Animal Welfare and Eggs – Cheap Talk or Money on the Counter?

Our estimate revealed willingness to pay for animal welfare using a panel mixed logit model. We utilise a unique household level panel, combining real purchases with survey data on perceived public and private good attributes of different types of eggs. We estimate willingness to pay for organic eggs controlling for trust in a positive connection between the public good animal welfare and the organic label and the private good food safety also connected to the label. Our results suggest that in the real world, animal welfare plays a minor role in the demand for agricultural products.     

Farmers and Consumers: Towards Symbiosis?

Public declarations on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have recently become more consumer-oriented, aiming at \"transparency and defence of consumer interests\". Even demonstrations have changed: fewer occupations of railways, motorways, and airports, and more free distribution of grilled steaks, milk, and fruit to citizens.     

Italian Consumers’ Preferences for Pasta and Consumption Trends: Tradition or Innovation?

Abstract

The aim of this study is to know Italian consumers’ preferences for Pasta and consumption habits. Food culture and concerns about food security and product innovation were investigated. A sample of Italian consumers was interviewed. Consumer’ profile, motivations and purchasing behavior were described. Relationships between observed variables and the latent constructs that explain the preferences were highlighted. There is asymmetric information between consumers and producers. Consumers believe Pasta is made with Italian grains, and therefore it is healthy and safe, although that’s not always the case. Intrinsic and extrinsic high quality, which derives from growing and production technologies, is required.     

Derivatives for Development? Small‐Farmer Vulnerability and the Financialization of Climate Risk Management

While agricultural production has always been a risky endeavour, it has become even more so in the current context of climatic change and increasing market uncertainty. Meanwhile, the rollback of state protections has rendered small‐scale farmers, especially marginalized peasant producers in the Global South, particularly vulnerable to these contemporary stressors. This essay critically evaluates the contemporary roll‐out of financial derivatives that purportedly aim to mitigate smallholder vulnerability. It gives particular attention to a novel type of derivative known as index‐based agricultural insurance (IBAI) that plays an increasingly prominent role in initiatives to ‘climate proof’ agriculture. The creation of IBAI markets has required significant work, including (1) technical interventions to debundle environmental risk from agricultural production and rebundle it in novel ways that support private financial capital and agricultural input suppliers, (2) extensive state support in the creation of risk markets, and (3) the construction of an accommodating ‘insurance culture’ among small‐scale producers. In addition to mitigating weather‐based risk, a primary objective of IBAI is to spur agricultural modernization. In promoting this agenda, IBAI initiatives may have the paradoxical effect of exposing smallholders to new risks while expanding their overall vulnerability to environmental and economic stressors.     

The Effects of Kenya's ‘Smarter’ Input Subsidy Programme on Smallholder Behaviour and Incomes: Do Different Quasi‐experimental Approaches Lead to the Same Conclusions?

Kenya joined the ranks of sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries implementing targeted input subsidy programmes (ISPs) for inorganic fertiliser and improved seed in 2007 with the establishment of the National Accelerated Agricultural Inputs Access Programme (NAAIAP). Although several features of NAAIAP were ‘smarter’ than other ISPs in the region, some aspects were less ‘smart’. However, the efficacy of the programme, and the relationship between its design and effectiveness, have been little studied. This article uses nationwide survey data to estimate the effects of NAAIAP participation on Kenyan smallholders’ cropping patterns, incomes, and poverty status. Unlike most previous studies of ISPs, a range of panel data‐ and propensity score‐based methods are used to estimate the effects of NAAIAP. The article then compares these estimated effects across estimators and to the effects of other ISPs in SSA, and discusses the likely links between differences in programme designs and impacts. The results are robust to the choice of estimator and suggest that, despite substantial crowding out of commercial fertiliser demand, NAAIAP had sizeable impacts on maize production and poverty severity. NAAIAP's success in targeting resource‐poor farmers and implementation through vouchers redeemable at private agro‐dealer shops likely contributed to its more favorable impacts than those of ISPs in Malawi and Zambia.     

