Cattle sharing and rental contracts in an Agrarian economy: evidence from Ethiopia

Empirical evidence on the role of cattle sharing and rental contracts in agrarian economies is limited. This article is an investigation of different types of cattle sharing and rental contracts producers in rural Ethiopia adopt. It also investigates why households in rural Ethiopia rely on these contracts that are vulnerable and therefore subject to potential moral hazard problems described in earlier literature. We apply random effect probit and control function econometric methods to household panel data collected in 2005 and 2007 from two agro‐ecological zones in Ethiopia. Controlling for the endogeneity of access to livestock credit, we find that contracts are spatially fragmented and better developed where population density is high and credit and insurance markets are poorly developed. We also find that contracts help cash poor and credit constrained households to improve their herd dynamics, to get access to nonlivestock resources (land, labor and cash) and share risks that could have been difficult without the contract. We show that contracts are rational responses of residents in rural communities characterized by imperfect credit and insurance services, since households with better access to credit are less likely to rely on contracts.     

Estimated Value of Increased Pricing Accuracy for Fed Cattle

To improve vertical market coordination beef packers have introduced fed cattle grid pricing systems that offer premiums or discounts for varying carcass quality and yield grades. This study calculates the value of cattle quality information for producers considering live, dressed, and grid pricing alternatives. The value of fed cattle quality and yield grade information is at least $15/head. When fed cattle are sold on a live weight basis, high-quality cattle subsidize low-quality cattle by an average of $30/head. Price signals that could improve beef market coordination are ignored when fed cattle are marketed using traditional live or dressed weight methods.     

渔业技术创新联盟的困境与对策

产学研合作是渔业技术创新的主要方式,但当前我国渔业产学研合作创新仍然存在诸多问题。构建渔业技术创新联盟能够较好地解决这些问题并推动渔业产学研合作向更高层次发展。我国渔业技术创新联盟正处于发展的初期阶段,对渔业技术创新联盟构建及发展现状的分析,发现存在着联盟重复建设、运行机制不完善、组织管理体系不健全以及政府管理不规范等问题。因此,应围绕联盟的主要任务构建有序的组织管理体系;应设计完善的联盟运行机制以保障联盟内的知识共享和知识创新活动;通过加强宏观调控和完善各项配套政策以提高政府的联盟管理水平。     

Forging Strategic Alliances in Canada's Agrifood Sector: Framework for Analysis and Action

In recent years, participants in Canadas agrifood sector have become more concerned about their competitiveness and have identified strategic alliances as being vital to becoming more competitive. This paper is a review of economics, strategic management and other social science literature examining several issues such as:

• •

  the types of objectives organizations should pursue using strategic alliances
• •

  the appropriate configuration for a strategic alliance, given its objectives
• •

  advantages and disadvantages of strategic alliances versus other types of business relationships
• •

  factors that enhance or inhibit organizations' abilities to forge alliances.

The latter part of the paper concentrates on what managers interested in pursuing strategic alliances can do to enhance their chances of success.     

Alternative Firm Strategies for Signaling Quality in the Food System

Dynamics in the global food system, coupled with rapid advance in agricultural biotechnology, have resulted in additional demands for capturing information and sharing information vertically within the supply chain. Food safety and quality characteristics are a cornerstone of this information demand. Events such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), genetic engineering and animal welfare concerns have laid the foundation for additional information need.
Managers of private firms within the food supply chain must decide how to respond to the situation. A crucial component of the problem is what and how to provide information to downstream customers as well as stipulate what and how information is received from upstream suppliers. Alternative signaling mechanisms abound. The choice among these alternative signals, or combination of alternatives, has both short- and long-run implications for the reputation of the firm, its products or services, and the efficiency with which it conducts its business. The signaling problem in the supply chain is bidirectional and has three critical dimensions: information asymmetry, incentive asymmetry, and arduous measurability. From a broad perspective, the choice set for signaling includes: strategies that rely on third-party protocols and procedures; differentiation through branding and reputation; indemnification strategies such as insurance, warranties, and bonding; and coordination strategies such as strategic alliances and vertical integration (intemalization). Each mechanism for signaling differentially influences the three dimensions of the signaling problem. No globally optimal strategy solution exists. Differentiation through branding and reputation mitigate the signaling problem relatively well compared with the other alternatives.     

