Economies of size in sugar cane production in KwaZulu‐Natal

This article examines how efficiency of resource use on sugar cane farms varies with the size of a farm business, and what implications variations in performance may hold for the reallocation of resources between size‐groups in the pursuit of land redistribution. A non‐parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) research procedure is employed to analyse farm‐size efficiency using inputs valued at opportunity cost. Results indicate that sugar cane farms producing less than 500 tons of cane exhibit substantial economies of size, and require significantly more resources to produce a rand's worth of output than farms producing more than 2 500 tons of cane. Therefore, if commercial farms are subdivided in the land resettlement programme, significant loss of efficiency may occur if the resettled farms produce less than 500 tons. Finally, results of an econometric model suggest significant links between scale efficiency and farmers’ education, managerial adeptness, training, age, and the size of farm holdings.     

The rise of coffee in the Brazilian south-east: tariffs and foreign market potential, 1827–40†

During the period spanning independence in 1822 to mid-century, Brazil's south-east shifted from specializing in the export of cane sugar to coffee. This article explores the mechanism underlying this shift by exploiting a wealth of new monthly data on the Brazilian and international coffee and cane sugar markets during the period 1827–40. It argues that the timing of the coffee boom was driven by a rapid increase in foreign market potential associated with the abolition of the tariff on coffee in the US. It estimates that American tariff reform served to increase coffee exports and African slave imports by around one-fifth. American firms, with indirect links to the slave trade, rapidly became major players in the export market in Rio de Janeiro, while non-American firms, traditionally specialized in continental European destinations, turned their sights on the American market.     

Effects of ethanol production from sugar‐cane with a free sugar market

A free market for sugar is simulated. Results indicate that area under sugar‐cane would decrease by 49 per cent and labour employment by 26 per cent relative to the actual situation. Sugar‐cane would only be produced in areas with a comparative advantage. No sugar would be exported. Ethanol production from sugar‐cane would only occur with government price supports which would lead to an increase in the price of edible sugar. Development costs per additional worker employed of a one billion litre ethanol industry would amount to about R35 300 compared with over one million rand for a new petroleum from coal plant (Sasol).     

Regional development effects of a free market for sugar in South Africa

In a free market for sugar it is estimated that the area under sugar‐cane would decrease by 49 per cent and labour employment by 26 per cent relative to the single‐price policy which was in operation until 30 April 1985. Sugar‐cane would be produced in areas of comparative advantage, namely the Eastern Transvaal, Zululand high and low rainfall areas, the North Coast, Indian and Mangete areas and KwaZulu. The domestic equilibrium sucrose price is estimated to be about 9 per cent below the price under the single‐price policy and 17 per cent below the A‐pool producers’ price under the present two‐tier price scheme.

Full irrigation water tariffs have a considerable impact on enterprise mix. Farmers would shift from sugar‐cane to higher return crops or leave land fallow if they perceived the risk to be too high. Land values would fall in irrigation areas and increase in dryland areas.

Results are obtained from a regional linear programming model which incorporates negative sloping demand functions for crops, limited substitution in demand between crops, positive sloping labour supply functions and variance/ covariance risk matrices.     

An economic evaluation of area yield insurance for small-scale cane growers

In the past, crop insurance schemes have based indemnity payments on individual producers' yields. Insurance of individual yields does not cope efficiently with systemic risk and therefore fails in areas where crop yields are correlated across space. Area yield insurance provides an alternative and eliminates the problems of moral hazard and adverse selection associated with individual yield insurance. Area yield insurance therefore effectively copes with systemic risk. In this study, principles of area yield insurance were applied to yield data on small-scale cane growers in KwaZulu-Natal and used to calculate pure premium rates. The viability of a government-subsidised area yield insurance scheme for small-scale cane farmers was assessed in terms of affordability to the government, the farmers and private insurance companies. The empirical results obtained from this study indicate that such a scheme may pose great expense to the government and, as a result, may not be viable in South Africa. This topic needs further study, while other risk management strategies should also be considered.     

Incentives for mechanized cane harvesting in Thailand: A choice experiment

Sugarcane burning is a significant problem in Thailand. Cane burning is undertaken before harvest mostly due to labor shortages. A cane harvester has been promoted to counter labor shortages and increase cane productivity; however, its adoption has been slow. This paper examines incentive schemes for harvester adoption using a choice experiment. Forty large-scale farmers with the capacity to buy their own harvesters and 400 small-scale farmers who could potentially use harvesters on a fee basis were surveyed. The results suggest a variety of economic incentives for harvester adoption. Most important among these is subsidizing of interest rates for purchase. Also of merit at the milling stage are priority queuing, and subsidies for unburned cane to a lesser extent.     

