Sheep as capital goods and farmers as portfolio managers: a bioeconomic model of Scandinavian sheep farming

A model analyzing the economics of sheep farming is formulated. The basic idea is simple. Sheep are capital and they are held by farmers as long as their capital value exceeds their slaughter, or meat, value. Farmers are therefore portfolio managers aiming to find the optimal combination of different categories of animals. Yields are compared with the yields from other assets. The model is formulated within a Northern Scandinavian economic and biological setting with a crucial distinction between the outdoors grazing season and the indoors season, and with adult sheep and lambs being different categories. In the first step, the management problem is analyzed with only the meat income of the farmers taken into account. In the next step, income from wool production is considered as well. The analysis provides several results that differ from standard harvesting theory.     

The attitude of grassland farmers towards nature conservation and agri-environment measures—A survey-based analysis

Grasslands have a multi-layer protection function for nature, biodiversity and climate. These functions can be fostered by an adapted management on grassland farms. Promoting nature protection alongside agricultural production is an aim of European agricultural policy. However, a number of studies indicate that existing Agri-environment measures (AEM) are not as effective as assumed, mainly because they are not sufficiently used by farmers. We investigated the view of grassland farmers on nature conservation and on existing AEM in four distinct regions on a west to east gradient in the North German Plain. We conducted a survey on 82 grassland farms inquiring basic farm data and asking questions on general agricultural issues and nature protection. The results indicate that the majority of all respondents is generally interested in nature conservation and believes it to be of concern for every farmer. In contrast, only a minority of grassland farmers is using the existing AEM to the full extend on their own farm. By applying the concept of farming styles, we classified farmers into four groups, namely Traditionalist, Idealist, Modernist, and Yield Optimizer. These farming styles groups differ in farm and management parameters, general attitudes towards agricultural issues, farming objectives and economic success. We found that in our survey the farming styles groups differ in their attitude towards nature conservation. However, they do not differ in the adoption of AEM and have different reasons for not taking part. We state that for a better implementation of AEM into agricultural practice a better communication, which is adapted to the different ways that farmers manage their farm and think and feel, is needed. Consequently, AEM need to be revised as well.     

Off‐farm work,technical efficiency,and rice production risk in Taiwan

This article investigates the differences in yield production, production efficiency, and yield risk for farmers both with and without off‐farm work. Using a nationwide survey of rice farmers in Taiwan, we estimate two stochastic production frontier models that accommodate technical inefficiency and production risk simultaneously for farmers both with and without off‐farm work. The stochastic dominance criterion is then applied to compare the differences in the distributions of the estimated technical efficiency and yield risk between groups. The empirical results indicate that these two groups of farmers use resources in different ways, and off‐farm work is not necessarily associated with lower technical efficiency. For farmers in the lower percentiles of the efficiency distribution, those with off‐farm work are more efficient than their counterparts without off‐farm work. In addition, farmers with off‐farm work face higher production risk and this result is robust for the entire distribution.     

Heterogeneous Demand and Supply for an Insurance‐linked Credit Product in Kenya: A Stated Choice Experiment Approach

We employ a discrete choice experiment to elicit demand and supply side preferences for insurance‐linked credit, a promising market‐based tool for managing agricultural weather risks and providing access to credit for farmers. We estimate preference heterogeneity using primary data from smallholder farmers and managers of lenders/insurers combined with household socio‐economic survey data in Kenya. We analyse the choice data using maximum simulated likelihood and Hierarchical Bayes estimation of a mixed logit model. Although there are some similarities, we find that there is conflicting demand and supply side preferences for credit terms, collateral requirements, and loan use flexibility. We also analyse willingness to buy and willingness to offer for farmers and suppliers, respectively, for the risk premium for different attributes and their levels. Identifying the preferred attributes and levels for both farmers and financial institutions can guide optimal packaging of insurance and credit providing market participation and adoption motivation for insurance‐bundled credit product.     

Thinking Styles and Financial Characteristics of Selected Canadian Farm Managers

The thinking styles of selected Canadian farm managers are identified using the life styles inventory (LSI). The farmers'LSI scores are compared with those of a base sample of nonfarmers, and correlations between the farmers'LSI scores and financial indicators are examined. Results indicate that farmers do thinking differently than nonfarmers and that there are significant correlations between thinking styles and financial measures.     

