Big Farms Research Articles

An optimization planning technique for Suez Canal Network in Egypt

This paper introduces a proposed optimization technique POT for predicting the peak load demand and planning of transmission line systems. Many of traditional methods have been presented for long-term load forecasting of electrical power systems. But, the results of these methods are approximated. Therefore, the artificial neural network (ANN) technique for long-term peak load forecasting is modified and discussed as a modern technique in long-term load forecasting. The modified technique is applied on the Egyptian electrical network dependent on its historical data to predict the electrical peak load demand forecasting up to year 2017. This technique is compared with extrapolation of trend curves as a traditional method. The POT is applied also to obtain the optimal planning of transmission lines for the 220 kV of Suez Canal Network (SCN) using the ANN technique. The minimization of the transmission network costs are considered as an objective function, while the transmission lines (TL) planning constraints are satisfied. Zafarana site on the Red Sea coast is considered as an optimal site for installing big wind farm (WF) units in Egypt. So, the POT is applied to plan both the peak load and the electrical transmission of SCN with and without considering WF to develop the impact of WF units on the electrical transmission system of Egypt, considering the reliability constraints which were taken as a separate model in the previous techniques. The application on SCN shows the capability and the efficiently of the proposed techniques to obtain the predicting peak load demand and the optimal planning of transmission lines of SCN up to year 2017.

Emirdağ İlçesinde Göçlerin Tarım Alanlarına Etkileri (Migration Effects on Agricultural Lands in Emirdağ District)

Turkish Abstract: Turkiye’de sanayilesme ve sehirlesme sureci ile ortaya cikan, 1950’li yillardan sonra hizlanan, kirdan kente olan goclerin cesitli asamalar gecirerek, tip ve sekiller kazanarak gunumuze kadar ulastigi bilinen bir gercektir. Bu surecte surekli nufus kaybeden kirsal alanda goclerin cesitli sonuclari ortaya cikmaya baslamistir. Arazi kullanim deseni ve tarimsal yapidaki degismeler bunlarin basinda gelmektedir. Arastirmanin amaci gerek yurtdisina gerekse yurticine cok fazla goc vermis olan Emirdag ilcesi orneginde yasanan goc surecinin tarimsal faaliyetler uzerinde arazi kullanimi acisindan etkilerinin neler oldugunu belirlemektir. Diger bir ifadeyle ilcede bugunku mevcut arazi kullanimi ve tarimsal yapinin olusmasinda goclerin etkisini ortaya cikarmaktir. Ilce kirsal alaninda 1960’li yillara kadar artan nufus daha sonra goclerle azalmaya baslamis ve gunumuzde koyler buyuk olcude bosalmistir. Geride kalan nufusun yaslilardan olusmasi tarimsal uretimin devamliligini engelledigi gibi hicbir uretimin yapilmadigi terkedilmis tarim alanlari da ortaya cikmaya baslamistir. Yine goce bagli olarak arazi mulkiyet dagiliminda da bazi degisimler yasanmistir. Goc edenlerin arazilerini satin alma veya kiraciortakci uygulamalariyla koyde kalan ciftci basina dusen islenen tarim alaninda artislar gorulmeye baslanmistir. Kirsal kesimde azalan nufus yogunlugu ve kisi basina dusen arazi miktarindaki artisa ragmen tarimsal uretim henuz az sayida buyuk ve modern isletmelere donusturulememistir. English Abstract: Migration from rural to urban which appeared after industrialization and urbanization in Turkey, increased after 1950’s years. Migration from rural to urban which is a knowm reality by transition from various stages, has come up till now by obtaining types and forms. The consequences of migration in rural area where population decreases exist, started to appeare in this process. Land use pattern and changes in farming structure are two essential ones of the other consequences. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of migration process on agricultural activities which are common in Emirdag case where emmigration and internal migration occur, in terms of land use. In other words, it is to determine existing land use and effect of migrations on the formation of agricultural structure. The population which had increased up till 1960’s in district rural area started to decrease by out migrations and exodus has been occuring in the villages of Emirdag after 1960’s. Nonmigrated population which consists of old people, has prevented the continuity of agricultural production thus farming area in which no production activities occur, started to appear. Some changes have been occuring in distribution of land ownership depend on outmigration effects, too. The increases in farming areas which are used as buying or hiring by the people who live in village , started to see increases. Although decreasing population density in rural areas and the increases in land size per person, agricultural production coud not be turned into a few of big and modern farming enterprises.

