Agricultural Value Research Articles

The Impact of the Internet on the Development of Agricultural Product Value Chain

With the popularization and rapid development of the Internet, the development of the value chain of agricultural products has also been profoundly affected. The purpose of this paper is to study the application of the Internet in the production, processing, circulation, consumption and extension of each link in the value chain of agricultural products, analyze the impact of the Internet on the development of the value chain of agricultural products, and point out the problems of information security and value chain financing of agricultural products in the process of promoting the development of the value chain of agricultural products, so as to put forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote the development of agricultural products e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce of agricultural products, improve the Internet application ability of farmers, and increase the support for the value chain financing of agricultural products. This is of great significance for promoting the deep integration of the Internet and agriculture and promoting the realization of agricultural modernization in China.

A zoning of the Metropolitan City of Naples and analysis of land values

This paper presents the results of a zoning study involving the metropolitan city of Naples, for the purpose of identifying the areas within which to perform a comparable search by applying the synthetic-comparative market value procedure of appraisal. Moreover, an analysis was carried out of the values of agricultural land reported by two official sources, i.e. average land values (VFM) and average agricultural values (VAM), and by an unofficial source, i.e. the values of the Observatory of Agricultural Values (VAO). The results show that for some area/crop quality combinations, the values recorded can provide a significant indication of the agricultural value to be estimated. Vice versa, for estimating the agricultural value of land cultivated with the most profitable crops, the official values showed to be unreliable, meaning that the appraisal requires an accurate field survey. As for the differences between the different homogeneous areas, VAO prove to be more reliable, while VAM are the least significant values.

A Study on Accounting for Suburban Agricultural Land Rent in a Chinese Context Based on Agricultural Ecological Value and Landscape Value

A Study on Accounting for Suburban Agricultural Land Rent in a Chinese Context Based on Agricultural Ecological Value and Landscape Value

Digitalization and agricultural transformation in developing countries: Empirical evidence from Tanzania agriculture sector

Agribusiness can potentially increase value for agriculture and the entire value chain, but it is hard to achieve these goals without digitalising the sector. The transformation reforms modern technology and digital infrastructure adoption to facilitate growth and inclusivity. These conditions make the agricultural digitization transformation more appealing. Therefore, using a survey of 400 smallholder farmers in four regions of Rukwa, Ruvuma, Morogoro and Tabora, this study examines the interplay between digitalization and agriculture transformation in Tanzania by focusing on the determinants and effects of digitalization on smallholder farmers' welfare. The study used the double hurdle model to estimate the determinants and extent of digitalization adoption; the Two-stage least square (2SLS) and the Control function approach (CFA) to estimate its effects on smallholder farmers' welfare. The findings revealed that access to credit (0.17428, p < 0.01), extension services (0.52884, p < 0.01), education and government support (0.10922, p < 0.05) are key determinants for agricultural digitalization. Moreover, digitalization was found to influence smallholder farmers' welfare significantly. The benefits of digitalization across smallholder farmers in all regions were observed in enhancing extension services (76.50 %), pest management (71.25 %), and accessibility of the market information (72.25 %), enhance an access to financial services (74.75 %). In sum, to promote digital technology adoption among smallholder farmers, policymakers in Tanzania and developing nations should prioritize financial inclusion through tailored microfinance programs, educational initiatives must integrate digital literacy, enhance extension services, subsidized technology access, and encouraging public-private partnerships to create incentives for sustainable agricultural development.

Estimating the Sustainable Efficiency and Economic Efficiency of Vegetable Crop Growers in Baghdad Governorate

