Agricultural Production Costs Research Articles

Analysis of the regional food supply

Food supply is the most important component of the life support system and indicator of the population quality of life [1, 2]. In the scientific work, the assessment of the food supply level of the region was carried out, using the example of the Saratov region. The authors have identified the dynamics of indicators characterizing the food security of the region: acreage, livestock and poultry population, cost of agricultural products produced, cost of importing food and agricultural raw materials. The production dynamics of certain types of products, their production and personal consumption, as well as losses by volume are considered. With the help of these indicators, the level of self-sufficiency of the Saratov region with food resources of its own production is determined. The dynamics of the staple food consumption and the diet compliance with the recommended norms in kilograms per person per year are considered. The consumption by residents of the Saratov region of such types of food as potato, meat and meat products, vegetables, milk and dairy products does not comply with scientifically established medical standards, which causes a high share of imported products in actual food consumption and threatens the food security of the region.

SEMICONDUCTOR THERMOELEMENTS FOR GAS FLOW CONTROL IN A CAULDRON

With the constant increase in energy prices, the cost of agricultural products increases, which reduces competitiveness in the domestic and foreign markets. In this regard, the development of energy-saving technologies and technical means becomes relevant. (Research purpose) The research purpose is increasing the efficiency of heat treatment of feed, reducing energy consumption by improving the energy supply system and automation of the gas cauldron. (Materials and methods) The article presents an energy-efficient cauldron for cooking feed in the personal farms of rural residents. An energy supply system for a cauldron with automatic regulation of gas flow in proportion to the heat flow consumed is described. The design feature of this scheme is the use of Peltier semiconductor elements forming a thermoelectric battery to manage gas flow. (Results and discussion) The article presents a design and technological scheme of an automated gas flow control system with a gas burner device, its composition and the operation principle. We have created a specific methodology for determining energy and mode parameters, an operating experimental sample of the energy supply system of a cauldron. Experimental studies were carried out to clarify the calculated energy and operating parameters, substantiate the nominal power of the gas burner device, and identify the advantages and disadvantages of a cauldron with new automation tools. The regularities of changes in gas flow, temperature, and voltage at the output of a thermoelectric battery have been described. Diagrams of changes in these parameters are presented. (Conclusions) The lowest energy costs for heating the contents of a 100-litres cooking cauldron to boiling are achieved when the boiler is equipped with a gas burner with a capacity of 14 kilowatts. Due to the use of an automated gas flow control system, energy savings of up to 20 percent are provided in proportion to the heat flow consumed.

КОНКУРЕНТОСПРОМОЖНІСТЬ АГРАРНИХ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ В УМОВАХ ІННОВАЦІЙНОГО СЕРЕДОВИЩА

The article investigates the theoretical foundations of the concept of competition and competitiveness, identifies the features of this economic category for agricultural enterprises. External and internal are considered; controlled and uncontrolled factors used to assess the level of competitiveness of agricultural enterprises. It is determined that the assessment of competitiveness is an integral part of the activities of any enterprise, because on the basis of such an assessment it is possible to draw conclusions about the level of competitiveness of the enterprise. The paper summarizes and presents the factors that reduce the competitiveness of agricultural enterprises. Also, the factors and directions that ensure the growth of competitiveness and stability of agricultural enterprises are presented. The directions of increase of competitiveness of the agrarian enterprises are offered. It is established that an effective way to reduce the cost of agricultural production is the use of alternative fuels, in particular, biodiesel and bioethanol, which can replace expensive traditional fuels, stocks of which are declining and prices are rising. The directions of state support of agricultural enterprises, application of subsidies and subsidies as one of the important elements of ensuring their continuous activity and increasing competitiveness are studied. According to the results of the study identified ways to increase the competitiveness of domestic agricultural enterprises in an innovative environment, the implementation of which in the long run will promote the development of the enterprise and provide real advantages over competitors. It was found that in order to solve the issue of forming a correct assessment of competitiveness and the formation of specific advantages, it is necessary to disassemble a comprehensive mechanism for managing the competitiveness of the enterprise. Based on the principles of the system-target approach and clear theoretical provisions, the organizational and economic mechanism of enterprise competitiveness management was scattered.

