Large Landowners Research Articles

Will farmers seek environmental regularization in the Amazon and how? Insights from the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) questionnaires

The future availability and quality of natural resources essential to life such as ecosystem services and biodiversity depend on the conservation and restoration of native vegetation. The Brazilian Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL) requires farmers to conserve a minimum percentage of native vegetation within their properties as Legal Reserves (LR) as well as riparian forests and hilltops as Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs). To monitor the conservation and facilitate the compliance of these areas, the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA) were created. However, so far, little is known about farmers' interest in joining the PRA and the actions they intend to take to correct their past illegal deforestation. This article explores a unique dataset comprising of the individual answers of 97 thousand farmers in the states of Pará and Mato Grosso given to the Brazilian Forest Service in the process of joining at the national rural environmental registry system. We found that the adherence to the PRA is positively correlated with recognition of the LR deficit and the size of the rural property. Also medium and large landowners and crop producers tend to seek compliance by taking actions outside the farm (compensation), while small farmers and squatters are more likely to act inside their own areas (restoration). Understanding farmers’ interests and options for LR compliance can contribute for the formulation of more effective implementation strategies for PRA and NVPL.

Technical efficiency and the adoption of multiple agricultural technologies in the mountainous areas of Northern Vietnam

We examine the role of adopting environmentally-friendly agricultural technologies on the technical efficiency (TE) among maize farmers in the mountainous areas of Northern Vietnam. While technology adoption is non-randomly assigned to farmers, we draw on recent advances of machine learning models to identify farm adoption profiles of multiple agricultural technologies. Combining the stochastic production frontier with the inverse probability weights, we compare the TE between adopters and non-adopters. Although, farmers adopting new seed varieties achieve significantly higher TE than others, dissemination of integrated pest management practices by extension agents affect negatively farm performance. Results show that there is a positive relationship between actions to reduce the vulnerability of landscapes to soil erosion and corn productivity. We find heterogeneous effects of adopting multiple environmentally friendly technologies on TE. Farmers who are a member of cooperative and employ organic fertilizer are associated with higher odds to adopt new seed varieties. Maize cultivation in sloping land and farmers with large landholdings tend to be the key drivers in the provision of farm advisory services and the exertion of soil erosion control techniques. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the empirical findings are largely robust against the hidden hazard of unmeasured confounders.

Neoliberalizing Spaces in the Philippines: Suburbanization, Transnational Migration, and Dispossession by Arnisson Andre Ortega

