The Adoption of Genetically Modified Cotton and Poverty Reduction in Pakistan

This article employs a propensity score‐matching approach to examine the direct effects of adoption of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton on yields, pesticide demand, household income and poverty, using cross‐sectional data from a survey of farmers in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Generally, the findings reveal that adoption of the new technology exerts a positive and significant impact on cotton yields, household income and poverty reduction, and a negative effect on the use of pesticides. The positive and significant impact of the technology on yields and household income is consistent with the potential role of new agricultural technology in directly reducing rural poverty through increased farm household income.     

Patterns of development and conservation in agricultural lands—The case of the Tel Aviv metropolitan region 1990–2000

Until the 1990s Israel was implementing a strict agricultural land preservation policy program, rooted in Zionist ideology. This was changed when shifts in Israeli planning and land policy towards the end of the 20th century brought about accelerated growth and sprawling development in agricultural lands at the urban–rural fringe, particularly in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region (TMR). In this article we describe the background for policy shifts and the resulting impact on metropolitan growth, and then proceed to identify patterns of development in former agricultural lands and their impact on conservation, based on a study of statutory land use plans converting agricultural land to built-up uses within the TMR. It was found that most of the plans were converting large tracts of agricultural land to residential uses, characterized by low-density suburban-type family housing, thus reducing considerably the spatial conservation potential. In addition, only relative small portions of land were conserved as public open space within plans’ boundaries, and even then only about half of that was actually effective for active open space uses.     

农村金融支持农业产业化经营研究——湖南实证

本文基于农村金融支持湖南农业产业化经营的现状及已有的研究成果,深入剖析农村金融支持农业产业化经营的特征与存在的主要问题,进一步分析农村金融支持湖南农业产业化经营的障碍因素及其制约原因。提出了创新金融市场机制、准确定位金融机构、强化农业信贷管理、完善风险控制机制等农村金融支持农业产业化的若干对策建议,重构农业产业化的农村金融支持体系,加快农村金融改革步伐,创新农业产业化发展之路。     

Tare land in Flemish horticulture

The annual agricultural census in Belgium delivers quantitative data of net and additional areas of land used for agriculture and horticulture. We introduce the term ‘tare land’ to indicate the latter as the area of land fragments not directly supporting crops or fodder, at farm level or at higher (landscape, region) level. For spatial planning and zoning purposes data on gross agricultural area (being the sum of net and tare areas) are required. However, the quality of the tare data is not documented or even questioned. In Belgian and international scientific and grey literature, little information on tare is available. In this paper we define two classes of tare, functional tare (fTare) and plan tare (pTare). fTare encompasses the sum of the area of all additional land used by farmers for professional purpose or closely associated to the net agricultural area but not directly used for the production of food, fodder or industrial crops. Plan tare (pTare) is defined as these parts of the statutory agricultural area not specifically used in farming, such as public roads and inclusions of non-farming buildings. By means of a GPS-survey and interviews with farm managers, we used two methods to survey net and tare areas of land. On one hand we surveyed the land within farm enterprises: 3 open air horticultural farms, 6 greenhouse horticultural farms and one mixed farm (open air horticulture and greenhouse). On the other hand we surveyed 10 segments of 25 ha, all situated in one municipality within a major horticultural region of Flanders (northern region of Belgium). fTare areas account on average for 21% of the total farm area in the case of open air horticulture whereas the fTare area is 39% in case of greenhouse horticultural farms. These averages are significantly different. The mixed farm had an fTare area of 32%. Within areas designated for agriculture plan tare is 44%. Hence only 56% of the land with an agricultural destination is effectively used for agriculture. These figures illustrate the spatial importance of tare areas and the spatially extremely scattered organisation of horticulture in the study area. Knowledge on quality and nature of tare areas is important for multi-objective spatial planning in which economic and ecological sustainability of agriculture is considered.     

