Information and consumer perception of the “organic” attribute in fresh fruits and vegetables

Using a double hurdle model on panel data from 3,200 Danish households (monthly observations for 2002–2007), we study the effects of health‐related media information on the demand for organic fruit and vegetables. We find that “negative” information about pesticides contained in conventional fruit and vegetables mainly influences the probability of a consumer entering the organic market, not the quantities consumed by households that are already active on the organic market. “Positive” information that links health and the consumption of organic food influences both steps of the decision process. Our dataset includes information about consumers’ media habits, which allows us to disentangle the direct effects of media information from the indirect effects of this information as it is disseminated through the population. Our results suggest that directly obtained information is the main type of information influencing consumers, while information loadings by dissemination through the population have almost no effect on consumption.     

Afterword: Reflections on “Capitalist development in hostile environments”

This afterword places the long essay “Capitalist Development in Hostile Environments” in the context of Giovanni Arrighi's overall intellectual trajectory. It highlights several crucial theoretical and methodological contributions to debates, including on the relationship between proletarianization and capitalist development, and between labour migration, class formation, and class conflict; on the interrelationship between “internal” and “external” processes in the explanation of social change; and on the distinction between economic progress, “catching‐up” development, and popular welfare. It concludes with a brief discussion of ways in which Arrighi's later theorization of the longue durée evolution of historical capitalism provides a robust conceptual framework for ongoing studies of proletarianization and capitalist development.     

Applying economic sociology to understand the meaning of “Quality” in food markets

This article reviews the concept of the “market” and questions the standard view of the “market” developed by orthodox economic theory. The article highlights how Economic Sociology and Convention Theory is more useful in understanding markets and appreciating markets as social constructs, which are governed by institutions and social orders. This adjustment in the analytical framework to study markets and especially food markets, is useful in unpacking the various dimensions of “quality” in food products and illustrating that “quality” is an institution that is shaped by society and by culture.     

Introduction to the special issue “small farms: decline or persistence?”

This issue of Agricultural Economics contains articles from a seminar entitled “Small Farms: Decline or Persistence?” held at the University of Kent. This issue includes nine papers selected from more than 50 papers presented at the seminar. Articles published use a range of econometric and simulation methods to provide a suite of case studies. Topics studied range from such fundamental issues as what constitutes a small farm to recent trends in the diversification of small farms and their integration into modern globalized food chains. Several papers emphasize the link between agricultural policy development and the future of small farms.     

Evaluating alternative “countermeasures” against food contamination resulting from nuclear accidents

Nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl have far reaching impacts on ecological systems. Likewise they have major implications for agricultural systems, since crops and livestock can become contaminated and rendered unfit for human consumption. A range of “countermeasures” exists, however, which can mitigate these impacts and allow food products to be saved. The CESER project has been concerned with the development of a system to assess the environmental side‐effects of such countermeasures. Estimates of the economic costs of these environmental side‐effects have been made for a number of case study sites in the UK, using environmental models and an original contingent valuation study. Estimates of farm level (private) costs are also included.     

The social construction of “shared growth”: Zambia Sugar and the uneven terrain of social benefit

Recent years have witnessed a growing trend in agricultural investment and large‐scale farmland acquisition in the Global South and a rapid expansion of scholarship and public debate over the nature, consequences, and desirability of these trends. The polarization of this debate into “win/lose” narratives raises the question of whether, and under what conditions, the logic of capital accumulation driving farmland acquisition and investment can engender broad‐based social benefits akin to “shared growth.” This paper sheds light on this question through a detailed look at the recent expansion of Zambia Sugar's Nakambala Estate in Mazabuka, Zambia. We explore outcomes linked to two of the most prominent pathways through which social benefits are said to accrue: smallholder incorporation and employment. Findings demonstrate the unevenness of outcomes linked to both pathways, with the concrete benefits both claimed and observed through some measures quickly eroding under the weight of alternative performance metrics. The unevenness produced by the intensification of capitalist relations is manifested not just between those differentially positioned with respect to the incoming investment (“outgrower,” “employee,” and “land loser”) but within each of those conditions. This ambiguity opens spaces for competing representations of the promises and pitfalls of these processes, while highlighting the shaky ground on which shared growth and inclusive business agendas stand.     

Land administration “best practice” providing the infrastructure for land policy implementation

Land administration systems, and particularly their core cadastral components, are an important infrastructure which facilitates the implementation of land use policies. While most land administration systems traditionally have a primary objective of supporting the operation of land markets, they are increasingly evolving into a broader land information infrastructure which supports economic development, environmental management and social stability in both developed and developing countries. While a great deal of attention is given to land use policies worldwide concerned with such areas as forest management, coastal zone management, environmental sustainability and managing the urban environment, less attention is given to the infrastructures which facilitate the implementation of the associated policies and programmes. Importantly, all these activities rely on some form of land administration infrastructure which permits the complex range of rights, restrictions and responsibilities in land to be identified, mapped and managed as a basis for policy formulation and implementation. As a result, there is an increasing interest in the concept of land administration infrastructures and their core cadastres, in the principles and policies concerned with establishing such infrastructures and in “best practices”. In addressing this need, this paper attempts to explain the evolving concept of land administration infrastructures, the concept of “best practice” and the concept of a land administration “tool box” of principles, policies, laws and technologies which are useful in reforming or re-engineering land administration systems in support of a broader land policy agenda.     

