Commercial Agricultural Sector Research Articles

The role of commercial agriculture in meeting sustainable development goals in South Africa: Evidence from municipal-level total factor productivity analysis

Improving agricultural productivity is critical, both locally and globally, particularly in the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eradicating poverty (SDG 1), increasing food production for food security (SDG 2), and promoting efficient use of agricultural resources and sustainable farming practices (SDG 12). This study examines and compares total factor productivity efficiency (TFPE) in the South African commercial agricultural sector, along with its drivers, using local municipal-level data. We used the Färe-Primont index to assess municipalities' TFPE levels, considering both traditional (economic) factors (labour, land, and operating expenses) and environmental variables (temperature, rainfall, and soil moisture index). Our TFPE index results are not only lower, but they show more variation across municipalities than the economic TFPE index, which is commonly used in agricultural productivity research. This implies that ignoring environmental variables may bias analysis; therefore, future studies should consider including environmental factors in their analyses. We then used hierarchical clustering to group municipalities with similar TFPE levels and components, followed by fractional regression to identify the drivers of efficiency levels. The cluster analysis results reveal that the best-performing municipalities are in cluster 4, comprising municipalities from the Western Cape Winelands specialising in horticulture production, municipalities near urban areas with better market proximity, those engaged in the global value chain, and those with a high proportion of farmers who own most of their farmland. Furthermore, the fractional regression results show that age, gender, race, market proximity, land use types, and production diversification are significant drivers of TFPE and its components. Our study offers insights into the divergent agricultural TFPE performance among municipalities and the underlying factors causing these disparities. The findings can inform the development of targeted strategies, particularly at the local level, aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity and making significant contributions to achieving the SDGs.

Colin Bundy, The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry: A Critique

The enormity of rural poverty in South Africa was ignored by government officials until academic works began to expose the extent of the problem in the latter part of the twentieth century. Colin Bundy’s Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry catalyzed debates on rural poverty that pervaded the area populated by black South Africans. Bundy’s work represents a significant advance in our understanding of the underdeveloped nature of African rural agriculture. It demystifies the myth of stagnant African agriculture alongside a dynamic commercial white agricultural sector. Through the Dualism Theory of Bundy, this paper seeks to understand which institution controlled the means of production and what form of domination or exploitation existed before the advent of colonialism. This paper further outlines Bundy’s arguments, analyses his critiques, and draws inferences from the arguments provided by other scholars to submit that no form of exploitation existed in pre-colonial South Africa.

Qualitative Inquiries by Transitioning to ‘Digital Methods’: A Case Study on Leaders’ Perspectives of Agriculture Research Management by Key Performance Indicators

Strategies redefined and then applied in the process of a research study determine primarily the quality of data/information gathered, and finally, the overall success of that research. This research aims to develop a qualitative study protocol that warrants online-based methodologies to be effectively used for obtaining information from knowledge-intensive entities. A case study was conducted to analyse the metadata of a series of in-person interviews that revealed how the top administration manages the performance of research and development in the commercial agriculture sector in Sri Lanka. The findings and knowledge acquired from the case study were utilized to propose an innovative protocol that can be used to conduct qualitative research. The metadata of the qualitative study was critically analysed in two phases (Phase 1 = 10, and Phase 2 = 32 interviews including Phase 1 interviews) to justify and validate the steps of the protocol. The proposed protocol with robust steps in inquiring is expected to advance the knowledge of the researchers/interviewers on producing better interview experiences in an online environment when a person in the upper echelon of an institute participates as an interviewee. According to the authors’ judgment and experience, the protocol proposed is one of the foremost rationalized attempts to establish an informed guideline for conducting qualitative research in similar capacities and environments.

