Tobacco,contract farming,and agrarian change in Zimbabwe

The growth of smallholder tobacco production since 2000 has been one of the big stories of Zimbabwe's post–land reform experience. Yet the implications for agrarian change, and the consequences for new relations between farmers, the state, and agribusiness capital have rarely been discussed. The paper reports on work carried out in the Mvurwi area of Mazowe district in Zimbabwe with a sample of 220 A1 (smallholder) farmers and 100 former farmworkers resident in compounds on the same farms. By going beyond a focus on operational and business dimensions of contract farming, the paper concludes with reflections on the implications for understanding agrarian relations and social differentiation in those areas of Zimbabwe where tobacco growing is now significant, with lessons more broadly on the political economy of contract farming, and the integration of agribusiness capital following land reform.     

城郊型乡村旅游地游客感知形象与行为意向关系研究——以合肥大圩镇为例

[目的]乡村旅游形象是提升乡村旅游竞争力和实现乡村旅游目的地营销的有效途径。发展乡村旅游对拓展农业功能、调整农村产业结构、建设现代农业具有重要的作用,对培育新型农民、促进城乡统筹、实现乡村可持续发展有重要意义。[方法]选取合肥大圩镇为案例地,基于一手调查数据,在文献梳理的基础上,运用因子分析和结构方程模型方法,构建城郊型乡村旅游地游客感知形象与行为意向关系概念模型,探索并验证了游客感知形象维度与结构,并深入分析各形象维度及以旅游体验和满意度为中介变量对行为意向影响的内在机理与关联特征,从而为提升乡村旅游地形象,实现乡村人地关系和谐共生提供借鉴。[结果]城郊型乡村旅游地游客感知形象包含乡土文化与氛围感知、乡村环境与设施感知、乡村产品与服务感知、乡村景观与建筑感知4个维度;各维度对旅游体验影响路径系数分别为0.25、0.17、0.38、0.25,对满意度影响路径系数分别为0.34、0.17、0.25、0,对行为意向影响的路径系数分别为0.25、0、0.15、0,旅游体验和满意度对行为意向影响路径系数分别为0.17、0.63,旅游体验对满意度影响路径系数为0.49。[结论]各变量影响路径系数并不相同,乡土文化与氛围感知和乡村产品与服务感知维度对旅游体验、满意度和行为意向的影响高于其他维度,旅游体验和满意度作为中介变量间接影响行为意向,旅游体验以满意度为中介变量显著、正向影响行为意向。应加大重视乡土文化与氛围感知和乡村产品与服务感知对乡村旅游形象提升的作用,注重挖掘乡村本土文化资源优势、传承乡村传统文化,创新乡村旅游产品和优化乡村旅游服务质量,进而有效提升乡村旅游游客满意度。     

基于创新创业的新型农业经营主体多维形式研究

随着农业的发展,传统的农户模式已不能满足现有的农产品市场需求,新型农业经营主体的出现丰富了农民生产经营农产品的形式。新型农业经营主体主要包括家庭农场、专业大户、农民合作社、农业企业4种类型。新型农业经营主体优势在于更加规模化、集中化、市场化,符合现代农业发展方向。文章通过对家庭农场、专业大户、农民合作社、农业企业等新型农业经营主体发展现状进行分析,探究新型农业经营主体面临的阻碍难题,提出完善政府支持政策、加大金融扶持及提高农技服务等相应的措施。     

Dragon Head Enterprises and the State of Agribusiness in China

This paper examines the political trajectory of agribusiness firms called ‘dragon head enterprises’ in China's ongoing agri‐food transformations. It starts from the premise that state and private elites in China are working together to consolidate a robust domestic agribusiness sector, as both an arena for national‐level rural and economic development, and a new frontier for access to resources and markets abroad. Through analyses of policy documents, market share data and ethnographic materials, I explore the organization and operation of dragon heads in the pork sector. My findings reveal that agribusiness development in China's pork sector is largely domestic, has a mixed state–private form and tends to marginalize the foreign‐based TNCs that have been the most powerful actors in the global agri‐food system to date. I argue that China is not only a destination for ‘external’ transnational capital, but also a site of agribusiness development in its own right. This has important implications for analysing capitalist transformations and for engaging global agri‐food politics.     