Reviewed by: Neoliberalizing Spaces in the Philippines: Suburbanization, Transnational Migration, and Dispossession by Arnisson Andre Ortega Chester Antonino C. Arcilla ARNISSON ANDRE ORTEGA Neoliberalizing Spaces in the Philippines: Suburbanization, Transnational Migration, and Dispossession Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2018. 361 pages. The Philippines is in a neoliberal urban upheaval, Arnisson Andre Ortega declares in this groundbreaking book, Neoliberalizing Spaces in the Philippines: Suburbanization, Transnational Migration, and Dispossession. He compellingly shows the spatial contradictions in the country's national capital region, Metro Manila, which is increasingly being neoliberalized, i.e., designed and developed for elite accumulation whereby land and housing are commodified to provide real estate profits while marginalized populations are displaced. Ortega accomplishes the difficult task of linking contemporary economic and land-use developments with the country's postcolonial history. Since the late 1980s, the real estate industry has been the Philippine economy's backbone, driven by overseas-based Filipinos' (OFs) desire for safe, exclusive suburban spaces and their transnational remittances. Surrounding Metro Manila are massive constructions of gated subdivisions that are often sold to "productive and successful" OFs. Within the metropolis, high-end condominiums, malls, and services in central business districts drive development to attract foreign investments and remittances. These processes of gentrification and socialized housing projects are mired in violence and dispossessions. The state drives out "unproductive [End Page 145] and unsuccessful" Filipinos—peasants, informal settler families (ISF), and indigenous peoples (IP)—from their homes and livelihoods, often violently, to make way for such projects. Because the law requires the relocation of ISFs before demolition, the socialized housing market in low-value peri-urban areas that sell homes to the evicted provides an additional opportunity for real estate accumulation. The relocatees fend for themselves as they struggle to meet amortization payments in resettlement sites, where livelihood and social services are difficult to access. Due to the general failure of the land reform program and the dominance of elite-influenced urban planning, large landholdings—often formerly export-oriented, colonial-era haciendas—are usually the ones converted for gentrification and socialized housing. The author is a geographer teaching at Syracuse University in New York and a former faculty member of the University of the Philippines Population Institute. In the book's introduction, Ortega shares his personal history as a son of peasant migrants to the city and among the first in his family to obtain a university education. As an engaged scholar committed to social justice, he admits his work is necessarily incomplete and explicitly political. His earlier researches on critical geography, migration, and spatial dispossessions have appeared in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Urban Geography, Cities, and Geoforum, among others. In chapter 1 Ortega draws from a comprehensive review of Marxist, postcolonial, and critical urbanism scholarship to analyze urban space in the Global South as containers where global economic, political, and ideological flows are territorially embedded within the postcolonial state. These spatial configurations in turn reconstitute local social relations. Focusing on the period after the 1986 EDSA People Power, which restored liberal democracy and deregulated markets in the Philippines, chapter 2 tackles neoliberal restructuring, land commodification, and the reframing of the Filipino values of sipag (industry) at tiyaga (persistence) toward the ideal of the entrepreneurial, productive Filipino typified by successful OFs. Chapter 3 documents the rise of the real estate industry, identifies the major players, and discusses industry practices that supply OFs their suburban dream homes. In chapter 4 Ortega maps out the neoliberal spatialization in Metro Manila's peri-urban fringe, focusing on the transformation of the Canlubang Sugar Estates in Laguna. He notes how places of consumption have replaced the colonial población (town center) as a critical urban space, reflecting the [End Page 146] shift from agriculture and manufacturing to the service economy. As typified by the case of Canlubang, exclusive subdivisions would cluster around the mall, the archetypal site of consumption in Philippine cities. Chapter 5 studies the idealized "global" and "suburban" (168) lifestyles of returning OFs and traces the expansion of master-planned exclusive communities in the south of Metro Manila. The subsequent chapter descends to the everyday life inside these gated neighborhoods and finds economic anxieties and loneliness...

STATE RELIGIOUS POLICY AND PROPERTY OF THE MONASTERIES OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH (LATE XVIII - EARLY XX CENTURY)

The article examines the state policy on the monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church in the late XVIII - early XX centuries. It was also examined the Russian government’s secularization policy on church property, especially monastic landownership and peasants, leading to the liquidation of many monasteries, and the remaining ones were deprived of their main sources of income and placed in economic dependence on the state. The monasteries that continued to exist were divided into three classes, the size of their funding and the staffing norms of the monks were set. All other monasteries that did not receive funding from the state became “regular” and could only exist at their own expense. During this period, the number of monasteries almost halved. The size of their land also decreased. It was found out that in the post-reform period the financial situation of the monasteries improved significantly, their sources of income were analyzed. They started becoming large landowners again, thanks to which they could significantly expand economic activity, the financial and economic position of the monasteries became quite strong. In particular, attention is focused on the economic activities of the Kyiv-Brotherhood Epiphany Monastery of the Kyiv Diocese. With the change of authorities in 1917, there were changes in the attitude of the state to Orthodox monasteries. The first decrees of the Soviet government concerning the issues of confiscation of monastic land holdings and property, their nationalization are analyzed. Monasteries and church communities were deprived of property rights and legal personality. All property of religious institutions, including monasteries, was transferred to the People’s Commissariat of Social Security. In the vast majority of Orthodox monasteries, the Soviet authorities turned them into economic objects or subjected them to complete destruction.