Single window performance management: a strategy for evaluation integrated research culture in the commercial agriculture sector

Single window performance management: a strategy for evaluation integrated research culture in the commercial agriculture sector

“Connected researches” in “smart lab bubble”: A lifeline of techno-society space for commercial agriculture development in “new normal”

Execution of a well-defined program of research targeting the commercial agriculture sector could be considered as a strategic change towards keeping a country on the track of achieving the second sustainable development goal (SDG), i.e. ‘zero hunger by 2030’. To make this a reality, analyzing of drawbacks of the present research environment and finding solutions through digital interventions is warranted. This paper elaborates on those issues faced by researchers who are isolated from human-to-human physical contact in carrying out research in commercial agriculture, especially in COVID-19. Further, a conceptual model to connect and practice research beyond physical presence by digital transformations of organization design of research institutes under these circumstances is suggested. The framework proposed characterizes a connected lab complex – designated as the “Smart Lab Bubble”, to examine its potential in meeting the real needs of a researcher in a disconnected society to produce impactful research for the agriculture sector. It emphasizes the fact that this kind of model shall resiliently be adopted in technological sciences, with the backing from those non-technological sciences like economics, humanities, and management, to make the concept of a “society-friendly innovative research culture” a reality. In light of this, it would expect to leverage technologies to create new services and values for various stakeholders including the agriculture community during this pandemic. The digitally endorsed performance management envisaged under this framework, along with relevant policy measures, is supposed to be building an agile architecture that would not incur technical debt in a newly formed cultural position.

Intelligently driven performance management: an enabler of real-time research forecasting for innovative commercial agriculture

Research in commercial agriculture is instrumental to achieve the targets set under the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), i.e., ‘Zero Hunger by 2030.’ Execution of research for the success of commercial agriculture becomes a tedious task and research organizations have been long struggling to assess their performance unequivocally in the face of COVID-19. Any evacuation plan in place to improve the performance, monitoring, and evaluation of a research institute must guarantee that the institute is on the right momentum and let it evades metrics-obsessed research drives during this pandemic. A survey was conducted through the participation of the topmost administrators attached to key research institutes working on agriculture in Sri Lanka to explore the current performance management practices deeply. The conclusions derived from a thematic analysis of the survey data were used to propose a set of solutions that facilitate a well-thought research agenda in a digitally transformed performance management system. The solutions imply that intelligently driven key performance measurements worked by artificial intelligence and big data could be used with policy innovations to support research integrity and assessment security within the coexistence of humans and machines for the well-being of research development in the commercial agriculture sector.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43545-022-00484-8.

Spatial Economy Approach to Assess The Effectiveness of Poverty Treatment Policy Models and Regional Economic Impacts

Poverty in Indonesia is still a major problem in national development. Therefore, poverty is still a top priority program that must be carried out by various regions in Indonesia. Various models of regional policies have been created to promote poverty alleviation. This study aims to evaluate and analyze the poverty alleviation policy model that has been carried out by the Sumedang Regency Government and the Magelang Regency Government and its impact on the socio-economic sector through a spatial approach. The research was carried out with a qualitative descriptive method using secondary data derived from official government documents covering poverty alleviation policies and their performance achievements. This study is able to show a scientific deepening of the form of poverty reduction supported by the sensitivity of regional policies to provide space in the process of spatial-based regional economic development. The results of this study present a partial spatial strategy that must be carried out, including agricultural intensification from the small farming sector, the development of a more dynamic commercial agriculture sector, providing growth stimulation in the non-agricultural rural sector, shifting the productive age population and providing a safety net for those trapped in poverty. poverty as an alternative in solving poverty alleviation. This strategy can be used as a recommendation for further improvement of poverty alleviation policies by presenting policy implications and a roadmap for the action plan.

