STRUCTURAL AND SPATIAL CHANGES IN THE MINK FARMING INDUSTRY OF ALBERTA

The purpose of the study is to discuss the structural and locational changes which have occurred in the mink farming industry of Alberta. Data were collected by postal questionnaire and direct interview. Thirty percent of 149 mink farmers in the 1967/68 season in Alberta were surveyed. The data was cross-tabulated and per-cenlaged. Mink farming in Alberta is discussed vis-a-vis the rest of Canada, and the location of mink farms within the province is traced. Mink farm size, farm income, markets for pelts, feed supply and costs, and the background characteristics of farmers are discussed. Problems cited by mink farmers and their future plans and suggestions for remedial action for the industry's problems are also analysed. It is suggested that more small farmers will “pelt out” unless there is further government intervention in the industry as well as cooperative action taken by the mink farmers themselves. Locations for farms in the city near meat packing houses provides a more stable feed and labour supply than the traditional lakeside location. Larger scale production, concentration on quality pelts, and more cooperative purchasing and marketing arrangements could alleviate some of the industry's hardships. Cette étude discute les changes spatiaux et structuraux dans ?industrie des visons de ?Alberta. Les statisliques etait oblenus par un questionnaire postale el les enlrevues directes. De 149 fermiers de visons dans la saison du 1967*68, trente pourcentage était examiné. Les statisliques étaienl analysés par les pourcentages el aussi les résultats était croisé-classifier. La perspective de ?industrie des visons dans ?Alberta est discuté centre les circonslances pour le Canada, et ?emplacement des fermes dans le province est décrit. Les dimensions des fermes de visons, les revenus, les marchés, ?alimentation et les coúts, et les caractéristiques des fermiers, sonl discutés. Les problémes qui ont allégués par les fermiers et leurs plans pour ?avenir et leurs propositions pour la solution, des problemes de ?industrie, sonl analyses. II est suggéré que les plus pedis fermes va abandonner s'il n y a pas ?aide du gouvernement provincial de meme que factions coopératifs entre leurs-mêmes. Dans les situations des fermes dans la ville près des abattoirs, il y a une approvisionne-ment de ?alimentation et du travail plus assure des situations le long des lacs. C'est possible que les arrangements cooperatifs pour acheter et vendre, ?accenl sur la qualite des fourrures et une augmentation dans ?échelle de la production va alléger quelques des problems de ?industrie dans ?Alberia     

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE OPTIMUM SCALE OF ENTERPRISE IN FARMING*

This article examines the effect over time of national economic growth upon the optimum scale of enterprise in farming. It argues that there are forces within an economy leading to the growth of optimum scale in farming, irrespective of the nature of technical innovation and in spite of the limited scope for increased sales of agricultural produce as national income rises. The early part of the paper develops a method of characterising optimum scale which is in terms of marginal return to money capital employed in the farm business.     

A CROSS-COMMODITY APPRAISAL OF DEMAND-RAISING RESEARCH BENEFITS: PORK AND CHICKEN IN AUSTRALIA

A multi-commodity model is developed for evaluating the gains from research which raises the demand for a commodity, and applied to the pig and chicken industries in Australia. The major finding is that the gain to pork producers is larger, and the gain to consumers smaller, with a cross-commodity consideration than without. Bigger differences in results are observed with larger values of the cross-price elasticity between pork and chicken, and with a larger shift in demand for chicken. However, the aggregate benefits to the Australian pig industry are not significantly affected by price changes in the market for chicken. The implication of the analysis is that, by ignoring the cross-market feedback between commodities closely related in consumption, consumers (or taxpayers) of the commodity experiencing a rise in demand may bear a higher-than-optimal outlay on public research directed to increasing the demand for that commodity.     

TYPES OF FARMING IN NORTH WALES*

This paper presents the results of a classification of farming undertaken for the four counties of North Wales.? Essentially a type-of-farming classification results in the subdivision of a large area into regions within which a relatively homogeneous association of factors influence the prevailing types of agriculture. Ideally, a type-of-farming area would consist of all that territory within which the choice of products and the possible combinations of factors tend to be similar. The nature of any classification will depend, however, on the main purpose for which it is made. In the present study this was to group parishes according to the type of agricultural activity occurring within them. A further objective was to map the location of the different farming types and thereby to define the predominant type-of-farming areas in North Wales. Among other uses of this classification is an attempt to calculate the contribution to production of each type of farming in the area.     

