THE COMBINATION OF AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT AND INPUT PRICE INDICES

Measures of agricultural incomes, and of the industry's productivity, are often derived by combining measures of the aggregate values and volumes of the industry's outputs and inputs. Combinations of price indices are less common but some have been published by Eurostat and are described in this paper. They are of two basic forms, one indicating the net effect of changes in output prices and input prices on the industry's value added and the other indicating changes in the industry's terms of trade. The paper examines the role, construction and interpretation of these measures and offers some cautions about their interpretation in the context of CAP reform.     

TAXES,INVESTMENT INCENTIVES AND THE COST OF AGRICULTURAL INPUTS

This paper examines the effects of taxes and investment incentives on relative capital/labour costs on farms of different sizes. Income tax relief reduces the cost of purchased non-capital inputs to farmers, while investment incentives reduce the cost of capital items. A framework is developed for calculating the relative magnitudes of these effects and it is shown that capital costs have been reduced relative to labour costs throughout the post-war period in the U.K. and on large farms (paying a higher tax rate) more than on small farms.     

农地规模、社会化服务与农用化学品减量投入

目的 为推进农用化学品减量投入,实现中国农业绿色发展,分析农地规模、社会化服务对农用化学品投入的减量机制,进而探究农地规模对社会化服务的助推作用以及社会化服务在农地规模与农用化学品减量投入之间如何发挥中介作用。方法 文章基于2020年“黄河流域生态保护与农业农村高质量发展”专项调研数据,依照经营规模大小将农地规模分为不同等级,构建结构方程模型进行实证分析。结果 （1）农地规模对农用化学品投入的减量作用仅在农地规模处于中等水平时显著;（2）社会化服务对农用化学品投入的减量作用在整个农地规模发展进程中都显著;（3）农地规模对社会化服务的促进作用在农地规模处于低中等水平时显著;（4）社会化服务在农地规模与农用化学品减量投入之间的中介作用在农地规模处于中等水平时显著。结论 因此,应大力推广适度的农地规模,同时发展社会化服务,以推动中国农业绿色发展。     

农用地定级与基准地价评估研究 ———以吐鲁番市为例

农用地是一种稀缺的土地资源,随着人口的增长、经济的发展,增加了对这一资源的需求。农用地定级与基准地价评估工作就是为了进一步提高土地使用效率,大力发展农业,为促进国民经济的发展,提供重要依据和支持。该文以吐鲁番市为例,对其进行农用地定级与基准地价评估研究,充分利用计算机软件和程序,采用因素法定级,综合评定农用地级别;以收益还原法为主,参考成本逼近法评估样点地价,确定农用地基准地价。     

农产品价格与绿色度决策及协调契约研究

[目的]以一个供应商和一个零售商组成的二级绿色供应链为背景,针对供应链上各个节点企业均没有足够的动力单独提高农产品绿色度的问题。[方法]提出供应链成员采取合作研发的方式共同提高农产品绿色度,并通过设计合理的协调契约进行利益的协调分配,使双方利益均达到最优。[结果]产品绿色度的提高会带来产品生产成本的降低,当产品成本降低率较高,或者成本降低率较低且消费者绿色度偏好很低或很高时,供应链成员会考虑投资农产品绿色度的研发并采取集中式决策方式获取最大化利润,此时,农产品最优价格降低,绿色度提高,消费者效用增加,产品销量提升,促进了农产品的有效推广。[结论]产品绿色度是影响市场需求的重要因素,在此基础上,设计收益共享契约对供应商与零售商之间的博弈进行协调,对于绿色供应链成员的决策具有参考价值和指导意义。     

农业的多功能性与农业功能分区

介绍了农业多功能性问题,将我国农业的主要功能分为农产品供给、就业和社会保障、文化以及生态4类,探讨了其各功能及障碍因素的内涵与地域类型划分,初步提出我国农业功能分区的方法和参考指标。     

STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT,PRICE REFORM AND AGRICULTURAL PERFORMANCE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Increasing debt problems since the late 1970s have led many sub-Saharan African countries to call on the IMF for balance of payments assistance. The conventional IMF approaches have proved unrealistic in the African context and the IMF, and the World Bank, have been groping towards appropriate structural adjustment programmes to correct the imbalances in the medium term. These programmes necessarily impinge on the agricultural sector and often rely on enhanced agricultural sector performance for their success. Price reform, both at a macro- and micro-level is a frequently used adjustment instrument and its suitability and limitations in this context are examined.     

AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: ESTIMATES OF INCOME AND PRICE ELASTICITIES OF DEMAND AND SUPPLY

This paper provides new evidence on income and price elasticities of demand and supply of agricultural exports from developing countries, on the basis of (a) a consistent and fully specified supply and demand model, and (b) statistical estimation procedures not frequently used in the estimation of agricultural export functions. Estimates of price and income elasticities of demand for aggregate agricultural exports for all developing countries taken together — as distinct from individual exporting countries — are found to be low; moreover, export price as distinguished from non-price factors plays a relatively insignificant role in increasing export supply. Hence, an attempt by all developing countries to expand traditional agricultural exports with low price elasticity of demand may not yield rising earnings for all; but in fact may result in falling export revenues. Insofar as individual exports of all developing countries (not individual countries) are concerned, income and price elasticities of demand for such tropical commodities as tea, coffee, cocoa and bananas are also found to be low, except for new, non-traditional exports like pineapples. This indicates the importance of diversification of agricultural exports as a vehicle for their future growth.     

THE DEMAND FOR INPUTS AND THE AGGREGATE SUPPLY FUNCTION FOR AGRICULTURE*

This paper presents a theoretical derivation of aggregate supply elasticities from the relevant input demand elasticities. By way of illustration, an estimate of the aggregate supply elasticity with respect to product price for United Kingdom agriculture is calculated. In addition, the paper investigates the supply function that is implied by input demand functions which contain a geometrically declining lag distribution. The paper concludes by suggesting that the indirect estimation of aggregate supply elasticities may well be preferable to direct estimation of the elasticities.     

AGRICULTURAL PRICE PROTECTION,IMPORT DEPENDENCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF WHEAT

This article analyses determinants of agricultural price protection for one important food, wheat, in a pooled cross-country and time-series analysis. For the aggregate sample it is shown that wheat price protection increases with a rising level of economic development and with a growing import dependence in wheat. Beyond this general pattern, the paper shows that the variation in wheat price protection can be significantly better explained if qualitative variables are introduced additionally into the model. For example, in Japan, in the Northern European countries and during the commodity price boom (1973–75), wheat price protection followed a specific pattern. Income elasticities and import-dependence elasticities of wheat price protection are computed for all countries in 1968–80, and additionally for various sub-regions and sub-periods.     

STANDARDS VERSUS PRICES REVISITED: THE CASE OF AGRICULTURAL NON-POINT SOURCE POLLUTION

This paper demonstrates that the conventional neoclassical arguments for recommending a uniform discharge tax in preference to a uniform discharge standard are founded on highly restrictive and unrealistic abstractions of the pollution process. Relaxation of the assumptions reveals that the uniform standard outperforms the uniform tax in controlling ambient pollution levels over a potentially wide range of parameter values. The results of a study on agricultural sediment control are reported. It is argued that this pollution process is predisposed to the conditions that favour the ‘cross-over’ in efficiency ranking between the two policies. These conditions are a high correlation between discharge abatement costs and pollution transport coefficients, and high variability in pollution transport coefficients relative to the interfirm abatement costs.     