COSTO DE OPORTUNIDAD DEL SECTOR AGRÍCOLA COMERCIAL EXPORTADOR EN EL PERÚ, 1998-2017

The objective of the investigation was to determine the opportunity cost in the commercial export agricultural sector, based on in the economic foundations for Peru, period 1998-2017. The methodology of the research was explanatory and was carried out under a longitudinal non-experimental design, with the application of the capital asset price model (CAPM) for determining the opportunity cost of the exporting commercial agricultural sector of Peru, in the period 1998-2017. Data were processed from the share price indices of 19 agricultural companies listed on the Lima Stock Exchange. The results showed the relationship of market performance variables and systematic risk (Beta) in the determination of the opportunity cost of the commercial agricultural exporting sector, obtaining a value greater than 29%. In conclusion, there is viability of agricultural projects and businesses that previously were not because much higher rates were applied, managed by the banking system in Peru.

Breaking New Frontiers in Nigeria Commercial Agricultural Sector and the Exigency for Active Involvement of Local Governments

This paper is an assessment of breaking new frontiers in Nigeria commercial agricultural sector and the exigency for active involvement of local governments. It was concluded that unlocking Nigeria’s full agricultural potential requires that Nigeria solve the underlying challenges in its agricultural system, which includes; policy framework, finance and risk management, agricultural technology, political commitment amongst others. The paper recommended that the Local Government Service Commission should be strengthened and accorded constitutional recognition, and given the commission’s laudable objectives, such strengthening would support the human resource and staffing development of local governments in Nigeria, furthermore, Local government administrators in Nigeria should be encouraged to implement the agricultural policies of the government at the grassroots. Keywords: Commercial Agriculture, Third Tier of Government, Grass Root Development, Agricultural Programmes. DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-6-09 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

Transformative Coalition in Wisconsin

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsJane CollinsJane Collins is professor of Community & Environmental Sociology and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin. Her research on gender and labor has focused on family farms in Peru, the commercial agricultural sector in Brazil, the apparel industry in the United States and Mexico and the low-wage service sector in the United States. Her books include Both Hands Tied: Welfare Reform and the Race to the Bottom in the Low Wage Labor Market (2010, with Victoria Mayer) and Threads: Gender, Labor and Power in the Global Apparel Industry (2003). Her article “Theorizing Wisconsin’s 2011 Protests” appeared in American Ethnologist in 2012.

An Investigation of the Impact of Food Aid on Food Crop Production in Zimbabwe

The impact of food aid on food crop production has been subject to debate for a long time in literature. A couple of studies suggest that food aid has a disincentive effect on food crops production. This study uses an autoregressive distributed model to investigate whether there are effects of food aid on maize crop production in Zimbabwe from 1980-2007. The study focuses on two agricultural sectors, namely; commercial and communal agricultural sectors. Food aid shipments significantly affect maize crop production in the commercial agricultural sector. We find no evidence of the impact of food aid on food production in the communal agricultural sector. The study recommends that trade of food crops should remain liberalized to ensure that producers realize a return that is in line with world market price. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p77

Plantation Systems, Labour Regimes and the State in Malaysia, 1900–2012

Plantation production systems, plantation labour regimes and a foreign workforce typified European investment in the large‐scale agricultural sector in colonial Malaya. Analogous structures and trends continue to be influential in Malaysia's contemporary commercial agricultural sector. Initially, the politics and organization of the East India Company and the pursuit of tropical commodities corresponded with the facilitation and channelling of Indian migrant labour for coffee and sugar cultivation in Malaya. The subsequent development of the rubber industry represented the first major transition to more highly capitalized large‐scale farming for international markets. In the 1990s, oil palm replaced rubber as the premier crop in a second agrarian transition, consistent with Malaysia's economic and political imperatives, social policy and the global demand for palm oil. There are important continuities in the rubber and oil palm agricultural transitions. These include comparable plantation structures, labour systems and a continuing reliance on migrant labour, despite the growth of the national labour force. The correlation between plantation systems and Malaysia's foreign labour policy should be viewed through the prism of challenges to large‐scale agricultural production and countervailing forces that might be acting on the Malaysian state.

