Impact of contracts in high yielding varieties seed production on profits and yield: The case of Nepal

Nepal’s population continues to grow, but the agricultural sector’s performance remains almost stagnant. This has led to a decline in the per capita availability of food. Increasing agricultural productivity is the key to agricultural growth, and one strategy for increasing agricultural productivity is to use improved seeds. This study investigates the impact of contract farming (CF) in high yielding varieties (HYV) of paddy seed production on costs, yield, and profits of smallholder farms in Nepal. Using farm-level data and a non-parametric propensity score matching estimator, the study finds a significant positive impact of contract HYV seed farming on revenues, profits, and yield, and a significant negative impact on total costs of production. Additionally, very small farms (⩽0.43 ha) with CF in HYV paddy seeds tend to gain the most when it comes to yield per hectare. Our estimates reveal that the average smallholder household in Nepal engaged in CF with input conditions receives higher profits. However, farmers engaged in CF with output conditions tend to have higher yields but smaller profits. Finally, farmers engaged in CF in HYV paddy seeds with both input and output conditions have the highest yield gains and significantly higher profits.     

Feed use intensification and technical efficiency of dairy farms in New Zealand

In recent years, the traditionally pasture‐based dairy farms in New Zealand have become more intensive by using higher proportions of supplementary feed. This trend has been attributed to a range of factors, such as productivity enhancement, overcoming pasture deficits and the improvement of body condition scores. However, there is a lack of knowledge as to how feed use intensification affects the technical efficiency of dairy farms in New Zealand. This paper addresses the research gap by estimating the impact of feed use intensification on the technical efficiency of New Zealand dairy farms, using a fixed effects stochastic production frontier model and a balanced panel of 257 farms from 2010 to 2013. The empirical results show that technical efficiency on New Zealand dairy farms is positively and significantly influenced by feed use intensification, herd size and milking frequency.     

The State as Both Regulator and Player: The Politics of Transfer of Development Rights in China

The conventional argument that the introduction of transfer of development rights (TDR) shifts the power of land use regulation from the state to the market is increasingly under challenge. In China, the state's grip on land is reinforced through TDR, in which the state is both regulator and player. This state-dominated form of TDR affects China in three ways. First, competing aspirations of different scales of government complicate how TDR is implemented. Although the central state promotes TDR to maintain a national balance of arable land, some local states instrumentalize it to expand their landed basis of accumulation. Secondly, TDR tends to benefit the state but not its people. It may increase the fiscal income of the sending government and lessen the land shortage of the receiving government, but sometimes at the expense of the interests of land users without land ownership. Thirdly, given the state's deep involvement in TDR programs, the key for China's TDR to protect arable land lies not so much in clear property rights or a fully fledged market as in effective checks and balances regarding the state's powers over TDR. These three observations attest to the embeddedness of TDR in the local political economy.     

Public acceptance of and heterogeneity in behavioral beach trip responses to offshore wind farm development in Catalonia (Spain)

A combined travel cost – contingent behaviour survey of residents and tourists in Catalonia is conducted on-site to examine the effects on beach recreational demand of developing an offshore wind farm (OWF) project. The survey considers four potential OWF scenarios with different degrees of visual impact. We allow for heterogeneity in trip preferences among individuals and control for on-site sampling through the use of a random parameters negative binomial (RPNB) model and a Multivariate Poisson log-normal (MPLN) model, respectively. The welfare measures derived from the RPNB model relate to the current beach users only, whereas those from the MPLN model refer to the general population of residents and tourists in Catalonia. The results show the importance of the specific place of location of the OWF project and how the installation of wind turbines would significantly decrease the demand for trips, depending on their degree of visual impacts, leading to a substantial welfare loss. However, the results also show that the project mainly would cause a displacement of trips to other beaches within Catalonia rather than outside Catalonia and that the welfare per trip measures generated by the RPNB and MPLN models substantially differ. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

困难农场科学发展的实践与思考

困难农场发展的滞后已严重制约广西农垦管区的经济社会发展,加快困难农场发展步伐是实现管区科学发展、和谐发展和跨越发展的必然选择。＂十一五＂期间,广西农垦管区实施了扶贫帮困行动计划,使困难农场走出低谷,走上良性发展轨道。文章以广西农垦国有王灵农场为例,总结困难农场科学发展的工作实践,提出今后工作思考。     

困难农场科学发展的实践与思考

困难农场发展的滞后已严重制约广西农垦管区的经济社会发展,加快困难农场发展步伐是实现管区科学发展、和谐发展和跨越发展的必然选择。十一五期间,广西农垦管区实施了扶贫帮困行动计划,使困难农场走出低谷,走上良性发展轨道。文章以广西农垦国有王灵农场为例,总结困难农场科学发展的工作实践,提出今后工作思考。     

从保护耕地的视角推进武汉城市圈农村土地合理流转

随着我国经济快速发展和城市化进程的加快,农地流转已成为必然趋势。另外,城市圈作为一种新型城市化发展道路,已成为我国城市化进程中的战略选择。由于历史和现实的原因,特别是在现行的土地制度下,推进城市圈农地流转工作难度较大,问题较多。本文在分析武汉城市圈农地流转的现状的基础上,指出了城市圈内农地流转存在的问题,并结合各地区农村土地改革中出现的农地流转创新模式与经验,从保护耕地的视角,提出了推进武汉城市圈农村土地合理流转的对策和建议。     

甘肃省耕地资源禀赋与贫困关系的量化研究

文章对甘肃省87个县以及其中的43个国家贫困县的耕地资源指标和贫困指标进行了相关分析,得出的结论是:甘肃省耕地资源禀赋与贫困之间没有相关性。因此要解决甘肃省的贫困问题,保证粮食安全战略,进而实现可持续发展的目标,必须提高土地质量,发展生态农业,增加单位面积的产出,并调整农业产业结构。片面扩大耕地面积不仅不能够提高粮食产量,反而会造成发展的不可持续性。     

Land outsourcing and labour contracting: Labour management in China's capitalist farms

Difficulty in labour supervision has been considered to be one of the obstacles to the development of capitalist agriculture. This paper presents two distinctive labour management strategies in China's large‐scale agriculture, which contribute to the development of agrarian capitalism in China. As shown in these cases, agribusiness companies engaged in grain crop production retreat from direct labour management by outsourcing crop cultivation, while acquiring profits from upstream and downstream activities. On the other hand, capitalist producers, who are involved in the labour‐intensive and capital‐intensive crop production, tend to mobilize local elites to manage the farmworkers. Although independent labour contracting services have not emerged, a specialized group of labour contractors is being cultivated. Rural social resources are utilized in labour recruitment and supervision to minimize the labour management costs in both strategies. However, the conflicts between capital and labour are covered or replaced instead of being settled.