Intelligent Agriculture Technology Based on Internet of Things

Although the application of agricultural product traceability technology is a key point to realize Modern Agricultural IoT, it has still encountered various food safety problems. For example, immature environmental monitoring technology of agricultural products, weak product traceability and imperfect product monitoring equipment. For this reason, this paper studies and compares several emerging technologies of the things Internet, then it analyzes the functional diversity and practicability of the Modern Agricultural IoT. It builds the experimental environment based on the agricultural product traceability technology, so as to realize the monitoring of crop growth environment and traceability. The result plays a positive role in popularizing the traceability technology of agricultural products and has a certain impact on the development of intelligent agriculture. It has designed and developed a set of crop growth monitoring terminal equipment through experimental debugging. Then it could obtain temperature and humidity, illumination, CO2 concentration, soil data, and other crop growth environment parameters in real time. The relevant data has provided strong support for the traceability model to realize the multi-point monitoring, intelligent control, and automatic operation of crop growing environment. Then it can be sorted and analyzed through the application layer. This system can promote the intelligent processing, improve the utilization efficiency of agricultural resources, promote the development of modern agriculture, save agricultural production costs, and increase the production and marketing. It is an innovative application of the Internet of things technology applied to agricultural production.

A study of scarcity: assessing the availability and value of surplus land in Nigeria

Estimates of available cropland help us to understand the ability of societies’ food production systems to meet food demand. This is an important topic in the study of sustainable agriculture due to rising populations and the increasing recognition of the impact of agriculture on the environment. This study proposes a new indicator for modelling land scarcity based on the value of potentially available cropland, building on previous area-based measures. The new indicator incorporates differences in the quality of land but is only possible to measure in contexts with georeferenced household survey data covering agricultural yields, prices, and production costs. I find that value-based measures and area-based measures of scarcity are only weakly correlated: some states have abundant land with low potential value, and other states have little available land of much higher value. I also find overall that land is very scarce in Nigeria: surplus land has an economic value of just $50 per hectare per year.

Determinants of farmland prices and their local variation

Abstract The setting of farmland prices in the market not only reflects existing agricultural activities but also expected potential for development. This study decomposes farmland prices into values representative of current agricultural production and the prospective development potential at the county level in South Korea. The income value of farmland is derived by analysing agricultural revenue and production cost, and the sale value of farmland is estimated by reviewing transaction prices filed with the administrative authority. The difference between income value and sale value is adopted as the development value in this study. The results of the estimation show that the proportion of development value in the price of farmland is remarkably high, with a median proportion of 0.78, indicating that the threat of converting land to non-agricultural use is non-trivial because it remains a financially attractive alternative. In addition, the magnitude of the portion of the development value in the price of farmland varies considerably across counties depending on the distance to nearby metropolitan cities. This implies that agricultural policy should be designed in a locally optimised manner to effectively restrain the conversion of farmland for urban use.

Technological Methods of Increasing the Resource and Efficiency of Fast-Wearing Working Bodies