Impacts of Food and Energy Price Hikes and Proposed Coping Strategies

Based on sample survey data for the years 2006 and 2007, we find that inflation of food and energy prices in China is moving at a slower pace than in the international market; however, the livelihood of low income groups has been significantly impacted. Urban sample households in low income groups have been shifting from consumption of high value food to lower value substitutes; and all of the rural sample households are reducing their total consumption expenditure in real terms. The Engel＇ s coefficient of the rural household enlarged while their proportion of spending on clothing and energy declined. Farmers＇ households are moving toward more imbalanced diets, and the nutritional status of the poor is apparently deteriorating. The emergency-response measures that the government should implement include stopping subsidies to biofuel producers, who use foodstuffs as inputs, and providing food aid to the poor. The mid-term strategies should include anti-monopoly tactics, improving the market environment for the right competition, and eliminating price distortion. Midterm and long-term socioeconomic policy reform must be undertaken to adjust the social structure, to correct the mechanism of factor price formation, and to transform the pattern of economic growth.     

基于社会责任的企业财务战略研究

企业社会责任与财务战略目标具有内在契合性,利益相关者理论为企业承担社会责任提供了理论基础。为适应社会责任的实现,企业财务管理必须在战略和目标上作出改变。     

The impacts of tourism investment on rural communities: Three case studies in South Africa

Significant research, both locally and internationally, has been undertaken on tourism development and its impacts on the empowerment of rural communities. This article analyses the extent to which three tourism projects in South Africa, namely the Makuleke tourism initiative, Umngazi River Bungalows and the commercialisation of Manyeleti Game Reserve, have improved the livelihoods of rural communities and contributed to rural economic development. The projects are analysed in terms of both their economic and non-economic benefits, as well as their contribution towards the attainment of certain key policy objectives of the South African government.     

木薯加工废弃物作为油葵芽苗菜栽培基质试验

为提高资源的利用率和减少环境污染,试验应用木薯加工过程中所产生的大量废弃物质———木薯渣和木薯皮与另外4种已证明适用的基质作对比栽培油葵芽苗菜,探索木薯渣和木薯皮作为芽苗菜栽培基质的可能性。结果表明：1.以木薯渣作为油葵芽苗菜的栽培基质完全可行,木薯皮则基本可行,如在栽培过程中有条件制造低浓度的蚯蚓体腔液结合起来使用,木薯皮作为油葵芽苗菜的栽培基质也完全可行;2.使用木薯渣、木薯皮作为油葵芽苗菜的栽培基质,栽培过程中喷施高浓度的蚯蚓体腔液会对苗菜的生长产生明显抑制作用。     

On optimal income taxation with heterogeneous work preferences

This paper considers the problem of optimal income taxation when individuals are assumed to differ with respect to their earnings potential and work preferences. A numerical method for solving this two-dimensional problem has been developed. We assume an additive utility function, and utilitarian social objectives. Rather than solve the first order conditions associated with the problem, we directly compute the best tax function, which can be written in terms of a second order B-spline function. Our findings show that marginal tax rates are higher than might be anticipated, and that very little bunching occurs at the optimum. Our simulation results show that the correlation between taste for work and productivity has a crucial role in determining the extent of redistribution in our model.     

Basic needs: The case of Sri Lanka

This article has two related objectives: to judge Sri Lanka's success in meeting its ‘basic needs’ and growth objectives, and to use Sri Lanka's experience to cast light on general hypotheses regarding basic needs. The analysis suggests that Sri Lanka's social expenditures had a substantial cost in growth and unemployment. However, largely because of these social programmes, it has the best social indicators, compared to its income, of any country for which data are available. Its growth has, surprisingly, been above average for low-income countries. Implications for basic-needs programmes include the need to ‘target’ social programmes, the high priority of primary education and the potential high impact, but also high costs, of assuring minimum caloric intakes.     

Cropping systems,structural change and rural-urban migration in Brazil

Rural out-migration is related interactively to differences in the structure of cropping systems. Individual, rational-decision explanations of migration are inseparable from structural, social explanations. In Cruz das Almas, a municipality in the north-eastern Brazilian state of Bahia, the principal cropping systems are based on production of cassava, tobacco and citrus fruit. Migration differences appear in response to different kinds of demographic pressure, to capital movements and to patterns of productive organization.     