农民的创业动机、需求及其扶持

本文基于对广东省部分地区农民的问卷调查分析,受农民群体的独特性及其所处环境的特殊作用,农民的创业动机主要源于生存需求、自我实现和发展及解决就业;对政府行政成本与法制保障的忧虑、市场拓展与管理能力不足、风险承受能力差及创业能力不足是农民创业的主要障碍;而资金帮助和技术支持是农民创业最期盼得到的帮助,创业者风险补偿是农民创业最希望获得的政府优惠政策,由此,提升农民创业者的创业能力及其创业后的管理和发展能力、创业可持性始终应该是农民创业扶持政策必须给予关注的重点。     

Measuring the risk attitude of decision‐makers: are there differences between groups of methods and persons?

Many studies quantifying individual risk preferences of test persons show that results of different measuring methods may vary. Additional reservations about the reliability of the results regarding the risk attitude measurement arise from the fact that most studies are based on convenience groups, such as students or businessmen in developing countries. With this in mind, we systematically compare different measuring methods to answer the question how the choice of method affects the results. Moreover, we compare the risk preferences of German farmers with those of students and Kazakhstani farmers to investigate whether farmers’ risk preferences can be approximated through those of convenience groups. The methods applied comprise an incentive‐compatible Holt‐and‐Laury‐lottery as well as two psychometric methods. Results show that students respond consistently across all three elicitation methods whereas German and Kazakhstani farmers are more inconsistent. Significant differences exist in the responses of German students and German farmers. The comparison of risk preferences between German and Kazakhstani farmers, however, reveals significant similarities with respect to the psychometric methods.     

Management and Risk Characteristics of Part-Time and Full-Time Farmers in Norway

The objective of this exploratory study was to provide empirical insight into how different categories of farmers perceive and manage risk. The data originate from a questionnaire of dairy and crop farmers in Norway. The associations between part-time and full-time farming and farm and farmer characteristics, farmers' goals and future plans, risk perceptions, and risk management responses were examined with simple t - and chi-square tests, as well as with logistic regression. The results indicate that full-time and part-time farmers' goals, risk perceptions, and management strategies differ significantly. Policy makers and advisers should consider these differences when developing policies and recommendations for the different types of farmers.     

Decision-making by farmers regarding ecosystem services: Factors affecting soil conservation efforts in Costa Rica

The impact of climate change on farm soils in the tropics is the combined result of short-term soil management decisions and expanding precipitation extremes. This is particularly true for cultivated lands located in steeply sloping areas where bare soil is exposed to extreme rainfall such as the Birris watershed in Costa Rica. Farmers in this watershed are affected by increasing degradation of soil regulation services and respond with different level of efforts to conserve their soils. This paper examines influences on farmers’ decisions through a survey involving interviews with a sample of farmers (n = 56) to test hypotheses on how a combination of cognitive variables (beliefs, risk perception, values) and socioeconomic variables shape decisions on soil conservation. Results show that farmers’ awareness of their exposure level to soil erosion combines with other variables to determine their level of soil conservation. Using discriminant analysis, three groups of farmers were identified based on their soil conservation efforts. ANOVA pairwise-comparison among these groups showed significant differences in respect to levels of awareness, perception of risk, and personal beliefs along with territorial exposure and participation in soil conservation programs. Our results help to understand farmers’ complex decision-making on soil conservation and help designing policies to support the provision of soil regulation services especially in areas highly exposed to increasing frequency of extreme precipitation events such as Central America.     

Improving recommendations resulting from on-farm research: agroforestry,risk, profitability and vulnerability in southern Malawi

Leguminous agroforestry (AF) species have been investigated and promoted in Malawi as a means to improve soil quality and maize (Zea mays) yields. Our objective was to determine whether AF systems' recommendations that solely consider impacts on average maize yields differ from those that include an analysis of production risk, profitability among different wealth groups and socioeconomic vulnerability. Employing participatory quantitative and qualitative on-farm research techniques, we investigated three AF-based maize/legume relay-cropping practices in southern Malawi. The perennial legumes included Sesbania sesban, Tephrosia vogelii and Cajanus cajan (pigeonpea). We found that AF species recommendations did diverge from those based solely on maximizing maize yields when incorporating risk, profitability and socioeconomic vulnerability as additional variables. For instance, the highest yielding system (the S. sesban/maize relay crop) was never recommended for the most vulnerable farmers based on the vulnerability analysis, and the cropping systems were often more profitable for the least vulnerable farmers than they were for the most vulnerable farmers. Cropping system recommendations based solely on obtaining the highest average maize yields would also have generally overlooked the economic and nutritional importance of pigeonpea, and the difficulty for the most vulnerable farmers to profit from fertilizers, potentially placing these farmers at greater risk.     