Reproductive performance of gilts in a big farm in Vojvodina

The reproductive performance of gilts significantly affects the number of annually produced piglets per sow. The paper presents the results of an analysis of the reproductive performance of gilts on a big pig farm in Vojvodina (Republic of Serbia), with a capacity of around 5,500 sows. Out of the total of 19,000 female piglets selected for reproduction, insemination, aged 210 days, a total of 5,420 (28.5%) gilts are prepared, and 70% of these are inseminated. A total of 29.3% gilts are culled for reproduction because of longterm pre insemination anestria (estrus was not established until the age of 9 months). It is believed that the basic reason for the occurrence of long-term anestrias is the inadequate technology for detecting estrus on the farm (once every 24 hours, without direct contact between the test boar and the gilts). As a consequence, there are significant economic losses in piglet production on the examined farm.

Evaluation of Manure Management in Dairy Cattle Farms: The Case of İzmir - Tire (Turkey) Region

Summary The objective of this research is to evaluate the current manure management systems in dairy cattle farms, which are the members of Tire Dairy Cooperative, in Tire-Izmir Region. In this context; characteristics of farms, manure management systems and their statistical interactions were determined. Also, methane emissions through manure management were estimated for two different approaches of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and SWOT analyze for manure management in region was done. According to results of the research, it is noticed that farmers do not care about technical standards and legal regulations on planning the barn placement and storing the manure. It is determined that 74% of the examined farms use mechanization possibilities to collect the manure from paddocks. In 78% of the farms manure is stored as a bulk inside or outside of the farm, in 16% of the farms it is stored on paddocks and in 6% of the farms it is stored in a pit. In 99% of the farms, manure is used as fertilizer on fields without taking precautions for fermentation and also it is burned directly in 1% of the farms. Statistical analyses show that, manure collection and storage practices have significant interactions with farm characteristics while manure usage practices have no significant interactions with farm characteristics. Methane emissions for the region were calculated 0.2 Gg year-1 for the first approach and 0.03 Gg year-1 for the second approach. SWOT analyze shows that, manure management practices and infrastructure are better in big farms and the cooperative may make a significant contribution to usage of modern systems in the region.

The relationship between diet and retained placenta in cows

Retained placenta (RP) is one of the most common complications occurring in the post-partum period in cows. Beside other reasons, many authors stress the influence of diet on the incidence of RP. However, the role of minerals and vitamins fed at this time on subsequent fertility is poorly understood. As nutritional causes of RP are due primarily to the diet fed the last 6 to 8 weeks before calving, the aim of this paper was to investigate the relationship between diet in dry and transition periods and subsequent occurrence of RP, as well as in the time of introduction to lactation in fresh cows, with special emphasis on content of minerals and vitamins in diet. The investigation has been carried out on a big dairy farm situated on the east of Croatia with 1 775 Holstein-Frisian (HF) cows in duration of one year. Diet samples from dry period (DP), from period approximately from the 21st day before calving till the day of calving (BC) and period of introduction to lactation (IL) were subjected for analysis of calcium (Ca), phosphorous (P), selenium (Se), iodine (I) and vitamins A, D3 and E. The observed rate of cows with RP on the investigating farm was rather high (16.55%). High diet concentrations both for Ca and P in DP and BC periods (0.98 and 0.62% of Ca; 0.37 and 0.52% of P, respectively), combined with low concentration of vitamin D in DP and BC periods (12 800 and 14 400 IU/day, respectively), as well as low concentration of Se in DP and BC periods (0.08 and 0.07 mg/kg, respectively) combined with low concentration of vitamin E in DP and BC periods (160 and 180 IU/day, respectively) were identified as critical factors that could have contributed in influencing high incidence of RP on the investigating farm.

