A Honey‐Sealed Alliance: Mayan Beekeepers in the Yucatan Peninsula versus Transgenic Soybeans in Mexico's Last Tropical Forest

The peasant economy of the Yucatan Peninsula is sustained by agriculture and beekeeping. Honey production has great economic importance, given that it represents the main source of income for Mayan rural families. Furthermore, Mexico is the world's fourth‐largest exporter of honey. The honey comes from jungle that covers the peninsular territory and forms part of a production system that broadly utilizes forestry resources. Two new situations emerged in 2011 that detonated social mobilization to defend beekeeping: the Mexican government authorized the planting of transgenic soybeans, while the European Union announced that honey that originated from transgenic pollen would have to be labelled (‘contains transgenics’), whereas honey importers demand transgenic‐free honey. The introduction of transgenic soybeans in the Yucatan Peninsula is part of the modern, industrial agricultural impetus in the region, which is entering into conflict with the Mayan peasant agriculture and threatens the survival of the most important Mexican tropical forest. A movement alliance was built among different social actors, including Mayan communities, beekeeper and civil‐society organizations, universities and honey‐exporting entrepreneurs, who developed an opposition and a resistance strategy to the cultivation of transgenic soybeans. Their repertoire has included collective legal, educational and organizational action, scientific research, mobilization, information, a media presence and lobbying. This mobilization has yielded results, as in 2015 the judiciary power invalidated the authorization of the cultivation of transgenic soybeans.     

影响杨树苗购买者决策的外部因素研究——基于苏北林农的调查统计

通过研究杨树苗购买决策过程中的外部影响因素,在对苏北262个杨树苗木购买农户调查的基础上,运用主成分分析法从8个可能影响农户购买决策的维度中提取了3个影响因子。研究发现:林农通过市场购入杨树苗木时面临很大的苗质风险,因而对苗木品质最为关注。通过对决策因素的主成分分析表明:林农在购买杨树苗木时主要受到"成本因子"、"信任因子"和"品质因子"的影响。     

Agrarian class struggle and state formation in post‐colonial Pakistan, 1959–1974: Contingencies of Mazdoor Kisan Raj

State formation in post‐colonial societies is often explained with reference to the roles of elites. In Pakistan, landed elites continue to dominate the rural political economy through informal and formal institutions, but the history of its largest peasant movement shows how agrarian class struggle can change the institutional forms and functions of power. The Hashtnagar peasant movement achieved lasting de facto land and tenancy reforms in north‐western Pakistan in the 1970s through forcible land occupations that were regularized by state intervention. I argue that although divisions among elites were important, the state intervened in favour of peasants due to the rising organizational power of tenants and landless labourers under the centralized leadership of the radical Mazdoor Kisan Party. Agrarian class struggle weakened the informal power of landed elites and gave rise to institutions of peasant power. However, other fractions of the ruling class sought to undermine their landed opponents while co‐opting the militancy of the peasant movement by strengthening state institutions to intervene in favour of upwardly mobile tenants. The latter were separated from poorer peasants and the landless, thus demobilizing the movement.     

农业职业教育对养殖农户收入增加影响的研究———基于陕西省面板数据实证分析

文章基于农业职业教育与农户收入增加的影响关系,依据2009年陕西省养殖农户调查数据,采用Probit模型考察基本变量对农户参与养殖的行为影响,研究结果表明人力资本状况是决定养殖户获得养殖收益的关键因素,个体特征对于农户收益的影响有限。在接受教育程度、有过接受培训经历及技能水平等方面具有优势的农户,其养殖收益比较高。尤其是获得过职业技术培训,取得一定技能的养殖农户,在收益提高方面成效明显。年龄偏大的农户,其获得收入的渠道与数量稳定性相对较好,年龄与其收入水平之间呈现出一种持续上升的关系。健康状况指标与农户收入指标之间没有呈现出显著的对应关系,这可能与参与调查的农户身体健康状况普遍较好有关。基于此,提出通过文化教育促进农户综合素质提升;改进政府服务功能,加强农业职业教育培训;完善农业职业教育长效机制,促使农业职业教育落到实处;加大投入力度,改善农村医疗保健服务设施等建议。     

Farms,farmworkers and new forms of livelihoods in southern Africa

This review essay looks at three recent books on farms, farm labour, and rural livelihoods in southern Africa. The books—Farm labor struggles in Zimbabwe: The ground of politics, by Blair Rutherford; Ordered estates: Welfare, power and maternalism on Zimbabwe's (once white) Highveld, by Andrew M. C. Hartnack; and Zimbabwe's migrants and South Africa's border farms: The roots of impermanence, by Maxim Bolt—offer a range of insights into labour politics and management, new forms of livelihoods on farms and former farms, and how those living on farms interact with informal economies. Usefully, the books cover events over the past two decades, as well as providing regional insights into important contemporary issues. While the books converge in a number of ways, this essay will focus on two key themes: (i) how they address issues of farm management and labour control; and (ii) they ways in which they explore farmworker agency in times of change and in areas of informality and precarity.     