The land sparing – land sharing controversy: Tracing the politics of knowledge

Feeding 9 billion people by 2050 on one hand, and preserving biodiversity on the other hand, are two shared policy goals at the global level. Yet while these goals are clear, they are to some extent in conflict, because agriculture is a major cause of biodiversity loss, and the path to achieve both of them is at the heart of a public controversy around ‘productive’ land use and biodiversity conservation. Over the years, the scientific, policy, civil society and agri-business communities have been engaged in producing evidence that can support a land sparing policy (separating intensive agricultural production from biodiversity conservation) or a land sharing policy (integrating the two in larger and more extensive landscapes). This paper contributes to this debate by analyzing land sparing and land sharing (LSS) as a socio-technical controversy. Through the analysis of large and small corpora of scientific, policy, corporate social responsibility and sustainability standards documents we explore the ethical underpinnings and social networks that support the opposing sides of this controversy. We explore these linkages in order to explain how the concept of land sparing achieved dominance in the scientific literature and how the concept has been taken up in international policy, business and civil society circles. We examine the convergences and divergences in alliances between actors in this controversy in order to map how specific actors have promoted the concept of land sparing as the best way to used land for biodiversity and food production.     

Price determinants of bred heifers: Do reputations matter?

Replacement brood cows are among the most significant investments for cow-calf operations, thus crucial to profitability. Many cow-calf producers find it cost effective to purchase replacements from a reliable replacement heifer seller, though by doing so they increase risk of reproductive inefficiency due to unknown characteristics of the heifers. When important information about a product is missing to buyers, a seller can build a reputation over time that acts as signal for quality. Previous work has explored reputation effects in feeder cattle markets, but to our knowledge we are the first to explore reputation effects in bred replacement cattle markets. Using data from an annual replacement heifer sale, we analyze the values of heifer characteristics and test for premiums from reputation development. After controlling for reproductive practices, breed, and other characteristics, we find reputation does not play the role that Shapiro theorized. In this sale, the lot order is strategically chosen and may indicate bred heifer quality to buyers, replacing the need for reputation as a signal. This study highlights the importance of quality signals and regional preferences in bred replacement cattle marketing and lays the empirical groundwork for future studies to test Shapiro's theory.     

Evolving Producer–Packer–Customer Linkages in the Beef and Pork Industries

The U.S. pork and beef sectors are rapidly moving from traditional cash markets to formal vertical linkages. In 1999, 27% of hogs and 65% of cattle were traded in the cash market and packers owned 18% of hogs and 5% of cattle; the rest were procured via marketing contracts. Contrary to popular opinion that plant efficiency is the impetus for the change, packers clearly identified quality concerns as the dominant reason for using marketing contracts or self-production. Quality standards and procurement systems to achieve them will increase in importance with the introduction of more branded pork and beef products.     

Disparate but not antagonistic: Classes of labour in cotton production in Burkina Faso

This paper examines the variety of agrarian classes of labour and the challenges they face in organizing and pursuing their interests. By taking the cotton sector in Burkina Faso as a case study, it analyses how various ‘classes of labour’ organize and mobilize for collective action to raise their claims: poor cotton farmers and workers in the cotton factories. Poor and middle farmers recently came to the fore when they boycotted cotton production in large numbers. The study focusses on the boycott campaign, and more broadly on class struggle and collective action by farmers and workers, on interclass alliances, and on capital's attempts to play the classes of labour against one another. The boycott campaign provides an outstanding case to analyse the interests of the various classes of labour and of opportunities for rural–urban mobilization and alliances across classes of labour. I argue that poor farmers and factory workers along the chain of cotton production can be considered as various classes of labour that are not necessarily antagonistic to one another but, first and foremost, to capital. In order to achieve radical transformation in the agrarian context, what is needed are networks and organizations to establish interclass solidarity and alliances.     

Expected Utility,Risk, and Marketing Behavior: Theory and Evidence from the Fed Cattle Market

The effect of carcass quality uncertainty on the structure of the slaughter cattle market is investigated. A theoretical extension of the “Theory of Factor Price Disparity” is provided. It is demonstrated that the coexistence of a risk premium wedge between marketing channel (live weight, dressed weight, and grid) pricing mechanisms, in conjunction with varying degrees of producer risk aversion or producer perception of carcass quality uncertainty, contributes to the coexistence of multiple marketing channels. It is also demonstrated that risk and risk preference provide the linkage between carcass quality uncertainty and producer marketing decisions. We demonstrate how this linkage can affect the structure of the fed cattle market and the variability in slaughter volume across marketing channels. We also confirm the linkage between value‐based production techniques that increase seller information on carcass quality and seller increased usage of grid pricing regardless of actual carcass quality. Empirical evidence is provided in support of the supposition that carcass quality uncertainty plays a role in grid market share variability.     