СОЦІАЛЬНО-ПОЛІТИЧНІ ПЕРЕДУМОВИ ДЛЯ ВИНИКНЕННЯ ГРОМАДСЬКИХ ОБ'ЄДНАНЬ В ЗАХІДНОМУ УКРАЇНИ

In the second half of the XIX century Western Ukrainian lands suitable for agricultural development could not provide their inhabitants with adequate well-being. Moreover, famine often prevailed in the region, and poverty raged. Ukrainians, who made up the majority of the rural population of the region, were particularly affected: almost 80% [7, p. 4]. Government statistics at the time tried to prove that all conditions were created for Western Ukrainian peasants to ensure their well-being. At the same time, for example, the following figures were used: peasants owned 62.2% of the land area, while large landowners, mostly Austrians, Poles, Germans, Jews and other peoples, only 37.8% of agricultural land. It would seem that Ukrainian peasant farms, which had the majority of arable land in their use, could prosper. However, the other side of this statistic was not mentioned: first of all, it was hidden that the best lands belonged to the owners of large farms. In addition, there were 3,734 communities in the areas used by the majority of peasants. Therefore, if we compare the size of the area of a large landowner and the average peasant economy, the peasant economy was 320 times smaller than the agricultural land of a large landowner. At the end of the 40s of the XIX century in almost all European countries the economic crisis deepened, mass strikes began. Governments became increasingly helpless, unable to control the situation. Political demands began to be put forward more and more often to the economic demands of the workers and peasants. The spirit of revolution hovered in the air. And soon it began. The revolutionary events that swept Europe in the spring of 1948 brought the peoples of Europe hope for a better future. The consequence of this revolutionary upsurge was the abolition of serfdom in the Austrian Empire, which also ruled Western Ukraine. First of all, the Ukrainian intelligentsia, which was based on priests, teachers, and lawyers, began active social and political work. However, the majority of the population still stayed away from politics: neither its general education nor their financial situation contributed to participation in the national movement. That is, the «Spring of Nations» still did not contribute to the «mass, widespread awakening of the national consciousness of the Ukrainian people of Galicia, Bukovina, Transcarpathia» [17, p. 15]. This required a lot of effort, first of all to inform the nation competently and politically about what educated people had to do [22].

Dinâmica Espaço-Temporal da Paisagem Semiárida no Município de Apodi/RN e seus Condicionantes Socioeconômicos e Ambientais

Apodi, assim como muitos municípios do Nordeste, passou por mudanças estruturais direcionadas por dois condicionantes principais: alternância de modelos socioeconômicos e períodos de seca sazonais e prolongadas. Dentre os modelos socioeconômicos, Apodi passou por latifúndio, reforma agrária, desapropriação de terras para perímetros irrigados e instalação de empresas do agronegócio. Esses condicionantes impactaram negativamente a cobertura vegetal, degradando a paisagem e ameaçando o Sítio Arqueológico Lajedo de Soledade (SALS) situado em Apodi, importante patrimônio da humanidade. Nesse contexto, o objetivo desse estudo foi analisar as mudanças espaço-temporais na paisagem no entorno do SALS e inferir sobre a influência de condicionantes socioeconômicos e ambientais. Para isso, utilizou-se os seguintes dados: histórico de ocupação e uso da terra, precipitação mensal, produção agrícola das principais lavouras temporárias e perenes, e oito imagens capturadas pelos sensores TM e OLI dos satélites LANDSAT 5 e 8, no período compreendido entre 1984 e 2018. Os dados de precipitação foram modelados com o Índice de Precipitação Padronizado (SPI). As imagens foram classificadas com o plugin SCP (QGIS) e a qualidade avaliada com o Índice de Kappa. Foram registradas três secas prolongadas e extremas na região: final das décadas de 1980 e de 1990 e entre 2013 e 2017. A classificação das imagens indicou períodos de retração da vegetação densa e expansão do solo exposto no período de decadência da cotonicultura, e a inversão desses padrões no período pós a reforma agrária, com o estabelecimento da agricultura familiar com base agroecológica. Esse padrão foi novamente invertido, com a menor proporção de vegetação densa (5%) e maior proporção de solo exposto (45%) observadas nessa paisagem no período de instalação do perímetro irrigado para o agronegócio. Assim, foi possível inferir que a alternância dos modelos socioeconômicos condicionou a dinâmica espaço-temporal da cobertura vegetal e foi responsável pelos quadros de degradação ambiental no entorno do SALS, sendo esses padrões agravados com a recorrência de períodos de seca extrema e prolongada. Nesses períodos, o SALS provavelmente esteve mais vulnerável aos efeitos diretos e indiretos das atividades antropogências comuns nessa paisagem. Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of the Semi-Arid Landscape in Apodi/RN and its Socioeconomic and Environmental Drivers A B S T R A C TApodi, like many municipalities in the Northeast, underwent structural changes conducted by two main drivers: alternation of socioeconomic models and seasonal and prolonged periods of drought. Among the socioeconomic models, Apodi passed by large landowners, agrarian reform, expropriation of land for irrigated perimeters and installation of agribusiness companies. These conditions negatively impacted the vegetation cover, degrading the landscape and threatening the Lajedo de Soledade Archaeological Site (SALS) located in the middle of this landscape, an important cultural and environmental patrimony. In this context, the objective of this study was to analyze the spatio-temporal changes in the landscape around SALS and to infer about the influence of socioeconomic and environmental drivers. For this, a survey of the region's history, precipitation data, agricultural production of the main crops, and eight images captured by the TM and OLI sensors of the LANDSAT 5 and 8 satellites, between 1984 and 2018, were used. Precipitation data was modeled using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The images were classified using the SCP plugin (QGIS) and the quality was assessed using the Kappa Index. It was observed that there were three prolonged and extreme droughts events in the region: late 1980s and 1990s and between 2013 and 2017. The classification of the images indicated periods of dense vegetation reductions and exposed soil expansions, in the period of decay of cotton culture, and the reversal of these patterns after agrarian reform, with the establishment of family farming on an agroecological basis. This pattern was again reversed, with the lowest proportion of dense vegetation observed (5%) and and higher proportion of exposed soil (45%) observed in this landscape, during the period of installation of the irrigated perimeter for agribusiness. Thus, it was possible to infer that the alternation of socioeconomic models conditioned the spatio-temporal dynamics of the vegetation cover and was responsible for the environmental degradation conditions surrounding the SALS, these patterns being aggravated by the recurrence of periods of extreme and prolonged drought. During these periods, SALS was probably more vulnerable to the direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic activities common in this landscape.Keywords: Caatinga; Agriculture; Drought; Remote Sensing.

