Analysis of rural development policy networks in Greece: Is LEADER really different?

This paper presents an application of quantitative network analysis. It examines rural development projects with respect to their structural and politico-administrative dimensions, including power relations, conflicts, multifunctionality and intersectorality. The network structures and relations of comparable IPRD and LEADER projects are analyzed. The LEADER project network is shown to be less hierarchical than the IPRD project network, although the LEADER network is not characterized by significantly simpler procedures or clearer policy content than the IPRD network. Information and contact are significantly greater, and conflict density is significantly lower in the LEADER network. Administrative intersectorality is higher in the IPRD project, while the multidisciplinarity and the multifunctionality are higher in the LEADER project. However, the LEADER project is not perceived as delivering its objectives to a greater extent than the IPRD project. The implications for process-oriented evaluation are discussed.     

PROJECT IMPACT MONITORING: A MISNOMER

The overall record of monitoring and evaluation activities relating to agricultural and rural development projects has been unimpressive. In taking stock of the situation, particular attention must focus on the relevance and place of impact assessment activities. It is suggested that disqualification of the notion, as well as future references to, terms such as impact monitoring, would be beneficial. Whilst certain analytical studies concurrent with project imple-mentation would be necessary, these should not be tantamount to impact evaluation, which has its own time and place. Towards greater clarity on this aspect, a redefinition of the current evaluation terminology is called for. Finally, a number of neglected areas essential for improving monitoring's role in project management are reviewed.     

农户参与乡村旅游扶贫适应性评价指标体系研究

构建农户参与乡村旅游扶贫适应性评价指标体系,以福建省福鼎市赤溪村参与乡村旅游扶贫的农户为调研对象,运用AHP(层次分析法)计算各指标的权重;根据农户调研实际情况,运用适应性评价模型对农户的适应性综合值进行计算并评价。结果表明:对农户参与乡村旅游扶贫适应性影响最大的是经济适应性因子,影响最小的是生态适应性因子;对乡村旅游扶贫政策的了解度、年旅游收入、家庭成员从事乡村旅游的意愿度以及对游客的欢迎度的综合权重较大,传统节庆活动的参与度、使用清洁能源程度的综合权重较小;总体评价为较为适应,但综合得分值较低,仅为3.106。最后,根据农户的实际适应性情况,提出完善乡村旅游基础设施、加大扶贫政策宣传力度、提高旅游扶贫政策利用程度、给予困难农户更大的扶持力度、创新旅游经营模式和实行多项扶持的发展建议。     

规则流变视角下农村基层治水体系建设——以福建省永春县农田水利设施管护改革为例

实施乡村振兴战略以来,各级政府对农村水利的投入不断增加,然而"政府管不到、集体管不好、市场管不了"的现象仍然存在,跨村水利管护机制缺失、基层治水规则与秩序失范问题亟待解决。本文以福建永春县吾峰镇农田水利设施管护改革为例,分析基层村镇场域中治水规则的建立与变革,从边界、身份、选择等7项规则入手剖析其对基层治水有效性的作用机制。研究发现,治水规则深刻影响了吾峰镇水利管护的行动情境:边界规则突破了原有以行政边界划定的资源治理边界,并鼓励企业等新行动主体进入;身份规则、选择规则明晰了管护主体的合约关系,确定了权责监督机制;偿付规则实现了良好的激励作用;信息规则推进了基层治水的公开、透明化运营;聚合规则创新了基层民主的可实现形式;范围规则通过试点选择创造了政策空间。在7项基层治水规则的共同作用下,吾峰镇农田水利设施管护改革摆脱了管护主体缺失困境和跨域治水合作困境,实现了治水行为的规范有序和管护绩效的稳步快速提升,促进了农村基层治水能力的现代化建设。     

Focussing in on focus groups: Effective participative tools or cheap fixes for land use policy?

This paper assesses the efficacy and relevance of focus groups as participative tools for land use policy and planning. The use of focus groups has mushroomed in land use research and policy in response to new governance and empowerment agendas with their emphasis on using more deliberative and participative approaches. However, their use within social science research has been controversial given perceived methodological limitations of rigour and bias. A detailed critique of three recent research projects has been undertaken to assess focus group in theory and practice; rural diversification, public perception of landscape and visitor payback. The assessment considers key questions relating to inclusion, participation, empowerment, policy impact and understanding of complex policy issues. The results show that focus groups can perform multiple roles as exploratory, explanatory, participative and deliberative tools. Nevertheless, focus groups have important limitations and methodological protocols which demand more care and attention. Crucially, they should not be used in isolation to influence policy decisions; end user pressure for quick fixes, group dynamics, issues of representativeness, together with the biases of a facilitator, can easily mask, distort or misrepresent results. It is concluded that focus groups have significant potential as qualitative tools in landscape research but that they must be used carefully and in tandem with other techniques if their true potential is to be realised.     