The working bodies of tillage machines are operated in a soil abrasive environment and, due to wear, they change their shapes and sizes, which negatively affects tillage agrotechnical and energy indicators. The problem of increasing the durability and operability of the working bodies of tillage machines remains relevant. In particular, this is reflected in the reduced resource of serial tillage working bodies. (Research purpose) The research purpose is to ensure the increased durability and efficiency of agricultural machines. (Materials and methods) The downtime of agricultural machinery due to the failure of tillage working bodies negatively affect the efficiency of agricultural operations and entail up to 15-20 percent reduction in subsequent yields. The cost of purchasing and reinstalling spare parts is up to 18 percent in the structure of the cost of agricultural products. The most technological method of plasma-powder surfacing (hardening) has been used, which is up to two times more productive and 2.2-2.7 times more economical in comparison with the known technology of plasma surfacing in argon medium. The most high-strength (σВ at least 1600 megapascals) steels of the type 25XGTYUR, 30XGSA, 27XGR were selected for the manufacture of the developed tillage working bodies. (Results and discussion) Parts made of high-quality materials according to the created technology are not inferior in resource and wear resistance to the best foreign surfaced analogues, and non-melted imported products are 1.5-1.7 times superior. New materials and technological surfacing methods for strengthening domestic and import-substituting working bodies of agricultural machines allow, in terms of resource and operational indicators, to achieve a level of competitiveness with leading foreign manufacturers. (Conclusions) According to the «quality-price» criterion, new working bodies with reasonable materials, structural and technological parameters have a 1.5-2.5 times advantage over the best foreign analogues.

Economic substantiation of expediency of production of niche cultures

The article presents a study which concerns the development of production of niche crops in conjunction with the development of animal husbandry. In particular, the expedience of introducing such a niche crop as horse beans (fodder) into the diet of pigs is substantiated on the example of a specific enterprise, typical for the agricultural sector of Ukraine. It is estimated that this will increase the efficiency of swine breeding product output and, indirectly, the efficiency of growing beans. Beside this, at the request of today regarding of the need to reduce the cost of agricultural production, a possible increase in economic efficiency of horse bean production at the expense of resources in accordance with the existing Technological maps of crops was simulated. It is estimated that by laying down production costs according to the technological map, it is possible to obtain increased yields, increased profits and profitability. It is substantiated that together the obtained results can be considered as a possible tool of balanced and complex development of agricultural production in the context of food security in the world.

Consolidation of agricultural land can contribute to agricultural sustainability in China.

China's agricultural sector is dominated by smallholder farms, which mostly exhibit relatively low nutrient use efficiency, low agricultural income and substantial non-point-source pollution. Here we assess the spatial feasibility and cost-effectiveness of agricultural land consolidation in China by integrating data from over 40,000 rural surveys, ecological modelling and geostatistical analysis. We found that 86% of Chinese croplands could be consolidated to establish a large-scale farming regime with an average field size greater than 16 ha. This would result in a 59% and 91% increase in knowledge exchange and machinery use, respectively, contributing to a 24% reduction in total nitrogen input, an 18% increase in nitrogen use efficiency and a 39% reduction in labour requirement, while doubling labour income. Despite requiring a one-time investment of approximate US$370 billion for land consolidation, total agricultural profits would double due to agricultural production costs being halved.

The global context of land market liberalization in Ukraine: opportunities and risks for rural development

The article considers various global factors influencing rural development under the conditions of liberalization of the agricultural land market in Ukraine. The author assesses the impact of global processes and global capital on the development of national farms, income distribution, access to land resources, production processes and equitable development in this country. It is proved that globalization, leading to increased concentration of agri-food production and business and expanding the role of large transnationalized corporations, is primarily aimed at exploiting the country’s existing comparative advantages, rather than increasing them, and promotes, in many recipient countries, a model of double economy split in the technological and socio-economic dimensions into qualitatively heterogeneous sectors. The author concludes that although global factors of agricultural production may have a relatively positive impact in macroeconomic terms, the dominance of multinational (transnational) companies, large exporting companies and financially powerful sovereign welfare funds in the market may create risks and threats of crowding out Ukrainian farmers from the market and blocking the sustainable development of rural areas. At the same time, Ukraine's agricultural sector will be transformed into a raw-material link of global food production chains dominated by large transnationalized entities, and a kind of raw-material enclave of transnationalized production will be created within the Ukrainian economy. The article argues that in today's global economy, where cardinal transformations are taking place and uncertainty is growing, land will become an increasingly valuable asset, attractive not only to agricultural producers but also to land speculators and those who try to maintain the value of their assets under the conditions of growing global risks. Under such conditions, investment in land will not at all necessarily contribute to the development of agricultural production, because speculative capital in the face of widespread expectations of a long and significant upward trend in land prices will prevail over productive agricultural capital. In general, this might lead to a significant increase in the cost of agricultural production and food prices. The author proves that the liberalization of the land market leads to increased risks of transfer of the control over Ukraine’s land resources to foreigners (sovereign financial funds and major international corporations), given their dramatic advantage by available financial resources for land acquisition, compared to those possessed by Ukraine’s residents. The article substantiates a set of policy measures and national policy instruments necessary to minimize the risks associated with the introduction (in the context of globalization) of free purchase and sale of agricultural land, which comply with the regulation principles of the European Union.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: An empirical study on the impact of human capital on cost efficiency: taking the main corn production areas in China as an example