Achieving environmental flows where buyback is constrained

Theory suggests that the development of common property increases national welfare, and consistent with this thinking Australia's Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) Plan uses a common property approach to recover environmental water rights in the national interest. Two water recovery instruments are used: purchasing water rights (buyback) from farmers, and saving water by subsidising irrigator adoption of technically efficient technology. A moratorium on buyback has focused environmental recovery on subsidised technically efficient technology adoption. Economists argue that national welfare is maximised via buyback and highlight the limitations of efficiency savings to recover sufficient environmental water. A risk is that water recovery targets may be reduced in future, limiting welfare gains from water reform. This article evaluates possible welfare trade‐offs surrounding environmental water recovery outcomes where arbitrary limits on buyback are imposed. Results suggest that, on average, strategies which attempt to obtain >1500 gigalitres (GL) of water from on‐farm efficiency investments will only provide sufficient resources to meet environmental objectives in very wet states of nature. We conclude that reliance on technically efficient irrigation infrastructure is less economically efficient relative to water buyback. Importantly, the transformation of MDB irrigation will significantly constrain irrigators' future capacity to adapt to climate change.     

Dial “A” for agriculture: a review of information and communication technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries

Agriculture can serve as an important engine for economic growth in developing countries, yet yields in these countries have lagged far behind those in developed countries for decades. One potential mechanism for increasing yields is the use of improved agricultural technologies, such as fertilizers, seeds, and cropping techniques. Public sector programs have attempted to overcome information‐related barriers to technological adoption by providing agricultural extension services. While such programs have been widely criticized for their limited scale, sustainability, and impact, the rapid spread of mobile phone coverage in developing countries provides a unique opportunity to facilitate technological adoption via information and communication technology (ICT)‐based extension programs. This article outlines the potential mechanisms through which ICT could facilitate agricultural adoption and the provision of extension services in developing countries. It then reviews existing programs using ICT for agriculture, categorized by the mechanism (voice, text, internet, and mobile money transfers) and the type of services provided. Finally, we identify potential constraints to such programs in terms of design and implementation, and conclude with some recommendations for implementing field‐based research on the impact of these programs on farmers’ knowledge, technological adoption, and welfare.     

Risk Management for Grain Processors and “Copulas”

The importance of calibrating hedging strategies for processors has escalated primarily due to the sharply increased volatility of futures, product, and by‐product prices. The purpose of this paper is to analyze price risk‐management strategies for wheat flour milling using copula distributions. While the application is for flour milling, it has similarities with other processing industries which confront one or more ingredients, one or more outputs, and futures for one of the commodities and/or products. The paper develops utility maximizing models encompassing expected return and risk. Alternative scenarios are evaluated. First, the models were used to derive optimal hedge ratios, as well as various measures of risk and return under alternative scenarios, and hedge durations. The results indicated hedge ratios are typically less than 1. The hedge ratios for the Mean‐value‐at‐risk (M‐VaR)‐Copula model increased with greater durations. Second, the VaR for the M‐VaR‐Copula was in most cases less than the noncopula specifications. Thus, noncopula models may over state risk as represented by VaR.     

Elicitation of irrigators' risk preferences from observed behaviour

Water trading in the Murray–Darling Basin of Australia has developed to the point where it is a common adaptation tool used by irrigators, making it an apt case study to elicit the marginal value of irrigation water and irrigators' risk preferences in two key industries with differing levels of water dependence. Our data come from large‐scale and representative surveys of irrigated broadacre and horticultural farms in the Murray–Darling Basin over a 6‐year period. The marginal contribution of irrigation water to profit is estimated at $547 and $61/ML on average in horticulture and broadacre, respectively. Horticultural irrigators are found to be averse to the risk of large losses (downside risk) while broadacre irrigators are averse to the variability (variance) of profit.     

Home‐grown food and the benefits of sharing: The “intergenerational pact” in postsocialist Moldova

The policy literature on postsocialist Europe tends to frame smallholders' practices of food self‐provisioning and sharing as driven by necessity and proposes land consolidation to increase productivity and efficiency. However, these practices generate nonfinancial benefits, which need to be accounted for. In this paper, I test the socio‐economic relevance of these practices in the Republic of Moldova, the country with the highest density of farming households in Europe and whose government has embraced the rural modernization agenda to integrate into the EU economic space. I carry out quantitative estimates using the household budget survey and complement the results with qualitative insights from an original smallholder survey. I find that food self‐provisioning and sharing are positively related to subjective well‐being and that there is an “intergenerational pact,” with home‐grown food flowing from late‐adulthood smallholders to urban‐based young families and the vulnerable elderly. A counterfactual analysis shows that poverty and inequality would be higher in the absence of donated food, especially in urban areas. The preservation of smallholder farming through widespread access to land could thus help fight poverty and provide social benefits vis‐à‐vis land consolidation.     

