Agricultural and Food Economics

Since the 1990s, producers of farm commodities have been attempting to enter value-added agri-food sectors by means of joint ownership of hybrid cooperatives. New generation cooperatives, characterized by substantial supply and equity requirements, inspired much farm producer optimism before revealing weaknesses and limitations in the early 2000s. In response, recent innovations in US cooperative state law introduced the limited cooperative association (LCA), a new legal entity allowing joint ownership by member patrons and member investors to facilitate large-scale equity acquisition. However, business registration data indicate few such organizations have been formed in the agri-food industry. The LCA is adopted by several small-scale operations in niche markets such as lamb, elderberry, and non-GMO seed, but there is not much interest among business organizations in the commodity sector. This paper raises possible explanations for the limited adoption of the LCA, including the competing objectives of farmers and investors, the ambiguous legal interpretation of investor objectives, the superiority of other legal structures, and the lack of strategic advantages. The conclusion facilitates an invitation to further study the challenging future of farmer cooperatives in the agri-food industry.

This study investigates the factors affecting the inter-organizational relationships and governance of firms in agri-food supply chains and assesses the influence that the current conditions of vertical coordination have on the economic performance of these firms. Research hypotheses describing the causal effects between the environment, product characteristics, inter-organizational relationships, relational governance, and firm economic performance are formulated and tested using a structural equation modeling approach. Data were gathered from a questionnaire administered via a direct survey to both farmers and processors in a traditional high-quality dairy sheep supply chain in the Italian region of Sardinia: the Pecorino Romano Protected Designation of Origin. Results point out the role of informal contractual arrangements in this local production system characterized by social cohesion, entailing higher product quality and better economic performance. Further, the study highlights the role of trust as a key variable for attaining collaborative paths along the agri-food supply chain, particularly between farmers and processors.

Dietary diversity is the key to improved health and nutrition. Farm production diversity has the potential of enhancing dietary diversity but this interrelationship varies and is ambiguous in many societies. To examine the effect of farm production diversity on household dietary diversity using nationally representative panel data of Bangladesh we have used Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) data collected by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2011/12, 2015 and 2018/19. Total sample size is 11,720. For assessing dietary diversity we have used different indicators namely household dietary diversity score (HDDS) and food variety score (FVS). We have also used multiple methods for measuring farm production diversity including production diversity score, crop diversity score and Simpson diversification index. Poisson regression model has been used. Results revealed a strong positive association among farm production diversity, income and dietary diversity though the extent of the association is small. The variables such as market orientation, access to market, age and education are also found to influence on household dietary diversity. Our results propose that for increasing dietary diversity efforts should be taken to increase farm production diversity combined with diverse income and market access.

In this paper, we review published studies to assess the influence of time preferences on human health behaviour. Our review indicates that elicited discount rates for health have been found to be higher than those for money in both the social and private context. We discuss the importance of discount rates for public policy since high time discount rates can contribute to governmental emphasis on acute health care, rather than preventive health care. We then examine how time preferences interrelate with specific health concerns such as smoking or obesity. We find that even when time preferences are elicited in the monetary domain, they can be successful in predicting smoking cessation and likewise for obesity. We also discuss how time preferences relate with teen risk taking behavior. D91, I0

This study examined smallholder farmers' level of perception about climate change, source of information on climate change, types of adaptation strategies, factors influencing adaptation choices and barriers to adaptation in Eastern Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia. The surveyed farm households in the study area perceived at least one aspect of climate change primarily through their life experience. Planting trees is the major adaptation measure and 89.1 percent of the farmers took this adaptation strategy. Most farmers (96 percent) believe that deforestation is the main cause of climate change and the choice of farmers to plant trees as an adaptation strategy may be partly a mitigation strategy. However, the majority (49.6 percent) of the households employed at least one adaptation response on top of tree planting. The other adaptation strategies include: early planting, terracing, irrigation and water harvesting. The main source of information for these adaptation strategies for 58.4 percent of the respondents is from extension advice. Results of a multinomial logit model showed that non-farm income, farmer- to-farmer extension, access to credit, distance to selling markets, distance to purchasing markets, and income affect the choice of adaptation strategies. Finally, the study identified lack of information as the most important barrier to climate change adaptation. The other barriers include: lack of farm inputs, shortage of land, lack of money, lack of water and shortage of labor.

At the current time, Hawai‘i lacks an established set of benchmark estimates on the availability of food for market consumption and its supply sources. This paper serves to fill a persistent gap in the existing literature by providing an estimation framework to map the existing food supply flows from various sources and to determine the various levels of food consumption in Hawai‘i. The authors suggest modified measures of food self-sufficiency and import dependency to provide a more accurate assessment on the extent of food localization in Hawai‘i. The analytical framework presented in this paper can be applied to other small, open (island or regional) economies with a food localization agenda, as it provides a more discrete and appropriate set of measurements, as well as offering the lessons gained through Hawai‘i’s experience and challenges in the data-collating process. Local production and imports (continental United States and foreign countries) of consumable food in Hawai‘i are estimated at just over 1.14 million tonnes in 2010. Food exports totaled 175.5 thousand tonnes, leaving total available food for consumption locally at 966.6 thousand tonnes. On a de facto basis, per capita food consumption in Hawai‘i is estimated at 657.9 kilograms in 2010. At the food group level, fresh vegetables lead with per capita food consumption of 84.2 kilograms, followed by other proteins at 69.1 kilograms, fresh fruits at 67.7 kilograms, fresh milk at 62.9 kilograms, and rice at 27.9 kilograms. The analysis indicates that Hawai‘i has an overall food self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) of 15.7% and an overall food import dependency ratio (IDR) of 102.5%. While it appears counterintuitive that the IDR exceeds 100%, this figure actually indicates the existence of food imports into Hawai‘i that are then turned around and re-exported to other markets. With application of the more accurate localization ratio (LR), we estimate that only 11.6% of available food for consumption in Hawai‘i was actually sourced from local production in 2010. Likewise, the modified import dependency ratio (MIDR) indicates that an estimated 88.4% of available food in Hawai‘i was sourced from imports.