The research aims to measure the sustainability value and efficiency of sustainable for vegetable crops in the Baghdad governorate. Additionally, it aims to assess the economic efficiency for the agricultural season of 2022-2023. The research sample includes 182 farmers from the studied province, analyzed using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The explanatory variables for sustainability value include factors such as cultivated area, working hours, capital excluding land rent, household consumption of vegetable crops, fuel, and nitrogen fertilizer. The dependent variable is agricultural production value. The variables for sustainable efficiency encompass cultivated area, seed quantity, fertilizer quantity, pesticide quantity, number of workers, and irrigation frequency. The results indicate that there is a sustainable value for the utilized resources, reaching approximately 1.6. Moreover, the sustainability efficiency reaches about (1.2). This implies that despite resource wastage, farmers have positive and satisfactory productivity. However, the average economic efficiency is around 70.81%, revealing that vegetable crop farmers in Baghdad’s province have not achieved full economic efficiency of 100%. There is a notable variation in achieving these levels, necessitating changes in the utilization of production inputs to enhance productivity. The research recommends that farmers should redistribute resources to minimize waste, aiming to reach the optimal combination that maximizes profits while minimizing costs. This could be achieved by seeking guidance from experienced farmers and experts or by providing training on modern technology usage and mechanization of production resources. Furthermore, the research suggests the importance of conducting further studies on cost-return variation and resource utilization to evaluate sustainability.

A Study on the Influence of Oil Price Fluctuations on Agricultural Value-Added

Recently, the volatility of oil prices has significantly increased due to various factors. This study aims to analyze the influences of oil price fluctuations on agricultural value added, with a particular focus on comparing the magnitude of ripple effects across different categories. In order to achieve this, we designated not only oil prices but also exchange rates and the prices of three grains as random variables, and developed a stochastic model that considers their correlations. When oil prices fluctuate within expected ranges, it was analyzed that agricultural value-added changes by approximately 540 billion KRW. When examined by category, it was found that fruit-bearing vegetables exhibited the largest ripple effect. As a policy alternative to alleviate the farmers’ operational risk, this study introduces margin insurance to effectively manage both the increases in input costs due to rising oil prices and the decreases in agricultural commodity prices.

Measuring ecosystem services supply and demand in rural areas: cases from China's key counties to receive assistance in pursuing rural revitalization.

There is a considerable challenge to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of ending poverty and maintaining ecosystems' function in rural areas, largely due to that the rural people's livelihood relied heavily on fragile ecosystems. China is ambitious to solve this issue by enacting economic stimulus policies such as ecological protection compensation and payment for ecosystem services (ESs). However, these interventions are generally based on stockholders' willingness and lack of scientific basis. Here, we firstly combined InVEST model and social-economic data to evaluate the ecosystem services supply and demand (ESSD), by taking 25 key counties to receive assistance in pursuing rural revitalization in Sichuan province as the study cases. The coupling coordination degree model was then employed to measure the coordination relationship of ESSD. Finally, the driving factors were analyzed based on correlation analysis and stepwise regression method. The results showed that all ESs, except carbon sequestration, were oversupplied with significant spatial heterogeneity. From 2000 to 2020, the supply of all ESs increased, in which the food production had the most notable increase ratio amounting to 48.20%, while the demand of water retention and air purification decreased substantially. Due to the inconsistency between cultivated land area and population changes, significant spatial heterogeneity existed in the coordination relationship of food production. The counties with the highest and the lowest annual average coordination index were Yanyuan (0.9950) and Rangtang (0.1208), respectively. The rural employees and the agricultural gross output value were the key positive factors influencing the quantity and coordination of ESSD, while ecological compensation and financial expenditure had no significant impact, further indicating that these policies were not linked to the performance of ecosystems' function. Finally, policy implications were raised. This study provides a scientific framework for enacting the interventions towards ecological sustainability and poverty ending from ESSD perspective.

Spatial–Temporal Changes in Shallow Groundwater Quality with Human Health Risk Assessment in the Luxi Plain (China)