农地资源价格研究

论述了农地资源价格特征和构成。农地资源作为土地资产的一种，其价格具有外溢性、市场失灵性、影响因素复杂性等特征。农地价格和其他土地一样具有二元性，即包括农地物质虚幻价格和农地资本次生虚幻价格。从农地产生效益的角度看，农地价格包括农地社会效益价格、农地生态效益价格和农地经济效益价格。作为农地所有者（或使用者）真正把握住县可让渡的价格仅是农地真实的价格中的极少的一部分。     

中国农业水价综合改革历程、问题和对策

目的 农业水价综合改革是促进农田水利系统完善和良性运转的关键,也是改变农业用水方式、促进农业节水的重要举措。面对改革过程中的困境与阻碍,围绕改革历程和问题开展理论研究,对于加快推动改革工作的开展具有重要意义。方法 文章利用实践与文献调研相结合的综合分析方法,在多年来实践调研经验的基础上,对相关政策和各地改革经验材料进行梳理和分析。结果 总结了中国农业水价综合改革的发展历程,分析了影响改革开展的关键因素,梳理了从重工程到重机制的政策变革和相关机制、制度的形成过程,归纳了改革新阶段面临的主要问题和挑战,并提出了政策建议。结论 农业水价综合改革工作取得了重要进展,但受经济发展水平、水资源丰度、节水灌溉工程建设情况等因素影响,地区间改革进度差异显著。改革工作仍面临巨大挑战,需从水价分担、社会参与等方面调整和优化改革政策方案。     

基于GIS的我国农产品价格的区域差异和空间分区

利用基于灰色评估的空间分区模型,在GIS和VB.NET的支持下,评估我国各地区农产品价格在春、夏、秋、冬4季的水平,并进行空间分区。结果发现我国农产品价格存在显著的空间梯度差异:东南沿海的价格明显高于西北内陆;东部的价格显著高于西部;大城市的价格水平高于中小城市的水平。高价区一般集中在长江三角洲,低价区一般集中在内陆地区及西北地区。夏季的价格总体水平高于春季;冬季的价格水平总体高于秋季。     

AGRICULTURAL PRICE POLICY,FOOD AID AND INPUT SUBSIDY REFORMS IN BURKINA FASO

This paper examines the agrarian decline in Burkina Faso that prompted structural adjustment reforms by the World Bank and the IMF in the early 1980s. Official interventions in the cereals, cotton and fertiliser sectors are examined, and an analysis made of regional impacts of the proposed reforms on producers and consumers. Counter-factual simulations with a multi-region, multi-commodity agricultural sector model are used to evaluate three policies: eliminating input subsidies, increasing official market commodity prices, and reducing food aid imports. Model results show that these reforms would improve agricultural-sector performance, but depend on cotton exports to pay for fertiliser, contrary to government self-sufficiency objectives. Relaxing capacity constraints on official marketing operations would also need to be eliminated to achieve reform objectives.     

RELATIVE PRICE VARIABILITY AMONG AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND MACROECONOMIC INSTABILITY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

This paper develops measures of relative price variability among agricultural commodities in the UK farm sector for the period 1956-88. Econometric tests of the hypothesis that relative price variability is positively correlated with instability in the macroeconomy are carried out. The results indicate that UK agricultural commodity prices become more volatile relative to one another when the economy-wide inflation rate increases and when aggregate output becomes more variable. These findings suggest that UK producers and consumers of domestically grown farm products experience increased risk and uncertainty in their production and consumption decisions during periods of macroeconomic instability. The effects of UK entry into the European Community are also examined; no evidence is found to suggest that adoption of the Common Agricultural Policy reduced year-to-year relative price variability among agricultural commodities.     

PRODUCTION-ORIENTED INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR AGRICULTURAL SUBSECTORS: PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES

The existence of problems which are peculiar to agricultural subsectors explains the presence of organisations associated with individual commodities or commodity groups. Modern developments in information systems can contribute to meeting organisations' information requirements, but it is necessary to design systems consistent with both the principles and techniques of economic analysis and the general methodology. Following the definition of a subsector, a review of the principles for information systems and the relevant economic concepts shows the formal equivalence of many basic ideas. Despite reservations which have been expressed about the current potential for quantitative techniques, an input/output approach could have an important role as a flexible component of subsector information systems.