Agricultural conservation systems consist of a myriad of conservation practices. The mix and intensity of conservation practices adopted can benefit farmers and affect the entire production system in addition to soil and water conservation. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze farmer adoption of and complementarity between conservation practices from a joint and conditional probabilistic perspective using Kansas as a case study. We develop a modeling framework that can analyze and examine farmers’ joint and conditional adoption decisions using a multinomial logistic regression model. This framework is used to estimate conditional probabilities of adopting conservation practices given adoption of other practices to better capture the complementarity between different conservation practices. These estimates allow for an assessment of linkages between adoption of different conservation practices and the socioeconomic factors that affect the likelihood of adopting conservation practices given other conservation practices have already been adopted on-farm. The results can help guide policy and outreach efforts to promote further intensification of adoption by farmers.

Dựa trên một mẫu dữ liệu hộ gia đình đại diện quy mô lớn từ năm cuộc khảo sát cắt ngang được tiến hành bởi Ủy ban Đánh giá Tổn thương Zimbabwe (ZimVAC), nghiên cứu này đánh giá sự tồn tại của sự khác biệt giới tính trong độ nhạy cảm với bất an thực phẩm và dinh dưỡng, việc sử dụng các chiến lược ứng phó dựa trên tiêu dùng và sinh kế, cũng như sự tồn tại của sự khác biệt giới tính trong mối tương quan của việc sử dụng các chiến lược ứng phó này khi đối mặt với bất an thực phẩm và dinh dưỡng. Nghiên cứu đưa ra ba phát hiện chính. Thứ nhất, các hộ gia đình do nữ giới đứng đầu có mức độ dễ bị tổn thương với bất an thực phẩm và dinh dưỡng cao hơn so với các hộ gia đình do nam giới đứng đầu. Thứ hai, các hộ gia đình do nữ giới đứng đầu có khả năng cao hơn trong việc áp dụng các chiến lược ứng phó dựa trên tiêu dùng so với các hộ gia đình do nam giới đứng đầu, nhưng không có sự khác biệt có ý nghĩa thống kê trong việc sử dụng các chiến lược ứng phó dựa trên sinh kế. Cuối cùng, trong khi có ít bằng chứng về sự khác biệt giới tính trong mối tương quan của việc sử dụng các chiến lược ứng phó dựa trên tiêu dùng, có bằng chứng rõ ràng rằng các đầu hộ gia đình nữ ít có khả năng áp dụng các chiến lược ứng phó dựa trên sinh kế khi phải đối mặt với bất an thực phẩm và dinh dưỡng. Tổng thể các phát hiện này cho thấy trong khi các hộ gia đình do nữ giới đứng đầu có mức độ nhạy cảm cao hơn với bất an thực phẩm thì họ lại kém hơn trong việc sử dụng các chiến lược ứng phó dựa trên sinh kế để vượt qua tình trạng bất an thực phẩm và dinh dưỡng trong hộ gia đình.

The food processing industry has been confronted with unprecedented challenges as the costs of raw materials have risen rapidly, owing in part to the increased use of grains for ethanol. It is critical to comprehend how these trends affect the industry and potential coping techniques. This study estimates capacity utilization, which is a measurement that is well-suited to identify how input prices affect productivity in the short-run. The results show that capacity utilization decreased significantly after the year 2005 when raw materials input prices skyrocketed. TFP growth has also slowed significantly because of this. According to the estimated elasticities, the industry has little potential to deal with the cost challenge through factor substitution. Another conclusion is that capacity utilization has a positive elasticity with respect to the cost of raw materials. Because it is related to induced capital stock adjustment, which is only achievable in the long run, this is an indicator of how the industry will be affected in the long-run.

The promotion of sustainability is envisaged by the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a major issue for future policies in the agro-food sector, in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy. In this context, “greening” ecological payments have been conceived as a tool to encourage European farms towards the adoption of environmentally friendly practices. Since the new CAP became law, at least 30% of the national budget of direct payments is tied to the respect of three main ecological commitments by farmers managing 10 or more hectares of arable land, i.e. crop diversification, maintaining permanent grassland and maintaining the so called “ecological focus areas”. The present research focuses on the possible effects of the greening instrument, by evaluating the impact of this tool in different Italian areas, specialized in the durum wheat cultivation. The objectives of the analysis are to evaluate the extent and features of the impact of greening in three case study areas and to discuss the likely implications in a policy-effectiveness perspective. Thus, an empirical analysis has been carried out in order to evaluate the impact of greening in three case study areas with a strong specialization in wheat production, located in the North, Centre and South of Italy.The results have been compared across the case studies and with other quantitative and qualitative studies carried out in different contexts. The results show that the impact of greening may be different even in areas with the same productive specialization. Namely, greening deeply impacts on the durum wheat cultivation area located in the South of Italy, while it seems to have a very marginal effect on the other two areas. Thus, greening has a strongly differentiated impact both at the farm and at the territorial level, at least for the Italian durum wheat production. Basing on these first results, the setting of specific solutions to rebalance the effects of greening on the durum wheat sector is envisaged, as allowed by the present regulatory framework, in order to avoid an over-diversification in the impacts of the greening measure among different Italian regions.