A critique of high-value supply chains as a means of modernising agriculture in China: The case of the beef industry

China has embarked on an agricultural modernisation program with far-reaching implications for rural development, food safety and trade. A major focus of China’s agricultural modernisation program has been to build high-value supply chains and large, modern agro-industrial enterprises. This paper provides a critique of these efforts in the case of the high-value beef supply chain. It finds that interventionist policies to fast-track the development of high-value supply chains have perverse outcomes and that a more incremental and facilitative approach to modernisation should be pursued based around the development of mid-value supply chains.     

基于循环经济的绍兴休闲观光农业发展研究

［目的］休闲观光农业建设是绍兴市产业转型升级的关键一步,探寻休闲观光农业新模式,能够为休闲农业发展提供理论参考。［方法］文章采用变异系数法确定指标权重,多因素综合分析法测算观光农业发展水平,从循环经济角度出发,评价2001—2016年绍兴市休闲观光农业发展可持续性,提出发展中存在的问题并探索循环型的休闲观光农业新模式。［结果］（1）2001—2016年以来,经济发展可持续性得分较高,资源环境可持续得分次之,循环经济可持续发展偏低。（2）现阶段绍兴市休闲观光农业发展主要存在休闲观光农业自然环境不断遭到破坏,休闲观光农业缺乏整体规划,休闲观光农业旅游支撑体系不够健全等问题。（3）未来发展中,循环经济发展下的休闲观光农业可以开发建设时空复合循环型、资源综合利用循环型、能量多级利用循环型、综合开发利用循环型等4种模式。［结论］未来绍兴市应将循环经济的理念融入到休闲观光农业中,因地制宜,科学选择循环型休闲观光农业发展模式; 规划先行,科学利用农业旅游资源; 强化保障,建立休闲观光农业支撑体系,全面推动休闲观光农业健康持续发展。     

农业国际化与我国农产品贸易优势

农业国际化是全球农业生产力水平不断提高的结果,而加入世贸组织极大地促进和推动了我国农业的国际化进程。文章借助世贸组织前后我国农产品国际贸易数据．分别计算我国农产品产业内贸易和产业间贸易的发展指数,实证分析了我国农产品在世贸组织前后竞争优势的演变．并对进一步增强我国农产品竞争优势提出具体的政策建议。     

新疆农村基础设施投资与农业发展灰色分析

农业是新疆地区的经济基础,农业经济发展是新疆"三农"问题的核心。农村基础设施投资是推动新疆农业经济的前提条件。因此,正确认识不同的农村基础设施投资对新疆农业经济增长的影响是促进新疆农业持续稳定发展的基本要求。本文分析了新疆农村基础设施投资与农业经济增长的灰色关联,结果表明新疆农业经济增长与农村水利、水电、交通运输、通信和教育等基础设施投资的关联度较高,其中水利设施投资和交通运输投资的关联度是最高。     

河西走廊凉州绿色农业示范区环境质量评价

该研究以绿色农业理念为基础,参照国家绿色食品和无公害食品产地环境质量标准,通过大范围调查取样、测试分析,对河西走廊凉州绿色农业示范区环境质量状况进行了评价,示范区土壤、灌溉水及大气环境质量总体状况良好,处于"清洁"水平,达到"安全"等级,符合目前国家所规定的绿色食品及无公害产品环境质量的要求。     

A typology for defining agritourism

Agritourism has been studied in various ways and contexts. It can be argued, however, that studies have yet to provide a clear and basic understanding of the characteristics that underpin and define agritourism. This paper proposes an original typology for defining agritourism by identifying the key characteristics currently used to define agritourism in the literature and organising them into a transparent and structured framework. For the first time, the agritourism typology clarifies and classifies definitions of agritourism that currently exist in the literature. It therefore offers a comprehensive framework that can be used as a basis for more informed debate and discussion and for future empirical research.     