土地托管、总收益与种粮意愿——兼业农户粮食增效与务工增收视角

目前兼业种粮户仍是我国重要的粮食种植主体。比较效益低是兼业农户选择"粗放种粮、少种粮、抛荒不种粮"的直接诱因。土地托管服务可以帮助兼业农户种粮,在提高兼业户种粮净收益的同时,更为农户腾出时间务工增加收入,"种粮+务工"的总收益增加,兼业农户在务工的同时会选择请人继续种粮、种好粮。为提高土地托管服务能力,必须坚持农民土地承包权、使用权、收益权等权能不变;必须处理好各方利益关系,让利于民;必须选好龙头企业;加大政府扶持。     

Perverse supply response in peasant agriculture: A review

Abstract

The long‐running debate concerning the special characteristics of peasant production in less developed countries which may lead to perverse supply responses in their agricultural sectors is explored. Four stages in the debate are identified. The first was based on casual observation and the target income or fixity‐of‐wants hypothesis. The second took account of peasant own‐consumption and focused on the marketed surplus. The third addressed the possible effect of uncertainty and risk aversion on supply response. The fourth is embodied in modern farm household models of peasant behaviour. Although the predictions regarding supply response derived from these models vary, they all suggest that agricultural supply response may be negative. The bulk of empirical evidence, however, for both total production and marketed surplus tends to refute the notion, whether it is theoretically consistent or not, that supply response in peasant agriculture is negative.     

政府推动型农民林业专业合作社发展模式研究

农民林业专业合作社是集体林权制度改革后实现林业规模经营、有效促进农民就业增收的重要途径。文章在借鉴国际林业合作社发展成功经验的基础上,结合我国经济发展水平、改革开放经验和农民林业专业合作社建设实践,提出了政府推动型农民林业专业合作社发展模式适合我国国情的观点。同时,界定了政府在推动农民林业合作社发展的法律保障、政策引导和社会服务职能。最后探讨了政府推动型农民林业专业合作社的发展途径。     

Departures from Everyday Resistance and Flexible Strategies of Domination: The Making and Unmaking of a Poor Peasant Mobilization in Bangladesh

James Scott's influential work has popularized the notion that everyday resistance among the peasantry takes covert and backstage forms, termed 'weapons of the weak'. This paper, however, provides a case study involving transformation of covert resistance and outward compliance of the poor into open dissent and confrontation with power-holders, though falling well short of the limiting conditions of rebellion or revolution. Such instances serve to dispel the notion that poor and weak groups adopt only covert forms of resistance in their everyday existence. The paper takes up the questions of why, and under what circumstances, such transformation of covert resistance into overt forms can come about. These issues are explored using evidence from a poor peasant mobilization in rural Bangladesh during the parliamentary election of 1986. The analysis shows that there were sequential shifts in the respective strategies of domination and resistance of the rich and the poor, which shaped each other interactively over a dynamic trajectory. Such adaptive and variable responses require an approach that can accommodate flexibility and substitution in the strategies adopted by the weak and the powerful. These also call for further exploration and analysis of the middle ground between everyday and exceptional forms of resistance.     

村庄治理现代化进程中农民自组织公共参与逻辑与进路——基于3个典型案例的研究

本文选取3个农民自组织作为研究案例,这3个农民自组织分属于治理现代化处于不同阶段的3个村庄,具体分析其农民自组织公共参与的现实逻辑。基于理论逻辑与现实逻辑的分析指出,农民自组织公共参与逻辑沿着组织及其成员经济利益最大化、村庄治理权力和治理地位的获取、组织公共精神培育及村庄公共价值实现的路径推进。村庄应基于农民自组织公共参与逻辑及进路,采取选择性激励方法,激励农民自组织公共参与,推进村庄治理现代化。     

