Agricultural Crisis Research Articles

‘Peasantist nationalism’ in inter-war Greece (1927–41)

‘Peasantist nationalism’ was a new radical nationalist discourse in the twentieth century. The crisis in agriculture in the 1920s, urbanism and the perceived overpopulation of the cities were important social factors that instigated the intellectual construction of the ‘peasantist nation’. Peasantist nationalism was by and large constructed by agronomists, a new stratum of technocrats who used nationalism as a vehicle for social mobility and their entry into the strata of the organic intellectuals of the bourgeoisie. Peasantist nationalist ideas, set forth earlier by the agronomists, were adopted by Metaxas’ quasi-fascist regime and upgraded to the level of the state’s hegemonic ideology.

The Genesis and Further Unfolding of Farming Styles Research

This article summarizes the development of farming styles research in the Netherlands. It shows how these research results positively articulated with several new developments in Dutch agriculture. At the same time, though, these results also ran counter to the hegemonic views embodied in the Ministry of Agriculture, the Farmers Union and the Agricultural University. The article argues that the current agricultural crisis creates, more than ever before, a need to reinvigorate inquiries into the heterogeneity of farming. The study of, and reflection on, differentiated development trajectories that were actively constructed during previous crises, should be an integral part of such inquiries.

Modern Agricultural Crisis and Transformation in Japan

Modern Agricultural Crisis and Transformation in Japan

Participatory analysis for adaptation to climate change in Mediterranean agricultural systems: possible choices in process design

There is an increasing call for local measures to adapt to climate change, based on foresight analyses in collaboration with actors. However, such analyses involve many challenges, particularly because the actors concerned may not consider climate change to be an urgent concern. This paper examines the methodological choices made by three research teams in the design and implementation of participatory foresight analyses to explore agricultural and water management options for adaptation to climate change. Case studies were conducted in coastal areas of France, Morocco, and Portugal where the groundwater is intensively used for irrigation, the aquifers are at risk or are currently overexploited, and a serious agricultural crisis is underway. When designing the participatory processes, the researchers had to address four main issues: whether to avoid or prepare dialogue between actors whose relations may be limited or tense; how to select participants and get them involved; how to facilitate discussion of issues that the actors may not initially consider to be of great concern; and finally, how to design and use scenarios. In each case, most of the invited actors responded and met to discuss and evaluate a series of scenarios. Strategies were discussed at different levels, from farming practices to aquifer management. It was shown that such participatory analyses can be implemented in situations which may initially appear to be unfavourable. This was made possible by the flexibility in the methodological choices, in particular the possibility of framing the climate change issue in a broader agenda for discussion with the actors.

Delphi method applied to horticultural cooperatives

PurposeAgricultural cooperatives have been able to become a strong and consolidated organizational form, although the new challenges of globalization and trade liberalization require changes in the strategic approach. The requirements of the distribution companies, consumers and government about the concentration of demand, traceability, food safety and respect for the environment had led to a thorough reorganization of agricultural food systems. So it is necessary to undertake a strategic review of horticultural cooperatives in order to conduct a strategic assessment and hence identify the strategic actions to be followed in the coming years. This paper seeks to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical study has been carried out during the first half of 2011 consisting in the application of the Delphi method and sending a questionnaire to experts whose purpose was to gain a view of the strategic situation of horticultural cooperatives in Spain. The Delphi method is a projection technique of the qualitative and subjective type which is appropriate for studies where there is little information on the subject to be analysed, and also for exploratory studies, as it is the case study of examining the role of agricultural cooperatives in coming out of the crisis of Mediterranean agriculture.FindingsThe performed Delphi analysis revealed that Mediterranean agriculture suffers from a severe crisis for which the solutions are hard to find, although the existence of the agricultural cooperatives and certain specific forms of performance and financing can partly improve the described situation. The application of the SWOT analysis based on the opinions of the experts provided sufficient detailed insights of the actual situation of the cooperatives. Thus, from the Delphi SWOT applied to Mediterranean agriculture and agricultural cooperatives, the authors can make some important assessments which are included in their paper.Originality/valueIt is a forward‐looking analysis that tries to give measures to the sector, but measures that come from the sector, in order to face the Mediterranean agriculture crisis.

Impact of Newspaper Characteristics on Reporters' Agricultural Crisis Stories: Productivity, Story Length, and Source Selection

Impact of Newspaper Characteristics on Reporters' Agricultural Crisis Stories: Productivity, Story Length, and Source Selection

Does climatic crisis in Australia’s food bowl create a basis for change in agricultural gender relations?