Deregulation, Trade Reform and Innovation in the South African Agriculture Sector

This case study examines the effect of deregulation and trade reform on South Africa’s agriculture sector, which is highly dualistic consisting of a developed commercial sector and a subsistence farming sector. Deregulation and trade reform has led to substantial changes in innovation in the commercial agriculture sector, such as wine and fruit, leading to a large change in composition while innovation seems to have been more limited in subsistence agriculture, which lacks absorption capacity. Legal uncertainties related to land reform may also be a factor which can negatively affect innovation in the commercial farming sector. Keywords: innovation, deregulation, trade reform, South Africa, agriculture, wine, fruit, field crops, foreign investment, absorption capacity.

Pesticide use among emerging farmers in South Africa: contributing factors and stakeholder perspectives

The commercial agricultural sector in South Africa has historically been dominated by large-scale operations run by white owners and managers. In redressing this imbalance, black farmers classified as ‘emerging’ are being encouraged to engage in high-input agricultural production in order to obtain ‘commercial’ status. Since existing practices in commercial agriculture rely heavily on pesticides, emerging farmers aspiring to become commercial are pressured to adopt and/or increase the use of pesticides. However, problems of access to land, finances, resources, skills and markets overshadow the health and safety of these farmers and their labour force that may be affected by exposure to pesticides. This paper presents the results of a policy study based on primary interview data with key stakeholders and secondary documentary review data, to illustrate how pesticides are used in an occupational health and safety vacuum because the focus of key institutions is rather on economic productivity.

The No. 1 Ladies' Poultry Farm: A feminist political ecology of urban agriculture in Botswana*

The research draws on a feminist political ecology perspective to demonstrate that agrarian restructuring and rural–urban transformation in Botswana offers women opportunities to renegotiate their marginalised positionality within the commercial urban agricultural sector in Greater Gaborone. Men and women participate in equal numbers, and both perceive of this sector as offering them new and accessible avenues for economic and social advancement. Although there is continuity of women's social and economic disadvantage relative to men from rural to urban contexts, women are actively making claims on land and capitalising on their traditional roles and responsibilities associated with poultry production. This negotiation of continuity and change in gendered positionality reflects and indeed suggests positive changes for women in urban Botswana, pointing specifically to the transformatory potential of urban agriculture despite existing constraints at the sectoral level. The research highlights the ways in which women are (re)defining their constraints, and seeking out alternative opportunities for empowerment and action. To this end gender remains an integral part of and key element to understanding agrarian restructuring and rural–urban transformation in Botswana. El No. 1 Granja de Aves de Damas: Una Ecología Política Feminista de Agricultura Urbana en Botswana. Esta investigación usa una perspectiva de ecología política feminista para demostrar que la reestructuración agraria y la transformación rural–urbano en Botswana ofrecen mujeres oportunidades para renegociar sus posiciones marginales adentro del sector de agricultura comercial en la ciudad de Gabarone. Los hombres y las mujeres participan en cifras iguales, y los dos perciben que este sector les ofrece avenidas nuevas y accesibles para avanzar económicamente y socialmente. Aunque hay continuidad de la desventaja económica y social de mujeres relativa a hombres desde el contexto rural a urbano, mujeres están activamente haciendo derechos de terreno y capitalizando en sus roles y responsabilidades tradicionales asociados con la producción de aves. Esta negociación de continuidad y cambio en sus posiciones de género reflejan y por supuesto sugieren cambios positivos para las mujeres en Botswana, específicamente indicando la potencial de transformación de agricultura urbana a pesar de las limitaciones existente en el sector. Esta investigación subraya las maneras en que mujeres están redefiniendo sus limitaciones y buscan oportunidades alternativos para apoderadamente y acción. En esta vía, género se queda un elemento significado y un parte integral de entender la reestructuración agraria y la transformación rural–urbano en Botswana.

