Specialization Of Agricultural Production Research Articles

Vers une redéfinition du rôle de l'assurance agricole dans la gestion des risques sur récoltes

Farmers make their production decisions in an environment characterized by multiple uncertainty. Protective activities do not always provide an efficient protection against weather-related causes of loss. Agricultural revenues are all the more exposed to uncertain losses as the specialization of agricultural production has reduced the opportunities of risk pooling. Insurance contributes to transferring these risks through individuals who are best to bear them. Nevertheless, historical experience strongly suggests that markets for crop insurance would fail without government financial support, which is either direct by creating an indemnification fund for agricultural disasters like in France or indirect by reinsuring private companies like in the United States. In recent years, numerous studies have showed that informational asymmetries and systemic risk are the main obstacles to the development of an independent crop insurance industry. In addition, the emergence of new sources of risks, like output price uncertainty, may contribute to increasing the variability of agricultural revenues. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, alternative crop insurance programs in which the indemnity payments are based on variables exogenous to the individual farm and are observable by both parties are explored. These schemes allow the insurers to essentially eliminate asymmetric information problems. Nevertheless, the absence of risk pooling among insurance companies caused by the systemic component of agricultural risks leaves open the possibility that financial markets develop new hedging tools for insurance industry. Second, since governments lower funding for price support programs, the efficiency of crop insurance schemes to stabilize crop revenues lowers. Therefore, the role of revenue insurance as an efficient tool to protect farmers against reductions in gross income from insurable reductions in yield and/or price is examined. Since the French indemnification program against agricultural disasters turns out to be less and less efficient in this changing economic environment, a new definition of the insurance market’s role and the active participation of the financial market should improve the management of agricultural risks.

Urban Access and Rural Productivity Growth in Post-Mao China

Previous articleNext article No AccessUrban Access and Rural Productivity Growth in Post-Mao ChinaVincent BenzigerVincent Benziger Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 44, Number 3Apr., 1996 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/452231 Views: 8Total views on this site Citations: 13Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1996 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Yong Tian, Wei Du, Yiwen Hua, Lijun Fan Will infrastructure construction drive Chinese rural families to develop their own enterprises?, Applied Economics Letters 29, no.1818 (Jul 2021): 1665–1669.https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2021.1956677Joachim Vandercasteelen, Seneshaw Temru Beyene, Bart Minten, Johan Swinnen Big cities, small towns, and poor farmers: Evidence from Ethiopia, World Development 106 (Jun 2018): 393–406.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.03.006Yu Qin, Xiaobo Zhang The Road to Specialization in Agricultural Production: Evidence from Rural China, World Development 77 (Jan 2016): 1–16.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.08.007X. Yan, Y. L. Cai Multi‐Scale Anthropogenic Driving Forces of Karst Rocky Desertification in Southwest China, Land Degradation & Development 26, no.22 (Mar 2013): 193–200.https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2209Chloé Duvivier DOES URBAN PROXIMITY ENHANCE TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY? EVIDENCE FROM CHINESE AGRICULTURE, Journal of Regional Science 53, no.55 (Aug 2013): 923–943.https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12054Yu Qin, Xiaobo Zhang The Road to Specialization in Agricultural Production: Evidence from Rural China, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2012).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2198039Sanjaya DeSilva Access to Markets and Farm Efficiency: A Study of Rice Farms in the Bicol Region, Philippines, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2011).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1935981Shahidur R. Khandker / Zaid Bakht / Gayatri B. Koolwal The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh Khandker, Bakht, and Koolwal, Economic Development and Cultural Change 57, no.44 (Jul 2015): 685–722.https://doi.org/10.1086/598765David Gurarie, Edmund Y.W. Seto Connectivity sustains disease transmission in environments with low potential for endemicity: modelling schistosomiasis with hydrologic and social connectivities, Journal of The Royal Society Interface 6, no.3535 (Sep 2008): 495–508.https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2008.0265David Roland-Holst Infrastructure as a Catalyst for Regional Integration, Growth, and Economic Convergence: Scenario Analysis for Asia, (Jan 2009): 108–149.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230250604_4Scott A. Hipsher, Songporn Hansanti, Suthinan Pomsuwan The Asia-Pacific century, (Jan 2007): 131–158.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-84334-294-6.50005-9 Road Development, Economic Growth, and Poverty Reduction in China, (Jan 2005).https://doi.org/10.2499/0896291413rr138Ashok Kotwal, Bharat Ramswami Economic reforms of agriculture and rural growth, The Journal of Policy Reform 2, no.44 (Nov 1998): 369–402.https://doi.org/10.1080/13841289808523390

New Plant Virus Problems in Developing Countries: A Corollary Of Agricultural Modernization