Consumers’ Perceptions and Behaviors Regarding Organic Fruits and Vegetables: Marketing Trends for Organic Food in the Twenty-First Century

ABSTRACT

Organic food market is very challenging in Europe and developing rapidly with different rates between the western and eastern parts. The objective of this report is to gain knowledge about attitudes toward organic fruits and vegetables among Slovenian consumers. Results indicated that organic buyers tend to be younger and higher educated than those who do not buy them. In addition, consumers’ trust in the authenticity of the goods and price are also issues. However, the main barrier to increase the market share of organic products is consumer information. According to the research results an important task for the producers will be to increase consumers’ knowledge of what an organic product is and how to differentiate it in the marketplace. Along with knowledgeable and educated consumers, consumption could be raised on another level. The results of the research could be used for planning further marketing activities.     

Are Local and Organic Claims Complements or Substitutes? A Consumer Preferences Study for Eggs

This paper provides an analysis of consumer preferences for product claims, specifically about origin and production methods. In particular, it addresses two important questions: i) whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for food products carrying these claims; and ii) whether local and organic claims are complements or substitutes. A choice experiment designed to estimate two‐way interactions was undertaken in Spain for eggs. The findings show first, that consumers are willing to pay a positive premium price for an enhanced method of production (that of barn, free‐range and/or organic instead of cage produced eggs) as well as for the proximity of production (local, regional and national over imported). Second, the findings show that consumer preferences for the claims are heterogeneous with two consumer segments being identified: “origin preference”, the larger segment, and the “production method preference”. Results show that organic and local claims were complements for the larger first segment but that free‐range and local/regional claims were substitutes for the second smaller segment. These results provide the marketing chains with insights applicable for pricing strategies.     

Was the Australian Meat and Live‐stock Corporation’s advertising efficient?

A theory of the allocation of producer levies earmarked for downstream promotion is developed and applied to quarterly series (1970:2–1988:4) on red-meats advertising by the Australian Meat and Live-stock Corporation. Robust inferences about program efficiency are contained in the coefficients of changes in promotion effort regressed against movements in farm price and quantity. Empirical evidence of program efficiency is inconclusive. While the deeper issue of efficient disbursement of funds remains an open question, there is evidence, at least, of efficient taxation.     

Cereal price shocks and volatility in sub‐Saharan Africa: what really matters for farmers’ welfare?

The lack of information as well as some misperceptions about the distinction between the welfare consequences of higher versus more volatile cereal prices has limited the effectiveness of policy interventions during the recent food crises in many developing countries. This article proposes an integrated empirical strategy to investigate and compare the different effects of these two phenomena and tests it using nationally representative household survey data from four sub‐Saharan countries. Results show that the negative impacts of a cereal price increase substantially outweigh the effects of price volatility on household welfare across the entire income distribution. The amplitude and the distribution of those effects depend heavily on specific factors, such as: the weight of food consumption over total expenditure; the budget share devoted to cereals; the substitution effect among food groups; and the relative number of net sellers versus net buyers accessing the market. We also show that volatility mainly harms the poorest quintile of the population.     

Are In‐House and Outsourcing Innovation Strategies Correlated? Evidence from the European Agri‐Food Sector

We analyse European agri‐food firms’ choices about innovation in‐house or through outsourcing and provide empirical evidence about the correlation between these strategies. The relationship between the innovation strategy and firm‐, industry‐ and innovation‐specific characteristics is analysed through a bivariate probit model, which uses firm data from the EFIGE Bruegel‐UniCredit dataset. Transaction cost, resource base and knowledge governance arguments are used to explain the choice of innovation strategy. Our results show that the decisions to innovate in‐house or through outsourcing are independent from each other. In addition, we find that several organisational characteristics such as communication systems, human resource practices and specialisation are likely to influence both strategies. Conversely, organisational characteristics such as the allocation of authority and the business network do not seem relevant in determining the innovation strategies of the European agri‐food sector.     

Does Choice Context Affect the Results from Incentive‐Compatible Experiments? The Case of Non‐GM and Country‐of‐Origin Premia in Canola Oil

We seek to design and implement a WTP elicitation instrument closely resembling an actual grocery shopping experience. An incentive-compatible choice experiment is used to elicit values for a non-GM attribute and a country-of-origin attribute of Canola oil. The choice context is varied to assess whether revealed-preference choice experiments are affected by choice variety. A median premium for non-GM Canola oil is found to approximate C$0.45 or C$0.62/liter according to the choice variety context; different country-of-origin effects are also found as choice context varies. Hypotheses as to why these significant effects of choice contexts occur are suggested.
Nous cherchons à concevoir et à mettre en application un instrument de révélation de la VDP qui ressemble étroitement aux choix que fait un consommateur lorsqu'il effectue son marché. Nous avons utilisé une méthode expérimentale compatible avec les incitations des participants afin de découvrir la valeur accordée à deux caractéristiques de l'huile de canola: non génétiquement modifiée et étiquetée selon le pays d'origine. La liste des choix est variée afin d'évaluer si les préférences révélées sont influencées par la gamme de choix. La prime médiane de l'huile de canola non génétiquement modifiée est d'environ 0,45 $CAN ou 0,62 $CAN le litre selon les choix proposés. Différents pays d'origine figurent aussi dans cette liste de choix. Nous avons formulé des hypothèses quant aux raisons pour lesquelles la gamme de choix a des effets importants.     

