Descriptive Analysis of Saskatchewan Organic Producers

A total of 69 Saskatchewan organic producers were surveyed in the spring of 1991. Although Saskatchewan organic farming represents a move toward an alternative conventional system of agriculture it is not a complete reversal from conventional practices. Saskatchewan organic farmers are experimenting with highly integrated systems which incorporate green manure crops and soil testing and require high management and marketing skills. In a study of then-goals and objectives using fuzzy sets, environment and healthy food were ranked above farm survival. This leads to the conclusion that most organic farmers do not adopt organic practices based on purely economic criteria but on higher goals within their own hierarchy.     

Farmers’ objectives as determinants of organic farming adoption: the case of Catalonian vineyard production

This article assesses the decision to adopt organic farming practices. We use Duration Analysis (DA) to determine why farmers adopt organic farming practices and what influences the timing of adoption. We extend previous studies by including farmers’ objectives, risk preferences, and agricultural policies as covariates in the DA model. The Analytical Hierarchy Process is used as a multicriteria decision‐making methodology to measure farmers’ objectives. The empirical analysis uses farm‐level data from a sample of vineyard farms in the Spanish region of Catalonia. Farmers’ objectives are found to influence the conversion decision. Moreover, farmers who are not risk averse are more likely to adopt organic farming. Results point to the policy changes that have been most relevant in motivating adoption of organic practices.     

农产品市场化对农户土地流入行为的影响研究——以江西省农户调查为例

随着中国市场经济的繁荣发展,农产品市场化程度不断提高,土地资源作为农业生产最重要的物质基础,农业经营者在一定的制度环境约束下将土地围绕外部利润进行博弈,选择更加有利的土地经营方式,成为土地流转的主要驱动力。文章利用江西省834份农户调查样本数据,运用Heckman两阶段模型实证分析了农产品市场化对农户土地流入行为的影响。研究结果表明农产品市场化对农户土地流入行为存在显著的影响,主要表现在离农贸市场距离、农产品销售比例等变量上。另外,农业劳动时间比、土地细碎化与户主年龄、性别、教育年限、务农年限及5年内担任村干部亲属的人数、参加农村合作社等因素均对农户土地流入行为产生不同程度影响。基于此,该文对如何有效引导与推进农村土地市场化流转提出了加快农贸市场超市化改造,完善农产品流通模式;建立健全农村社会保障体系,替代土地的社会保障功能;大力发展农村教育,提高农业经营者的文化素质与受教育水平;鼓励农户在自愿基础上成立土地股份型农民专业合作社,引导农民由传统的产销合作向新型的产权合作方向发展等政策建议。     

Conditioning trends shaping the agricultural and rural landscape in Africa

African countries continue to face deepening food crises that have been accentuated by the global food, energy, and financial crises. This situation is part of a long‐term structural problem: decades of under‐investments in agricultural sector and poor policies of support for smallholder farmers who form the bulk of the farming population. The inability of these farmers to achieve a supply response when commodity prices were high and market access was less of a problem suggests that there are multiple sets of binding constraints that continue to limit the potential of agricultural growth to reduce food security and poverty on the continent. This article reviews some of the historical trends that have hampered the performance of the agriculture sector. In addition, it reviews the impacts of more positive trends that could stimulate agricultural growth in Africa that could change the African agricultural landscape. The article however warns that there are more recent global developments and some continental challenges that could prevent or slow agricultural growth. These include the global financial crisis, public sector investments, inequities in global agricultural development policies, rush for agricultural lands by foreign investors, domestic commercial financing markets, climate change, and emerging carbon markets. The article argues that while opportunities for accelerated growth exists for African agriculture, new sets of policy instruments will be needed to support smallholder farmers to access new agricultural technologies, finance, reduce impacts of climate change, and adopt sustainable land use practices that can allow them to benefit from emerging global carbon markets.     

Research and Development Towards Sustainable Agriculture by Resource-Poor Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some Strategic and Organisational Considerations in Linking Farmer Practical Needs with Policies and Scientific Theories

Sustainable agricultural development is presented as a diverse and dynamic process through which it copes with agro-ecological and socio-economic diversity at field level and with ever-changing needs and opportunities of (smallholder) farmers. In support, agricultural research—aimed at locally appropriate and environmentally friendly technologies—should contribute to bridging the currently increasing gaps between scientific theories and government agricultural policies as opposed to the practical field realities that farmers are facing.