THE AXIS DEER (AXIS AXIS ) IN BRIJUNI NATIONAL PARK

The axis deer (Axis axis) was imported from Germany and introduced into Brijuni in 1911. Brijuni are a group of islands in the Adriatic Sea along the western coast of the southern peak of the Istrian Peninsula in the Republic of Croatia. In 1983 the area was declared a National Park. The objective of this paper was to research the adaptation of the axis deer to living conditions on the islands. Observation has shown that on the Brijuni islands the axis deer lives in herds comprising 10 to 30 individuals. The youngest male deer seeking access to does was four years old, while at the age of fi ve they started roaring. Deer fi ghts are not frequent during roaring period. The natural grazing rhythm is disturbed by the vast number of tourists. The calving periods of the axis deer during the year indicate three well-pronounced ruts, namely January to February, July-August and October-November. They also show that oestrus occurs soon after calving in most of the females. Gestation period of does is 7 to 7.8 months. 85% of the does on the Brijuni Islands produce their offspring in the warmer part of the year, between 1 March and 31 September. The population of the axis deer in the area of the Brijuni National Park is stable, rather numerous (about 100 individuals) and well acclimatized, and as such it presents reproductive material suitable to populate enclosed hunting grounds and big game farms.

Farmers’ Perceptions of Quality of Groundnut: Vis-à-vis Farmers’ Characteristics

Groundnut is an important oil seed crop of India. In spite of its high nutritive value, 80% of the total production is utilized for oil extraction. It has great potential for diversification to food uses. Maintenance of quality is one of the major concerns for diversification. Apart from visual characters, such as pod shape, size, color, cleanliness, etc., aflatoxin contamination in kernels is considered as an important criterion for judging the quality of groundnut. Aflatoxins are the toxic substances produced by strains of fungi belonging to Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. Aflatoxin contamination has led to human and cattle health concerns, significantly influencing groundnut trade worldwide. Aflatoxin contamination in groundnut pods has been reported to be more prevalent in Junagadh district compared to other groundnut growing districts of India. Hence, the study was undertaken to assess the perceptions of farmers on quality of groundnut in Junagadh district of Gujarat State, India. The results indicated that majority of farmers had low perception of quality and there were significant differences between the perceptions of big farmers and small farmers. The characteristics of farmers: knowledge of aflatoxin management practices, innovativeness, and market orientation significantly influenced the perceptions. Based on the results suggestions are made to formulate strategies to increase the knowledge level of farmers on aflatoxin management practices of groundnut through appropriate extension approaches. Mass awareness campaigns to educate farmers and consumers on the ill effects of consumption of aflatoxin contaminated produce, providing incentive price to farmers, building of consumer demands for aflatoxin free and good quality groundnuts are needed.

Bayesian belief networks as a tool for participatory integrated assessment and adaptive groundwater management: the Upper Guadiana Basin, Spain

Las Tablas de Daimiel, together with other wetlands in La Mancha, Spain, situated in the Upper Guadiana Basin (Fig. 1), has been catalogued as a Biosphere Reserve Area since 1981 as part of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere programme. Between the mid-1970s and late 1980s, over 150 000 hectares of new irrigation areas were established, mainly as a result of private initiative. The average recharge rate of groundwater in the western La Mancha aquifer in the Upper Guadiana Basin is estimated to be between 200 and 500 million m3 per year, in dry and wet years respectively. Recharge also depends on the depth of the water table (Martínez-Cortina & Cruces 2003). Abstraction reached 600 million m3 per year by the end of the 1980s. Up to this time a total of 3000–5000 million m3 of the Upper Guadiana Basin aquifer’s water reserves was withdrawn (Bromley et al. 2000; Lopéz-Geta et al. 2006). The intensive use of groundwater has been a main factor for the improvement of the social and economic situation in this region, with a population of about half a million people, and where the agricultural sector is very important (Llamas et al. 2006). Water-table drawdown due to the intensive abstraction of groundwater for irrigation has caused severe negative impacts on wetlands, streams and rivers, and has resulted in a lowering of groundwater levels by up to 50 m. The main conflicts in the area are between farmers and conservationists, between central, regional and local government water agencies, and between small farmers and big farmers. The conflicts began about three decades ago (Llamas 1988) and have not yet been settled. In 2001 the Spanish Parliament asked the Government to present a hydrological plan for the Upper Guadiana Basin within one year. More than 20 draft proposals have been presented, the last one in 2006 with a budget of almost four billion Euros. This proposal has been met with strong opposition from most farmer lobbies. The Guadiana Basin is one of seven trans-boundary case studies of the EU NeWater research project (New Approaches for Adaptive Water Management under Uncertainty). The principal water-management issues in the project are addressed by adaptive and integrated water-resource manage ment. This includes uncertainty and risk mitigation, governance, crosssectoral integration, scale analysis, information management, stakeholder participation, financial aspects, system resilience and vulnerability. One work block in the NeWater project has the task of translating research outputs into tools for practitioners and end-users. As part of this effort, Bayesian belief networks (Bns) were selected as one possible tool to be developed as an aid to stakeholder participation in integrated assessment of gaps, being a suitable tool for dialogue in order to identify gaps in water-resource management functions, gaps to meet the goals of the EU Water Framework Directive and to analyse management potentials and constraints. The purpose of this paper is to describe the testing of Bns as a tool for participatory integrated assessment and adaptive and integrated water-resource management in the Upper Guadiana Basin.