海水淡化进入城市供水的定价策略研究

针对我国海水淡化进入城市供水存在的水价偏高问题,系统研究了海水淡化水定价需要考虑的内外部影响因素,综合分析产水成本、合理利润及社会接受度等因素,从考虑海水淡化厂合理收益和用户接受水平两个维度开展海水淡化对外供水的定价方案研究,提出科学采取多种成本控制措施、进一步降低海水淡化成本、建立畅通的淡化水购销渠道、完善水资源价格形成机制、制定海水淡化水价补贴政策等价格策略和建议。     

Dairy Products Market Segmentation: The Effects of Country of Origin on Price Premium and Purchase Intention

This study examines the impact of country of origin and other marketing factors on perceived price premium and purchase intention of dairy products. Applying factor analysis and 2-step cluster analysis, the article finds that there are 4 segments in the Thailand dairy market. The respondents in each segment perceive quality of products from 6 countries (or regions) differently. Three segments that consider country of origin have their evaluation of price premium and purchase intention of products from each country higher than the remaining segment. The applications to market strategy of international food companies and agribusiness industries are discussed.     

TPB-NAM框架下规模农户绿色优质农产品生产意愿研究——基于江苏省的调查数据

[目的]针对规模农户生产绿色优质农产品的意愿及形成机制开展研究，对于提升绿色优质农产品供给能力、推动农业绿色发展具有重要意义。[方法]文章以计划行为理论（TPB）和规范激活理论（NAM）的整合模型作为理论框架，利用江苏省1 228份规模农户调研数据，通过结构方程模型（SEM）对规模农户绿色优质农产品生产意愿的影响因素进行验证分析。[结果]（1）感知行为控制和对绿色优质农产品的认知两个变量对生产意愿的影响程度明显高于行为态度、主观规范，且对绿色优质农产品的认知还可通过行为态度的中介效应间接影响生产意愿；（2）个人规范不仅可以被结果意识直接激活，还可通过责任归属的中介效应被间接激活；（3）规模农户在考虑生产绿色优质农产品时，出于成本—收益的“利己”动机要高于出于道德义务感的“利他”动机；（4）随着种植面积的增加，感知行为控制和个人规范对绿色优质农产品生产意愿的影响效应逐渐增强。[结论]要兼顾“利己”和“利他”两个维度，发挥规模农户行为态度、主观规范、感知行为控制、对绿色优质农产品的认知、个人规范的积极作用，激发规模农户绿色优质农产品生产意愿，扩大绿色优质农产品供给。     

Evolving Marketing Channels for Beef and Lamb in the United Kingdom-

This paper investigates the effects of: (1) recent changes to food safety legislation; (2) increasing consumer concerns over animal welfare; and (3) further market integration in the European Union on British agribusiness firms involved in marketing beef and lamb. It is hypothesized that these changes will alter the transaction costs associated with marketing these products. As a result, there is likely to be a reduction in the number of animals sold for slaughter through traditional auction markets and an increase in direct contracting or strategic alliances between supermarkets and farmers' marketing cooperatives.     

Using MANECSIM as a Simulation for Agribusiness Capstone Courses

MANECSIM is a business simulation especially developed for use in economic-based management classes. Students are put in charge of a firm and must make periodic managerial decisions in the areas of marketing, production, and finance in an environment in which economic conditions and competing firms influence the firm's performance. MANECSIM allows students to apply concepts and techniques learned about demand, forecasting, production, cost analyses, and financial planning—all major topics in agribusiness programs. The simulation offers an alternative to traditional case studies providing students with a "real-life" decision-making experience.     