The assessment of agritourism policy based on SEA combination with HIA

The decline in agricultural and other forms of rural employment in many countries has created a need for a diversified range of rural businesses. In most cases, agritourism has become an important element of the diverse activities in rural areas of Taiwan. However, there are a number of significant impacts from tourism activities that can be influenced by agritourism policy.Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a procedural tool to assess policies and can aid the development of more sustainable policy formulation. However, SEA aims to assess environmental impacts; the health issues are often overlooked. Hence, a Delphi-Indicator approach to SEA is proposed here to integrate Health Impact Assessment (HIA). This new approach is based on the impact indicator system, and then the Delphi method is employed to collect experts’ opinions. After the evaluation system was established, the current agritourism policy and another alternative policy are assessed to examine this new method.Finally, various types of impacts from current agritourism policy in Taiwan are identified, and the significant impacts are as follows: resources usage (water, electricity, petroleum), pollution generation (waste, noise), and other landscape problems (mudflows and landslide, harmony of the rural landscape). In addition, several benefits are found from the alternative policy (agro-ecotourism) such as the amount of pesticides used per unit area, and environmental quality of local community since agro-ecotourism development is based on organic agriculture and combination with ecotourism to provide acceptable recreation opportunity without destroying natural rural environment. In summary, the impacts are less significant from agro-ecotourism than those from current agritourism policy, and these positive changes are not only in the environmental sector, but also within the economic, social, and health issues.     

涉农电商对产业扶贫的作用及相关措施探讨

[目的]文章旨在从作用机理的角度论证涉农电商的发展对我国当前产业扶贫的促进作用,并结合作者所观察到的一些问题提出几点思考和建议,以供电商扶贫工作者和相关方面的学者参考。[方法]该文主要采用文献研究、归纳总结及逻辑推理分析等方法,对上述作用机理及相关问题进行分析。[结果]发展涉农电商能让贫困农户更方便寻找市场销路,获得更稳定的收入,同时也有利于激发贫困户的积极性,提升自身发展能力;但在发展涉农电商时,常常会出现诸如产品质量差、市场营销能力不足、脱贫增收效果不佳、产业开发项目不尊重市场规律等问题。[结论]在贫困地区发展涉农电商时应当重视加强以下6个方面的工作:①严格把控产品质量关;②重视市场营销能力建设;③注重脱贫增收效果;④注重构建以市场需求为导向项目选择机制;⑤充分发挥当地致富领头人的作用;⑥注重当地产业发展人才的培养。     

PROJECT APPRAISAL AND PROJECT AID: A DECADE OF EXPERIENCE IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The paper is concerned with rural development in Africa: it examines project aid performance and evaluates the use of social cost-benefit analysis. The paper concludes that in the 1980s projects do still have a place but as part of a wider programme of assistance to sectors and institutions. Social cost-benefit analysis, based on the key concept of opportunity cost and aimed at the efficient allocation of resources, remains highly relevant, but should be applied to a wider range of problems, should give more attention to the external economic context and should be more flexible when uncertainty is high.     

Understanding how participatory approaches foster innovation

Adapting through innovation is one way for rural communities to sustain and improve their livelihoods and environments. Since the 1980s research and development organizations have developed participatory approaches to foster rural innovation. This paper develops a model, called the Learning-to-Innovate (LTI) model, of four basic processes linked to decision making and learning which regulate rate and quality of innovation. The processes are: creating awareness of new opportunities; deciding to adopt; adapting and changing practice; and learning and selecting. The model is then used to analyse four participatory approaches and the model is evaluated through the quality of insights generated. It shows that, while outwardly very different, the four approaches are built from combinations of 11 strategies. Most of these strategies are aimed at providing information about new opportunities and deciding whether to adopt, and give less support to the other two processes, thus suggesting one way the four participatory approaches can be strengthened. Beyond analysing participatory approaches, the model could be used as a framework for diagnosing the health of local innovation systems and designing tailor-made approaches to strengthen them.     