Groundwater is an essential water source for drinking, domestic, irrigation and industrial production in Luxi Plain, Shandong Province, China. Understanding the spatial–temporal changes in groundwater quality and its influencing factors in the region were required for better utilization of groundwater resources and efficient design of groundwater management strategies. In this study, the hydrochemical characteristics of groundwater in the study area were analyzed, and significant evolution was found from 2018 to 2020 due to silicate and carbonate weathering, evaporation and human activities. Moreover, the entropy water quality index (EWQI) was used to assess groundwater quality from 2018 to 2020. The EWQI values in 2018–2020 were 129.5, 90.5 and 94.0, respectively, and 31.7% of the groundwater in 2019 and 20.0% in 2020 can be used directly for drinking in the study area; others can be used for domestic water or irrigation. The potable groundwater, with an EWQI value of &lt;50 (ranked as class Ⅰ or Ⅱ water quality), was mainly distributed in the west and southeast of the study area. The potential health risk due to oral intake and dermal intake was further assessed based on the human health risk assessment (HHRA) model. The results showed that, 37.3%, 6.7% and 3.3% of the groundwater samples for adults exceeded the acceptable limit for non-carcinogenic risk of 1.0 in 2018–2020, while for children, they were 88.2%, 30.0% and 56.7%, respectively. The high non-carcinogenic risks virtually all occurred in the counties or districts with higher agricultural or economic values. This work may provide useful information for local groundwater conservation and management and help to ensure a sustainable and healthy water supply for drinking, domestic and agricultural needs.

Planting for food and jobs in post-COVID era: identifying the missing gaps for sustainable food production – a review

Agriculture is the backbone of the Ghanaian economy and serve as a source of employment, income generation and poverty reduction for many people in the agricultural value chain. Agriculture over the years has contributed significantly to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) until recently when the performance of the sector and the contribution to GDP began to dwindled. With the current economic challenges after COVID-19, high fuel costs and ravaging food prices, every effort should be put in place to increase food production to reduce food importation which put pressure on the local currency and drives food prices high. The introduction of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) policy was to boost agricultural productivity, eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, achieve food sufficiency and reduce unemployment. The policy is also to helps achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 1- No Poverty and Goal 2 - Zero hunger especially in this post-COVID era. This paper was carried out by reviewing policy documents, articles and interacting with certain stakeholders on the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative. The PFJ policy hinges on five pillars namely: improved seeds, fertilizer supply, dedicated extension services; market, and e-agriculture. However, the policy is flawed with many challenges. The review showed that the policy lacks clear direction as regards its implementation. Key implementation features such as provision of irrigation facilities, introduction of mechanization services, dedicated market for farmers’ produce and land tenure systems among others were major issues. It was also observed that there were poor monitoring and evaluation, corrupt practices such as the diversion of improved seeds and fertilizers, high cost of farm inputs and lack of sustainability plan as in the case of previous interventions. This article will, therefore, help policymakers and the government to review and focus on key areas of the policy that will improve food production, create jobs, ensure food security and transform the general economy.

Construct electron transport path through NH2-MIL-125 modified Fe-doped W18O49 nanowires to enhance photocatalytic nitrogen fixation performance

Ammonia has important application value in agriculture and industry as a raw material for producing nitrogen fertilizers and organic chemicals. The Haber-Bosch method is generally utilized to synthesize ammonia through N2 and H2 as raw materials in industry, but the process generates serious energy consumption and pollution. In the paper, a heterojunction catalyst is constructed that adopts NH2-MIL-125 and Fe-doped W18O49 (Fe-W18O49) for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation. Fe-W18O49 is a nanowire containing oxygen vacancies (OVs). OVs can provide active sites for the adsorption and activation of nitrogen gas. The 3D plate-like morphology of NH2-MIL-125 can observably reduce the occurrence of nanowires aggregation. This phenomenon can be attributed to NH2-MIL-125 playing a supporting role in the fixation of nanowires. New mesoporous are formed between NH2-MIL-125 and Fe-W18O49 in the constructed compound catalyst, which can realize efficient mass transfer between the inside and outside of the catalyst. EPR characterization discovers that Fe-W18O49/NH2-MIL-125 cannot produce •O2˗ and •OH radicals. The type II heterojunction forms between Fe-W18O49 and NH2-MIL-125. The heterojunction improves the carrier migration path, and the photocurrent intensity is significantly increased. Under simulated sunlight, Fe-W18O49/NH2-MIL-125–2 emerges the best catalytic performance with an ammonia formation rate of 128.2 µmol g−1 h−1. The yield of ammonia is boosted in comparing with NH2-MIL-125 (13 times) and Fe-W18O49 (1.7 times). After several cycles, Fe-W18O49/NH2-MIL-125 remain maintains good stability during the catalytic process. This paper provides a possibility for constructing low-cost heterojunction catalysts in the territory of photocatalytic nitrogen fixation.