Price predictors in an extended hedonic regression framework: An application to wholesale cattle markets in Ethiopia

Livestock markets influence income generation for producers, but also accessibility and affordability of highly nutritious animal-sourced foods for consumers. Despite their importance, the functioning of livestock markets in lower-income countries is poorly understood and rarely studied compared to more developed countries. This study analyzes wholesale cattle markets in Ethiopia using a uniquely rich large-scale dataset covering both prices and cattle characteristics in 39 markets (in both highland and lowland areas) over a 10-year period, and hedonic regression models structured to understand both cattle price formation and seasonal and secular price dynamics. We show that cattle prices are influenced by a wide range of factors, including proxies for meat quality, religious fasting practices, climate-based seasonality but also climate shocks and availability of grazing land, competition from animal traction services, and rising consumer incomes. However, the implied effects of these factors are often significantly different in highland mixed crop-livestock areas compared to agro-pastoralist lowland areas, emphasizing the dualistic nature of cattle markets in Ethiopia. The analyses help inform the systemic challenges that Ethiopia will need to overcome to meet rising demand for beef products in the face of sustained income and population growth, as well as the adverse effects of climate change.     

The political economy of quality measurement: a case study of the USA slaughter cattle market

As agricultural products move from being economic commodities to quality–differentiated goods, price dispersion within specific markets increases and implicit subsidies from high quality producers to low quality producers are removed. The present paper examines how these distributional effects can influence patterns of support and opposition to changes in marketing arrangements. The simple model developed is calibrated using data from the USA slaughter cattle market. Estimates of the impact on prices of measuring quality more accurately are found to be similar in size to previous estimates of market power price suppression in the market.     

中国肉牛养殖生产布局的阶段特征、变迁路径和影响机制——基于2008—2019年省域统计数据的空间计量分析

[目的]为充分了解“十一五”“十二五”“十三五”期间中国肉牛养殖及育肥养殖生产布局的阶段特征、变迁路径和影响机制。[方法]文章运用2008—2019年中国各地肉牛年末存栏量和牛肉产量数据,利用生产集中度、生产重心迁移轨迹阐述生产布局的阶段特征和变迁路径,利用莫兰指数、吉尔里指数和G指数分析空间相关性,利用空间面板模型分析影响因素及效应。[结果]肉牛养殖生产重心向西北方迁移了154.6km,自2017年空间正相关逐渐显著,粗饲料资源禀赋、劳动力质量、技术进步和非农就业机会是布局变迁的重要影响因素;肉牛育肥养殖生产重心向西迁移了119.15km,三大指数均具有显著性,饲料资源禀赋、劳动力质量、技术进步、市场价格、交通通达度、畜牧产业比较优势和非农就业机会是布局变迁的重要影响因素。[结论]肉牛养殖和育肥养殖均呈现出由农区向牧区迁移趋势,且存在空间正相关性,但具体变迁路径和影响机制有所差异,就此提出“合理编制肉牛生产规划、系统加强流通环节建设、强化科学技术支撑、保障饲料稳定供应”的政策建议。     

Drug trafficking,cattle ranching and Land use and Land cover change in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve

Drug trafficking organizations are driving deforestation in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve. Drug traffickers deforest the protected area in order to illegally ranch cattle, which serves as a mechanism of money laundering, drug smuggling, and territory control. Journalists and ethnographers have analyzed “narco-cattle ranching” activities in the reserve and resulting “narco-deforestation,” yet land use change scientists have yet to quantify the contribution of illegal cattle ranching to forest loss. This article uses remote sensing and GIS analysis to distinguish the relative contribution of cattle ranching, farming, and land speculation to reserve deforestation and other forms of land use and land cover change. We also use ethnographic methods to provide evidentiary links between illegal cattle ranching and drug trafficking activities that suggest a large part, but not all, of illegal cattle ranching is narco-capitalized. Our research finds that illegal cattle ranching is responsible for the majority of reserve deforestation, ranging from 59 to 87% of photographs on deforested lands in three sampled areas. We also found illegal cattle ranching activities are the highest in the reserve’s western national parks, which should be strictly protected from land use change. Contrary to popular debate, these findings suggest drug traffickers in the context of the US-led War on Drugs are to blame for forest loss, not subsistence farmers illegally living in the reserve.     

Integration to Fragmentation: Post-BSE Canadian Cattle Markets, Processing Capacity, and Cattle Prices

This paper examines the potential impacts of expansions to Canadian cattle slaughter capacity with varying assumptions about the ability to export live cattle to the United States. A synthetic model is calibrated to historic data and then used to gauge the impacts of changing slaughter capacity, commercial grade beef import competition, and export potential for lower quality cuts on the Canadian cattle and beef sector. Expanded slaughter capacity improves fed cattle prices, but cull prices remain below pre-BSE levels. Reduced ability to export lower quality beef and increased import competition from commercial grade beef also further depress cattle prices .
Le présent article examine les répercussions potentielles d'une augmentation de la capacité d'abattage au Canada à l'aide de diverses hypothèses sur la capacité d'exporter des bovins vivants aux États-Unis. Un modèle synthétique est calibré selon les données historiques et utilisé pour évaluer les répercussions qu'une modification de la capacité d'abattage, de la concurrence quant à l'importation de bœuf de qualité commerciale et de l'exportation éventuelle de coupes de viande de qualité inférieure aurait sur le secteur canadien du bœuf. Une capacité d'abattage accrue améliore les prix des bovins finis, mais les prix des animaux de réforme demeurent inférieurs aux niveaux de prix observés avant la découverte de l'ESB. La diminution de la capacité d'exporter du bœuf de qualité inférieure et l'augmentation de la concurrence pour l'importation de bœuf de qualité commerciale contribuent également à faire baisser davantage les prix des bovins .     