These gaps are best illustrated by—what in the West is often presumed to be—a stagnant African agricultural (in reality it is not!) in spite of many ambitious policies and projects by national governments and international donors for several decades. Disappointing adoption rates by resource-poor smallholders of the proposed ‘modern’ agricultural technologies have often been blamed. However, the actual local systems are primarily based on ‘ecological’ and ‘organic’ concepts. Localised intensification through recycling of organic by-products is an integral part of such systems. Consequently, these systems are uniquely adapted to the diverse framer needs resulting from widespread variations in soil, climate and socio-economic conditions. By contrast most international R&D support for the African agricultural sector is aimed implicitly at creating a modern conventional system of farming based on external inputs and along a Western industrial model.

To cope with diverse and complex, location specific problems inherent in development, sustainability and poverty alleviation, requires strong national research and development (R&D) institutions that adopt comprehensive, people-centred approaches as opposed to the technocratic nature of most formal international development assistance. The development debate therefore should be turned around. The ‘existing’ smallholder farming systems and their needs should be a point of departure, while the various development initiatives and policies should be handled by including the related institutional aspects.     

Farmers,institutions and technology in agricultural change processes: outcomes from Adaptive Research on rice production in Sulawesi,Indonesia

International agricultural research centres use approaches which aim to create effective linkages between the practices of farmers, introduced technologies and the wider environment that affects farming. This paper argues that such new approaches require a different type of monitoring as a complement to conventional approaches that tend to favour a quantitative assessment of adoption and impact at the farm level. In this context, we examined monitoring data from an Adaptive Research (AR) project highlighting complementary qualitative analysis. Our emphasis is to capture the improvisational capacities of farmers and to reveal social and institutional constraints and opportunities in a broader innovation system. Our approach provided clear insights into how rice farmers adjusted their practices and how actors involved linked (or not) with others in the innovation system. We also demonstrated how institutions such as policies, religious rituals or service provider arrangements pose conditions that establish or constrain practices aligned with introduced technologies. A broader perspective in monitoring AR therefore provides important additional insights into the factors which shape outcomes in farming communities. To expand outcomes, AR projects should also pay attention to designing and testing new institutional arrangements that create enabling conditions for agricultural innovation.     

Exploring the motivations and problems of farmers for conversion to organic farming in Iran

Identifying and understanding the heterogeneity of the motivations and problems of farmers is critical for designing better strategies as societies strive to convert towards agricultural approaches such as organic farming and sustainable intensification. The objective of this research is to explore the motivations and problems for conversion to organic farming in Iran. Survey data of Iranian organic producers were collected during the first half of 2015. These data were used to find the statistical determinants of motivations and problems for organic production. Results suggest that economic motivations, health, safety concerns and environmental issues are the predominant motives for conversion, while social and ethical motives are of lesser importance. Problems experienced during conversion relate to marketing, agronomic issues, lack of governmental and institutional support, negative pressure from other farmers and farm groups, and lack of physical and financial capital. To prosper, the Iranian organic sector must overcome fundamental economic problems and challenges. Some of the strategies recommended include the development and scaling up of sustainable intensification, strategies that encourage farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives, and sustainable procurement.     

基于韦伯二重合理性的农户生态耕种行为分析

目的 基于韦伯二重合理性理论框架,通过对传统农业大省江西省农户生态耕种行为理性的评价,分析农户生态耕种行为主要因素的影响规律,为农户生态耕种激励政策的制定提供参考。方法 文章以江西省农户为调查对象,采取分层抽样和随机抽样相结合的方式选取样本农户,针对户主或是参与农业经营决策的家庭主要成员开展访谈和问卷调查相结合的入户调查。利用获取的1 488份有效问卷数据,通过层次分析-熵值定权法确定农户生态耕种理性评价指标权重并进行评价,得出农户生态耕种行为理性的评价值。运用Order-Probit模型分析二重合理性理论框架下农户生态耕种行为的工具理性、价值理性及其交互以及其他主要因素的影响规律。结果 （1）样本农户平均采纳生态耕种行为4.735项,工具理性评价均值为0.546 8,价值理性评价均值0.354 2,丘陵区农户生态耕种行为工具理性和价值理性值比平原、山地区更高。（2）当前,工具理性在农户生态耕种行为采纳上起到消极的抑制作用,价值理性起到积极的促进作用,而二重合理性的冲突减弱了农户生态耕种采纳率。（3）家庭劳动力占比越高、耕地收入占比的提高,农户采取生态耕种行为的可能性越高,而促进小农户向新型农业现代经营主体的转变是提高农户生态耕种行为采纳的有效途径之一。（4）农户保留仅供自家消费的耕地说明其对耕地生产的安全性持有疑虑,更加愿意进行生态耕种以保持耕地和农产品健康。结论 需要积极落实生态农产品的补偿,完善有关法规制度和质量监管,实现生态耕种的产品价值,以达到农户追求效益的工具理性与耕地保护的价值理性之间的协调统一。     