'Is there value for us in agriculture?' A case study of youth participation in agricultural value chains in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Developing countries in Africa face an unemployment crisis, with many unemployed youth. Agriculture has been identified as a strategic sector for employment creation targeted at youth, including those who may not have agriculture-related qualifications. However, various challenges limit the effectiveness of youth participation in the agriculture value chain. The study aimed to (i) determine youth awareness of agricultural value-chain opportunities, (ii) determine their perception of their role in the value chain, (iii) determine their perception of agricultural programs targeting youth and their opinions on who is responsible for attracting youth into agriculture and, (iv) to characterise the dynamics of youth empowerment in agriculture. Data was collected using focus group discussions and an online survey and analysed using SPSS and NVivo. Poor knowledge, low levels of awareness of agricultural value-chain activities and careers, and not meeting the minimum requirements for employment in processing and retail businesses were identified as key challenges. Most youth were interested in non-primary activities such as agro-processing, which are less labour-intensive and have a quicker return on investment than agricultural production. However, support services and programs for promoting youth participation in agriculture mainly focus on primary activities, signifying a mismatch between youth aspirations and current support. Understanding youth aspirations, perceptions and dynamics underpinning youth empowerment and participation in value chains is critical for promoting participation and formulating relevant and responsive policies. Additionally, improving access to information and building awareness of agricultural value chains is crucial in reducing barriers to entry. Policymakers should integrate agriculture and food systems knowledge into the primary education curriculum to promote youth awareness and evoke interest in agri-food system careers at an early age.

Deep histories of food systems in eastern Africa and current patterns of food insecurity.

Central to successful attempts to address food insecurity in Africa are understandings of the historical contexts and meanings of food systems. However, much research into current challenges remains separated from deeper agrarian and alimentary histories. Using qualitative data on food within the historical record alongside the wider multidisciplinary record of the past, this Review traces long-term patterns and drivers of continuity and change in eastern African food systems. Considerable dynamism in place-based and regional trends in the integration of new foodstuffs, agricultural commercialization, resistance and transformations in diets, and diversification and specialization as livelihood strategies is found-each of which emerged within imbricated contexts of African agency, transoceanic exchanges and colonial incursions. Such historical data provide important deep-time perspectives for interventions to address modern food insecurity, as demonstrated through examples of agricultural value chains, 'under-utilized' crops and major infrastructure projects in southeast Africa.

The Impact of Agricultural Global Value Chain Participation on Agricultural Total Factor Productivity

Under the condition of opening up, participation in international specialization and global value chains (GVCs) has become the main source for more and more countries to obtain foreign resources and advanced technologies, thereby promoting productivity improvement and technological progress. What are the pathways of agricultural GVC participation that affect agricultural total factor productivity (TFP)? Is the impact of agricultural GVC participation on agricultural TFP consistent across different statuses and modes of agricultural GVC participation? This paper elaborates on the theoretical mechanism of agricultural GVC participation affecting agricultural TFP, and then empirically estimates the impact of different statuses and modes of agricultural GVC participation on agricultural TFP by taking 58 countries as examples. The results show that agricultural GVCs affect agricultural TFP by several direct and indirect pathways. There was a U-shaped relationship between agricultural GVC participation and agricultural TFP, which means that after crossing a certain threshold, the former has a positive impact on the latter. By participating in agricultural GVCs, agricultural TFP in high-income and upper-middle-income countries was significantly improved, while in lower-middle-income countries it was not. Both forward and backward agricultural GVC participation were conducive to improving agricultural TFP in high-income and upper-middle-income countries, but only backward agricultural GVC participation was conducive to improving agricultural TFP in lower-middle-income countries. Therefore, every country needs to actively explore its optimal pathway to participate in agricultural GVCs in order to maximize the participation benefits and promote the improvement in agricultural TFP, simultaneously.