The Epidemiology of Calf Coccidiosis (Eimeria spp.) in Poland

The field survey has been performed to study the epidemiology of calf coccidiosis in Poland. It was found that the Eimeria spp. coccidia occurred on 93.0 % of the investigated farms. But the highly pathogenic species (E. bovis and E. zuernii) were found on 88.4 % of the investigated farms. Those were also found more frequently in bigger farms (92.3%) compared to smaller ones (85.1%). However, the intensity of E. bovis as well as E. zuernii infection remained, in most cases, low – 75.4 and 79.8% or moderate – 21.3 and 18.5%, respectively. The intensity of those infections was, respectively, 3.1x and 1.9x higher in big farms. Conclusion: The Eimeria spp. are very common pathogens in cattle farms in Poland. The highly pathogenic Eimeria occurred more frequently in big rather than in small farms.

Consumer Activism, EU Institutions and Global Markets: The Struggle over Biotech Foods

This paper takes a critical look at the struggle between the European Commission and European consumer markets over the future of agricultural biotechnology. While the Commission is keen to normalize the commercialization of biotech foods and crops, European consumers refuse to eat/buy products containing genetically modified organisms (GMO) and have effectively closed the market to GMO. Is this a rare example of European citizens prevailing over the elitist technical decision making procedures in Brussels and the pro-GMO coalition of agro-chemical companies, biotech research institutes, big farming, and selected member states? We show that peculiar circumstances enabled consumer-protection and environmental NGOs to mobilize consumers and to deflect the Commission’s goal of introducing biotech foods for a time, a rare achievement in the annals of EU policymaking. However, shifts in global agricultural markets will render this more difficult in the future, in part by awakening dormant tensions within the European anti-biotech movement.

The impact of various land use types on the living conditions of people employed in agriculture

Grain crops, industrial and fodder crops occupy determinant proportion of the sown area (in 2004 this figure was 88,4%). Cultivation typically produces mass products, with an almost entirely mechanised production structure. This fact was neither changed by the significant transformation of ownership and farming forms, and the headway of individual farming using smaller land sizes. It has a disadvantageous consequence that the adjusting of production to the site conditions of production and to the dimension of farming was not started in a perceptable degree. The production of mechanisable products regarded as big farm products — cereals, maize, rape, sunflower — are preferred both by farming organisations, and individual producers. The former production structure has been conserved owing to the shortage of capital, the lack of expertise of different fields, and the absence of market orientation. It is a certain furtherance that the role of individual farms is gradually becoming stronger in the production of the so-called “small products”. In the examined period the general decrease and occasionally the salient fluctuation of average yields can be observed (in recent years it increased). The annual fluctuation of yield levels and their change during the examined period was influenced not only by regional differences and the effect of weather, but also the shortcomings in agricultural technical equipment.