This article has been retracted from publication in the Taylor & Francis journal, Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B — Soil & Plant Science. Following publication, concerns were raised by multiple third-parties around the content of the special issue and the decision-making process. Following an investigation by the Taylor & Francis Publishing Ethics & Integrity team in full cooperation with the Editor-in-Chief, it was confirmed that this article included in Special Issue titled “ Envisage Computer Modelling and Statistics for Agriculture”, guest edited by Gunasekaran Manogaran was not peer-reviewed appropriately, in line with the Journal's peer review standards and policy. As the stringency of the peer review process is core to the integrity of the publication process, the Editor and Publisher have decided to retract all of the articles within the above-named Special Issue. The journal has not confirmed if the authors were aware of this compromised peer review process. The journal is committed to correcting the scientific record and will fully cooperate with any institutional investigations into this matter. The authors have been informed of this decision. We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines.

Method of engineering calculation of recuperator parameters for heat extraction from tempered soybeans

In the conditions of constant growth of prices for consumed energy and competition in the domestic market, rural commodity producers have a problem to reduce energy costs, since they make up a significant share in the cost of agricultural products. There are particularly high energy costs in the heat treatment of meat and dairy products and grain. To reduce energy costs for thermal purposes, you can use the secondary heat extraction and its use in a specific technological process. To calculate the parameters of a heat recuperator that reuses heat energy from heat-treated soybeans, an engineering calculation method is presented.

Review of rice transplanter and direct seeder to be applied in Indonesia paddy field

The challenge to plant one seed or plant per hill by rice ordinary rice transplanter (RT) is still difficult to be achieved due to random in sowing seed by on rice nursery tray. But due to the vigority of seed after sowing in the field and also the unfavorable condition, the more number of seed are still needed and the yield lower compare transplanter method. Recently, the use of rice direct seeding has been increasing rapidly owing to rural labor shortages and continuous increases in agricultural production costs. This article reviews the research and application progress of mechanized rice direct seeding including direct seeding technologies, precision rice seeding, precision rice seed-metering devices. The other important component on succession direct seeding method is also discussed i.e. calcium gypsum coating and iron powder coating. Operating direct seeding machine also need consider about land and water management. Paddy field need to be managed since the seed drooped in order give favor condition of seed and facility the seed with optimum growing condition. In this approach, pre-germinated seeds are uniformly hill-dropped in the expected positions in puddled soil. The both technology PNRT and RDS have prospect and great potential for promoting the development of precession on rice cultivation in Asia.

Fruit traceability via mobile application

The traceability of agricultural products is essential to guarantee food security, monitor the production chain and is a requirement of Brazilian legislation. The optimization of this activity can be performed with the use of digital technologies. The present study verified the efficiency of a mobile app to track agricultural products and use it as a digital field book. The study was developed with 13 participants who used the mobile app to record agricultural activities: input pesticide sprays and fertilization; cultural management and registration of georeferenced harvest lots. The use of the app simplified the registration of tasks as digital field book and tracked agricultural products throughout the productive chain. An alert system for withholding period and maximum limit for pesticide sprays had been developed and enabled greater control, both are considered critical points in traceability system. QR-code of fruit lots were produced in each harvest and reports of costs, production, yield and fruit quality were generated by the app. Thus, mobile app was efficient to track agricultural production and use it as digital field book. In addition, managing of agricultural activities and production costs were produced and it has been shown that an innovative and low-cost technology that can be used by fruit producers.

