The Future Role of the Farm Management Expert

Farmers need more accurate and useful information. They must also improve their decision-making skills. The farm management expert's main challenge will be to perform more like a coach than a general. As a professional, he/she must be guided by a consistent and honorable set of principles, with the ability to inspire and motivate others. Finally, to be successful, he/she must know his/her customers, know their habits, attitudes, biases and dissatisfactions and recognize these differences. In a nutshell, the farm management expert of the future must tailor his/her services to the new market.     

Farmers’ perception of their decision-making in relation to policy schemes: A comparison of case studies from Switzerland and the United States

Farmers are decision-makers in a complex system of cause and effect. They decide with respect to their own attitude and beliefs, according to their farm structure and they take into account programs and regulations of the overarching policy scheme. In this paper we used mail surveys with identical questions to establish a cross-national comparison of two case study areas. The questionnaire investigates farmer's perspectives on what influences their own decision-making as well as their perception of the socio-ecological environment to relate these findings to the respective policy schemes in the case study areas. The two case studies are located in Southern Illinois, United States and in central Switzerland. The analysis shows that full-time farmers of the Southern Illinois case study area rate constraining factors such as financial aspects higher than Southern Illinois part-time farmers and farmers from the central Switzerland case study area. Furthermore, it is apparent that Swiss case study-farmers rate aspects of their land use responsibility and the Illinois case study-farmers rate ecological aspects higher. The empirical findings can be qualitatively explained through analysis of agricultural policy schemes.     

THE VALUE OF FARM ANIMAL WELFARE

This paper explores further some of the ideas put forward by McInerney (1993) in his economic perspective of animal welfare. It uses a simple economic framework to consider citizens' concerns and perceptions about farm animal welfare and the production and consumption of livestock products in society. People's perceptions that certain aspects of livestock production give rise to poor farm animal welfare are a potential source of disutility for them. This disutility may be associated with people's own consumption of livestock products and/or with other people's consumption. The latter is a negative externality of consumption in society, resulting in very real indirect costs associated with livestock production. The paper discusses the need for valuing farm animal welfare, considers techniques for evaluation and highlights some of the policy issues involved.     

Gender and conservation agriculture in East and Southern Africa: towards a research agenda

It is remarkable that despite wide-ranging, in-depth studies over many years, almost no conservation agriculture (CA) studies consider gender and gender relations as a potential explanatory factor for (low) adoption rates. This is important because CA demands new ways of working with the farm system. Implementation will inevitably involve a reallocation of men's and women's resources as well as having an impact upon their ability to realize their gender interests. With respect to intra-household decision-making and the distribution of benefits, CA interventions have implications for labour requirements and labour allocation, investment decisions with respect to mechanization and herbicide use, crop choice, and residue management. CA practice may impact upon the ability of households to source a wide variety of crops, wild plants, and insects and small animals for household nutrition. Gender biases in extension service design can sideline women. This paper examines the limited research to date on the interactions between CA interventions and gender in East and Southern Africa, and, based on the gaps observed, sets out a research agenda. It argues that attention to gender in CA is particularly timely given the increasing interest in CA as a means of adapting to climate change.     

FURTHER TOWARDS A MORE DYNAMIC APPROACH TO FARM PLANNING: A COMMENT

In a recent contribution to the Jounal, Harle (1974) introduces a model of the farm firm based on the achievement of what he calls economic technical eficiency. The approach Is an attempt to reconcile recent interpretations of the farm planning problem with the author's own practical experience in farm management. The nature of the planning problem and the definition of economic technical efficiency are of central importance to the validity and usefulness of the model, and both demand further comment.     

The Contribution of Financial Management Training and Knowledge to Dairy Farm Financial Performance

Cooperative Extension and other institutions (e.g., technical colleges, on-line self study programs, university short courses, etc.) frequently stress the importance of financial management education for successful farming operations. The research reported in this paper attempts to quantify the contributions of such training to the financial performance of dairy farms in Wisconsin. Our results suggest a link between a deeper understanding of financial concepts and greater financial returns but that it is a relatively weak one. Moreover, simple exposure to farm management training programs and self-confidence in farm financial decision-making ability are not significantly related to farm financial outcomes.     