Nanomaterials meet increased scrutiny | Prions in soil | Chicken litter and arsenic | Radon guidelines miss the mark | Wind power in the backyard | Phosphorus removal: how low can we go? | News Briefs: Big farms have big impacts ` Ivory Coast chemical dump cleanup ` Nanotubes tracked in vivo ` International nuclear fusion plant approved ` Smog-creating

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVNEWSNEXTNanomaterials meet increased scrutiny | Prions in soil | Chicken litter and arsenic | Radon guidelines miss the mark | Wind power in the backyard | Phosphorus removal: how low can we go? | News Briefs: Big farms have big impacts ` Ivory Coast chemical dump cleanup ` Nanotubes tracked in vivo ` International nuclear fusion plant approved ` Smog-creating nitrogen drops in eastern U.S. ` New European pollution data | Removing nutrients and pharmaceuticalsKris Christen, Naomi Lubick, Anke Schaefer, Janet Pelley, and Prachi Patel-PreddCite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007, 41, 3, 668–674Publication Date (Web):February 1, 2007Publication History Published online1 February 2007Published inissue 1 February 2007https://doi.org/10.1021/es0724588RIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views696Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (365 KB) Get e-AlertsSUBJECTS:Arsenic,Nanomaterials,Nuclear fusion,Plants,Soils Get e-Alerts

THE STUDY OF THE SOMATIC CELLS COUNTING (SCC) FROM SHEEP MILK OBTAINED IN CONVERSION AND ORGANIC CERTIFIED FARMS

The study concerning the total somatic cells counting (SCC) from the sheep milk collected from conventional and organic farms shows the following aspects: The milk from conventional farms with different milking sheep effectives (10-50 heads; 51-100; 101-300; 301-500), contains between 98,000 and 5 millions SC/mL. The share of the samples with under 500,000 SC/mL (corresponding milk), was of 21.90%, bigger in small farms and smaller in big farms (31.20%, 12.60%, respectively). The share of the satisfactory milk samples (500,000 – 1,000,000 SC/mL) was 29.45% in average, and 29.83% for those which are on the limit of processing (1 – 2 millions SC/mL). The samples with over 2,000,000 SC/mL milk, of very low quality, recorded an average of 18.82%, and led to prejudices in its processing. The milk collected from farms in conversion or organic certified have a slight better technological quality (20-24% samples under 500,000 CS/mL and only 14-17% samples with over 2,000,000 CS/mL). This is not determined by the rearing system with a more serious technological flow.

Poor and their Livestock

Based on field work carried out in 13 locations across the country, this article aims to characterize the current situation regarding how the poor manage the water requirement for their livestock. It is found that each day on an average the poor require 13 litres of drinking water for animals and about 40 litres for washing and cleaning them. The poor households in western, central and southern parts of the country have a more difficult time managing water requirements of their livestock and in times of water scarcity these difficulties become very severe. They rely on water sources in the public domain and often use the sources created for human drinking end use. Markets for water for the poor appear to exist only in those pockets where livestock rearing has assumed commercial nature. Elsewhere, social norms such as the Jeevdaya tradition of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and reliance on water sources owned by the big farmers, are more the norm. Considering the importance of livestock to the household economy of the poor, greater public attention to this issue is called for.

Análise da estrutura e do estoque de fitomassa de uma floresta secundária da região de Manaus AM, dez anos após corte raso seguido de fogo

Na Amazônia, o fogo é ainda o principal trato cultural utilizado no preparo de solo para agricultura e pecuária, tanto pelos pequenos como pelos grandes fazendeiros. Combinando à baixa fertilidade do solo e ao baixo preço da terra, assim que as fontes naturais de nutrientes são exauridas, as áreas são abandonadas e novas florestas primárias são derrubadas e queimadas. Por conta disso, grandes extensões de área da Amazônia são cobertas por florestas secundárias originadas de áreas abandonadas pela agricultura ou pastagem. Este estudo foi conduzido em uma área experimental usada em uma pesquisa sobre eficiência de combustão e emissão de gás carbônico da floresta amazônica, localizada aproximadamente 50 km ao norte de Manaus. A vegetação da área experimental foi derrubada e queimada em 1991, simulando as condições em que o pequeno agricultor prepara o solo para plantios de subsistência. Dez anos após a queimada, a floresta secundária ainda é bastante diferente da floresta original. As espécies vegetais dominantes são, principalmente, das famílias botânicas Annonaceae, Arecaceae, Burseraceae, Cecropiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Lecythidaceae, Melastomataceae, Mimosaceae, Sapindaceae e Sterculiaceae. O estoque de biomassa recuperado, dez anos após a formação da capoeira estudada, é de aproximadamente 16%, ou seja, a capoeira apresenta um estoque médio de 56,2 t.ha-1 ± 12 (IC 95%), enquanto que o estoque da floresta primária é de 339,7 t.ha-1 ± 66,7 (IC 95 %).

