农业价值链地位并不高,且与最高国家差距呈现逐渐扩大的趋势。对G20国家农业OFDI数据所作的面板回归表明,农业OFDI存在溢出效应,能够提升母国农业出口贸易品技术含量,且其提升需要"学习过程"。此外,农业FDI对出口贸易品技术含量的影响具有滞后性。据此,研究认为,中国为了实现全球农业价值链地位的攀升,应该进一步鼓励农业企业"走出去";改善农业投资环境,为外商直接投资创造条件;提高对外开放程度,为农业发展提供支持;推动金融体制改革,提高国内金融服务发展程度。     

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.     

Are EU trade preferences really effective? An impact evaluation assessment of the Southern Mediterranean Countries’ case

This work assesses the causal impact of the EU trade preferences granted to the Southern Mediterranean Countries (SMCs) in agriculture and fishery products over the period 2004–2014. It overcomes some of the weaknesses of previous assessments and presents several methodological improvements. Firstly, it relies on a continuous treatment – i.e. preferential margins – to capture the ‘average treatment effect’ of trade preferences, rather than on a binary treatment based on dummy variables. Secondly, it uses highly disaggregated data at sectoral level in order to evaluate properly the preferential treatment. Thirdly, it applies a non-parametric matching technique for continuous treatment – specifically, a generalized propensity score matching. The results show, on the one hand, that the impact of the EU preferences is positive and significant on SMCs trade and is better evaluated using impact evaluation techniques. On the other hand, they demonstrate that the relationship between preferences and trade flows is asymmetric and warn against the risk of providing too much of a good thing. These results raise important issues for policy-making. First, they demonstrate that raising the level of preferences is not the solution to foster the SMCs trade towards EU. Second, that the policy-makers should put more emphasis on complementary factors other than trade barriers.     

A comparative multidimensional evaluation of conservation agriculture systems: A case study from a Mediterranean area of Southern Italy

To avoid the current paradoxes of the global agro-food system it is necessary to define and implement a viable agricultural sustainable model, combining satisfaction of food needs and land preservation. A possible solution can be found in a holistic production system consistent with a sustainable development model, designed to satisfy diverse “local” economies. The conservation agriculture (CA) could be a part of this model, as it includes a set of best practices available to preserve agrarian soil and its biodiversity. Briefly, we cover the CA background in Europe followed by the evaluation of its impact in terms of private/public interest, using the sustainability’s metric.To test the viability of a model based on CA in “local conditions”, we compare economic performance of different conservation practices (i.e. minimum and no tillage) to that of conventional agriculture in a typical Mediterranean environment – Collina Materana – in Southern Italy (Basilicata region). Our findings suggest that: i) CA can actually be a viable alternative to conventional systems; ii) in Mediterranean agricultural areas CA has yield advantages especially during dry years, when conservation techniques increase water supply to crops; iii) public support is needed to direct farming choices in fact without financial incentives these practices would be not widely accepted and diffused; iv) European policy makers have to recognized the positive benefits of CA and pay them as ecosystem services in the framework of Good Agricultural Environmental Conditions and the present CAP subsidies.     

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.     

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。     

新常态下生态农业的发展前景与对策———以河南省为例

农业是我国国民经济的基础,农业可持续发展直接关系到作为国家战略核心的粮食与食品安全问题。在经济社会发展步入新常态形势下,河南省作为我国农业大省在产业发展与结构调整方面坚持以增量带动结构优化、以创新促进产业升级,增量调整与存量优化并举。文章从新常态下生态农业问题入手,分析了人口压力、农业人口素质、劳动力转移风险及科技水平等方面所面临的挑战;并结合河南省当前农业发展的整体态势与发展生态农业的前景,指出在经济发展放缓与农业改革转型压力增强情况下河南省应通过发展生态农业来进一步加快农业现代化步伐,将发展生态农业作为农业工作的重要指标来全盘考虑;提出培育资源节约与环境友好型农业、培育高素质的职业农民、培育贯穿农业生产全过程的社会化服务体系、推进产业融合及发展特色农产品等建议。     

山西省新型农业经营体系构建问题研究

党的十八大报告明确提出,要坚持和完善农村基本经营制度,培育新型经营主体,发展多种形式的规模经营,构建新型农业经营体系,这为创新农业经营组织指明了方向。山西省作为农业大省,正处于加快现代农业发展的关键期,也要积极构建新型农业经营体系,明确战略定位和发展思路,走出一条具有山西特色的新型农业经营体系的路。实践证明山西省新型农业经营体系构建取得了一定的成绩,但发展过程中也暴露出了一些问题,即新型农业经营类型比例不均衡、土地流转制度不健全、生产效率不高等。究其原因,主要是几个因素的叠加影响,包括政策支持力度不到位、农业劳动者科学文化水平不高及农业经营的科技化水平不强等,因此山西省应从加强政策引导与资金投入、建立完善的农民技能培训及提高农业生产经营的科技化与机械化水平等方面积极入手,进一步促进新型农业经营体系的持续稳定发展。     

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。