中国马铃薯农户种植意愿及其空间差异

目的 探究不同区域农户马铃薯种植意愿的影响因素及其差别,能够提高农户种植马铃薯的能动性与积极性,为马铃薯主粮化进程提供决策参考。方法 文章基于1 261个农户样本调研,运用条件价值评估法和多元回归模型,从农户个体禀赋、生产经营、社会资源、市场认知、政策需求五个方面对农户支付与受偿意愿进行分析,在此基础上探讨影响马铃薯种植意愿的主要因素,再比较分析典型产区马铃薯种植影响因素。结果 马铃薯农户种植受偿意愿均值为4 069.5元/hm²,支付意愿均值为724.5元/hm²;马铃薯农户种植意愿受各项成本收益、农户受教育程度、家庭收入、社会资源、市场信息认知及政府补贴的影响较大;北方种植因素受规模和利润率的主导,南方更多受到家庭生产经营特征的综合影响。结论 个体决策影响群体决策,群体决策影响整体马铃薯种植空间格局变化。区域内农户采取基于种植约束、成本收益和政策支持的种植方案选择,通过有限区域范围的无限趋同决策,产生不同程度的种植集聚、产业集聚和市场集聚,进而影响马铃薯种植空间格局变化。     

Profit efficiency and habitat biodiversity: The case of upland livestock farmers in Ireland

This study evaluates the private economic value of biodiversity using original farm habitat data and farm household survey data from livestock farms in the hills and uplands of Ireland. Profit efficiency and biodiversity efficiency are estimated using a stochastic translog production frontier model. Results indicate that biodiversity plays a beneficial role in farm profitability but the effect is non-linear. Stocking rate and the perimeter to area ratio are found to have a negative effect on biodiversity while the number of plots per farm has a positive effect. Biodiversity efficiency is influenced by the number of livestock, habitat quality, spatial habitat patterns and arrangement, perimeter to area ratio, the number of plots, profit efficiency and farmer's education and age.     

The influence of management characteristics on the technical efficiency of wheat farmers in eastern England

Technical efficiency of wheat farms in eastern England is measured through the estimation of a stochastic frontier production function using panel data for the 1993–1997 crop years. Variations in the technical efficiency index across production units are explained through a number of managerial and farm characteristic variables following Battese and Coelli (1995) [Empirical Econ. 20, 325–332] and incorporating the spirit of Rougoor et al. (1998) [Agric. Econ. 18, 261–272]. The technical efficiency index across production units ranges from 62 to 98%. The objectives of maximising annual profits and maintaining the environment are positively correlated with, and have the largest influence on, technical efficiency. Moreover, those farmers who seek information, have more years of managerial experience, and have a large farm are also associated with higher levels of technical efficiency. Future studies that seek to explain variation in technical efficiency should include further aspects of the managerial decision‐making process.     

ROLES OF WOMEN ON FARMS: A PILOT STUDY

Official statistics do not reveal the nature of the contribution which farmers' wives make to the farm labour force. On the basis of a pilot study, three roles for women on farms were identified. Main distinguishing features were division of labour between husband and wife, frequency of manual work, responsibility for farm enterprises, participation in formal organisations and approach to housework. Home-centred farm housewives only work on the farm occasionally, working farmwives assist their husbands regularly while women farmers threaten male status by doing “man's” work. Reasons for women playing one role rather than another are discussed. Trends in agriculture suggest that the farmer's wife's contribution to the farm business will become still more significant in future. “The concept of ‘the farmer and his wife’ so often used by agricultural economics is far from having universal validity” (Ashby, 1953: 97).     

GOAL PROGRAMMING AND MULTIPLE CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING IN FARM PLANNING: AN EXPOSITORY ANALYSIS

Several paradigms can be used to analyse multiple-criteria decision-making problems. Of these goal programming is probably the most widely used one, at least in management science. Goal programming seems to offer considerable potential for application to multiple-criteria problems in farm planning. However, its applications in agricultural economics have been few and far between. Even these attempts seem to suffer from some serious misconceptions. In this paper an effort is made to explain the structure of a goal programming model by deriving it from the familiar paradigm of linear programming. This is done to put the potential usefulness of goal programming and its relationship to linear programming in perspective, and to encourage further applications to multiple-criteria decision-making in farm planning.     