“The enchantment of property”: Arthur Young,enclosure, and the cottage economy in England, 1770–1840

English agricultural practice changed dramatically in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as enclosure, the dominance of commercial short‐term leases for tenant farmers, and the proletarianization of the agricultural labour force completed what has been called an agricultural revolution. A less often noted aspect of this change was what was called “a war on cottages” and cottage gardens. The Board of Agriculture and Arthur Young were important cheerleaders for this process. Yet many of the most prominent members of the Board of Agriculture made impassioned appeals for the provision of land for English cottagers as a way to reduce poverty and stressed that cottagers produced remarkable returns from their small farms. Arthur Young became the most vocal proponent of land for cottagers. This article suggests that their appeals for land for cottagers were limited by both farmers' desire for easily controlled labour and misplaced concerns about the supposed inevitability of the poverty inherent in very small farms.     

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。     

The “left behind”: Smallholders in contemporary Russian agriculture

Smallholder production in Russia has been in decline for more than a decade. The likelihood is for continued marginalization. Smallholders confront four obstacles. First, path dependencies, which includes the fact that smallholders' production remains traditional and subsistence oriented. Second, institutions in the form of state policy restrict land and animals. Third, Russia's role in the third food regime means that smallholders are unable to help Russia's emergence as a global food superpower. Fourth, smallholders are being left behind in the ongoing technological revolution led by agroholdings. As technological advancement expands in scope, the gap between large farms and smallholders will widen.     

Asia's Irrigation Management in Transition: A Paradigm Shift Faces High Transaction Costs

Many water management problems have arisen in past Asian irrigation projects. They have been characterized as a vicious cycle involving the lack of maintenance, poor irrigation service, low rates of fee collection, inadequate institutional arrangements, and lack of user participation. This article argues that we have generally agreed on a strategy to address these problems and asks whether or not the strategy is being implemented effectively. A review of the irrigation record of six countries in Asia (including India and China) shows that they have implemented several of the key irrigation management reforms but that high transaction costs have delayed reform.     

Economic assessment of acquiring water for environmental flows in the Murray Basin*

This article is an economic analysis of reallocating River Murray Basin water from agriculture to the environment with and without the possibility of interregional water trade. Acquiring environmental flows as an equal percentage of water allocations from all irrigation regions in the Basin is estimated to reduce returns to irrigation. When the same volume of water is taken from selected low-value regions only, the net revenue reduction is less. In all scenarios considered, net revenue gains from freeing trade are estimated to outweigh the negative revenue effects of reallocating water for environmental flows. The model accounts for how stochastic weather affects market water demand, supply and requirements for environmental flows. Net irrigation revenue is estimated to be 75 million less than the baseline level for a scenario involving reallocating a constant volume of water for the environment in both wet and dry years. For a more realistic scenario involving more water for the environment in wet and less in dry years, estimated net revenue loss is reduced by 48 per cent to 39 million. Finally, the external salinity-related costs of water trading are estimated at around 1 million per annum, a quite modest amount compared to the direct irrigation benefits of trade.     

湄公河流域水资源开发利用现状

根据湄公河流域自然特征、水资源现状、水利工程现状及规划资料,分析湄公河各流域国水资源开发利用特点及未来趋势,为湄公河水资源可持续开发利用及我国同湄公河各流域国开展相关合作提供最基本的依据。研究结果表明,湄公河水资源开发利用率呈上升趋势;老挝未来将加快水电开发节奏,其规划水电总装机容量占湄公河总装机容量的70.0%;泰国对湄公河水资源的开发利用主要体现在农业灌溉方面,未来泰国灌溉引水有增加的趋势;柬埔寨和越南分别在湄公河干支流上有水电工程规划,但柬埔寨的用水需求主要体现在为保证其洪泛区土壤肥力,对湄公河上游雨季充足的洪峰流量的需求,越南是湄公河流域灌溉面积最大的国家,其主要的用水需求是旱季湄公河三角洲灌溉需水。     

“We'll turn your water into Coca‐Cola”: The atomizing practices of oil palm plantation development in Indonesia

This article discusses land control strategies and practices for development of large‐scale oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. In oil palm and “land grab” literature, much attention is paid to potential contributions of free, prior, and informed consent procedures. However, this article demonstrates how “atomizing” practices obstruct such procedures. Some practices stand out: During a preparatory phase of plantation development, companies remain in the background and leave actual land acquisition to local authorities and villagers, thus obscuring their agenda for plantation development. Second, rather than negotiating land transfer in public meetings, companies use a combination of promises, bribes, and threats to gain support or to enforce acceptance. Third, companies gain support by “wedging” themselves into communities, exacerbating disparities within communities. Analysis of this atomized process of plantation development is crucial for a critical understanding of oil palm conflicts.