Institutional factors and farmers’ adoption of conventional,organic and genetically modified cotton in Burkina Faso

Organic farming and genetically modified (GM) crops technologies are currently being promoted as alternatives to conventional farming that is seen as unsustainable. However, institutional constraints can impede the adoption of even the most sustainable technology. This paper analysed the effect of institutional factors on farmers’ adoption of conventional, organic and GM cotton in Burkina Faso. Building on the expected utility model and institutional theory, a multinomial logistic regression was performed using farmers’ survey data from the 2014–2015 production season. The results showed that subsidies on fertiliser and credit for cereals production, the power of farmers’ association and that of the cotton company favoured the adoption of conventional and GM cotton at the expense of organic cotton. In order to succeed, organic cotton projects need to include components that help farmers to access organic fertilisers for cereals production. They also need to involve the cotton companies that are the most powerful stakeholders of the cotton sector. Extension services are necessary for both organic and GM cotton adoption. Other important factors to consider include farmers’ education, the potentials of the technologies, the good agro-ecological conditions, the continued involvement of women, the availability of virgin lands and the closeness of farmers to their farms.     

Multifunctional peri-urban agriculture—A review of societal demands and the provision of goods and services by farming

Peri-urban areas around urban agglomerations in Europe and elsewhere have been subject to agricultural and land use research for the past three decades. The manner in which farming responds to urban pressures, socio-economic changes and development opportunities has been the main focus of examination, with urban demand for rural goods and services representing a driving factor to adapt farming activities in a multifunctional way. Working within the peri-urban framework, this review pays particular attention to the relevance of multifunctional agriculture. Academic discourses and empirical insights related to farm structure and practices beyond conventional agriculture are analysed. Diversification, recreational and environmental farming, landscape management and specialisation, as well as direct marketing are all taken into consideration and discussed within the context of landscape functions. The provision of rural goods and services is contrasted with societal demands on peri-urban agriculture. This review finds that multifunctional agriculture has been commonly recognised in peri-urban areas – a phenomenon that includes a large variety of activities and diversification approaches within the context of environmental, social and economic functions of agriculture. In response to the post-productive, consumption-oriented requirements of the urban society, peri-urban farmers have intensified their uptake of multifunctional activities. Nevertheless, not all multifunctional opportunities are being fully developed when one considers the large and growing urban demand for goods and services provided by agriculture carried out near the city. This paper discusses policy and planning approaches to support multifunctional agriculture in peri-urban areas.     

Management of drinking water catchment areas in cooperation with agriculture and the specific role of organic farming. Experiences from Germany and France

Many problems with nitrate and pesticide contamination from agriculture exist in European drinking water catchments, and quite different management options are presently searched for. Among them, organic farming is considered as an important option to conciliate agricultural activities and water preservation. Based on different type of interviews, literature and documentation analysis, and participation in a steering committee, we compare the construction of agreements between city water utilities and farmers for the preservation of drinking water quality in three drinking water catchment areas (Munich and Augsburg in Germany, Lons-le-Saunier in France). The main differences found are the delimitation of the city's field of action, compensation payments for farmers for certain practices, involvement of the city council in the acquisition of land, and importance granted to organic farming. Successful city-farmer coordination is based on the presence of a facilitator as an intermediary, technical support, dialogue, contracts that span sufficiently long periods, and participation of farmers in elaboration of contracts. In this frame, organic farming did not appear as the major solution and was not systematically developed.     

