Economic Meltdown in Malaysia

Abstract

The economic downturn in Malaysia has encouraged a debate on the benefits of its export-oriented industrialisation strategy. There is renewed interest in the agricultural and livestock sectors. One of the beneficiaries of this policy change could be the dairy farming sector. Using desktop research and ‘key-informant’ techniques, this study reviews various factors that could influence the development of the dairy farming sector in Malaysia. The study concludes that the (a) Government may encourage the start-up of integrated plantation crop, animal feed and livestock farms, (b) investment and trade linkages with neighbouring countries could lead to diversification of import sources, and (c) consumption of dairy products may have matured, leading to increases in dairy self-sufficiency. It is postulated that these developments will produce a dynamic environment and significant threats to the interests of traditional dairy exporting countries.     

基于人工免疫的乳品供应链质量安全风险预警研究

针对日益凸显的乳品质量安全问题,建立及时有效的乳品预警机制已经变得至关重要。文中从供应链的角度构建乳品质量安全风险指标体系。结合人工免疫及负选择算法并加以改进,建立基于人工免疫的乳品质量安全风险模型,并对某乳品企业的乳品质量安全风险进行了预警分析。研究结果表明文中建立的乳品质量安全风险预警模型能够定量分析乳品质量安全状态并有效预警,为实施乳品安全供应链监管提供了新思路和方法。     

从供应链的视角看新疆乳制品企业的现状及对策分析

新疆与内蒙古、青海与西藏并称为中国四大牧区,拥有天山北坡、伊犁河谷、南疆绿洲等大畜牧基地,草场面积辽阔,达到5133万hm2,具有发展乳业得天独厚的优势。然而,具有如此优势的新疆乳业却很少能走出新疆,与内地特别是内蒙乳业发展差距很大,而且,新疆没有出现象"蒙牛"和"伊利"这样能享誉全国的乳品龙头企业,本文试图从供应链的视角看新疆乳制品企业的发展状况,希望把这种新型的结构介绍给企业。     

基于物联网的奶制品物流信息共享系统研究

针对奶制品产业物流信息管理系统的发展现状,探讨奶制品物流信息共享的内容以及奶制品物联网技术运行模式,进一步构建奶制品产业物流信息共享系统,帮助奶制品产业实现信息化以及协同化管理,完善奶制品产业物流信息共享系统,提升奶制品产业在市场上的竞争力,为奶制品产业物流信息一体化管理提供了理论指导,促使奶制品产业实现质量信息的可视化以及可追溯性。     

Who is Going to Supply the Milk to China＇s South？

China＇s dairy industry has experienced rapid expansion in recent years, with an average annual growth rate of 23.8 percent from 2000 to 2006. However, there exists a serious geographical distribution imbalance in milk production and consumption. Approximately 85 percent of China＇s milk is produced in northern China, where 40 percent of the country＇s population reside. In contrast, only about 15 percent of the milk is produced in China＇s south, where 60percent of China＇s population reside. This has resulted in a significant gap between milk production and consumption in southern China and this gap is expected to rise. This paper considers China＇s milk demand and supply situation, analyzes the likely potential for China to expand its milk production and explores options for meeting milk demand-supply shortages. Policy and trade implications are discussed.     

The Demand for Hedging and the Value of Hedging Opportunities

Hedging strategies typically assume that hedging is costless and that only one futures market exists. When these assumptions are dropped, the demand for hedging is shown to depend on basis risk, price risk, and the hedger's risk preference. The marginal and incremental value of hedging opportunities are computed for the general cases of one and two markets and applied to the specific case of Pennsylvania dairy input hedging.     

The influence of management decisions and external factors on the dairy farmer's environmentally friendly farming objective: the Green Dairy experience

Ten dairy farms participated in an EU project that aimed to improve nitrogen use and assist with the adoption of more environmentally friendly farming practices. Nitrogen use and management decisions were monitored during 2003, 2004 and 2005. Nine farms improved nitrogen use (nitrogen output relative to input) in Year 2. Four farms maintained or further improved nitrogen use in Year 3. Management decisions and external factors that improved nitrogen use were increasing farm milk output, adopting best management practices for nitrogen use, growing forage crops that required less nitrogen than grass and favourable crop production conditions that rendered large quantities of good quality forage. Decisions that worsened nitrogen use were increasing cow numbers without sufficient management support, the late start of supplementary feeding when grass quality declined, setting the target yield too high, pursuing a higher milk price, less palatable silage and disease. Sufficient slurry storage is essential to improving nitrogen use. The savings from lower nitrogen input and the revenue from milk were in no proportion to the investments required for additional slurry storage, however. The farmers did adopt environmentally friendly practices, but only to the degree their businesses were able to sustain.     

Policy, milk and the Dar es Salaam peri-urban zone: a new future for an old development theme?

This paper provides an analysis of 50 years of policy aimed at ensuring an adequate milk supply to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Despite a variety of policy approaches and initiatives, providing the city with milk continues to be problematic. The use of the peri-urban zone for dairy production is one of several recurring themes, however, even with an expanding market there has been relatively little development of commercial dairying in this zone. This history is used to assess the more recent interest in the potential contribution of the peri-urban zone to sustainable urban food supplies. The paper argues that policy and development initiatives along these lines must specifically consider the relative suitability of the peri-urban zone vis-à-vis the production of specific commodities as well as potential market opportunities. Those interested in promoting peri-urban agriculture as an element of more sustainable cities cannot afford to take a narrow view that ignores either agro-ecological, economic and regional realities.