Аграристські практики вирішення аграрного питання у період Української революції (1917 – 1921 рр.)

Introduction. The authors reveal that one of the phenomena of Central-South-Eastern European history of the second halfof the XIX – fi rst third of the XX century, in particular the revolutionary upheavals of the early XX century, was agrarianism.It was the offi cial policy of the governments of Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and so on. Ukraine in the earlytwentieth century wasn’t an exception, given the agrarian nature of the then Ukrainian society. During the years of theUkrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, which, among other things, had a distinctly peasant character, the agrarian practices ofP. Skoropadsky and P. Wrangel were marked by the agrarianist content.Purpose. The authors of the article, taking into account the phenomenal nature of agrarianism, the peasant character ofthe Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1921, aim to study Ukrainian agrarianism (agrarianist practices) as a component of domesticeconomic governmental policy aimed at solving the agrarian/peasant issue in Ukraine in 1917-1921.Results. First, these leaders understood the peasantry as an active subject of history, the social basis of the state. Theyalso had a corresponding attitude to the peasantry, which is refl ected in legislation and agricultural policy. Second, theyunderstood agricultural policy broadly as a component of domestic economic policy, containing socio-economic and sociopolitical components. Socio-economic part – land reform and settlement of current agricultural affairs: improving landmanagement, improving agro-technical land cultivation, providing peasant households with agricultural equipment, seeds,working cattle and more. Socio-political aspect – forms and methods of cooperation between the authorities and the peasantry,the subjectivization of the peasantry in the current political and legal model of the state.Conclusion. Third, both P. Skoropadsky and P. Wrangel sought not a monarchical, not a socialist, but an alternative way,and were supporters of an innovative model of agricultural development. In their understanding – highly cultured peasanthouseholds. Fourth, the instrument of subjectivization of the peasantry – the social basis of the state for them was privatepeasant ownership of land. The latter was considered the foundation of culture and civilization, the inviolable principle ofexistence of the state. Providing peasants with private ownership of land and a signifi cant restriction on large land holdings isthe cornerstone of the agrarian practices of P. Skoropadsky and P. Wrangel.

The Persistence of Rural Underdevelopment: Evidence from Land Reform in Italy

Patchiness in rural development remains a salient feature of many developed and developing countries that have struggled historically to overcome enormous national disparities in economic structure and well-being. This paper examines how one major, explicit rural policy ostensibly aimed at rural advancement – land reform – can impact uneven development in the countryside. It does so in Italy, where a major land reform redistributed large landholdings to individual peasant families after World War II. Based on original fine-grained data on land redistribution and a geographical regression discontinuity analysis that takes advantage of Italy’s zonal approach to land reform, I find that greater land reform fueled underdevelopment and precarity locally over the long term. Several related mechanisms delayed development in land reform zones: a slower transition out of agriculture, lower labor mobility, and an ageing demographic. These are generalizable mechanisms that could operate in other cases of land reform aside from Italy.