我国商品林业发展问题和对策

当前,我国商品林业以市场化的形式进行建设,取得了令人瞩目的成绩,但是也存在一些问题。认为,为促进商品林业健康发展,当前重点要采取强化地方林业部门的职责和决策权,优化林业项目的评估方式,减轻贫困地区商品林业项目的配套资金压力,降低贷款条件、延长还款期限,合理确定林业项目的物资采购方式等措施发展我国商品林业。     

农村商业银行经营绩效的归因分析——以上市银行为例

作为推动农村经济发展的重要力量与农村信用社改革的方向,农村商业银行一直受到多方关注,而其经营绩效更是被高度重视。基于绩效评价理论及农村商业银行经营特点,建立绩效评价体系,并以上市农村商业银行为样本,用归因分析法和比较分析法对上市农村商业银行的经营效率进行了研究,结果发现,营业收入、存款增长率、资产负债率、不良贷款比率与经营绩效呈现正相关;本地经营化、贷款增长率、人民币存贷比率与经营绩效呈现负相关。     

Three rights separation: China’s proposed rural land rights reform and four types of local trials

China’s central government is promoting a new round of land reform in its rural areas, the core of which is the so-called ‘three rights separation system’. In attempting to achieve the double goals of developing agriculture and maintaining the basic stability of rural society, central policy makers want to separate the original household right of contractual operation into a contractual right (right of disposal) and an operation right. When formally adopted, these two rights, combined with the village collective ownership, will constitute China’s new structure of farmland rights. Many local governments are already using practical approaches involving the separation of the three rights, providing a valuable reference for its formalization in the future.In this paper, we analyze four relevant existing approaches by case studies of four representative projects. The results show that, while all four have in different ways reached the goal of increased scale of farmland operations, all are facing different contradictions and conflicts among the collectives, local governments and farmers, due to different farmland interests, demands and endowment problems. In response, a new framework is developed involving three rights separation, entailing some new meanings. This involves the repositioning of the four leading players in the distribution of farmland rights − the state, collective, part-time farmers and professional farmers − in order to realize the free transfer, monetization and redistribution of farmland rights to meet the demands of all the parties involved. With this framework, collective ownership is limited to the management of the award and recovery of the contractual right instead of specific agricultural operations. The introduction of a contractual right exit mechanism encourages the contractual right to be sold back to the collective for awarding directly to the professional farmers. In this way, the transfer of the operation right to professional farmers is encouraged as far as possible to enable them to increase their operating area and agricultural income.     

生态文明视阈下乡村旅游者环境责任行为研究

[目的]乡村旅游者环境责任行为是乡村旅游地环境可持续发展和美丽乡村实现的重要助推剂。文章旨在建构并验证游客感知价值、地方依恋与环境责任行为之关系模型,以了解乡村旅游者环境责任行为的驱动因素与影响路径。[方法]该文选取安徽省巢湖市三瓜公社为案例地,使用随机抽样方法共收回有效问卷318份,经文献回顾和相关理论梳理,建立概念性框架,并运用AMOS 21.0软件以结构方程模型方法进行定量实证研究。[结果]乡村旅游感知价值对地方依赖、地方认同与环境责任行为皆具有正向显著的影响关系,地方依赖与地方认同对环境责任行为亦具有正向显著的影响关系。并且地方依赖与地方认同在感知价值对环境责任行为的影响中扮演着重要的中介作用。[结论]感知价值和地方依恋感是乡村旅游者环境责任行为的重要影响因素,可以通过提升游客感知价值和强化游客地方依恋情感,从而促使其产生保护环境的负责任行为。     

基于旅游地生命周期的江苏省乡村旅游适应性管理策略研究

自20世纪80年代初,在江苏省政府的大力引导下,江苏省依托当地的古村落、古文化及自然资源,发展起一批深受大众喜爱的乡村旅游项目。1995~2010年,江苏省乡村旅游迎来了发展的黄金时期,乡村旅游的规模不断扩大,乡村旅游收入已经成为江苏省旅游业的重要支柱,部分地区的收入已经超越传统旅游行业。经过近40年的发展历程,目前江苏省部分乡村旅游项目仍然存在因项目老旧、环境代价巨大等问题而出现旅游地生命周期缩短情况。如何能够延长江苏省旅游地生命周期,提升乡村旅游适应性,是目前需要研究的课题。鉴于此,文章基于江苏省乡村旅游发展现状,针对游客与项目适应性较低、项目与环境适应性较低的问题进行分析,参考国内外的发展模式与管理经验,从提升乡村旅游项目的游客接受度和提升乡村旅游项目的环境接受度等方面构建江苏省乡村旅游适应性管理策略,以有效延长其乡村旅游目的地的生命周期,充分挖掘当地旅游资源,打造特色旅游产业。     

Empirical measurement of credit rationing in agriculture: a methodological survey