Economy-energy-environment nexus: the potential of agricultural value-added toward achieving China’s dream of carbon neutrality

Agriculture is one of the major sources of global emissions that cause climate change while agricultural value added helps to boost the economy in developing countries like China. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the long- and short-term influences of agricultural value added, economic growth (GDP), and energy use on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method was used by using annual time series data from 1990 to 2021. The empirical outcomes revealed that a 1% increase in the agricultural value added would cut CO2 emissions by 1.37% in the long-run and 0.65% in the short-run. However, this study found that both GDP and energy consumption have a positive and statistically significant effect on CO2 emissions. Furthermore, an inverted U-shaped association between economic growth and environmental pollution was discovered by spotting the positive coefficient of GDP and the negative coefficient of GDP squared, which proved the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The robustness of the ARDL outcomes was verified by using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and canonical cointegration regression (CCR) approaches. This study offers a comprehensive set of policy recommendations aimed at enhancing agricultural value added in China. These suggestions focus on the promotion of climate-smart agriculture, the integration of renewable energy sources in agricultural production, and the adoption of advanced technologies within agricultural systems. Implementing these measures would contribute to the achievement of China’s goal of carbon neutrality.Graphical

Effects of Transfer of Land Development Rights on Urban–Rural Integration: Theoretical Framework and Evidence from Chongqing, China

The transfer of land development rights (TDR) is a significant policy tool for advancing urban–rural integration. This study establishes an analytical framework to examine the influence mechanism of TDR on urban–rural integration, considering the flow of land, capital, and population factors. Furthermore, an indicator system is developed to evaluate urban–rural integration across economic, social, and population dimensions. Using panel data from Chongqing, China (2013 to 2019), this article adopts the global principal component analysis (GPCA) method and time-varying difference-in-difference (TV-DID) model to analyze the effects of the land quota trading project, known as the ‘Dipiao’ policy. The results show that TDR can effectively promote urban–rural integration, though with a four-year time lag. Heterogeneous effects of TDR on urban–rural integration are observed across different districts and counties, with the more pronounced promotion in areas characterized by low agricultural land value or high industrial land value. This study further analyzes the influence mechanism of TDR on urban–rural integration. It concludes with policy implications on improving TDR to promote urban–rural integration.

Agricultural value chain participation and farmers' access to credit in northern Ghana

PurposePromoted for its inclusivity, agricultural value chain (AVC) financing leverages social capital and mechanisms such as off-take agreements and forward contracts to reduce borrowing and lending costs and risks for both farmers and lending institutions. AVC financing has been defined as the flow of financial products and services to and among the various actors within the AVC to address constraints of production and distribution and fulfill the needs of those involved in the chain by reducing risk and improving efficiency. This paper investigates how farmers' involvement in AVC affects their access to credit.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected primary data from 400 crop farmers in northern Ghana through a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed the data, using the multinomial endogenous switching regression model.FindingsJoint participation in AVC increased the amount of formal and informal credit received by 64 and 78%, respectively, compared to nonparticipation. Similarly, participation in AVC horizontal linkage and AVC vertical linkage increased the amount of formal and informal credit received by 40 and 47% and 46 and 74%, respectively, compared to nonparticipation. Irrigation farming, extension visits, knowledge of AVC in the community, access to a storage facility and trust in contract farming significantly influenced farmers' participation in AVC.Originality/valueThe authors’ work offers valuable insights into how different dimensions of value chain participation can impact smallholder farmers' access to credit. This work also underscores the importance of considering both formal and informal credit sources when analyzing the outcomes of value chain participation. The findings could enable formal financial providers to identify, liaise and/or resource informal financial players such as value chain actors to supply both formal and informal credit to farmers in AVCs.

Stressing the importance of plant specialized metabolites: omics-based approaches for discovering specialized metabolism in plant stress responses.