АРИСТОКРАТИЯ И ЕЕ ВЛАДЕНИЯ В ДВУХ СТОЛИЦАХ РОССИЙСКОЙ ИМПЕРИИ, 1890–1914 ГГ.: ГОРОДСКАЯ СОБСТВЕННОСТЬ КАК ИСТОЧНИК БЛАГОСОСТОЯНИЯ

The article considers an issue of changing the attitude of the Russian aristocracy to their urban possessions in St. Petersburg and Moscow in the context of the capitalist economy of 1890–1914. The study main attention is focused of the composition and value of that property, the nature of its use, the size and dynamics of the urban real estate income. The article analyzes the factors, primarily related to the favorable economic environment and the overall development of the industrial city space in the modern era, which contributed to a fairly successful adaptation of the large landowners from the aristocracy to the new economic realities. The research is based on the archival materials from the personal funds of the largest landowners of the Russian Empire that contain a detailed economic documentation on many urban possessions. The most important conclusions should be attributed primarily to the observed economic pragmatism of the aristocratic owners in relation to the housing complexes and urban areas. Along with spending heavily on their Palace residences in the capitals and maintaining their representative status, they started investing significant assets in other types of urban real estate – the apartment and commercial buildings. This allowed the aristocracy in the period between 1890 and 1914 to significantly increase their revenue from urban property, which, in terms of volume, ranked second after the income from agricultural estates. It can be stated that St. Petersburg and Moscow were then considered by the aristocracy not only as the centers of attraction due to the proximity of the Imperial Court and government institutions, but also as attractive objects for capital investment, the use of technical innovations and a comfortable private life.

Taking the Land to Make the City: A Bicoastal History of North America by Mary P. Ryan

Reviewed by: Taking the Land to Make the City: A Bicoastal History of North America by Mary P. Ryan Steven L. Driever Taking the Land to Make the City: A Bicoastal History of North America. Mary P. Ryan. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019. Pp. 438, photographs, maps, footnotes, index. $40.00, hardcover, ISBN 978-1-4773-1783-9. $40.00, eBook, ISBN 978-1-4773-1785-3. Mary P. Ryan expounds on the history of Baltimore and San Francisco through a chronological comparison beginning with the first human occupancy of their sites and surrounding areas and continuing through the 1860s. Ryan has succeeded in breaking new ground in the history of North America by focusing on local sovereignty as the key actor in local, regional, and national affairs. For many centuries before European colonization, fertile ecological zones in and around the Chesapeake and San Francisco Bays supported dense settlements of Native Americans. Ryan thus begins by describing [End Page 129] the natural forces that formed the estuaries and how the Ohlone people east of San Francisco Bay and the Algonquian-speaking tribes beside the Chesapeake exploited their bountiful environments. The Ohlone sustained hundreds of small, autonomous tribelets through hunting and gathering. The Algonquian tribes practiced horticulture and created a complex society, having a hierarchy of settlements that experienced intertribal conflict over territory. Neither people, however, built cities like the great Amerindian cities of Peru or Mexico or intensely exploited the sites of modern Baltimore and San Francisco. The taking of Native lands begins with the English arriving on the East Coast. Ryan makes clear that it was not official colonial policy but rather the arrival of Englishmen intent on enclosing land into farms and plantations that initially disrupted Indian territory. Soon, however, the taking was officially sanctioned on the grounds that the indigenous peoples were not "Christian People" and had not established permanent settlements and farms. Ryan attributes the seed for colonial Baltimore to Presbyterian Pennsylvania merchants who wanted to construct a port at the mouth of the Patapsco River to facilitate trade with the Caribbean and across the Atlantic. A town would be necessary to house the port's workforce, and, starting in 1745, Baltimore would grow along streets with adjacent land being divided into tidy lots that could be bought and sold repeatedly. Large landowners prospered while small leaseholders lived in small row houses, and most residents were propertyless. Receiving little help from Maryland's state legislature, Baltimore formed its own institutions to meet its most pressing needs. According to Ryan, the Spaniards, noted for their urban planning, merely cleared the land of Ohlone settlements and established a mission and presidio on the San Francisco Peninsula. The mission failed due to measles epidemics, venereal disease, and brutal punishments of recalcitrant Indians. The presidio was abandoned on Mexico's independence in 1821. The environment was permanently altered by invading plant and animal species introduced as the Mexican settlers began to convert the land to support the production of hides and tallow for export from ranchos. The second part of Ryan's book zooms down to the scale of streets and houses. We learn that Baltimore Town officially became the City of Baltimore in 1796 and witnessed local elites gradually transforming "mob town" into "monumental city," a civic-spirited community that [End Page 130] attracted enough immigrants to make Baltimore the third largest US city by the 1830s. Ryan argues that it was the process of street making that taught the Baltimoreans how to collaborate, leading to other city improvements such as building elaborate monuments, providing street lighting, extending wharves into the bay, and so on. Ryan avers that the benefits of active citizenship, unfortunately, were not extended to African Americans despite almost all of them in Baltimore being free. In Alta California local authority overrode Mexico's central authority. The secularization of the mission lands benefited leading Californios, while the displaced Indians became a servile labor force on their ranchos. The site of present-day San Francisco began development in the 1830s as an "anchorage" in the small Port of Yerba Buena on the northeastern corner of the peninsula and as the pueblo of Dolores to the south...