Land use and income diversification: comparing traditional and colonist populations in the Brazilian Amazon

This article compares and analyzes land use and income diversification among two distinct groups of farmers in the Brazilian Amazon: recent colonists in Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia, and traditional long‐term residents along the Tapajós River, Pará. We investigate the hypothesis that farmers who diversify their cash income sources clear less forest on an annual basis, and we compare these livelihood choices across colonist and traditional populations. In particular, we develop a conceptual model based on the household production framework and use econometric models to identify determinants of diversification and forest clearing. We find that diversification of agricultural cash crops is negatively correlated with forest clearing by colonists, providing limited evidence for the hypothesis. Other significant covariates of diversification and forest clearing include cash income levels, stage in family life cycle, cattle ownership, and chemical inputs. Differences in these variables, and differences in household response to these variables, explain variation in diversification and forest clearing across the two populations.     

New marketing channels for food quality products in Norway

Marketing is an important and challenging competitive instrument for small-scale quality food producers. Traditional commercial channels may be unprofitable and small-scale food producers often lack access to a highly concentrated retail sector. In this situation a number of strategic alliances between farmers and between farmers and other public and private actors have emerged. The aim of this paper is to discuss and compare initiatives to develop alternative marketing channels for small-scale specialty food producers. The three examples of emerging channels we investigate are (i) the 'new' farmers markets, (ii) retail initiatives where local producers deliver their produce directly to shops, and (iii) companies founded by large cooperatives to market specialty products. Recent research has justified that such initiatives can be conceptualized as hybrid governance structures, i.e. complex structures that entail properties of both market and hierarchy. We pay particular attention to the problem of quality enforcement in emerging marketing channels.     

Testing for Processor Market Power in the Markets for Cattle and Hogs in Canada

Deviations of livestock input prices from processor marginal value product are usually interpreted as an indication of the application of market power by the meat packing industry. However, market power depends on economic conditions that can influence the behavior of meat packers in the market for cattle and hogs. An industry-level translog profit function is applied to data on the Canadian finished cattle and hog markets and industry-wide oligopsony market power functions are estimated. The estimates suggest beef packers exercised a small but sustained amount of market power in the Canadian finished cattle market from 1978 to 1997. This is not the case in the market for hogs, which was competitive from 1960 to 1997. Application of market power in packers'purchases of farm animals decreased with increases in the utilization of domestic supply of slaughter animals and with increased levels of livestock exports. Livestock productivity increases appear to have significantly enhanced oligopsony power in packers'purchases of farm animals. The analysis suggests that beef processors may exert market power when cattle prices are relatively higher.     

Metropolitan land-change science: A framework for research on tropical and subtropical forest recovery in city-regions

In efforts to promote transitions to sustainability in city-regions, government and nongovernment actors throughout the world are devising comprehensive sustainability strategies and implementing a variety of environmental policies. Social actors in many city-regions view forest stewardship as an important element of this integrated approach. Generally, urban sustainability goals are guided by the principles of ecological integrity, environmental quality, social equity, social inclusion, and social justice. In other words, sustainable urban development should foster a good quality of life for all by providing equitable access to adequate economic opportunity, housing, education, public services, ecosystem services, and environmental amenities. Governance structures should pursue these goals democratically with legitimacy, transparency, and accountability. Effective sustainability planning and management depend on the reliability of land-use monitoring and modeling approaches. They also require field-based, qualitative empirical research to understand the complex social dynamics that are invisible from space. The aim of this paper is to encourage international, cross-disciplinary dialogue on the conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and practical groundwork necessary to effectively carry out metropolitan land-change science, particularly for rapidly expanding small- and medium-sized cities in developing countries. I begin by presenting the paper's central conceptual and theoretical framework. Next, I explore existing analytical and methodological approaches to the study of land-use dynamics in metropolitan regions. After a brief discussion of specific opportunities and challenges for collaborative, interdisciplinary research in support of metropolitan land-change science, I conclude by proposing a four-part agenda for coordinated investigation of tropical and subtropical forest recovery in city-regions worldwide.