Accumulation by Dispossession and Socio‐Environmental Conflicts Caused by the Expansion of Agribusiness in Argentina

Drawing upon the concept of ‘accumulation by dispossession’, this paper analyses the expansion of agrarian capital in Argentina. A case study illustrates the social and environmental impacts of the expansion of agribusiness in central Argentina and the social struggle – both rural and urban – that has arisen to resist this process. Although government policies after the 2001 crisis differ in many ways from those of the 1990s, current agrarian policies are not significantly distinct from those followed during the pre‐crisis neoliberal period. Rather than ‘post‐neoliberal’, the new model could thus be better described as ‘neo‐extractivist’. With the connivance of the state, agribusiness is producing the largest‐ever transformation of natural capital into economic capital in the history of the region. Moreover, the latest policy developments suggest that Argentina is on the threshold of a new and deeper stage of agrarian capital expansion and wealth concentration, this time operating at a much larger scale.     

Chinese investment in the Brazilian soybean sector: Navigating relations of private governance

This paper examines how Chinese agribusiness firms are engaging with established systems of private governance in the Brazilian soybean sector and how that engagement is variously accommodated, contested, and configured by local realities that reflect the uneven history of transnational agribusiness development across the Brazilian agro‐export region. Using qualitative data collected at three research sites that represent different historical moments in the Brazilian agro‐export region (Mato Grosso, Goiás, and Bahia), the paper argues that the social structures underlying the particular agrarian histories of these three subregions create unique contexts Chinese firms must navigate, which in turn shapes their engagement with the private agribusiness regime across space. Although the private agribusiness regime is often portrayed as a top‐down system of governance that subjugates the polity to the demands of capital, this framing neglects to understand how that system of power is contested, negotiated, and reshaped on the ground. These three cases serve to historicize the uneven penetration of Chinese firms across the Brazilian soybean sector.     

Strategic Agricultural Export Marketing in South Pacific Island Nations

Agribusiness firms in small developing countries face a special set of circumstances when formulating strategic marketing decisions. The nature of small economies usually means that agribusiness firms must have a strong export orientation, but they have little influence in the markets to which they export. The potential for domestic market expansion is limited. Information needed for developing export marketing strategies is often lacking, or difficult and expensive to obtain. An associated feature is the high degree of risk in export marketing, caused particularly by the variability in the world markets in which these nations sell their agricultural commodities. The importance of agricultural exports to economic development in these nations means that governments intervene a good deal in the export processes. Hence, government strategic decisions also affect agribusiness export performance. Finally, the number of competing firms is often small because of the smallness of the agricultural economy and the desire by agribusiness firms to avoid severe diseconomies of small size. This set of circumstances is examined in this paper in relation to a number of small South Pacific island nations (SPINS). Emphasis in the analysis of the strategic marketing concerns of agribusiness firms in these nations is on the competitive marketing strategies adopted in both the domestic and international sectors of the agricultural export markets. The special strategic marketing problems these firms face and the ways in which they have sought to overcome them are the main focus of study. But some attention is also given to the strategic decision-making processes of governments in the region, because they also have an impact on export strategies and performance of agribusiness marketing firms.     

Mycogen as a Case Study in Real Options

This article provides a primer on the use of real options valuation in a strategic agribusiness setting. Using the Mycogen case study as an example, the article provides a qualitative approach to strategic risk management. The article introduces a number of real options such as the option to wait and the option to learn and illustrates how prudent use of these options can give rise to firm value in an agribusiness setting.     

A model of entry–exit decisions and capacity choice under demand uncertainty

Many investment decisions of agribusiness firms, such as when to invest in an emerging market or whether to expand the capacity of the firm, involve irreversible investment and uncertainty about demand, cost or competition. This paper uses an option‐value model to examine the factors affecting an agribusiness firm's decision whether and how much to invest in an emerging market under demand uncertainty. Demand uncertainty and irreversibility of investment make investment less desirable than the net present value (NPV) rule indicates. The inactive firm is more reluctant to enter the market when it takes into account demand uncertainty because it preserves the opportunity of making a better investment later. The active firm is more reluctant to abandon the investment because there is an option value of keeping the operation alive. There is a greater distance between the entry and exit thresholds under the option‐value approach than under the NPV rule due to demand uncertainty. The results have implications for agribusiness decision‐making.     