In plant virology, viruses are mostly dealt with as useful molecular biological tools in studies of the riddle of life. However, viruses were first detected and studied as incitants of disease, and those which damage crops, continue to cause considerable concern to society as major constraints in agricultural production. The pressure for agricultural development is especially high in the developing countries, most of which are located in the tropics, where agricultural productivity lags behind rapid population increases. Traditional subsistence agriculture on small-scale holdings, with a great variety of crops often grown in mixtures, is rapidly giving way to modern agricultural practices, with genetically more homogeneous monocultures grown over large acreages. The ensuing trade and transport of produce via complex peripheral organizations further allow and stimulate personal and regional specialization in agricultural production, in turn, leading to further change. Economically, such modernization is usually interpreted in terms of usefulness. But with increasing awareness of the complexity of nature and of agroecosystems, man is becoming increasingly alert that every coin has another side and that human interference is ambivalent. Through agricultural modernization, present day crops are often more vulnerable to a wide range of pests that, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) definition, include weeds and viruses. Most, if not all, crop diseases and pests are man-made and new problems arise as a corollary of agricultural modernization. These problems are discussed in this chapter, with special reference to viruses, which play an intricate, intriguing, and often incompletely understood role that has a high impact on human society. This chapter concentrates on the developing countries, and thus largely on the tropics, because agricultural progress is hoped to be especially rapid there and also because of the author's involvement in the activities of organizations, such as the FAO, the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR), and International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) that are committed to helping to increase crop productivity in developing parts of the world in order to alleviate food shortages and improve the living standards.

Developing Realistic Agricultural Production Functions for Use in Undergraduate Classes

AbstractThis note describes an approach for teaching undergraduate students basic properties of cost and production functions with the aid of computer-generated illustrations. Parameters of a third degree polynomial are derived by making use of both the theoretical restrictions and the specific agricultural production process. The function is then used as the basis for the development of a simple computer graphics program which generates illustrations of the corresponding MPP, AC, and MC functions. Such illustrations can be used to make technically accurate visual aids.

Fluctuations in Weather Conditions and the Planning of Agricultural Production

In recent years the level of scientific substantiation of plans based on the more complete understanding of the economic laws of socialism has risen. The result has been a more integrated approach to the elaboration of plans for economic and social development; the better assessment of objective possibilities for the growth of production on all categories of farms, including the personal plots of workers and collective farmers; the determination of rational modes of intensification of farming and animal husbandry and the siting and specialization of agricultural production on the basis of interfarm cooperation and agroindustrial integration; the more consistent use of normative balance methods of substantiating plans at all levels, etc.

Agricultural Policy-Making for Integrated Regional Development in a Mixed Economy through a Large-Scale LP Model

In order to find comprehensive and integrating solutions to regional development problems one must take into account technological, political, economic, social, and environmental factors, i.e., to apply the integrated regional development approach. This is of particular importance for regional agricultural systems in mixed economies (state, cooperative, and private land property) where sociopolitical factors play a considerable role. The large-scale LP model elaborated is meant for policy analysis and policy-making in such circumstances. Policy is understood in terms of the model as a set of values of resource constraints subject to short and medium term regional allocation optimization. The model determines: agricultural production specialization structure (crop and livestock), commodity and financial flows, agricultural exports and imports, etc., in given natural conditions, i.e., soil qualities, types of property, production technologies, prices, available resources (water, fertilizers, manpower, financial funds, etc.). The paper presents the purpose, structure, and formulation of the model and implementation results for an agricultural region in Poland, currently under a development program.

The Pertinence of the Macro-Thunian Analysis

Thunen's rent theory has been applied to situations of extensive urban areas and their nationwide agricultural hinterlands. These relationships may be expressed in terms of the rent equation converted to a negative exponential curve. The nationwide model must include the aggregate impacts of urban markets other than the macro one. This model was tested using 1969-1970 county data for the United States. The urban market factor explained only 16 percent of rent-variations. Adding a few variables relating to regional specialization increased the explained variation to 26 percent. The map of net income from agriculture in 1969 revealed the spatial coincidence of major urban areas and regional specialization of agricultural production. In conclusion, the von Thiinian explanation of rents seems to be weak in the nationwide context.

The Internationalization of Capital and the Process of Underdevelopment. The Case of Black Africa