An ongoing crisis in Australian agriculture resulting from climate crises including drought, decreasing irrigation water, more recent catastrophic flooding, and an uncertain policy environment is reshaping gender relations in the intimate sphere of the farm family. Drawing on research conducted in the Murray-Darling Basin area of Australia we ask the question: Does extreme hardship/climate crises change highly inequitable gender relations in agriculture? As farm income declines, Australian farm women are more likely to be working off farm for critical family income while men continue to work on farm often in circumstances of damaged landscapes, rising debt, and limited production. This paper examines the way gender relations are being renegotiated in a time of significant climate crisis. Our research suggests that climate crises have indeed led to changes in gender relations and that some changes are unexpected. Whereas one would logically assume that women’s enhanced economic contribution would increase their power in gender negotiations, we argue that this does not necessarily occur because their contribution is viewed as a farm survival strategy. Men are committed to prioritizing the farm and view women’s income generating work as critical to this purpose and yet, paradoxically, long for a return to traditional farm roles. We find that women are actively resisting traditional gender relations by reshaping a role for themselves beyond the farm—in the process moving physically and mentally away from a farm family ideology, questioning gender inequalities, and by extension their relationships.

Role of science and technology for agricultural revival in India

Purpose – Several empirical studies have shown that the “servicization” of India ' s economy has taken place in terms of structural changes in GDP. But the structural changes in terms of employment have been slow, as agriculture is still the mainstay of more than 50 per cent of the total workforce. Though agriculture is still the predominant sector of the economy in terms of employment and livelihood, it is losing its dynamism. The country has been striving to achieve target of 4 per cent growth in agriculture since the 8th Five Year Plan so essential for achieving the objective of “inclusive growth”. However, the country is nowhere near the goal even in the penultimate year of 11th Five year Plan. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the need for application of science and technology in India ' s agriculture to ensure sustainable development of agriculture with food security and also for tapping the “demographic dividend”. The agricultural crisis in India motivated the author to take up this study. ...

Why Did Small European Colonies Not Perform Better? GDP Estimation for Cyprus and Malta During the Interwar Period (1921-1938)

This article presents the first attempt to create historical national accounts for Cyprus and Malta. It is part of an ongoing effort to place the unusually violent period of these two small British colonies in a greater Mediterranean and Colonial perspective, by providing macroeconomic aggregates. GDP estimates for the period 1921-1938 enable new interpretations regarding the islands’ economic growth and structural change. The estimates are converted into international currency units and a long run GDP series (1921-2008) is created to prove that the development level of the islands in the interwar period was much lower than what was previously thought, being poorer than Greece and Turkey. The islands’ performance is then evaluated in the context of South Eastern Europe, suggesting that the economic growth was slow considering the islands were far less exposed to the economic and political effects of the First World War. The ultimate reasons of growth performance differed: Cyprus experienced a prolonged agricultural crisis, but participated in the post-depression recovery through the rapid expansion of the copper mining industry, while Malta’s growth was slow due to a combination of declining British military expenditure and accelerated demographic growth. These differences notwithstanding, the islands were ultimately affected by common problems. Their small size, in combination with the islands’ status as British colonies, had a negative effect on their performance as global protectionism increased.

Development of an equilibrium model for the simulation of thermochemical gasification and application to agricultural residues

Abstract The recent crisis in Italian agriculture has forced operators to find new ways of deriving income from their activities. One of the most promising of these is the use of agricultural products and residues as an energy source. In particular, the exploitation of agricultural, industrial and forestry residues and by-products can be a definite advantage in the generation of electrical and thermal energy. This is due to the fact that these materials need to be disposed of and, therefore represent cost, and can be then transformed into an opportunity for revenue. Among the various technologies available for converting biomass into biofuels, thermochemical gasification appears to be the most suitable for the conversion of crop residues (corn and sunflower stalks, rapeseed straw, etc.) as these are characterized by low humidity and a high C/N ratio. On the other hand, the operational problems encountered with current plant architectures, such as the blocking of the biomass flow in the reactor due to low-melting ash content, have limited the use of crop residues in gasification so far. In this paper, a model for the simulation of the biomass thermochemical gasification process is presented. The model is based on a chemical equilibrium hypothesis, i.e. it is assumed that the chemical transformations inside the gasifier can be described by a series of equilibrium reactions independent of each other and, therefore, a precise relationship between products and reactants can be determined. The model is validated by a comparison with data from literature and a sensitivity analysis on process parameters is presented. Finally, the model is applied to the study of the reliability of the gasification of crop residues currently popular in Italy, both in terms of produced gas quality and quantity.