Peatlands,their economic value and priorities for their future management – The example of Ireland

The threat of climate change has focused attention on those environments with high capacity for carbon storage. Peatlands are one such environment in that they both sequester CO₂ from the atmosphere and are also a major store of carbon. However, the world's peatlands are everywhere under threat. This includes in Ireland where, while still a feature of many rural areas, less than third of the country's original area of peatland remains intact. The sustainable management of the remaining peatland necessitates an action plan including the evidence by which to evaluate choices. It also requires an articulation of a vision for peatland in the decades to come. In this respect, peatlands are an environmental asset, but also a social and economic resource. Any framework for their management and restoration must be able to deal with the social and political decision making process and demonstrate a respect for the diverse range of public and private goods that peatlands provide.     

Production efficiency of Chinese agriculture: evidence from rural household survey data

A shadow-price profit frontier model is developed to examine production efficiency of Chinese rural households in farming operations. The model incorporates price distortions resulting from imperfect market conditions and socioeconomic and institutional constraints, but retains the advantages of stochastic frontier properties. The shadow prices are derived through a generalized profit function estimation. The shadow-price profit frontier is then estimated and an efficiency index based on the estimated profit frontier is computed and decomposed to household characteristics. Empirical results using data from China's Rural Household Survey for 1991 reject the neoclassical profit maximization hypothesis based on market prices in favor of the general model with price distortions. Farmers' resource endowment and education influence their response to the market restrictions, thus alter their performance in terms of efficiency. The estimated efficiency index ranges from 6% to 93% with a sample average of 62%. Households' educational level, family size and per capita net income are positively related to production efficiency. Households living in mountain areas or with family members employed by the government or state industries are relatively inefficient. Reducing market intervention, allowing right of use of farm land to be transferred among households, encouraging migration of excess farm labor, and promoting farmers' education will improve rural households' efficiency in agricultural production.     

An actor-oriented approach to understanding dairy farming in a liberalised regime: A case study of Ireland’s New Entrants’ Scheme

With the abolition of dairy quotas in 2015 major change in Europe’s dairy industry is anticipated at the level of individual farms, with consequences for how land is utilised and managed. Critical questions in this context are how farmers react to the myriad challenges coming forth from changed policy circumstances and, more specifically, the factors that influence their responses to these challenges at farm level. As part of a broader multi-disciplinary research project, this paper presents a narrative analysis of dairy farmers participating in Ireland’s New Entrants’ Scheme, an initiative that has facilitated the establishment of over two hundred new dairy farms. Salient with an increasing literature on Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKISs) within agriculture, the paper focuses specifically on the actors who influence the decisions of the New Entrants (NEs) at this critical juncture in the transformation of dairy policy. Led by Norman Long’s actor-oriented approach, we examine social interfaces involving NEs and different categories of actors. We found that interfaces conditioned by coercive behaviour on the part of actors had a narrow scope of influence on farmers’ decisions compared to interfaces characterised by relatively equal power relations. The latter interfaces had the capacity to be strongly influential on broad habitual production and management decisions. Interfaces involving family members, however, had ultimate influence on major strategic decision-making, including decisions to establish new enterprises. Overall, our analysis suggests that NEs are empowered decision-makers in their social interfaces with other AKIS actors and our biographical approach to the analysis indicates that quota deregulation itself has not led to radical changes in who influences NEs’ decision-making.     

Boys' versus Girls' Schooling in Nepal: Does It Vary by the Extent of Mothers' Autonomy?

This paper hypothesises that resource allocation affecting the decisions relating to sons' versus daughters' schooling in Nepalese households is dependent on the extent of the mother's autonomy. Here, we posit that women's autonomy is a relative concept as a woman has degrees of decision-making power within her household. The results indicate that daughters' education is more likely to benefit when mothers solely make the decisions, but when decisions are made jointly with her spouse then the decisions are more likely to be in favour of sons' education. Our results indicate a marked gender difference in parental decisions over children's education, in the direction posited above, and less than 10% of mothers in the sample have complete autonomy over such decision-making. These results are important for policy-makers wishing to decrease gender bias in children's educational outcomes.     