Farmers’ perceptions of biodiversity: Lessons from a discourse-based deliberative valuation study

In agricultural landscapes farmers have a large impact on biodiversity through the management decisions they apply to their land. Farmers’ perceptions of biodiversity and its different values influence their willingness to apply biodiversity friendly farming practices. The results of a discourse-based, deliberative biodiversity valuation are presented in this paper. Organic and conventional farmers’ perceptions of the different values of biodiversity were analyzed across three European countries. Focus group methodology was used to explore how farmers perceive biodiversity and how they assess its values.Our results suggest that farmers’ perceptions of biodiversity are strongly embedded in their everyday lives and linked to farming practices. Besides recognizing the importance of species and habitat diversity, farmers also acknowledge wider landscape processes and attach value to the complexity of ecological systems. Organic farmers tended to have a more complex and philosophical approach to biodiversity and they were relatively homogeneous in this aspect, while conventional farmers showed larger heterogeneity. Ethical and social values were important for all farmers. Economic value was more dominant in the conventional focus groups.The discourse based deliberative valuation method is worth applying in relation to biodiversity for two reasons. First, this method is able to reflect the heterogeneity of non-scientist participants and the context in which they are embedded, which both have a great impact on the results of the valuation. Second, deliberation upon the importance of biodiversity makes possible to understand the competing perceptions of biodiversity and to include different value aspects in the valuation process. The policy oriented consequence of the research can be drawn from the observation that farmers have a strong acknowledgement of ethical and social biodiversity values. This suggests that soft policy tools could also foster biodiversity sensitive farming methods, complementary to mainstream monetary incentives.     

Synergies between Farming and Rural Tourism: Evidence from Flanders

Support for rural development and agri-environment measures is often defended on the basis of the contribution of farming to the attractiveness of rural areas and the growing rural tourism sector. Farmers may benefit from the presence of tourism by offering accommodation or selling farm products to tourists. We analyse rural tourism data for Flanders to determine whether agricultural amenities contribute to the price rural tourists are willing to pay for lodging at a farm. We find that farming practices do indeed influence the attractiveness of an area for tourism and have an impact on the prices that can be charged for accommodation. Amenities from agriculture such as permanent grassland have a positive influence on rental prices. However, the presence of intensive agricultural and livestock farming and associated polluting activities decrease the attractiveness of rural regions for tourism. Farm tourism is found to make an important contribution to the farm income and economy of a rural region. Farm tourism constituted more than 30 per cent of the farm income of certain farms. Overall, our findings support the idea of major synergies between farming and rural tourism. Strengthening this relationship may therefore be a good strategy for countryside management and rural development.     

Changing land use to alternative crops: A rural landholder’s perspective

Alternative crops, combined with modern farming methods, are integral parts of the new agricultural model and dominant priorities of agricultural policy. The new conditions created in the internal and global markets of agricultural products indicate significant opportunities for growing alternative crops and for the introduction of modern farming practices and processing. The present study aims to assess the factors that determine the landholder’s decision to uptake an alternative crop. Primary data were gathered through a quantative survey (in-depth interviews) with landholders in two remote and less-favored prefectures of Northeastern Greece, and were analysed through a logistic regression model. The results indicate that the most significant determinants for adopting an alternative crop involve the scientific support to farmers, the development of product demand in the market, the creation of agricultural cooperatives, the development of promotional campaigns for the alternative products, the education and knowledge regarding alternative crops, and the landholder’s satisfaction with income. On the contrary, negative factors to their decision refer to exports development, product subsidies, landholder’s age, membership to a cooperative in its current form, and satisfaction with pesticides prices. Despite the dominance of conventional agriculture models and varieties, the new favorable investment conditions can spur the promotion of alternative crops.     

Sustainable agricultural practices,environmental risk mitigation and livelihood improvements: Empirical evidence from Northern Ethiopia

Using sustainable agriculture practices has various economic, social and environmental benefits. Determining the attitude of farmers toward risk is an important first step in understanding their behaviour and coping strategies to mitigate environmental risks. This paper investigates the dual impacts of some agricultural practices on agricultural yields and farmers’ livelihoods considering sustainable farmland. Cross-sectional data is collected from farmers in six rural villages in Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia using structured questionnaires. Results show that education, labour supply, agricultural extension services, attitudes, social capital, risk mitigation attitudes, farming experience and soil conditions are factors that significantly affect farmers’ decisions to adopt these practices. The practices are adopted either in isolation or jointly of integrated sustainable practices that increase crop production, household income and asset. Therefore, government and other development actors should promote their adoptions especially in drought-prone, degraded and water-stressed areas     

Contract farming,contract design and smallholder livelihoods*

Contract farming has gained in importance in many developing countries. Previous studies analysed effects of contracts on smallholder farmers’ welfare, yet mostly without considering that different types of contractual relationships exist. Here, we examine associations between contract farming and farm household income in the oil palm sector of Ghana, explicitly differentiating between two types of contracts, namely simple marketing contracts and more comprehensive resource-providing contracts. Moreover, we look at different income sources to better understand how both contracts are linked to farmers’ livelihood strategies. We use cross-sectional survey data and regression models. Issues of endogeneity are addressed through measuring farmers' willingness-to-participate in contracts and using this indicator as an additional covariate. Farmers with both types of contracts have significantly higher household incomes than farmers without a contract, yet with notable differences in terms of the income sources. Farmers with a marketing contract allocate more household labour to off-farm activities and thus have higher off-farm income. In contrast, farmers with a resource-providing contract have larger oil palm plantations and thus higher farm incomes. The findings suggest that the two contract types are associated with different livelihood strategies and that disaggregated analysis of different income sources is important to better understand possible underlying mechanisms.     