Agricultural Institutions, Industrialization and Growth: the Case of New Zealand and Uruguay in 1870-1940

Abstract In this paper we apply a model of early industrialization to the case of New Zealand and Uruguay in 1870-1940. We show how di_erences in agricultural institutions may have produced di_erent development paths in two countries which were similar under many respects. While in New Zealand the active role of the Crown in regulating the land market facilitated access to land, in Uruguay land was seized by a small group of large landowners. Our model shows that land concentration may have negatively inuenced industrialization and growth by impeding the formation of a large group of middle-income landowners and, as a consequence, the development of a domestic demand for basic manufactures. We support this view with a comparative analysis of agricultural institutions and industrial development in New Zealand and Uruguay

Value Chain Analysis of Large Cardamom in Taplejung District of Nepal

This study assessed the value chain analysis of large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb) in Taplejung district, Nepal and explored the functional linkage and upgrading strategies among the key value chain actors. One hundred and sixty farmers were surveyed purposely along with 5 local and district level traders, 5 regional level traders and exporters and 5 enablers who were sampled using rapid market appraisal in March 2018. The study presents a comparative analysis among large holders (n=72) and smallholders (n=88) large cardamom farmers using SPSS and MS-Excel. The majority of farmers used suckers as propagating materials which was a major source of disease conduction. 62.5% of farmers adopted traditional dryers for curing, which reduced the quality of large cardamom whereas about 30% of them used improved dryers for curing that enhanced quality. The majority of farmers had not adopted value addition practices like tail cutting, grading and packaging which were carried out at trader level. Large cardamom prices were normally determined by the export market of India. The average land area of large cardamom per household was 21.56 ropani with 36.74 ropani for the large landholder farmers and 9.14 ropani for the smallholders. The key problems faced by farmers and traders were high price swing, lack of disease-free propagating materials, reliance on the Indian market, aged orchards, shrinking productivity, and minimal collaboration among the chain actors. Therefore, adoption of Good Management Practices (GMPs)- upgraded bhattis, transfer of tail cutting technology and storage management, along with value addition activities like grading (color and size), tail cutting and packaging need to be adopted with strong adherence to export quality. This study revealed that necessary action needs to be taken to maintain a high level of collaboration among the value chain actors thereby increasing the value chain efficiency of Nepalese large cardamom.

Demolished by the whirlwind of revolution

The purpose of the article: to study the process of elimination of large landholdings from the agricultural sector of Ukraine throughout the revolutionary transformations of 1917 – early 1920s. Research methods: historical-typological, historical-genetic, historical-comparative. Main results. It is shown that the destruction of large landowner households, beginning in 1917, lasted until the early 1920s and was part of the agrarian policy of the bolsheviks. Agro-industrial complex on the landed estates were under a devastating blow: вuildings were destroyed, working cattle and grain were dismantled by the peasants, the property of the recent owners of the estates was looted, and industrial facilities were destroyed. Liquidation of landowners’ holdings was accompanied by extreme cruelty justified by revolutionary goals. The paper demonstrates M. Shcherbatova’s and S. Falz-Fein’s tragic fate as victims of revolution. Despite attempts to give this process a form of legitimacy and a whole series of legal acts to regulate the process in the countryside, peasants’ spontaneous movement to redistribute land and property in their favour was of great importance. Centuries-old wounds and hatreds, exacerbation of the feeling of social injustice, revolutionary expediency and desire to get rich at the expense of others floated to the surface as a result. In the revolutionary years of 1917–1921 and afterwards, the last page in the history of the landowners’ economy unfolded, when, despite attempts to settle the “land question”, a radical approach prevailed. As the outcome, recent agrarian elite was uprooted by force with material, moral and psychological damage. Scientific novelty: a study of the destruction of large farms through the perception of their owners based on the study of personal archival funds of the Grokholsky, Linke, Tereshchenko, Shcherbatova and others. Type of article: analytical.