Hail the modest witness: Masculinity in the ecological crisis of agriculture

Hail the modest witness: Masculinity in the ecological crisis of agriculture

Agrarian Crises in Contemporary India: Some Sociological Reflections

Agriculture in India has never been smooth sailing, as it is always confronted with one or the other problems. The life of the peasants being largely dependent upon agriculture has never been easy as his livelihood is determined by several social and environmental factors. Exploitation of the peasants by the merchants, middleman, money lenders etc., gamble with monsoon and inadequate irrigation, crop diseases, costly agricultural inputs, fluctuating and unremunerative agricultur al inputs, smallholdings, low yield from land are some of the important problems of agriculture. Above all, a dualistic kind of development model, and ineffective implementation of the government policies and programmes have deepened the miseries of the peasants and widened the gap between rich, middle, small and marginal peasants and landless peasants. Agricultural crisis in India is not something new. There have always been agrarian crises in India. These crises may be individuals specific, crops specific, class’s specific or regional specific. However, the nature and the extent of these crises have been changing from time to time with changing policies and conditions at both national and international level. Therefore, the statesmen, academicians, policy makers and politicians are debating this issue since long. In this paper an attempt is being made to trace this changing trajectory of agrarian crises. However, one finds a definite and steady change taking place in the villages in general and agriculture sector in particular. But these changes are either too small to make a dent on agricultural and other problems or they have created adverse conditions to the agriculturists.

Aspekty ekonomiczne i społeczne wojen bałkańskich 1912-1913

At the dawn of the XXth century the Balkan countries were intent on waging war against Turkey. In the preparation period, however, they had severely exceeded their economic and demographic capabilities. The arms production consumed vast amounts of money, leading to an extraordinary debt of the Balkan states. The 1912-1913 wars have proved to be a veritable ordeal for the economies of the involved countries as well as their social endurance. This great sacrifice was supposed to further the national goal of defeating Turkey and finally establishing the inter-state borders, even in the face of an impending economic collapse. The Balkan conflicts turned into a war of attrition, a harbinger of what was to come during the World War I. The pre-war efforts and the cost of the actual warfare brought Bulgaria, Greece,Serbia, Montenegro as well as Turkey to the brink of economical breakdown and major social turbulence. The calling of 1.3 million men to arms resulted in halting the industrial production and an agricultural crisis in the countries of the Balkan Alliance. The civilian transport sector was non-existent (since all the means and assets had been requisitioned by the military) which proved fatal to the commerce. This in turn greatly diminished the states’ tax income, further worsening the financial repercussions of the war. The number of soldiers fallen, wounded or killed by cholera were reaching hundreds of thousands. Due to the harsh war conditions and the lack of suitable attention many of the wounded have become disabled, which banned them from the work market and doomed them to social benefits. Amongst the consequences of the war were also migrations of the civilians, forced by the war itself and the following border changes. The Christian refugees alone numbered hundreds of thousands, while any real means of administering to the basic needs of the displaced masses were actually non-existent. On the Muslim side the losses amounted to 620,000 Turkish soldiers and civilians. A further 440,000 have been displaced and moved to Anatolia. Moreover the pillage, the atrocity, as well as the destruction of private property have engraved the feelings of mutual hatred and longing for a vendetta in the minds of the Balkan people.

Financial Development of the Waqfs in Konya and the Agricultural Economy in the Central Anatolia (Late Sixteenth-Early Seventeenth Centuries)

AbstractThis study examines the financial history of threewaqfs (those of Mevlânâ Celâleddîn-i Rûmî, Sadreddîn-i Konevî, and Selîm II) in Konya through their account records covering the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These waqfs (charitable foundations) had large agricultural holdings, and their financial developments consequently reflect the local agricultural conditions in central Anatolia. This analysis of the waqf account books deals with the short-term financial difficulties resulting from harvest failures and increasing grain prices. The widespread Celâlî rebellions seem to have caused agricultural crisis and the financial decline of waqfs in the early seventeenth century.

MASS MEDIA DEBATE OF SOME AGRICULTURAL CRISES IN EGYPT

The research aims at Determining knowledge degree of mass media agricultural agents (MMAA) related to some agricultural crises that face Egyptian agric. Sector; to determine also agricultural information sources that provide those agents by media material about some crises; to define debate degrees of agric. mass media of some agricultural crises by Mass Media Agents ;To identifying the relationship between mass media debate degrees of some agricultural crises and the knowledge degrees of mass media agents related to it. Data were collected by using questionnaire through personal interview from agricultural mass media agents who are working in editing, publication, and broadcasting written, visual and audible media materials related to agricultural sector. The sample of study was 110 agricultural mass media agents they represent 44% of the population. Frequency tables, percentage, standard deviation arithmetic mean, weighted mean simple correlation coefficient (pearson) and step-wise multiple correlation and regression analysis were used to analyze data.