Empirical analysis of rural credit market failure has been of key scientific and political interest in recent years. The aim of this article is to give an overview of the various methods for measuring credit rationing that are employed in the literature. Furthermore, the methods are subjected to a comparative evaluation of their specific strengths or shortcomings. Six approaches are distinguished: measurement of loan transaction costs, analysis of qualitative information collected in interviews, analysis of quantitative information collected in interviews using the credit limit concept, analysis of spill‐over effects with regard to secondary credit sources, econometric household modeling, and the econometric analysis of dynamic investment decisions. An explicit comparison with a first‐best solution is impossible in the first three approaches, since they essentially rely on a subjective assessment of borrowers' access to credit, based on qualitative or quantitative indicators. The fifth and sixth approaches allow a rigorous interpretation in the framework of neoclassical equilibrium theory. The fourth approach takes an intermediate position, since spill‐over on segmented loan markets reveals a willingness to pay with regard to the supposedly less expensive but rationed primary source. The approaches are fairly data demanding in general, usually requiring specific data on loan transactions. Even so, most approaches are applicable to cross‐sectional household data. With the exception of the first, all methods surveyed might plausibly be used to empirically detect credit rationing.     

湘西少数民族地区乡村旅游资源分类及评价

[目的]对湘西少数民族地区乡村旅游资源按属性和特征进行分类,构建湘西少数民族乡村旅游资源分类体系,并对其进行评价研究,旨在对其乡村旅游的发展提供科学参考。[方法]文章采用多目标多因子评价方法并结合湘西少数民族地区旅游现状,从旅游资源要素价值、资源开发条件和社会效应3个方面构建评价指标体系,采用专家打分的方法对主要单体进行打分,定量评价乡村旅游资源的等级。[结果]凤凰古城、老司城遗址等共32处为五星级旅游资源,五星级旅游资源在全国具有代表性,有很好的观光价值、开发条件和产业带动作用,四星级旅游资源73处,优良级以上乡村旅游资源共196处,占资源单体总数的83%。[结论]湘西乡村历史文化积淀深厚,有很强的开发潜力;乡村自然资源景观特征明显,优级旅游单体数量较多,多为国家级风景名胜区,在全国具有重要影响力和知名度;乡村民俗类资源单体众多,包括饮食传统、节庆活动、乡土特产和乡土名人等,多为民族独有文化,具有很大旅游吸引力。     

Does labor migration affect rural land transfer? Evidence from China

Land transfer in rural areas and labor migration from rural areas to cities are both becoming common in China due to the increasing development of the non-agricultural sector resulting from rapid urbanization. Many rural labours who migrated to cities left their land in rural areas, and in most cases, this land was abandoned. To make full use of abandoned land in rural areas, the central government in China has formulated policies to promote rural land transfer, but rural land transfer still lags far behind labor migration in China. Drivers of rural land transfer still need to be explored. In addition, the labor migration scale shows dynamic features as the labor migration of more family members is substituted for that of individuals recent years. Thus, the phased feature of household labor migration should be taken into consideration to examine the phased influence of the labor migration scale on rural land transfer. Considering the probability threshold effect of the impact of labor migration on rural land transfer, a threshold model was used to perform the empirical analysis. Based on the threshold model and CHARLS 2015 data, this study empirically analysed the impact of the labor migration scale on rural land transfer. On the national level, labor migration will significantly promote rural land transfer if it is less than or equal to 0.125, but when it is greater than 0.125, its impact on land transfer is not significant. On the basis of the spatial differentiation of rural land transfer, four regions were divided to do the regional threshold regression analysis. On the regional level, the thresholds of labor migration scale of the central region, the east region and the west region are 0.112, 0.221 and 0.133 respectively, and there is no threshold in the north region. The results show that labor migration have a phased impact on rural land transfer in China and policies should be targeted to different labor migration phases and different regions.     

Rural Poverty and Development Strategies in Latin America

Several approaches to the study of poverty are discussed, to learn from their strengths as well as their weaknesses. For this purpose the concepts of marginality, social exclusion, new rurality and rural livelihoods, as well as the ethnic and gender dimensions of poverty, are examined. The debate on the peasantization (capitalization) or proletarianization (pauperization) of the peasantry sets the scene for the analysis of the different strategies adopted by peasants and rural labourers to secure their survival and perhaps achieve some prosperity. In examining the success or failure of interventions by governments, civil society and international organizations in the reduction of poverty, it is claimed that the State has a key role to perform. Furthermore, it is argued that poverty is caused and reproduced by the unequal distribution of resources and power at the household, local, national and international levels. Therefore, the starting point for the eradication of poverty has to be the implementation of a development strategy that addresses such inequalities while at the same time achieving competitiveness within the global system.