The viability of cotton-based organic farming systems in India

Cotton farmers in many developing countries are facing decreasing marginal returns due to stagnating yields and high input costs. Conversion to organic management could offer an alternative. In a two year comparative study in central India covering 170 cotton fields, organic farms achieved cotton yields that were on par with those in conventional farms, whereby nutrient inputs and input costs per crop unit were reduced by half. Due to 10–20% lower total production costs and a 20% organic price premium, average gross margins from organic cotton fields were 30–40% higher than in the conventional system. Although the crops grown in rotation with cotton were sold without premium, organic farms achieved 10–20% higher incomes from agriculture. In addition to these economic benefits, the organic farming system does not burden soil and groundwater with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. However, in this study only minor differences were detected in soil fertility parameters of organic and conventional fields. Altogether, the results suggest that conversion to organic farming can improve livelihoods of smallholders while protecting natural resources. Income loss due to reduced yields in initial years of transition, however, constitutes a major hurdle, especially for poorer farmers. It is thus important to support farmers in overcoming the obstacles of the conversion period.     

Drivers of adoption of agroecological practices for winegrowers and influence from policies in the province of Trento,Italy

Many agricultural practices are negatively impacting the environment and threatening the ecological foundations of the global food system. Therefore, agroecological practices are being proposed as viable and desirable alternatives. Biophysical, economic, social, and political factors, matched with farmers’ psychological attributes, may all be governing the choice of agricultural practices. Public policies can play a significant role as they can stimulate the adoption of innovative farming practices. The main objective of this research was the evaluation of farmers’ motivations for the adoption of agroecological practices in the viticulture sector in the province of Trento, Italy. A specific focus was laid on the influences from the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures. For the evaluation of farmers’ perceptions of their systems of practices, the Cognitive Mapping Approach for Analysing Actors’ Systems Of Practices (CMASOP) was applied. Based on information collected during in-depth interviews, Individual and Social Cognitive Maps were generated, representing the most frequently adopted agroecological practices and the major drivers of adoption of such practices, as mentioned by farmers. Drivers of adoption were categorized according to the self-determination theory of human motivations. Farmers reported that adoption of agroecological practices was mainly driven by existence of site-specific pedoclimatic conditions, followed with decreasing importance by requirements from wineries, availability of material, appreciation for aesthetics, health concerns, influence from irrigation consortia, and legal requirements, among which a local legislation for integrated pest management based on a CAP measure. Overall, results show that farmers reported to adopt agroecological practices mainly because of autonomous choices rather than coercion. Therefore, wineries and local policy-makers might incentivize the adoption of agroecological practices by promoting autonomy-supportive policies that foster farmers’ identified and intrinsic motivations.     

Managing conflicting goals in pig farming: farmers' strategies and perspectives on sustainable pig farming in Sweden

Industrial meat production has several negative environmental effects. Governments’ agricultural policies aim for cost efficiency combined with high environmental and animal welfare, which puts farmers in a difficult situation trying to navigate between sometimes contradictory requirements. This paper studies how Swedish pig farmers resolve or cope with conflicting goals in pig farming. We have analysed the regulations governing EU and Swedish pig farming. We have also interviewed five Swedish pig farmers about their views of the different goals of pig farming and strategies for resolving conflicts between the goals of low environmental impact, high animal welfare and enough profitability to continue farming. The greatest divide was between the conventional farmers, who emphasized natural resource efficiency, and the organic farmers who stressed animal welfare, multifunctionality and ecosystem service delivery. We suggest four strategies to contribute to resolving some of the conflicting goals: improve communication about different types of pig farming; use public procurement as a driver towards more sustainable pork production; work towards improving the Common Agricultural Policy, perhaps by implementing payments for ecosystem services or multifunctionality; and finally, decrease the total production of pork to lower the emissions per land unit.