New Paths to Capitalist Agricultural Production in Africa: Experiences of Ghanaian Pineapple Producer–Exporters

With the global restructuring of agri‐food markets since the 1980s, an impressive amount of scholarship has examined its impacts in African countries. However, little has been written on the emergence of local medium and large‐scale commercial farmers selling to export companies or controlling their own export marketing arrangements. This article examines Ghanaian commercial farmers producing and exporting fresh pineapples to European markets. This group of pineapple producer–exporters represents a path to capitalist agricultural production that can be conceptualized as capitalism from outside: where capital flows into the countryside, rather than accumulation occurring from above or below within the agrarian economy. The emergence of this form of agrarian capitalism is stimulated by opportunities in new high‐value agricultural export markets, but its stabilization depends on country‐specific characteristics such as rural social structures, property rights and state support. The article documents the conditions of emergence of this new group of Ghanaian capitalist farmers, the period of destabilization caused by increasing international competition that resulted in a small number of large‐scale agribusiness firms surviving, and the challenges that these agribusiness firms faced in stabilizing their capitalist agricultural production.     

Managing Customer Knowledge During the Concept Development Stage of the New Food Product Development Process

New product development (NPD) is a knowledge-intensive process where the generation of new ideas and concepts requires detailed knowledge of both products and customers. The high reported failure rates for innovative functional beverages suggest an inability to manage customer knowledge effectively as well as a lack of knowledge management between functional disciplines involved in the NPD process. This research explored the concept of managing customer knowledge at the early stages of the NPD process, through the use of advanced concept optimization methods, and applied it to the development of a range of functional beverages. A conjoint-based survey was administered to 400 customers in Ireland. This research identified 2 hypothetical functional beverage concepts with high levels of customer acceptance. Managing customer knowledge during the concept development stage of the NPD process can assist firms overcome customer acceptance issues associated with innovative products. Methodologies that advance both a firm's understanding of customers' choice motives and value systems can increase the chances of new product success in international food and beverage markets.     

Quarterly Dynamic Relationships Between the U.S. Wheat Market and Wheat-Related Prices for Products Downstream

Abstract

A quarterly VA R econometric model of the reduced form relationships between the U.S. wheat market and prices of processed wheat-related flour, bread, and other bakery products downstream was estimated. The model then simulated under a rise in production- or import-induced increase in wheat quantity, and a decline in wheat price, to examine the dynamic effects on the U.S. wheat market and on processed wheat-related prices downstream. U.S. trade negotiators at the upcoming WTO agricultural round, Federal policy makers, farmers, and agribusiness agents should be interested in the dynamic patterns with which negotiated trade conditions, farm policy alterations, and climatic variation influence wheat quantity and price, and in turn the price of more highly processed wheat-based products downstream.     

Time Allocation Decisions Associated with Job Market Preparation: Undergraduate Perceptions versus Market Realities

A survey of agribusiness firms identifies characteristics associated with above average starting salary offers in the allied fields of agribusiness, agricultural economics, business, and economics. A complementary survey is made of students at Texas A&M University and University of Georgia. Results show that firms value work experience and leadership experience more than students do, whereas students value raising grade point average and interview preparation more than do firms. Students seeking a firm's maximum starting salary offer will need to enhance academic performance with substantial work experience and leadership experience.     

Willingness-to-Pay Estimates and Their Relevance to Agribusiness Decision Making

Although methods such as contingent valuation have received a great deal of attention in environmental valuation literature, fewer studies have reported willingness-to-pay estimates with agribusiness applications. Because agribusinesses are increasingly interested in producing and selling differentiated goods and services whose values has not been established by well-functioning markets, we provide a short introduction to willingness-to-pay methodology and provide a discussion of several different methods used to estimate willingness-to-pay. More specifically, we discuss how much of the work in environmental and experimental valuation literature can be extended to agribusiness applications, which have their own set of unique issues.