New perspectives on farm size and productivity

The farm size and productivity debate has been limited by the focus on land or labor productivity, generally showing respective productivity advantages to smaller or larger sized farms. Our purpose is to provide new perspectives on the debate by bringing together evidence from a set of novel case studies in both rich and poor countries. Common to them are the adoption of total factor productivity (TFP) as the comparative performance measure, and the reliance on panels of farm micro data. The present article presents a synthesis of findings from five case studies in (i) Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda; (ii) Bangladesh; (iii) Brazil; (iv) Australia; and (v) the United States. The preponderance of evidence from these studies suggests that there is no single economically optimal agrarian structure; rather, it appears to evolve with the stage of economic development. Certain farm sizes face relative productivity advantages, such as small farms in Africa. But with economic and market growth, that smallholder advantage will likely attenuate, moving toward constant and eventually increasing returns to size. Yet, importantly, small farms may be quite dynamic, and need not be a drag on agricultural growth until perhaps well into the development process.     

Agricultural productivity growth in Brazil: Large and small farms excel

The long-standing debate on the relationship between farm size and productivity has been generally limited by the range of farm sizes evaluated and the definition of productivity. In this paper we use data from three Brazilian agricultural censuses to address these issues. In particular, we introduce a wider distribution of farm sizes than presently available from the literature and we employ total factor productivity (TFP) as our performance measure. In doing so, we test which farm size class had the highest TFP levels in 1985 and 2006, how factor productivity growth varied within and across farm size classes between those years, and which policy or factor had the greatest productivity enhancing effect. When examining TFP growth, we move beyond the common decomposition into technical and efficiency changes by identifying the complete distribution of farm productivity performances. We find that by 2006 a U-shaped distribution of productivity over farm sizes had emerged. Considerable 1985–2006 TFP growth differences are prevalent; positive rates for the majority accompany stagnant or negative rates for some. Public education investments were associated with faster productivity growth regardless of farm size, while technical assistance’s positive effect and credit’s negative effect were associated with larger farm sizes. The role of specialization varied by size.     

Principles of innovation to build nutrition-sensitive food systems in South Asia

Innovations within global food systems have contributed to the predicament known as the triple burden of malnutrition – the co-existence of hunger and micronutrient deficiency with the diseases of overnutrition, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. We use the case of the triple burden in South Asia to demonstrate analytically that innovation is a double-edged sword, with positive and negative potential, rather than a simple good. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals that target food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (e.g. SDGs 2, 3 and 12), the countries of South Asia need more innovation, but, first, they would also benefit from some intelligent reflection about what innovation means, the directions it should take, and its risks and downsides alongside its benefits. In the present juncture, South Asian countries have an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other developing nations, and choose from alternative options to steer their own course. In this paper, we discuss how innovation has contributed to the present situation and ask how alternative kinds of innovation may enable South Asian countries to escape from the triple burden. We describe a conceptual framework that may be useful for thinking about how innovation pathways can be created and directed towards the goal of improving nutritional outcomes in South Asia. The framework draws attention to the direction of socio-technical change, the distribution of technologies and their risks and benefits, and the diversity of possible innovation pathways (STEPS Centre, 2010). We illustrate these points using examples of innovations in the areas of agricultural production, value chain interventions, and policy and institutional reforms.     

Women’s agricultural work and nutrition in South Asia: From pathways to a cross-disciplinary,grounded analytical framework

In this systematic review, we aim to examine the impact of women’s work in agriculture on maternal and child nutrition in South Asia. Building on previous reviews supported under the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) consortium, and recent published literature, we include findings from new LANSA research. While mapping literature onto the gender-nutrition pathways linking agriculture to nutrition (Kadiyala et al., 2014), we also point to conceptual and methodological directions for further exploration emerging from our work. Key amongst these are a focus on seasonality, poverty, and gender relations, moving beyond both an exclusive focus on women as a unified and homogenous group, and agriculture as an unchanging and common set of activities and production processes. Our analysis suggests the need for a more contextualised approach, and for a richer cross-disciplinary framework for effectively addressing the ways in which women’s work mediates agriculture’s role in improving child and maternal nutrition in South Asia.