1. On the History of Foreign Penetration To assess the impact of foreign investment on the attempts of the young states in Tropical Africa to develop independently a material basis for a self-assertive policy, it is necessary to examine this problem in the context of the historical relations1 between metropolitan and peripheral states. The following question must then be asked: what new dynamics are multinational corporations as main agencies of foreign investment going to implant into these relations? The contemporary structures of underdevelopment have been built up during the century-old relations of dependency which expressed themselves in different forms. In premercantilist times the African continent had highly differentiated social formations and social organizations; the long distance trade played a decisive role in the process of social differentiation and accumulation of wealth. The existing intra-African slave trade, according to available analysis, did not induce the blockade of Africa's capacity for development that emerged together with mercantilist trade relations which totally changed the function of the slave trade. The mercantilist trade of the then dominant powers in Europe (Portugal, Spain, later England) was the main source for the accumulation of wealth that under specific conditions became a key factor in the emergence of the capitalist mode of production. Africa had been ascribed the role of the periphery in this phase: As the Americas had to supply Europe with precious minerals, especially gold and silver, and with specific agricultural products, so Africa had to supply the plantations and mining companies in the Americas with slaves as the necessary labor force. For that purpose, the well known triangular transatlantic trade was set up with all its devastating effects for Africa, that were: depopulation, prevention of productivity increases, and deformation of original cultures and societal structures. When capitalism in the center states eventually came into full shape during the various stages of the Industrial Revolution, the slave trade began to disappear. Its function in the framework of primitive accumulation of wealth had been fulfilled. England, in the forefront of capitalist industrialization built her 'informal Empire' by free trade (see e.g. Gallagher &c Robinson 1953). The period of capitalist monopolization within the centers led in Africa to full colonial conquest and penetration, whereas at the same time in the Americas already different features, including formal political sovereignty, had been emerging. During the colonial period, the artificially partitioned regions of Africa played different roles in the new structure of the international division of labor. In South and East Africa the entire native population was forced by means of 'enclosure acts' to provide the foreign mining company, which had discovered the mineral wealth (gold, diamonds and copper), with the necessary labour. The African social formations in that region were completely geared to functioning as labor reserves. In West Africa, where the slave trade had already shaped the social formations in such a way that even before political conquest production was set up for export to Europe, the typical structures of colonial trade came

HOUSE HORTICULTURE IN THE KUJÛKURI COASTAL PLAIN—1ST REPORT—

The location of intensive agriculture such as horticulture has been set in suburban regions or regions surrounding giant cities as the most important areas viewed from traffic freight and demand for horticultural products, provided with favorable natural conditions. Development of transport facilities combined with improvements of roads and advancement of agricultural techniques have made possible intensive agriculture to be located in more wider areas than before. In other words, in acordance with the great development of the national economy, the economic factors have become more influential on agricultural location in com-parison with natural factors. As Chiba Prefecture is adjacent to Tokyo Metropolitan. Prefecture with a highly industri-alized structure and has the “Keiyo Industrial Region” within its territory, the agricultural transformation has drastically been taking place in answer to the rapid industrialization. House horticulture in the “Kujikuri Coastal Plain” has been established in the process of economic development of the Prefecture, observing the real status of horticulture, the plain can be divided into three regions: the north, the middle and the south. Each of these regions has its own characteristics in development indicating large differences in crops and techniques. The writer studied the present status of horticulture in the Ichinomiya area as an example, situated in the south region, and explains the formation of intensive agricultural area, in which tomatoes and cucumbers are main products in vinyl houses, through various works conducted by the Agriculture Improvement Scheme. In this study the agricultural measures in large scale through the works and public investment of both the national and the local organizations have a great influence on the regional structure of agriculture intentionally and play an im-portant promoting role in establishing main areas which produce specific agricultural products.

TRANSFORMATION OF THE STRATEGY ELEMENTS OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT IN AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS IN THE AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION PLACEMENT AND SPECIALIZATION SPHERE

The paper considers the transformation of the elements of the strategy for managing the municipal agricultural business in the field of placement and specialization of agricultural production, which are formulated on the basis of current “Strategy for the spatial development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025”. The transformation of these elements will have a certain sequence of interaction and interdependence with the formation of an agricultural production cycle. In the scheme developed by us for the transformation of the strategy elements and the factors formulated in it, the efficiency of the production subsectors functioning at the municipal level is shown. The approaches in which different target areas are determined, that ensuring the solution of only a certain part of the set strategic tasks for the agricultural business effective functioning are given. The scheme for strategic planning and management of agrarian entities has been developed for the placement and specialization of agricultural production with a group of directions that take into account the effective functioning of spatial development and interaction between public authorities and economic and economic management at the municipal level.

Specialization in Agriculture

The objectives of the seven-year plan envisage a new and significant increase in labor productivity in all branches of the national economy, including agriculture. A tremendous role in this respect will be played by specialization of agricultural production on the basis of attainment of the highest indices in increase in labor productivity, in yield per 100 hectares of arable land, and in reduction of cost. One of the most important paths to be followed in the solution of this problem is a correct selection of the leading branches and crops for the most economically effective coordination of all branches under the conditions of specific zones and districts. In this light, the problem of increasing production of sLgar beets in a number of oblasts and districts of the Soviet Union is of particular interest.

Effects of the AAA Program upon Regional Specialization in Agriculture

The task assigned to this paper is that of appraising the effects of the AAA program upon regional shifts and regional specialization in agricultural production. Does it influence, and if so in what way, the ability to maintain an adjustment among regions, which will reasonably approximate the most advantageous adaptation to conditions as they are? Since adjustments resulting from the program come about through decisions by individual farmers, a logical starting point for an examination of these effects would be the individual farm. Through such an approach one might build up a complete analysis of AAA accomplishments in influencing acreages and production, including its regional effects. However, no such comprehensive treatment is possible on the basis of the information to be had at the present time. Neither is it possible within the time allotted to this discussion to give any adequate attention to the considerable volume of pertinent, though scattered and oftentimes fragmentary, material which is available.