Legal views of E. Olesnytsky

Purpose. The purpose of the study is to analyze the legal and state views of E. Olesnytsky, in particular his assessment of imperial law, as well as practical activities as a lawyer and one of the initiators of the cooperative movement in Galicia in the early twentieth century. Methods. The methodological basis of the study was a set of general scientific, special scientific and philosophical methods, as well as the principles of historicism. The key was the biographical method and the comparative approach, which allowed to reveal the peculiarities of the formation of legal views of E. Olesnytsky. Findings. It is established that through the prism of the analysis of political and legal views of E. Olesnytsky it is possible not only to trace the level of legal culture, social and political activity of the population of Galicia, but also to determine the practical content of imperial legislation. The influence of I. Franko and socialist ideas in general on the legal views of E. Olesnytsky, who was one of the founders of the «Сhasopys Рravnycha», actively analyzed the imperial regional legislation for expediency, rationality and compliance with public interests. This work was key in raising the level of legal culture of the population, and after 1891 it was supplemented by the legal activity of E. Olesnytsky. Among the regional legislation, the lawyer's special attention was drawn to the right of propination, which gave large landowners a monopoly on the production and sale of alcohol. After 1901, E. Olesnytsky focused on the development and popularization of the cooperative movement in Galicia, including the legal protection of producers and sellers of agricultural products. Originality. The directions of E. Olesnytsky's professional and professional interests in the field of economic and financial law of Austria-Hungary, advocacy and organization of the cooperative movement are determined. Practical significance. The results of the study can be used in further historical and legal research, preparation of special courses.

Restoring farmlands for food and nature

Changes in the intensity and extent of farmland have a profound impact on life on Earth. Although nature-rich farmlands have conservation value, their promotion competes with the protection and restoration of natural habitat. Restoring the productive capacity of existing farmland can help maximize opportunities for the restoration of both nature-rich farmlands and natural habitat.

Access to Non-farm Employment in Contemporary India: A Study of Bihar and Punjab

Rural non-farm diversification in India is taking up new roles amidst increasing agrarian distress. In this context, two issues have been examined in this paper: first, the nature of rural non-farm diversification, and second, the accessibility of households to rural non-farm employment in the states of Bihar and Punjab. The study is predominantly based on unit level data of the latest round of the Situational Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households (NSSO). Findings suggest that while non-farm activities are largely adopted by landless and marginal land households in both states, there are a few lucrative options available which are being accessed by large landholders in Punjab. Overall, caste, gender and education are dominant determinants that work as barriers to the entry for rural households. The findings recommend that institutional reforms along with public policies should be prioritised towards generating sustainable non-farm livelihood options while eliminating multi-dimensional exclusions in rural labour markets considering regional prerequisites.

Local perceptions of change in climate and agroecosystems in the Indian Himalayas: A case study of the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) landscape, India

Agricultural communities in the Himalayas are especially vulnerable to the shocks of climate change. An improved understanding of how residents perceive changes to climate and agroecosystems is critical to creating and implementing locally appropriate adaptation strategies. In this study, we administered a questionnaire to 251 residents within 16 villages in and adjacent to the Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS), a culturally and ecologically important area in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The study area is rugged and remote, and the resource-dependent communities are among the least-studied of the region. Using the questionnaire, we investigated how residents perceive changes to climate and agroecosystems, how households are adapting, and whether perceptions and adaptations differ by demographic and livelihood factors. We used both quantitative (summary statistics, t-tests, and chi square tests) and qualitative strategies (interpretation of open-ended responses) to analyze the questionnaire results. A majority of respondents perceived an increase in many variables including flash flood/landslide events, total annual rainfall, average summer temperature, agricultural pests, crop failure, and crop raiding by wild animals. In most cases, perceptions did not vary by demographic or livelihood factors. However, larger landholders were more likely to perceive an increase in intense rain/snow, average annual rainfall, and wildlife sightings in fields. Most respondents reported that they were not adapting or planning to adapt to change. However, a few reported adaptation strategies such as changing crops and planting vegetation to stabilize soil, as well as pesticide use. Respondents believed that to effectively adapt they need assistance from outside institutions. Locally-based (panchayat) and state-level institutions were ranked as very helpful for adaptation, but the Forest Department, Government of India, and NGOs received lower rankings. Overall, the respondents demonstrated a high level of agreement in their perceptions of change and barriers to adaptation. The broad consensus among residents offers an important opportunity for consensus building and collaboration with local and national institutions. The study has implications for collaborative public works and research projects which can help to build trust, develop locally-appropriate adaptation strategies, reduce conflict with wild animals, share insights, and increase the visibility of local knowledge about climate and agroecosystems. Furthermore, the study illustrates how understanding the perceptions and insights of agricultural communities around protected areas can inform adaptation at the ground level.