CONTRACT FARMING AND OUTGROWER SCHEMES IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

This article examines the experience of seven countries in East and Southern Africa with contract farming and outgrower schemes. In such schemes, farmers sell their crops under contract to private or public enterprises for processing or export in return for various price guarantees, inputs and services. The article identifies some of the key determinants of success or failure, evaluates performance and examines the constraints to replication. In most cases, performance in delivering services and providing income increases to farmers has been quite good, although high management costs limit the extent to which this form of organisation could be more widely applied. Looser control, relying more on price incentives and farmer participation, might lower overhead costs while developing management capability among growers.     

A QUARTERLY MODEL OF AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA*

The aims of this study were (a) to attempt to develop a quarterly model to explain aggregate farm investment in Australia, and (b) to examine the concept of the implicit rental price of capital services as a method of taking account of taxation concessions in an investment equation.     

A COMPARISON OF THREE NONPARAMETRIC MEASURES OF PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN EUROPEAN AND UNITED STATES AGRICULTURE

Productivity growth is an important source of improvements in the standard of living. In this paper, we compare three nonparametric measures of productivity, namely the Fisher, the Hulten and the Malmquist measure. Our application of these measures to the agricultural sectors of nine EC countries and the US over the period 1973 to 1989 yield similar patterns of productivity growth.     

COMBINATIONS OF BUFFER-STOCKS AND BUFFER-FUNDS FOR WOOL PRICE STABILISATION IN AUSTRALIA*

In this paper a preliminary analysis is presented of a combined buffer-fund and buffer-stock as an alternative to a pure buffer-fund or a pure buffer stock for stabilising wool prices. The alternatives analysed are designed so that each provides the same prices to producers as did the Reserve Price Scheme over the period of analysis. Least-cost combinations of policy instruments are derived. The results show that there is considerable potential for cost savings to be made by combining buffer-fund and buffer-stock instruments.     

PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY AND INPUT ALLOCATIONS IN SRI LANKAN MULTICROP FARMING

A primal production analysis is conducted of 182 farm households producing multiple outputs in the Sri Lankan dry zone. The approach involves systems estimation of the production functions with first-order equations for variable inputs and permits recovery of the production technology for each crop. Land and family labour are regarded as constraining inputs. Shadow prices are computed for the constraining inputs and yield important implications for increasing household profits. Evidence of global homotheticity in a subset of three inputs is found for three of the crops. Weak separability is rejected in all tested subsets except for fertiliser and chemicals used in the production of vegetables. Input demand elasticities are computed for allocations satisfying necessary and sufficient conditions for profit maximisation. Highly elastic conditional input demands and output supplies are implied.     

A MODEL OF THE DISAGGREGATED DEMAND FOR MEAT IN AUSTRALIA

The focus of this study is the estimation of the Australian demand for meat between 1967 and 1990, employing a demand systems approach which uses the linear approximate, almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS) model. Two demand systems are estimated by maximum likelihood methods, one for aggregate types of meat and one for disaggregated meat products. After correcting for serial correlation in the two demand systems, restrictions from utility theory are imposed and tested for their appropriateness. By using a new data set on the Australian retail price and consumption offresh pork, ham and bacon, the results from the disaggregated model provide the first estimates of the own-price, cross-price and expenditure elasticities for these commodities.     

A MIXED INTEGER LINEAR PROGRAMMING EVALUATION OF SALINITY AND WATERLOGGING CONTROL OPTIONS IN THE MURRAY-DARLING BASIN OF AUSTRALIA

Pollution of the River Murray by salt imposes costs on domestic and industrial users in Adelaide and to irrigators on the River Murray. Salt enters the Murray-Darling system through saline ground water aquifers and from irrigation and drainage of saline land. Irrigation and drainage generate benefits from improved agricultural productivity and impose costs through increased salt loads to the Murray-Darling system. The salinity of the River Murray can be reduced by pumping highly saline ground water into evaporation basins before it enters the River Murray. This paper presents a mixed integer linear programming model which is used to determine the mix of ground water interception schemes and land improvement schemes that minimises the net present value (over a time horizon of 30 years) of total Murray-Darling Basin costs due to salinity and waterlogging. By varying a target salinity level, the mix of works that yields various salinity targets in the River Murray at minimum cost is obtained. The sensitivity of the optimal solution to prescribed changes in costs and benefits of projects and to a longer planning horizon is examined.     