Does a higher minimum wage accelerate labour division in agricultural production? Evidence from the main rice-planting area in China

Agricultural production outsourcing, a new means of agricultural production, can optimise the allocation of resources, reduce agricultural production costs, and improve agricultural productivity. However, farmers' outsourcing behaviours are strongly interfered with by many factors such as economics, technology and institutions. Using a farmer-level data set from 2014 to 2018 in China, we examine the effects of the minimum wage increase on rice farmers' production outsourcing behaviours. Our study relies on a Logit regression framework and uses the control function (C.F.) approach to address potential endogeneity concerns. Results show that the minimum wage increase significantly reduces the probability of farmers conducting production outsourcing. We also examine the heterogeneous effects of the minimum wage increase, and find that compared with other outsourcing services, the adverse effects on harvesting outsourcing are the strongest; the negative effects on production outsourcing are stronger for rice farmers with higher education. Our results provide new insights into understanding how labour regulation affects labour division in agricultural production.

Applying interval PCA and clustering to quantile estimates: empirical distributions of fertilizer cost estimates for yearly crops in European Countries

The decision to adopt one or another of the sustainable land management alternatives should not be based solely on their respective benefits in terms of climate change mitigation but also based on the performances of the productive systems used by farm holdings, assessing their environmental impacts through the cost of fertilizer resources used. This communication uses the symbolic clustering tools in order to analyze the conditional quantile estimates of the fertilizer costs of yearly crop productions in agriculture, as a replacement proxy for internal soil erosion costs. After recalling the conceptual framework of the estimation of agricultural production costs, we present the empirical data model, the quantile regression approach and the interval principal component analysis clustering tools used to obtain typologies of European countries on the basis of the conditional quantile distributions of fertilizer cost empirical estimates. The comparative analysis of econometric results for yearly crops between European countries illustrates the relevance of the typologies obtained for international comparisons to assess land management alternatives based on their impact on agricultural carbon sequestration in soils.

Глобальний контекст лібералізації земельного ринку в Україні: можливості та ризики для сільського розвитку

The article considers various global factors influencing rural development under the conditions of liberalization of the agricultural land market in Ukraine. The author assesses the impact of global processes and global capital on the development of national farms, income distribution, access to land resources, production processes and equitable development in this country. It is proved that globalization, leading to increased concentration of agri-food production and business and expanding the role of large transnationalized corporations, is primarily aimed at exploiting the country’s existing comparative advantages, rather than increasing them, and promotes, in many recipient countries, a model of double economy split in the technological and socio-economic dimensions into qualitatively heterogeneous sectors. The author concludes that although global factors of agricultural production may have a relatively positive impact in macroeconomic terms, the dominance of multinational (transnational) companies, large exporting companies and financially powerful sovereign welfare funds in the market may create risks and threats of crowding out Ukrainian farmers from the market and blocking the sustainable development of rural areas. At the same time, Ukraine's agricultural sector will be transformed into a raw-material link of global food production chains dominated by large transnationalized entities, and a kind of raw-material enclave of transnationalized production will be created within the Ukrainian economy. The article argues that in today's global economy, where cardinal transformations are taking place and uncertainty is growing, land will become an increasingly valuable asset, attractive not only to agricultural producers but also to land speculators and those who try to maintain the value of their assets under the conditions of growing global risks. Under such conditions, investment in land will not at all necessarily contribute to the development of agricultural production, because speculative capital in the face of widespread expectations of a long and significant upward trend in land prices will prevail over productive agricultural capital. In general, this might lead to a significant increase in the cost of agricultural production and food prices. The author proves that the liberalization of the land market leads to increased risks of transfer of the control over Ukraine’s land resources to foreigners (sovereign financial funds and major international corporations), given their dramatic advantage by available financial resources for land acquisition, compared to those possessed by Ukraine’s residents. The article substantiates a set of policy measures and national policy instruments necessary to minimize the risks associated with the introduction (in the context of globalization) of free purchase and sale of agricultural land, which comply with the regulation principles of the European Union.