Corn Market Integration in Porfirian Mexico

This article aims to cover an important aspect of the economic history of Porfirian Mexico: the integration of agricultural domestic markets. Because corn was the staple crop of the commercial agricultural sector, it becomes the protagonist of this story. Panel techniques are applied to a price-convergence model. Although still unfinished on the eve of the Mexican Revolution, corn market integration substantially accelerated during the Porfiriato and ended up further integrated than estimated by Kuntz. Railroads were not only indispensable to the economic growth of Mexico, but also played a key role in the process of corn market integration.

Dual Technological Development in Botswana Agriculture: A Stochastic Input Distance Function Approach

To improve the welfare of the rural poor and keep them in the countryside, the government of Botswana has been spending 40% of the value of agricultural GDP on agricultural support services. But can investment make smallholder agriculture prosperous in such adverse conditions? This paper derives an answer by applying a two‐output six‐input stochastic translog distance function, with inefficiency effects and biased technical change to panel data for the 18 districts and the commercial agricultural sector, from 1979 to 1996. This model demonstrates that herds are the most important input, followed by draft power, land and seeds. Multilateral indices for technical change, technical efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) show that the technology level of the commercial agricultural sector is more than six times that of traditional agriculture and that the gap has been increasing, due to technological regression in traditional agriculture and modest progress in commercial agriculture. Since the levels of efficiency are similar, the same pattern is repeated by the TFP indices. This result highlights the policy dilemma of the trade‐off between efficiency and equity objectives.

Who shaped South Africa's land reform policy?

This paper investigates the South African (land reform) policy formulation process in the period 1993 to 2000. The paper argues that the political process of policy formulation and the nature of subsequent policies are the results of the distribution of power within a given society, as well as globally, and the interaction (inclusion or exclusion) of a variety of local and international interest groups and individuals within the context of a particular political system. The wide range of actors that shaped South African land policy include the former National Party government, the World Bank, the African National congress (ANC), rural and land‐related non‐governmental organizations, the white commercial agricultural sector, the National African Farmers' Union, the former Department of Native Affairs, and the new departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs. This paper gives a brief account and analysis of the role played by each of the organizations or institutions mentioned above, but also highlights the fact that the poorest and most marginalized sectors of South African society were not part of the policy development process. As a result, a three‐part, legalistic, demand‐driven, market‐based (i.e. willing‐buyer and willing‐seller) land reform programme was developed.

Roles and perspectives of the policy‐maker, affected water sector and scientist in integrated water resources management: a case study from South Africa

Following a definition of integrated water resources management (IWRM) and who the various stakeholders are in IWRM, the roles and views of three different stakeholders are discussed from a South African perspective. The role of national policy‐maker is that of enabling/facilitating IWRM in light of principles and provisions enshrined in South Africa's National Water Act of 1998. Commercial agriculture is selected as one sector markedly affected by new legislation related to IWRM. Positives of the legislation are first outlined, but perceived ‘threats’ by the commercial agriculture sector of legislation then come under the spotlight. These are categorized into questions on water allocation, water conservation and water management. The role of the scientist, more specifically the hydrologist, in enabling/facilitating IWRM is viewed from perspectives of the scientist's being the ‘objective broker’ between stakeholders with their own agendas, to information provider, of being model developer, of pre‐empting future questions on IWRM, as communicator and as a capacity builder.

Agricultural Wage Rates Under Forced and Free Labour: Pre‐1944 and Post‐1954 Guatemala

From 1871 to 1944 liberal trade and foreign investment policies were combined with illiberal labour coercion to create a classic export economy based on coffee plantations. The substantial reallocation of labour from the subsistence‐oriented peasant economy to the coffee sector is associated with a sustained reduction in the agricultural wage rate. Throughout the forced labour period the wage was below a subsistence level, made possible by rural workers’ access to land for their own subsistence production. The post‐1954 free labour period is associated with a once‐and‐for‐all doubling of the real wage to a subsistence level, consistent with the emergence in this period of a sizeable landless rural labour force. In the free labour era, the commercial agricultural sector has grown in ‘classical’ fashion, drawing on labour at a virtually constant, subsistence wage.