Campos de experimentação agrícola na Escuela-Ayllu de Warisata

A Escuela-Ayllu de Warisata, localizada no altiplano boliviano entre o lago Titicaca e o nevado de Illampu, foi um projeto de educação indígena e rural ocorrido na Bolívia nos anos 1930 (1931-1940) que pretendeu integrar as concepções e os saberes das populações indígenas locais dentro dos ideais nacionais. A relação com o ambiente biofísico aparece de forma marcante na fonte autobiográfica de Elizardo Pérez, um dos fundadores do projeto. Ademais, a escola se inseria em um contexto de disputa pelo acesso à terra, pela autonomia e pelos modos de organização do espaço que colocavam em conflito as concepções das comunidades indígenas locais frente aos interesses dos grandes proprietários de terra. Nesse artigo, observamos em que medida a escola buscou “revitalizar” esses saberes indígenas e, ainda, uma memória biocultural relacionada com o ambiente do altiplano utilizando o argumento da produtividade como forma de legitimar esse projeto perante a sociedade boliviana.

IMPACT OF GREEN REVOLUTION POLICY ON RURAL POVERTY IN PAKISTAN: A CASE STUDY OF DISTRICT SHAHEED BENAZIRABAD SINDH

This paper determines the relationship between green revolution policy and rural poverty in Pakistan and also to find the poverty status in the study area. The data collection was based on primary and secondary sources of information. The primary data was collected from 405 respondents living in the district Shaheed Benazirabad, through field survey where as secondary data was collected from various published articles. The data was analyzed with the help of Statistical Package developed for Social Sciences (SPSS-20). The key respondents were divided into three categories of farmers i.e. 325 respondents were small size land owner farmers, 42 respondents were medium size land owners and 38 were large size land owners. These all farmers had total 4044 acres. This study focused on wheat and cotton crops cultivated by all farmers in the district. The secondary data covers per hectare yield of food and cash crops grown in the district that increased the income of farmers and reduced poverty. The average family size included in the study was six members. The poverty line was measured by the method Cost of Basic Needs (CBN) introduced by the Planning Commission of Pakistan; that is Rs.3030/- monthly expenditure of each family member. The results obtained from the study indicated that the average monthly expenditure of small farmers was Rs.18,989/- and their income was Rs.17,439/- (Rs.17,439 - Rs.18,989 -1550). The number of small farmers was 325, who were below the poverty line in winter season (wheat crop) only; the winter season is the second crop sowing season in Pakistan.

Socio-economic analysis of farmers facing asymmetric information in inputs markets: evidence from the rainfed zone of Pakistan

Information asymmetry plays an important role in the non-adoption of modern agricultural inputs like improved seeds, pesticides and fertilizers etc. Therefore, this study investigated the role of farmers’ socio-economic attributes and farm level characteristics in avoiding asymmetry of information in agricultural input markets (i.e. exaggerated prices and low quality). The approach captures the farm level heterogeneity and complexity that may help the authorities in strengthening existing market regulations to control price and quality disparities. We analysed 395 randomly selected farm households using multinomial logit model. We found that farmers with large landholding size are less likely to face quality and more likely to face price information asymmetry. Farmers with higher education, more physical assets and better access to other sources of information are less likely to face both quality and price information asymmetry. Borrowers as compared to purchasers are more likely to face information asymmetry on prices of agricultural inputs. Non-adopters of improved agricultural technologies are more suspicious of information asymmetry than adopters. The paper thus provides evidence that the socio-economic dynamics of information asymmetry can have an important influence on wide spread adoption of technology. Paying more attention to farm level heterogeneity and complexity would help to develop general market management plan and improve the adoption of technology by farmers.