Состояние и тенденции развития агропромышленного комплекса и сельских территорий Пермского края

Analysis of regional agricultural sector status and rural areas of Perm in 1990-2011 years indicates a systemic crisis of agriculture in Perm region, which is largely determined by the fact that Perm region has no strategy or strategic plan and program for sustainable agricultural sector and rural areas of Perm region development, there is no scheme of territorial development and master plans of territorial development with the development of agro-industrial complex of Perm region. In these circumstances, there is a steady downward trend in production, weakening and bankruptcy of enterprises, social impoverishment of rural areas, appearance of many of irreversible processes (sale and neglect of agricultural land, demographic problems associated with low living standards, population migration, policy optimization in the areas of education and health, union of territories, policy of depopulation of territories etc.). This paper presents main recommendations for improving the situation in agriculture of Perm region.

Dealing with Deflation in Turbulent Times. Agricultural Markets and Rural Management in Southern Navarre (Spain), 1817-1833

The aim of this article is to identify common traits and local peculiarities in the widespread agricultural crises which were unleashed after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The first part contains an outline of the deflation profiles and explanations of its causes. The second part shows the contrast between the deflation of prices and the evolution of production costs, as well as presenting evidence about the differential impact on family farms and those using wage labour, the latter being the most severely affected. Finally, we review and weigh the three main courses of action available to farmers for overcoming the situation: i.e., organisational change, technical change, and institutional change. The first and third options were the most relevant for the region under study; nevertheless, modest signs of technical change were also found.

Light railways and the rural–urban continuum: technology, space and society in late nineteenth-century Belgium

Combining the literature on ‘city systems’ and its intermediary spatial categories with the discourse on ‘socio-technical’ hybrids, this article examines whether the early rural–urban condition in Belgium was the planned spatial outcome of infrastructure policy. More specifically, it analyzes the dialectic between the conception of light railways and the geographies of power, tracing its impact on the spatial organization of the territory. In 1911 the British sociologist Seebohm Rowntree stated that Belgium had gone further than any country in supplying its working class with gardens. The dense Belgian railway network encouraged workers to commute between land and labour, travelling from their homes in the healthy countryside to work in urban factories and mines. Despite the agricultural crisis and accelerating industrialization in nineteenth-century Belgium, infrastructure policy had resulted in a peculiar territorial balance between city and countryside by transforming agricultural labourers and farmers into industrial workers without forcing them to leave their ancestral villages. Rather than nostalgically clinging to a disappearing countryside, the government harnessed the modern technology par excellence, combining rails, steam and state management, to safeguard the country as well as to facilitate modern dynamic. Countryside preservation and accelerating industrialization were reconciled in a reshaped configuration that rendered the countryside and its inhabitants simultaneously rural and urban, traditional and modern. As most literature situates the genesis of rural–urban landscapes after the First and Second World War, this article on late-nineteenth-century Belgium adds a further facet to the recently growing international research on hybrid territories within the fields of urbanism and geography.

Were the 2010 Pakistan floods predictable?

During July 2010, a series of monsoonal deluges over northern Pakistan resulted in catastrophic flooding, loss of life and property and an agricultural crisis that may last for years. Was the rainfall abnormal compared to previous years? Furthermore, could a high probability of flooding have been predicted? To address these questions, regional precipitation is analyzed using three dataset sets covering the 1981–2010 time period. It is concluded that the 2010 average May to August (MJJA) rainfall for year 2010 is somewhat greater in magnitude than previous years. However, the rainfall rate of the July deluges, especially in North Pakistan was exceptionally rare as deduced from limited data. The location of the deluges over the mountainous northern part of the country lead to the devastating floods. The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) 15-day Ensemble Prediction System (EPS) is used to assess whether the rainfall over the flood affected region was predictable. A multi-year analysis shows that Pakistan rainfall is highly predictable out to 6–8 days including rainfall in the summer of 2010. We conclude that if these extended quantitative precipitation forecasts had been available in Pakistan, the high risk of flooding could have been foreseen. If these rainfall forecasts had been coupled to a hydrological model then the high risk of extensive and prolonged flooding could have anticipated and actions taken to mitigate their impact.

Przejawy kryzysu we współczesnym rolnictwie

The crisis in agriculture seems to be different than in other economic sectors. This is the result of agriculture’s specificity. There is a very strong relationship between farmers and the results of their work with natural environment. These connections are much more important than in industry or services. Food production is of greatest importance. People have to eat even during very strong economic crisis. Still, there are some types of crises present in contemporary agriculture. Some of them resemble the crises present in the last thousands of years, but some of them are characteristic for current situation. In the article the following types of contemporary agricultural problems were discussed: the crisis caused by natural environment conditions (the case of Russia and India), overproduction (the case of CAP in EU), the economic crisis (the case of West), the crisis caused by political tensions (the case of Laos and Zimbabwe) as well as the situation of Polish agriculture (after Poland’s accession to EU).