Plants produce a diverse range of specialized metabolites that play pivotal roles in mediating environmental interactions and stress adaptation. These unique chemical compounds also hold significant agricultural, medicinal, and industrial values. Despite the expanding knowledge of their functions in plant stress interactions, understanding the intricate biosynthetic pathways of these natural products remains challenging due to gene and pathway redundancy, multifunctionality of proteins, and the activity of enzymes with broad substrate specificity. In the past decade, substantial progress in genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics has made the exploration of plant specialized metabolism more feasible than ever before. Notably, recent advances in integrative multi-omics and computational approaches, along with other technologies, are accelerating the discovery of plant specialized metabolism. In this review, we present a summary of the recent progress in the discovery of plant stress-related specialized metabolites. Emphasis is placed on the application of advanced omics-based approaches and other techniques in studying plant stress-related specialized metabolism. Additionally, we discuss the high-throughput methods for gene functional characterization. These advances hold great promise for harnessing the potential of specialized metabolites to enhance plant stress resilience in the future.

Do green finance, green technology innovation, and institutional quality help achieve environmental sustainability? Evidence from the developing economies

AbstractOne possible way to achieve sustainable economic growth is by limiting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The developing countries, in particular, which significantly contribute to global carbon dioxide emissions, need a paradigm shift towards sustainable production and consumption to achieve economic growth while ensuring environmental sustainability. This study thus analyzes the role of green technology innovation, green finance, renewable energy use, institutional quality, and agricultural value added in attaining environmental sustainability by abating CO2 emissions for 25 select developing countries from 1998 to 2019. This study uses the Driscoll‐Kraay and two‐step SGMM estimators to assess the impact of independent variables on the response variable, acknowledging the endogeneity problem in the model. The empirical findings reveal that green finance, green technology innovation, and institutional quality induce CO2 emissions, whereas agricultural value‐added and renewable energy use are observed to have detrimental effects on CO2 emissions. Moreover, the moderation effect of green technology innovation and institutional quality with green finance is observed to have a weak and insignificant impact on CO2 emissions. The study thus recommends that developing countries enforce policies to promote investments and innovation in the clean energy sector to attain sustainable development goals by mitigating carbon emissions.

Value Chain Digitalisation and Adoption Intention by Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) Farmers in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Digital technologies disrupt agricultural value chains, thereby facilitating enhanced connectivity among various players. This contributes to the development of resilience and sustainability within farms. This study examined behavioural factors that influence farmers’ intentions to adopt value chain digital technologies available in South Africa. A simple random sample of 100 Eastern Cape PLAS farms was chosen. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The data was analysed in R and STATA statistical packages using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The results indicated a significant relationship between performance and effort expectancy and the intention to adopt value technologies. Furthermore, male farmers had a higher expectation of performance and effort. Prioritising performance demonstrations and trainings on the utilisation of these technologies is crucial in efforts to enhance their adoption. This contributes to the existing body of literature on the deployment of value chain technologies.

Revisiting the nexus between economic growth and disaggregated greenhouse gases in India: Evidence from necessary and sufficient conditions

For India, achieving environmental sustainability in the midst of faster growth remains a challenging objective. Therefore, we are revisiting the nature of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) at different stages of economic growth through both necessary and sufficient conditions under the cubic model specifications in India. Further, we extend the EKC framework by incorporating energy consumption, agricultural value added, trade, the world uncertainty index, and geopolitical risk as additional variables into the three preferred disaggregated greenhouse gas emission (GHG) models. This study employs an auto-regressive distributed lag model (ARDL). The empirical findings show evidence of the valid N-shaped EKC through both necessary and sufficient conditions for carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) and exhibit the presence of two real and distinct income turning points for both valid EKCs. In contrast, only the necessary condition supports the N-shaped EKC for methane (CH4) emissions in India. Further, the results highlight that trade has a positive impact, whereas the world uncertainty index has a negative impact on disaggregated GHGs. Similarly, geopolitical risk has a negative effect on CH4 and N2O, whereas energy consumption has a positive impact on CO2 emissions. Moreover, agricultural value added has a negative effect on CH4 and a positive effect on N2O emissions. Our empirical findings suggest policy recommendations that can collectively work as a roadmap for India to become emission-neutral by 2070.