THE INCIDENCE AND EFFECTS OF DEATH DUTIES ON WOOL-GROWING PROPERTIES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Death duties are allegedly a tax designed to redistribute accumulations of wealth. Therefore, to the extent that they are successful, one might expect death duties to inhibit the trend for wool-growing properties to become more capital-intensive. This aspect of death duties appears to be in complete contrast to other rural policy objectives designed to encourage on-farm investment. However, while a survey of 58 death duty-affected properties established that death duties do reduce the rate of capital accumulation, the impact appears to be less severe on the wealthy than the less-wealthy families.     

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AGRICULTURAL POLICY REFORM IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY AND AUSTRALIA

A political-economy framework is used to explore the differences which have been observed in the pace of agricultural policy reform in the European Community and in Australia. In this framework, policy-making is endogenous in comparison with its exogenous position in applied welfare economics. It is shown that the institutional aspects of the policy process, the power of the farming lobby, and the economic philosophy of governments are important determinants of the extent of income re-distribution and of moves towards the use of more efficient instruments of income redistribution. It is argued that the degree to which politicians are captured by the farming lobby, and the extent to which they support transparency in policy-making, determine whether fundamental reforms are feasible. From this analysis, it is concluded that the pace of reform of the Common Agricultural Policy will continue to lag behind that in Australia.     

A COMPARISON OF LEGISLATIVE ASPECTS OF AGRICULTURAL MARKET REGULATION IN CANADA AND THE U.S.

There are many common characteristics between publicly sanctioned market regulation in U.S. and Canada, but there are also important differences. The growth of this form of organized intervention in Canadian agriculture in recent years and the apparent continued growth through national marketing boards create a need for a great deal more information than is presently available. This paper summarizes existing legislative sources of producer marketing agencies in Canada and the U.S. as one step toward reducing this information gap.
Les régulations sur la mise en marché sanctionées publiquement aux Etats-Unis et au Canada ont beaucoup de traits communs mais il y a aussi ďimportantes différences. La croissance de cette forme ďintervention organisée dans ľagriculture canadienne au cours des derniéres années ainsi que la croissance apparente engenderée par le Conseil de la mise en marché ont crée un besoin pour beaucoup plus ďinformation qui ne sont actuellement pas disponibles. Cet article réume les sources législatives qui existent présentement dans les agences de mise en marché des produits agricoles au Canada et aux Etats-Unis, comme un pas en avant afin de réduire ce manque ďinformation.     

ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF LAND DEGRADATION IN AUSTRALIA

In this article an overview of several economic aspects of land degradation in Australia is presented. The economic rationale for government intervention in land management decisions relating to degradation is explored. Some potential sources of inefficient private land use decisions are identified. However, there are significant difficulties in designing policies which will result in resource allocation decisions superior to market outcomes.     

A NOTE ON OFF-FARM INCOME OF FARM FAMILIES IN AUSTRALIA*

Past studies of the farm sector have concentrated on the use of farm based resources in the farm context alone. Changes in the economic environment have widened the opportunities available to these resources and have thus tended to make this narrow definition of the farm firm less relevant. Some recognition of this situation has emerged in more recent studies. The aim of this note is to collate and examine the degree to which farm labour resources are employed in off-farm activities in Australia. The main conclusion drawn from the evidence available is that, while in aggregate part-time farming is a fairly minor activity, in some sectors it is increasing in importance and constitutes a considerable outlet for farm based labour resources.     

THE IMPACT OF PUBLIC WORKS SCHEMES ON FARMING: A CASE STUDY RELATING TO A RESERVOIR AND POWER STATION IN NORTH WALES

This is a study of the economic effects on farming of building a reservoir and an atomic power station in two rural areas in North Wales. Whilst these schemes undoubtedly caused much unpleasantness and serious difficulties which should not be understated and overlooked, their economic effects were not as drastic and detrimental as was at first feared by the farming community and others concerned with their well-being. In retrospect their predominant effect was the speeding up of a process of readjustment which was already taking place, for which most of the remaining farmers may well be grateful and which those more seriously affected probably now regard as an unpleasant experience which was inevitable but which came rather suddenly. There are many lessons to be learnt from the history of these schemes. In particular, the methods of assessing both the value of land acquired compulsorily for development and the amount of compensation payable for disturbance need reviewing, in order that they may be related more closely to economic and social realities.