Savings and technology choice for risk averse farmers

Farmers in developing countries have limited opportunities for borrowing to even out variability associated with risky farm income, but they can save. A dynamic programming model of savings is presented in the current paper which examines optimal savings strategies for farmers, using a case study of integrated rice–shrimp farms in Vietnam. It is shown that when savings are accounted for, the expected utility ranking of different risky farm choices may not differ that much between farmers with different levels of risk aversion.     

ISLAMIC CREDIT: THE IRANIAN EXPERIENCE

The replacement of the Shah's regime by an Islamic fundamentalist government in Iran resulted in the outlawing of interest-bearing credit and its replacement with a credit system which accords with the teachings of the Koran. Two forms of credit are acceptable: interest-free loans, and profit-and-loss-sharing loans. Although the latter have assumed only a small proportion of lending by the Agricultural Bank, they are potentially attractive to small risk-averse farmers because of their risk-sharing characteristics. In particular, they pass part of the business risk (e.g. due to uncertainty in yields and prices) back to the lender and avoid creating any financial risk for the borrower. A model is developed to explore the impact of Islamic credit on borrower behaviour and a numerical illustration is also provided. Results of a farm survey are reported, and indicate that small risk-averse farmers prefer the Islamic credit system, whilst medium and large-scale farmers prefer interest-based credit. Some of the obstacles to more widespread uptake of the Islamic credit system in Iranian agriculture are identified.     

Risk and risk management in organic and conventional cash crop farming in Norway

This study presents empirical insight into organic and conventional cash crop farmers' perceptions of risk and risk management strategies, and identifies socio-economic variables linked to these perceptions. The data originate from a questionnaire survey of farmers in Norway. The results indicate that organic farmers perceived themselves to be less risk averse than conventional farmers. For both groups, crop prices and yield variability were the two top rated sources of risk, followed by institutional risks. The two groups evaluated risk management strategies quite similarly; favoured strategies were good liquidity and to prevent and reduce crop diseases and pests. The farmers' evaluation of sources of risk and choice of risk strategies depended on various socio-economic variables. The importance of institutional risks implies that policy makers should be cautious about changing policy capriciously and they should consider strategic policy initiatives that give farmers more long-term reliability.     

Risk Preferences of Dairy and Hog Producer in Quebec

The objective of this study is to investigate the nature of risk preferences of Quebec dairy and hog producers. The direct elicitation of utility method is employed to determine producers'degree of risk aversion. The Delphi process is used to obtain more refined and realistic responses. The results reveal that the risk preferences of the randomly selected Quebec farmers are highly diverse. The percentage of risk-taking farmers ranges from 8% to 23% depending upon the level of investment and the nature of the enterprise. On average, the majority of farmers in both groups are found to be risk averse. Based on the differences between the means as well as distributions, although not significant in all cases, hog producers are found to be consistently more risk averse than dairy producers. Moreover, the gap between the two groups widens as the level of investment increases. The implications of this result are that the stability of farm income due to supply management in dairy sector may facilitate investments of a given risk (for example, adoption of a new technology) more so than it would in the hog sector.     

Farmers’ risk preferences and their climate change adaptation strategies in the Yongqiao District,China

Farmers’ risk preferences play an important role in agricultural production decisions. This study characterizes risk preferences among farmers in Yongqiao and determines how these risk preferences are related to their choices regarding climate change adaptation strategies. We find that most farmers in the study area were aware of climate change. They were taking measures to protect their livelihoods against perceived changes to the local climate. The risk experiment result shows that the representative subject was risk averse, and women were more risk averse than men. The relationships between farmers’ risk preferences and different climate change adaptation choices were different. Farmers’ risk aversion was negatively and significantly related with adaptation strategies on planting new crop varieties and adopting new technology, but it had a significantly positive effect on purchasing weather index crop insurance. The results also indicate that the level of education, farming experience, farm size, household income and perception of climate change impacts influence farmers’ adaptation decisions.     