Introduction to the special issue on the role of nonfarm income in poverty reduction: evidence from Asia and East Africa

In this special issue, we present seven studies that collectively attempt to investigate the role of non‐farm income in long‐term and short‐term poverty reduction in Asia and Africa. The first four studies out of the seven use long‐term panel data over two decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. These studies show drastic increases in non‐farm income shares and corresponding declines in poverty levels over time, especially in the Philippines and Thailand. Education levels of household members and returns to education also increased significantly in these countries. The remaining three studies use cross‐sectional and short‐term panel data from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. These African studies show high proportions of poor households and low shares of non‐farm income that are somewhat comparable to the situation in the 1980s described in the Asian studies. Without the Green Revolution that provided stable farm income and potential financial resources to invest in children' education in Asia, it is not clear if African farm households can follow the Asian examples.     

MEASUREMENT OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE OF PAKISTAN

The objective of this study is to measure technical efficiency, using a translog frontier production function on cross-sectional data from 397 farms in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan in 1988–89. The estimated farm level technical efficiency is found to be dependent upon levels of credit and education, farmers' ages and the extent of land fragmentation. Lack of education, restricted credit and fragmented holdings are found to be causes of inefficiency; hence policies which consolidate holdings, provide credit or educate farmers will tend to improve efficiency in agriculture.     

国有林场改革成效评价——职工获得感的统计分析

利用国有林场职工监测数据,基于物质维度和精神维度,从改革后职工自身的收益情况、职工对林场的整体评价、职工对林场管理方式的评价等方面,采用比较分析法和主成分分析法对国有林场改革职工获得感进行分析。研究结果表明:国有林场改革后职工获得感有所提升,改革进程与职工获得感呈强正相关性,改革促进了林场的可持续发展。但林场整体基础设施环境一般,场部相对较好,管护站点则较差。同时,在领导班子建设方面应注重自主、公平,仍需提高领导水平。     

我国家庭农场发展的现状、问题及培育建议——基于农业部专项调查343万个样本数据

[目的]家庭农场作为一种新型农业经营主体,近年来受到国家的大力支持。对其发展情况进行调查分析有助于发现其存在问题,尽早提出解决措施,优化家庭农场的发展和培育。[方法]文章以农业部家庭农场专项调查数据为基础,从经营数量、经营规模、经营类型、经营效益4个方面,对家庭农场的发展现状进行了分析。[结果]家庭农场发展迅速,且增长速度逐年加快;目前已基本实现规模经营,其中70%的土地来自土地流转;农场数量和规模南北差异较大;经营类型以种植业为主,占六成以上;家庭农场的年销售产值高,但净利润低。除此之外,由于处在探索发展阶段,我国家庭农场在发展过程中面临着生产成本过高、质量认证缺乏和资金支持少等问题。[结论]最后针对这些问题,从加大政策扶持力度、加快农产品品牌建设和加强金融支持3方面提出对策建议,以期为未来家庭农场的培育提供参考价值。     

Risk preference and optimal enterprise combinations in Kahuro division of Murang'a district, Kenya

Financing smallholder farming has been one of the major concerns of Kenya's agricultural development efforts. Many credit programs have evolved over the years but with dismal performance. In a study that sought to find the best way to finance smallholder agriculture, it became necessary to analyze and document, in the first place, the farmers' preferred enterprise patterns. Any financial innovations would hence address the preferred patterns. Of particular interest was the effect of risk preference on such patterns, which had been ignored in many previous farm management studies. Murang'a district was chosen as a typical smallholder district. Sample farmers, obtained through cluster sampling, were visited and structured questionnaires administered to cover farm events and physical resources of short rains 1995 to long rains 1996. This formed a basis for formulating the farm patterns. A quadratic programming model was used to analyze observed farm plans. The model incorporates farmers' risk preferences, revenue fluctuations, and resource and subsistence restrictions. The results showed that: (1) changes in risk preference do affect the optimal crop combinations; (2) the typical cropping pattern is rational as the farmer meets both food and cash under modest variability of income; (3) insisting on producing most subsistence food requirements by the farmers reduces efficiency and limits the feasible plans.