AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVE THEORY: A REVIEW*

The notion of a review article would presume that there exists a coherent body of literature on the topic in question. With agricultural co-operative theory this is not quite the case since it has been approached seriously and systematically in some subject areas but disjointedly if at all in others. This review article attempts to ask what predictions can be made about the behaviour of agricultural co-operatives in the present state of theoretical knowledge—thus, each section refers to a topic that readers might hope to have been investigated in the literature, though the findings are necessarily patchy since few areas have been given adequate attention. Where weaknesses and deficiencies occur, I have tried to point them out and to indicate areas for further research. In doing so, I have hazarded my own ideas, so that much of the material is original. As far as I know, for example, nobody has yet seriously considered the life-cycle of the agricultural co-operative organisation, which constitutes the subject matter of section 7, and the discussion put forward in the first half of section 6, on the supply curve of marketing associations, is also my own work. If these are duplicated in papers which I have failed to bring to light in my quest for material for this article, I can only apologise.     

AGRICULTURAL LABOUR IN AN EXPANDING ECONOMY

The low position of agricultural workers in the wages scale is examined in the context of National Plan objectives to increase opportunities for the labour force. The results of a survey of lubour use on 55 Yorkshire farms over the past five years are presented. The regular hired labour force on these farms has been cut by a quarter, and some farms still report surplus labour. Data on the farm workers employed and those which have left the farms is given. The characteristics of the ‘ideal farm worker’ as seen by the farmers are investigated and conclusions regarding the likely success of a wages structure in agriculture are drawn. The implications of a rise in the minimum agricultural wage to £14 a week are discussed in the light of the survey results.     

AN APPROACH TO UNIVERSITY TEACHING IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

In our complex industrialised society there can no longer be a clear cut distinction between education and the training for a profession. Pressure from society for highly specialised knowledge and from students for satisfaction of vocational needs has resulted in the greater development of applied subjects. The aim of teaching in Agricultural Economics is to present a variety of subject matter within the framework of cohesive degree structures consistent with an academic discipline, while as far as possible fitting a student for a professional career in the field of Agricultural Economics. In the ever widening range of professional activity a distinction which has relevance to teaching can be made between the practising agricultural economist and the academic agricultural economist. For the former some professional training has to be incorporated in the first degree scheme. The need in industry and government is for economists who are prepared to make direct economic appraisals and the practising economist will therefore be involved in problem solving in a sphere where non-economic consideration have also to be weighed. He can best be fitted for his environment if he is aware of the interaction between economics and other relevant disciplines.     

AN ADAPTIVE CONTROL APPROACH TO AGRICULTURAL POLICY*

It is postulated that some issues of economic policy in general, and of Australian agricultural policy in particular, may be analysed in the framework of an adaptive control model. Policy making is characterized as a rational, sequential decision-making process under conditions of imperfect knowledge in which forthcoming information may be used to learn about the uncertain terms as decision periods pass. Emphasis is given to the linear-quadratic control problem. The paper provides a review of the formulation of a policy problem in the framework of an adaptive control model and of derived policy strategies. An illustrative example is reported.     

COMPROMISE-RISK PROGRAMMING FOR AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE ALLOCATION PROBLEMS: AN ILLUSTRATION

This paper presents a novel approach for dealing with risk in agricultural resource allocation decisions by synthesising the conventional Markowitzean, or MOTAD, methods within a compromise programming model to generate ‘best-compromise’ solutions which come closest to an ideal point defined in terms of risk minimisation. This approach can be regarded as the compromise-risk programming model. The purpose here is to show how this ‘hybridisation’ of Markowitz/MOTAD and compromise programming approaches overcomes some of the weaknesses of the traditional approach to handling risk in resource allocation models.     

OUTLIERS IN AGRICULTURE: AN INTERVENTION ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND VALUES

Intervention analysis offers a framework for the identification and modelling of outlying observations in empirical time series. Within this framework, there are two types of outlier; an additive outlier, representing a one-period blip in the series, and an innovational outlier, whose effect is spread over many time periods. Intervention analysis is used here to study an agricultural land price boom of the early 1970s that is generally believed to have been caused by speculative activity, and the statistical results are consonant with that view. The procedure detects an innovational outlier in the land price series at 1972 with dynamic effects that resemble the life cycle of a speculative bubble. It is inferred from these results that speculation added 52 per cent to the rate of growth of land prices in 1972, 19 per cent in 1973 and caused a fall in the rate of change in land prices of 19 per cent in 1974 and 17 per cent in 1975.     

TOWARDS AN ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING POTENTIAL BENEFITS FROM RESEARCH INTO WEED CONTROL

A dynamic economic model for estimating benefits from research into alternative tactics for weed control is developed, by treating weeds as renewable negative resources. Research benefits are evaluated as the change in steady-state profit resulting from research-induced changes in various parameters of the system. The model is illustrated by application to research aimed at the control of wild oats in wheat in Australia, whereby it was found that the magnitude of benefits depended not only on the level of research-induced change but also on demographic behaviour of the weed. Research leading to reductions in seedling survival, potential fecundity or recruitment gave higher benefits than the manipulation of weed competitiveness or seed mortality. Reduced seedling survival gave the highest benefits in most cases, but achieving such improvement by improving herbicide efficacy may have a high marginal cost given that the tactic is already well-researched. Thus it is concluded that research into reducing potential fecundity could be more worthwhile, since it also gave high benefits but is relatively unexplored.     

THE AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS PROFESSION: AN APPRAISAL OF SOME CURRENT TRENDS*

Using the results of the first part of their 1994 membership survey, Ahmadi-Esfahani and Brakey (1996) examined the structure, conduct and performance of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society qualitatively. This paper extends that analysis by appraising some current trends in the Australian agricultural economics profession quantitatively. It concentrates on the second part of the survey to address a number of fundamental questions. A comparison of the US and Australian agricultural economics professions is made. The implications of the analysis for the product mix of the Society are explored.     

THE EROSION OF AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS IN AN OIL ECONOMY: THE CASE OF NIGERIA

After several years of oil production and exports with attendant revenue influx, the sector is yet to make a significant impact in Nigeria's economic growth. Contrary to the hopes and expectations that greeted the oil discovery, the non-oil export sector of the economy, more specifically the agricultural sector, has been declining consistently with further increases in oil exports. This paper is intended to provide an empirical analysis of an aspect of structural change that has taken place in the Nigerian economy. The hypothesis investigated is that an increase in oil exports results in higher relative prices on non-tradeable to tradeable goods and an appreciation of the domestic currency, hence a loss of the competitiveness of the agricultural export sector in the international market. This phenomenon, popularly known as the ‘Dutch disease’, has been vigorously discussed in the United Kingdom, Norway and the Netherlands, has also received much attention from Australian economists in relation to minerals.     

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH EXPENDITURES AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY CHANGE

This note comments on the econometric analysis of the dynamic relationship between agricultural research expenditures and agricultural productivity change. The validity of the Almon restrictions, particularly endpoint restrictions, commonly imposed on the distributed lag is questioned. It is suggested that models incorporating such restrictions may lead to biased estimates of the effects of research spending. More fundamentally, doubts are raised as to whether any meaningful relationship between research spending and productivity change can be established from the available data.     

农业地球化学综合调查与农业可持续发展

地质科学向农业渗透,是地质与农业共同发展的结合点.文章分析了开展农业地球化学综合调查的意义和农业地球化学综合调查工作的现状.就如何开展农业地球化学综合调查,文章作者提出了自己的看法和建议.