云南省林权抵押贷款业务发展的特征及问题研究

基于对云南省10县、500户农户自2010年以来持续跟踪监测的数据,对云南省林权抵押贷款业务开展情况作了动态实证分析,调查结果显示:在抵押贷款规模持续扩大的同时,贷款多集中于大户、农户贷款进入还贷期比例较高、普通农户贷款意愿缺乏等特征。基于此,认为森林资产评估业务开展滞后、金融机构参与有限、普通农户缺乏发展意愿等制约因素仍未有较大改观,建议通过加强部门协调和制度建设、分阶段设立贷款业务发展目标群体、扩大贴息范围、创新贷款方式等促进林权抵押贷款业务的开展。     

农户参与小型农田水利设施管护行为的影响因素分析——基于对河南省方城县农户的调查

利用河南省方城县192个样本农户的调查数据,运用博弈模型逻辑和二元Logistic回归分析,分别从理论和实证上探究农户参与小型农田水利设施管护行为的影响因素。研究表明:农户拥有耕地数量、家庭劳动力短缺状况、种粮补贴占种粮投入比例、种粮收入占家庭总收入比重、政府对小型农田水利设施管护投入情况、小型农田水利设施管护对农业生产的重要程度等因素对农户参与小型农田水利设施管护行为正向影响显著,而村庄农户数量对农户参与小型农田水利设施管护行为负向影响显著。最后基于实证分析结果提出了相关政策建议。     

基于农户生产决策视角的耕地保护经济补偿标准测算

研究目的:基于农户生产决策理论,剖析耕地保护经济补偿标准形成机理,并以非粮化经济补偿标准为例进行实证测算,为国家实现耕地保护与粮食安全目标提供决策参考。研究方法:边际分析法,计量模型分析法与定性分析法。研究结果:多宜性耕地用途之间的边际利润差异是诱使耕地非粮化与非农化的经济动因,需要对限制完整耕地使用权所导致的农户利益损失进行合理的经济补偿。研究结论:耕地投入粮食生产的边际利润明显低于其他农地利用方式的利润,为了提高农户耕地保护与粮食生产动力,需要设置耕地保护经济补偿资金,并改革现有粮食直补方式与农地分散经营格局。     

农地城市流转前后农民福利变化研究——基于农民分化的视角

农地城市流转是土地资源要素在城市化进程中重新配置的必然过程。为探明异质化日益明显的农民群体的福利水平在此过程中是否发生了差异性变动,采用湖北省武汉市所辖6个远城区的问卷调查数据,运用模糊积分评价方法对纯农业生产者、半工半农者和经商兼农者等3种分化类型农民在农地城市流转前后的福利变动情况进行了实证研究。结果表明,农民整体福利水平在农地城市流转后略有上升;3种分化类型农民的福利水平均有所改善,但改善程度存在差异,改善幅度由大至小依次为经商兼农类农民、半工半农类农民和纯农业生产类农民;提升纯农业生产者和半工半农者这两个分化类型的福利水平是改善农民整体福利状况的关键;此外,影响这两类群体福利水平的因素集中在家庭经济状况、社会保障状况、心理感受以及环境条件4个方面。     

Multidimensional poverty in Afghanistan: who are the poorest of the poor?

Taking a capability approach perspective, our paper aims at advancing our understanding of poverty in Afghanistan, and at identifying the most deprived, including persons with disabilities, in order to address the first Sustainable Development Goal to eradicate poverty in all its forms. We used data from a national survey carried out in Afghanistan in 2005. We calculated one index using two weights structures, the adjusted headcount ratio, part of the multidimensional poverty measures. Following a participatory process, we identified and validated 13 indicators clustered in seven dimensions of poverty, including three usually neglected dimensions. Findings suggest that exploring various domains of deprivation would better inform poverty eradication policies than an approach focused only on income. Our results also demonstrate that nearly all Afghan adults are deprived in at least one dimension and those residing in rural areas, from minority ethnic groups, women, elderly people and persons disabled at birth or of an unknown cause are the poorest of the poor. Efforts to improve well-being must acknowledge these inequalities so that public policies in Afghanistan aiming at alleviating poverty take these disparities into account, when facing a reduction in available resources.     