Development as liberation: Policy lessons from case studies

Four case studies are summarized in which oppressed people have successfully assumed control over their own destinies and development strategies. Lessons from experience are drawn, at the national and macro-economic level, from Guinea-Bissau where the popular liberation movement has grown into the national government without losing close contact with its constituency; from the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka which has started as a modest development organization of poor people, based on indigenous social and cultural values, and which has grown into a popular movement of 1 million people (of 14 million total population) in some 2000 villages; from the SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association) in Ahmedabad, India, where oppressed street vendors, artisans, junksmiths and garment-makers have founded their own bank (which now has 1000 shareholders and 10,000 depositors) to circumvent usurious lending practices and to gain access to capital at their own terms; and from a Quechua community in central Bolivia where handicrafts producers' cooperatives have successfully maintained self-reliance and cultural identity through conscious choice of appropriate technology at their own terms. Lessons on development as a form of liberation are drawn from the social praxis of each of these examples.     

EVALUATING ALTERNATIVE TAX AND TRANSFER SCHEMES WITH ENDOGENOUS EARNINGS

This paper compares a linear income tax with a modified minimumincome guarantee that uses means-testing The schemes are evaluatedin terms of both their ability to reduce poverty and their influenceon social welfare (defined in terms of individuals' utilities)The comparisons involve a lexicographic approach whereby povertyreduction is regarded as the primary objective. Using a rangeof poverty measures and social welfare functions, simulationsshow that the linear income tax dominates the minimum incomeguarantee.     

Capitals and Capabilities: A Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods and Poverty

On the basis of themes emerging in current debates on rural development in Latin America, this paper develops an analytical framework for analyzing rural livelihoods in terms of their sustainability and their implications for rural poverty. The framework argues that our analyses of rural livelihoods need to understand them in terms of: (a) people’s access to five types of capital asset; (b) the ways in which they combine and transform those assets in the building of livelihoods that as far as possible meet their material and their experiential needs; (c) the ways in which people are able to expand their asset bases through engaging with other actors through relationships governed by the logics of the state, market and civil society; and (d) the ways in which they are able to deploy and enhance their capabilities both to make living more meaningful and to change the dominant rules and relationships governing the ways in which resources are controlled, distributed and transformed in society. Particular attention is paid to the importance of social capital as an asset through which people are able to widen their access to resources and other actors.     

论古巴社会经济公平制度

古巴社会经济公平制度是卡斯特罗依据马列主义相关原则、创造性地将古巴人民追求社会自由平等的精神运用到古巴社会主义实践中的产物，古巴政府将其作为执政根本和核心目标，竭力贯彻，形成了特色鲜明的实践要素。但是，它的可行性是以本土性为基础和前提的，本身也存在一些值得商榷和继续完善的地方，不具备整体可借鉴性，更没有普遍指导意义。     

Characteristics of agricultural input package users in communal clubs serviced by Acat in KwaZulu: A note

Characteristics of communal club members who use input packages are studied using a survey of communal clubs serviced by Africa Co‐operative Action Trust (Acat) in KwaZulu during 1989. Discriminant analysis shows that full input package adopters tend to belong to older clubs, have less formal savings and receive more visits each year from KwaZulu Department of Agriculture (KDA) extension officers. They also have a greater proportion of land under sugar‐cane, larger farm sizes and a higher rand monetary value of livestock.

Members of older clubs benefit from greater club experience in ordering inputs and liquidity for securing discounts on bulk orders. Clubs also enable scarce KDA extension manpower resources to be used more effectively by focusing extension efforts on groups rather than individual farmers. Sugar‐cane production probably indicates member willingness to innovate and the availability of funds to buy complete input packages for other crops. Increased access to land promotes input package adoption which can raise agricultural productivity. Development of institutional arrangements for a land rental market in KwaZulu should be considered. Higher monetary values of livestock reflect Increased ability to bear risk associated with technology adoption and that adopters have the means to purchase input packages     

Entrepreneurs,formalization of social ties,and trustbuilding in Europe (fourteenth to twentieth centuries)1

The establishment of trust is a key component of economic activity and social ties can make business dealings work better. However, we do not know much about how economic actors created new social ties deliberately in order to pursue their objectives. This article analyses the way in which merchants and entrepreneurs used specific rituals to establish formal social ties, with the intent of protecting their business relationships. It focuses on relational instruments that until now had been neglected, particularly godparenthood and marriage witnessing. It shows that formalization, ritualization, and publicity of ties were used by entrepreneurs to establish trust with their business associates, for example when information was asymmetric or when institutions were perceived as inefficient in guaranteeing mutual good behaviour. The analysis covers a long period, from the late middle ages to today. It pays particular attention to the consequences of the Reformation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth. Contrary to the received wisdom, it suggests that formal social ties such as godparenthood continued to play an important role in economic activity during and after the industrial revolution. New databases on early modern Italy and nineteenth‐century France are used.     

能源木薯产业发展政策研究

文章借鉴国外生物能源产业发达国家的发展策略,分析我国目前有关生物能源发展的立法现状及存在的不足,提出我国应采取扩大供给、增加需求、加大科研投入等能源木薯产业发展政策。