农户风险感知与施药行为的响应关系研究——基于辽宁省菜农数据的实证检验

本文基于辽宁省蔬菜主产区434户菜农调研数据,运用结构方程模型验证了农户风险感知与施药行为的响应关系。研究结果表明,农户风险感知潜变量正向影响农户的施药行为响应,但是风险感知和施药行为潜变量中各个因子的影响路径和显著程度存在差异;农户是否加入合作社对农户风险感知与施药行为的作用关系起到一定的调节效应。基于研究结论,本文提出风险意识提升、保障条件供给和发展新型农业经营主体三方面的建议。     

Future Changes in British Agriculture: Projecting Divergent Farm Household Behaviour

The recent decline in farm incomes has focused attention on farmers' uneven propensity to adjust and adapt. Changes in farm policies are slowly redirecting the support paid to farmers in Europe, and further reforms are envisaged. This paper argues that farmers in Britain are likely to pursue highly diverse strategies in this changed context, according to their individual circumstances, values and attitudes. These groups (essentially ideal types) are derived both from in‐depth qualitative interviews and from a cluster analysis of variables relating to the farm and to the farm household's socialisation and attitudes. The paper seeks to draw out the implications of divergent farm household behaviour for future structural change, and for agricultural and rural policy. Opportunities are identified for the UK government to implement the EU Rural Development Regulation in ways that would suit the varied circumstances of British farmers in the postproductivist transition.     

The Role of Farmer's Behavioral Attitudes and Heterogeneity in Futures Contracts Usage

The relationship between farmers' behavioral attitudes and use of futures contracts is examined, taking into account non-directly observable variables and the heterogeneity of farmers. The relationships are tested on a stratified data sample of 440 farmers. Cluster analysis and covariance structure equation models are used to validate the relationships. Farmers are found not to be homogenous regarding the factors influencing their use of futures. Heterogeneity at the segment level masked important effects at the aggregate level, notably risk attitude. Furthermore, several psychological constructs for farmers related to market orientation, risk exposure, market performance and entrepreneurial behavior play important roles in their use of futures contracts.     

石漠化生态脆弱区返贫风险影响因素及作用机理

目的 通过对贵州、广西4个生态帮扶重点县脱贫人口的调查,识别出返贫风险影响因素,深度剖析返贫风险作用机理,全方位为返贫治理提供方向。方法 文章基于脆弱性理论和事故链理论,使用Logistic回归和决策树模型综合判断返贫风险的影响因素,并结合回归分析结果和树形图分析该地区返贫风险生成的作用机理。结果 研究共识别出12个显著影响因素,其中生态帮扶、生态护林员政策是生态帮扶重点县地区特有的影响因素。结论 （1）自然环境问题是诱发石漠化地区农户返贫风险的最直接因素,（2）政策保障对劳动力部分或全部丧失的人群具有重要意义,（3）发展动力是阻断返贫的关键因素,（4）生态护林员政策对有自身发展动力且生态保护意识强的农户更有效,（5）帮扶措施是阻断返贫的有力工具,其中外出务工在阻断返贫风险传导上较其他帮扶措施效果更佳。     

Longitudinal Poisson Assessment of Factors Influencing Farmers’ Market Counts

ABSTRACT

This study uses secondary longitudinal data and a first difference pooled Poisson regression model to explain annual counts for farmers’ markets in the United States. Data were collected for all 50 states and the District of Columbia for 10 years, from 2004 to 2013, leading to a longitudinal data set with 510 observations. Results indicate that population growth and funds routed toward Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) farmers’ market nutrition programs increase farmers’ markets’ annual counts. The rate ratio of farmers’ markets’ counts for highly populated states that have both WIC and senior farmers’ market nutrition programs is approximately three times greater than their counterparts. Areas with high agriculture output experience a significant increase in counts. States located in the south and in desert areas have lower counts than other regions. This study suggests important recommendations to policy makers, farmers’ market managers, and researchers.