Specialization or diversification? The situation and transition of households’ livelihood in agricultural heritage systems

Zhagana Agriculture-Forest-Animal Husbandry Composite System (ZCS) is the first Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems site in the Tibetan Plateau. Similar to many traditional agricultural regions, with the development of tourism and leisure agriculture, the peasant households in ZCS have gradually changed their livelihood strategies and livelihood activities in the past 10 years, resulting in the disappearance of some traditional farming methods and agricultural landscapes with a long history. By taking livelihood assets as the entry point and livelihood strategies as the core, this paper analyzed the basic situation of households’ livelihood and the transition mechanism of different livelihood strategies in order to offer suggestions for the dynamic conservation and sustainable development of Agricultural Heritage Systems (AHS). (1) The livelihood strategies of peasant households in ZCS can be divided into two major categories: specialized strategies and diversified strategies. (2) According to the empirical calculation of the livelihood asset accounting framework of AHS, the average livelihood asset value of peasant households in ZCS is 2.040, showing that the situation of peasant households’ livelihood is inadequate. (3) The transition of peasant households’ livelihood strategies from traditional strategy to specialized or diversified livelihood strategies is mainly influenced by natural assets, human assets, cultural assets, social assets and informational assets. In order to meet the growing material and spiritual needs of peasant households and achieve the sustainable development of ZCS simultaneously, it is suggested that the agriculture-forestry-animal husbandry-tourism composite strategies shall be taken as the development direction of peasant households’ livelihood strategies.     

阿富汗矿业投资环境简析

阿富汗为了吸引境外矿业投资,不断制定和出台优惠政策,放宽投资领域,但依然存在着安全形势严峻、政府腐败、法律制度缺失、人才短缺、基础设施不足等问题。阿富汗矿产资源开发潜力巨大,与我国政治经贸往来频繁,是“走出去”开发境外矿产资源的可选之地。在阿富汗投资矿业开发依然存在着巨大的风险,在抓住机遇的同时更应注意规避风险,企业需要有战略投资的胆识和规避风险的能力,政府要从技术、信息和政策等方面对企业予以支持和引导。     

Supply responses of peasant cultivators in the Sudan—a rational expectations model

Abstract

Most attempts to increase agricultural production rely on incentives to the farmer, especially regarding market prices, and a positive response by him. In this paper the latter is analysed with reference to two major oilseed export crops in the Sudan, groundnuts and sesame, under small peasant farming conditions. The methodology used to study the behaviour of farmers is based on Rational Expectations techniques and the data used are drawn from official time series material. The results obtained show that small farmers are responsive to price changes for these crops by adjusting crop areas. The implications of the results are of importance to policy makers in that peasant production can be stimulated by ensuring that the producers obtain sufficient price incentives to do so. An immediate priority is an in‐depth study of the competitiveness of the marketing system to provide adequate information on which to base remedial measures to ensure that the price mechanism transmits the appropriate signals to the farmers. A further important policy aspect is the need to change the reliance of the small peasant sector on shifting agriculture to maintain soil fertility, because of the increasing population pressure on land. In the longer term farmers should adjust to real price rises not by increasing the amount of land cultivated but by raising the productivity of their holdings in a new system of sedentary agriculture.     

Agrarian change,populism, and a new farmers' movement in 21st century Pakistani Punjab

Activists and scholars have debated whether “agrarian populisms” premised on multiple classes and groups can pursue progressive objectives if exploiters and exploited are in the same movements. In Pakistan, the militant Pakistan Kissan Ittehad emerged in 2012 by uniting different classes of owner-cultivators who are largely not in direct relations of exploitation with each other. We argue that the PKI nevertheless advances the interests of a “second tier” of rural capitalists, who exploit rural labourers, while underplaying the interests of owner-peasant farmers. This divergence of interests has contributed to the fragmentation of PKI along class and political lines, including attempts by peasant farmers to independently organize around issues particular to them. We suggest that progressive agrarian populism must hinge on the interests of rural labourers and peasant farmers and that second-tier capitalist farmers may be tactical allies as they oppose neoliberal globalization. However, rural labourers and peasants are ideologically and organizationally weak, and thus, the possibility of left-wing agrarian populism requires much legwork.     

基于发展预期的农户退耕还林后续产业参与行为影响因素分析——对辽宁省农户的实证研究

以辽宁省为例,利用对彰武、北票的农户调查数据,分析了农户参与后续产业的预期,并通过二分类Logistic模型对农户参与退耕还林后续产业行为的影响因素进行了计量经济分析。研究表明,农户参与后续产业预期不高;农户参与后续产业既受到地块特征等自然因素的影响,也受到户主受教育程度等家庭因素的影响,农户的决策行为表现为有限理性。