Fruit and Vegetable Consumers’ Behavior: Implications for Organized Retailers in Emerging Markets

The authors attempt to understand selected behaviors of fruit and vegetable consumers of mid-sized cities of a developing economy, which are important for any retailer to appreciate. The study was carried out in two mid-sized cities of the Orissa state of India with 100 respondents by using the specially developed questionnaire. Statistical tools were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that vegetables are consumed in greater quantity and purchased more frequently than fruits. Consumers attached more importance to credence attributes than to search and experience attributes while making their purchase decisions. Family income and consumers’ education were found to have significant influence on the consumers’ willingness to pay for graded and packaged products. Organized retailers can take cues from the findings of the study to decide about location, nature and quality of assortment, and their marketing strategies.     

Who Owns the Land? Gender and Land‐Titling Programmes in Latin America

The main focus of state intervention in Latin American agriculture in the 1990s was on land-titling programs, designed to promote security of tenure and enliven land markets. A review of seven of these projects suggests that they were often designed without sufficient attention to civil codes and marital regimes that protect women's property rights. They often ignored that a household's endowment of land may consist of three forms of property: the wife's, the husband's and jointly owned property. By assuming that the family farm is owned by the male household head, these projects trampled upon women's ownership rights. Nonetheless, the share of female beneficiaries of land-titling projects has been much higher than the share of women adjudicated land under the agrarian reforms of previous decades. This is partly because the primary way that women acquire land is through inheritance, and inheritance appears to be more gender equitable than other manners of acquiring land. It is also due to the impact of the more gender-equitable agrarian legislation of the current period, itself a product of the impact of women's movements on the state.     

Consumers’ Preferences for Bread: Transgenic,Cisgenic, Organic or Pesticide‐free?

Consumers are apprehensive about transgenic technologies, so cisgenics, which limit gene transfers to sexually compatible organisms, have been suggested to address consumer concerns. We study consumer preferences for rye bread alternatives based on transgenic or cisgenic rye, grown conventionally or without the use of pesticides, relative to traditionally bred rye, grown with conventional or organic farming methods. Stated preference (SP) data from a choice experiment are combined with revealed preference (RP) data from market purchases from the same respondents. Results show that respondents prefer pesticide‐free production methods, and that while cisgenics is preferred over transgenics, the majority of respondents favour traditional breeding methods. The distribution in preferences suggests that some respondents prefer bread from cisgenic crops produced without pesticides over traditional crops produced using pesticides. Preferences for organic bread are stronger than for pesticide‐free products. From a policy perspective results suggest that excluding cisgenics from mandatory labeling in the EU, or including it in the voluntary non‐GM labelling in the US, would cause welfare losses for consumers.     

Payments for environmental services to promote “climate‐smart agriculture”? Potential and challenges

Payments for environmental services (PES) have gained wide popularity as approaches to promote environmentally friendly land use or agricultural production practices. Yet academics have also voiced concerns against seeing PES as a panacea. This article discusses whether PES is an appropriate and promising approach to promote so‐called “climate‐smart agriculture” (CSA) practices, which we define as agricultural production practices that contribute to CO₂ emission reductions and/or removals and provide benefits to farmers via increased productivity and profits and reduced vulnerability to climate change. PES appears most promising for the promotion of CSA practices in small‐scale farming contexts with low incomes. Effective design, however, requires solid estimates of cost and benefit flows from CSA adoption over time, accounting for differences in socioeconomic and ecological conditions, and addressing the risk of leakage. Funding for such PES will likely have to come from public sources, and seems most promising where synergies with other objectives such as agricultural development, food security, and climate adaptation or other environmental services exist. The potential of alternative approaches for CSA support such as taxation with rebates for CSA practices, CSA‐related investment support such as microcredits, and hybrid approaches such as conditional microcredit should be further investigated.