Optimal hydrogen storage sizing for wind power plants in day ahead electricity market

Wind energy generation does not often match energy market prices, which are tightly related to consumer demand. The coupling of wind energy conversion system with a storage medium improves the programmability of such generation plants, allowing suppliers to bid both in the energy and services market, and providing suitable profit margins for investors. Today, the ‘renewable hydrogen’ system, where hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, as an energy storage medium represents a way to fully exploit the economic opportunity of energy markets. Optimal sizing of a wind energy storage plant based on hydrogen technology has been analysed. Algorithms are applied in different simulations, varying some parameters such as efficiency and power rating of the plant's sub-systems, that is, electrolyser, fuel cell and storage tank (H2) with regard to their actual and forecasted cost. As a case study, a big wind farm in Sicily and the day ahead market prices in the Italian power exchange have been considered. The results show the incidence of the different components over the total system cost, fixing the possible values that make such a plant feasible considering the net present value.

Economic Management Aspects of Cooperatives

It has been defined that not all aspects of classical theory of cooperatives can be applied to agriculture during the transitive period to the market economy. Some of them must be newly created. The most important conditions for successful establishment and development of cooperatives are economical management aspects: the accumulation of the primary stock capital (the size of the share), the rules of profit distribution, the right to vote, etc. One peculiarity of the agriculture of post-communist countries of this period that influences and hinders the activity of the cooperatives is the variety of farm sizes. In Lithuania thousands of small farms (with 2-3 ha of land) producing large part of the production exist beside the big farms (not numerous yet) and the agricultural communities with several hundred or even thousand ha of land, the great number of cattle, large green houses and manufacturing lots of produce. This stops the foundation and development of the cooperatives, because the small farmers without enough capital for the investments are unable to establish cooperatives. Big farmers and other agricultural subjects being more powerful economically and technically are not willing to cooperate with the small producers, because the cooperative regulations of Lithuania (like the rest countries) require that one member of the cooperative can have only one vote despite the size of his share. Besides the main part of the profit is distributed in accordance with the turnover, and only 10 per cent of the after-tax profit can be paid as dividends in accordance with the law (the maximum amount of the dividend is defined in the cooperative regulations). The traditional definition methods of the size of the members’ share (the amount of the member share is equal to all the cooperative members, as well as the number of votes, etc.) are peculiar to the cooperatives (the amount of the share of the member is equal to the value of the paid advances), and are successfully used in all the classical cooperatives in the world. Such cooperatives have been founded at the same time as the rest enterprises of various kinds, they have created good material basis and many of them are united in strong cooperative structures. They are economically strong and competitive in modern market. But not all the aspects of cooperative theory can be applied in agriculture during the transient period to market economy. Some of them must be newly created. The paper describes the ways enabling to theoretically differentiate the share of the cooperative members in dependence on the turnover. The ways can be group, individual, mixed and striped. The mechanism of application of the proposed methods for the cooperatives where the property of the members differs greatly is given. The share differentiation enables to comprise the member groups: the smallest group number is two – the stimulated and the overloaded members. When the groups are compiled, the turnover sum total of every individual group is the most important criterion. The share coefficients are also chosen in accordance with the turnover sum total of the group members, and the share is calculated and the profit is divided in accordance with the individual member turnover. The first and the last member of every group are the boundary members, and their turnovers are estimated as boundary turnovers. The sums of the overloaded and stimulated turnovers should not vary significantly. The less the turnover of the stimulated members, the easier is to divide their discount to the rest members of the group, because the same share value should be accumulated in either case. Theoretical assumptions are given and the proposed method for the definition of the distribution of the differentiated share value for the cooperative members enables to achieve: the smaller ratio between the share to be accumulated and the whole cooperative turnover; the bigger possibility to get the share paid in kind; the more speedy increase of the profit; the more simple way to get the loan.