Impacts of changing water inflow distributions on irrigation and farm income along the Drâa River in Morocco

Irrigation water is essential for agriculture in the arid Drâa River basin in Morocco but climate change leads to increasingly unreliable water supply in the area. This article analyzes impacts of changing water inflow distributions on irrigation and farm income extending a conjunctive river basin model toward a stochastic modeling approach. Regional climate scenarios are used to derive a maximum likelihood density estimate of current and future water supplies. Based on these distributions, Monte Carlo simulations are performed to obtain stochastic model results on surface and groundwater irrigation as well as economic indicators for six oases along the river. The probability of farmers to receive revenues below the subsistence level is around 2% under current conditions, but this is likely to rise to rates of 6% to 15% depending on the underlying climate change scenario. The composition of water sources for irrigation will shift to more groundwater use. The river basin model is able to represent complex spatial interactions between oases as well as a partial complementarity between groundwater and surface water irrigation due to salinity management effects. Interestingly, the value of groundwater is not necessarily increasing under future climatic conditions as salinity problems are aggravated with expanded groundwater use.     

浅析农用地产能核算成果在耕地占补平衡中的应用

耕地占补平衡的根本目的是为了保护耕地的粮食综合生产能力。本研究在农用地产能核算基础上,在耕地占补平衡中引入了"产能"这一核算标准,将占用耕地与补充耕地通过"产能"对应起来,使补充耕地的粮食生产能力不低于占用耕地。并提出了基于产能的耕地质量占补平衡方法、技术路线和实施步骤,从而实现了农用地产能核算成果在耕地占补平衡中的应用。     

新时期农行企业文化论

企业文化是企业长期文化建设的反映。中国农业银行历经62年的生存与发展,其自身的企业文化建设从无到有、从浅到深、从粗糙化到精细化,到今天农行的企业文化建设有了一个质的飞跃,这完全得益于农行企业对企业文化的重视。     

Strategies and impact of agro-allied parastatals reform in Nigeria

This study examines the reform of agro‐allied parastatals in Nigeria and determine the impact financially, economically and socially. Three enterprises, Flour Mills of Nigeria Limited (FMNL), Okitipupa Oil Palm Company (OOPC) and Nichemtex Industries Limited (NIL), were privatized in Nigeria under a reform programme aimed at improving the performance of agribusinesses in the country. The exercise was successfully conducted through public offer of shares and private placement. The reform led to an improvement in profitability, productivity, financial leverage and liquidity position of the enterprises. The social impact of privatization was also favourable. It has no adverse consequences on job security, level of employment and participation of employees in trade union matters. Successful implementation of the reform was due to several factors including high level of professional competence and dedication of officials connected with the reform, a high degree of transparency and strict compliance with laid down guidelines. At the enterprise level, the positive changes recorded by the enterprises came about through the adoption of a number of coping strategies such as the maintenance of diverse product mix, expansion of export potentials and upgrading of product quality, improved marketing management, technological restructuring and improved techniques of sourcing raw materials. At the macro level, some policy actions such as trade policy reforms and price liberalization also played significant role in enhancing the performance of the enterprises after privatization.     

基于投影寻踪模型的农业上市公司绩效综合评价

本文在构建了评价指标体系的基础上，应用投影寻踪模型对2006—2008年间中国农业上市公司绩效进行综合评价．实证结果表明：三年来，我国农业上市公司绩效有上升趋势，但大部分公司绩效不佳，绩效的影响主要集中在五个指标。     

The impact of agricultural productivity increases in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe on world agricultural markets

This paper studies the impact of productivity increases in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe on world agricultural markets and the regions’ bilateral and sectoral agricultural trade flows. We use a six‐region, 13‐sector general equilibrium model. We find that productivity increases lead to a significant increase in the regions’ agricultural output and exports and the former Soviet Union's agricultural imports. The former Soviet Union's net agricultural imports increase, whereas Eastern Europe's net agricultural trade balances improve. Overall, agricultural exporters will benefit, particularly, if productivity increases are not limited to or disproportionally high in agriculture.