Resource-saving early potato cultivation technology

To obtain environmentally friendly early production of potatoes, the use of a technological method in the cultivation technology - light germination was studied. The cultivation technology is standard, except for the studied technique. There is a varietal reaction to reception, responds well to germination of the Luck and Bullfinch varieties. In the variant with germination, the total costs increase, but in the cost structure there is a decrease in the costs of expensive fertilizers and seeds. The cost of machinery and agricultural production does not rise much. implements in connection with additional work related to the light germination, where it is necessary to take out the planting material from the storage. These costs are not significant and the reception provides a high net energy income, high coefficients, as well as a low energy cost, which allows you to save energy resources when growing early potatoes and get maximum income. There is an increase in net energy income by 5.9 … 31.9%, energy cost coefficients by 6.3 … 32.8%, as well as a decrease in cost by 0.09 … 0.33 GJ•t−1 of tubers.

КОНКУРЕНТОСПОСОБНОСТЬ СЕЛЬСКОХОЗЯЙСТВЕННЫХ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЙ В УСЛОВИЯХ ЦИФРОВИЗАЦИИ СЕЛЬСКОГО ХОЗЯЙСТВА

Annotation. The article discusses the issues of assessing the competitiveness of agricultural organizations in the implementation of the departmental project Digital Technologies in Agriculture. The competitiveness of agricultural organizations can be influenced by many factors, both macroeconomic and microeconomic. Digitalization of business processes allows you to optimize these processes and the costs of production and sale of products manufactured by agricultural producers. The growth of the competitiveness of the economy, including the agricultural sector, is provided to a greater extent by the introduction of information technologies and resources. Therefore, in every agricultural enterprise, one of the important elements of increasing competitiveness, it is advisable to consider the readiness to introduce digital technologies. However, when introducing digitalization, a scientifically grounded organizational and economic mechanism is needed, the use of which will optimize the cost of agricultural products, increase the efficiency of the use of financial, labor and other resources by agricultural producers.

Biology, distribution and management of the invasive Jatropha gossypiifolia (Bellyache bush): A global review of current and future management challenges and research gaps

AbstractJatropha gossypiifolia (Bellyache bush) is an evergreen, perennial, invasive woody shrub that globally threatens agricultural and native landscapes. The species is native to North and South America, but is currently found in over 52 countries; in many of these countries, it is listed as invasive, due to its aggressive and competitive growth. These behaviour traits are characterised by its quick flowering and seed production that make the species difficult to contain and control, as it forms dense monocultures and restricts the growth of many native and pastoral species through aggressive competition for resources, such as soil moisture and nutrients. Infestation by J. gossypiifolia results in a loss of biodiversity in the affected area and disrupts the maintenance of sustainable land systems. It has been reported that J. gossypiifolia is used in many countries as a traditional medicine to treat a range of diseases, illnesses and injuries. However, despite these claims of its positive use, J. gossypiifolia leaves, seeds and stems are highly toxic to grazing animals and humans, leading to disruption and significant increases in the cost of agricultural production through the loss of production and the instituting of necessary management efforts. Around the world, there have been various attempts to control J. gossypiifolia, but these have widely varied in their success. The most common and successful treatments to control J. gossypiifolia, including herbicide application (cut stump application), fire management and mechanical control; however, when each is applied as a single treatment, long‐term success is often limited. Consequently, this review explores the biology and distribution of J. gossypiifolia, together with previous and current control attempts, and synthesises potentially useful approaches to control this noxious weed, whilst identifying areas of future research to improve effective and long‐term sustainable management strategies for this noxious species.