Asymmetric Information on the Provision of Irrigation through a Public Infrastructure: The Case of the Peninsula of Santa Elena, Ecuador

This paper analyzes the problem of irrigation provision through a public infrastructure in an environment of Asymmetric Information (AI) in a dry area of Ecuador. Due to mismanagement of information and bad definition of goals by the government, a massive interest in acquiring communal lands started in the Peninsula of Santa Elena (PSE) after the government announced the construction plan of a large public irrigation system. During this process, information asymmetries regarding the potential of the irrigation system always prevailed in favor of land buyers. After eight years of functioning of the irrigation system, less than 20 percent of its capacity is in use. This leads to a situation in which the operation and maintenance of the canals is not appropriate, thus endangering sustainability of agriculture itself. This paper starts from the hypothesis that AI has an important impact over the observed pattern of land use and therefore irrigation in the PSE. Under the condition of AI for public goods with costly access, a test was conducted to determine which of the characteristics for an optimal allocation fits in the case of the PSE. Farmer's marginal cost of access to irrigation in connection with the concentration of the property of land by new landholders is considered the relevant informational variable. The most important result of this paper is that the presence of AI induces a scenario in which new landholders demand a smaller quantity of irrigation because of the high marginal costs of farming on big farm plots. A second important result suggests that subsidies to new landowners through the provision of irrigation appear to increase inequality with respect to peasant-commoners.

Assessment of Farm Support Policies and Likely Impact of CAP Implementation on Farm Structures and Sustainability in Bulgaria

This paper presents the dominating farming structure in Bulgaria on the eve of EU accession, and evaluates recent policies for farm and agricultural income support, and assesses likely consequences of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) implementation on farming structures and sustainability. We demonstrate that a specific farming structure dominates in the country consisting of numerous subsistence and small farms; and few large farms, cooperatives, and agro-firms; and widely used informal, vertically integrated, and mix forms. Public support to farming has been in an increase in recent years but is still far bellow the European level. Besides, only a fraction of farms benefit from some form of public support most of them being large farms, cooperatives, and tobacco producers. Farming is still an important income source for a good part of population. However, there is a significant gap in the monetary income in the large and some smaller-scale (intensive) enterprises, and the great majority of farms. Besides, development programs contribute less to agrarian and rural sustainability, and to decreasing divergence between richer and poor regions of the country. Assessment of likely short-term impact of the CAP implementation in Bulgaria shows that it will increase sustainability of farms bringing net financial benefits, enhancing competitiveness, and improving environmental performance. However, the chief beneficiary from the direct payments and other support measures will be the biggest farms in the most developed regions of the country. CAP programs will also give new possibility for extending activities of existing forms and bring to a life new organizational arrangements. All that will create more employment and income opportunities, and revitalize agrarian and rural economy. On the other hand, some effective smaller-size and family structure and livestock farms will have no or limited access to EU funding. Consequently, income and performance gap between farms of different types, sub-sectors and regions will widened unless special supplementary measures (coupled with production and regions) are taken. Besides, CAP will likely support ineffective and non-market modes (such as part-time and subsistence farming, production cooperatives), and therefore raise their sustainability and delay further restructuring. Last but not least important, there will be significant difficulties for introducing CAP and EU standards which will require more costs than in other countries, and will be associated with some time lag until full implementation, and would not involve less commercialized and subsistent farming.

Una élite rural. Los grandes ganaderos andaluces, siglos XIV-XX

In the largest estates of Lower Andalusia, livestock farming played a role as important as arable agriculture. In these kinds of estates, livestock farming was closely bound to agriculture, supplying the latter with employment, fertiliser, and cash. At the same time, cattle farming made use of fallow land and of the remnants of the harvests. Due to this link, the figures of the great cattle-owner and the great agriculturalist were blended together into that of the big farmer in charge of his estates. Such a farmer profited from his economic and social status, imposing his authority on the town councils, so as to incline to his own benefit the exploitation of collective rural spaces in which livestock were fed during most of the year.