2020 - Volume 122

‘Sustainable intensification’ of agricultural production, or ‘producing more with less’, has been widely adopted as a policy approach by national governments and international agencies, including the European Union (EU) through its Common Agricultural Policy. Sustainable intensification will be facilitated through on-farm innovation in a process that is fostered by knowledge sharing between actors with complementary forms of knowledge. These actors, their organisations, the knowledge flows between them and the so-called ‘enabling environment’ constitute an ‘agricultural innovation system’ (AIS). This paper begins by reviewing recent international theoretical development of the AIS concept and of equivalent concepts in the EU. Although the international and EU development paths are similar, there are clear differences between them. It is argued that these different perspectives can be integrated into a single ‘multi-level’ model, with family farming at its centre. The paper then explores current agricultural innovation policy discourse in the EU. Based on the European Innovation Partnership ‘Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability’ (EIP-AGRI), this may result in the adoption of a new and contestable use of the term ‘Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System’ or ‘AKIS’ that is reminiscent of the EU’s treatment of the term ‘Rural Development’. The paper argues, however, that this development may in...

In our study we investigated agroforestry systems and the market for products derived from them, from a consumer perspective. Agroforestry products are not yet in the public domain, so our research focused on the latent market for agroforestry products. This allowed the participants to form only an opinion, reactions which we were able to reveal using the Q-method. In our study, we targeted average consumers who are independent from agroforestry systems and products. Out of the 174 Q-Sort questionnaires, 85 were filled out with valid responses. As a result of our Q-analysis, we created 4 factors in order to minimise the number of factors and achieve a given level of total variance. Factor ‘A’ (N=26) “Alternative, Green Consumers” are committed to the  products of the sustainable economy, so agroforestry products would also be of interest. Factor ‘B’ (N=21) “Inquisitive Consumers” are interested in and eager to be informed about the products purchased, and they are willing to pay more for agroforestry products. For Factor ‘C’ (N=10) “Busy Consumers”, the low ecological footprint of agroforestry products is a big advantage, and they can be reached with articles published on various news portals and online media most effectively. Opinion Groups ‘A’ and...

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the dynamics of the overall economy, impacting many fields, including the agricultural sector. In this paper, we examine two important commodities of the agricultural sector, namely oats and wheat, during the Covid-19 spread and the lockdown measures. Using relevant time series specifications, we establish a hypothesis regarding the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on these two commodities. Based on our findings, the commodities were affected by the Covid-19 spread and moreover, the Covid-19 confirmed cases provide useful information for the prediction and forecasting of these values. Our findings are robust, since the out-of-sample forecasting accuracy of the alternative model employed, that explicitly incorporates the pandemic induced by the Covid-19 disease, is superior to the baseline model.

There is a relevant debate in the literature regarding the influence of the State in the production of space. The State was the main agent of the production of the agrarian space in the Brazilian semi-arid region, which is characterised by the territorialisation of two contrasting food systems: the irrigated productive model and the traditional family farming model. This study investigates the extent to which the spatial and sectoral selectivity of public policies has interfered in dichotomous agrarian space. The agrarian space is analysed on two spatial scales, the municipal and the local. On the municipal scale, we have selected the municipalities of Petrolina and Casa Nova. The local scale, by contrast, refers to spatial fragments of these municipalities, where food systems spatially manifest themselves (modern irrigated and traditional rainfed agriculture). The results show that until 1980, public policies favoured the development and consolidation of modern irrigated agriculture in selected spatial fragments. This was due to public investments in irrigation, transport, communication and energy infrastructure, facilitated access to land, technical assistance and agronomic engineering services. From 1990 onwards, policies have become inclusive, aimed at the Family Farmers social group. Policies have entailed local solutions for access to water, contextualised technical...

Many studies have explored the impact of macroeconomic factors on the growth and output of the agricultural sector in Nigeria with focus on the aggregate output. Some studies narrowed down focus on the crop subsector while neglecting the fisheries subsector which is an important source of cheap protein for our increasing population, a source of employment for the unemployed and also key to achieving the first three sustainable development goals 2030. In this study, we investigated the influence of FDI on agriculture and exchange rates on the output of the fisheries subsector using time series data that spans from 1980-2018. A Vector Autoregressive Model was also used alongside a growth model. The findings indicate positive growth in the fisheries subsector. FDI to agriculture and exchange rate movements were both found to affect the fisheries subsector positively in the long run, whereas only FDI to agriculture was found to exert a positive influence in the short run. Policies to attract FDI to the sector are thus advocated for, while macroeconomic policies to stabilise the Nigerian currency (naira) against the US dollar are also advised.

Micro-insurance can be an effective approach to smoothening income in adverse times and potentially a way to contribute to the financial inclusion of vulnerable populations. However, direct sales to individual smallholders remains a challenging task without an easily scalable solution. The current research seeks to find the determinants of adoption of a stand-alone coffee index-based insurance product in Uganda marketed by a farmer cooperative, and elicited preferences for improving the design and delivery model. A stratified household survey was conducted among 614 farmers, of which 40% adopted insurance and 62% were member of a farmer cooperative. In odds ratio terms, adopters perceived themselves to be 3.09 times more likely to receive a pay-out than non-adopters (P<0.01), and those having better access to extension services were 2.47 times more likely to adopt a policy (P<0.01). Yet farmers perceiving the design as complex were approximately half as likely to adopt (P<0.05). Farmers preferred the option of premium payments proceeds on delivery, mobile premium payments and delivering insurance through cooperatives/associations. Deepening insurance uptake among coffee farmers will therefore require a strong focus on communication and information sharing facilitated by cooperatives/associations (e.g. farmer cooperates, village and saving associations, or women’s associations).

Agricultural input costs have a major impact on food prices in Turkey. In this context, a decrease in agricultural input costs can play a significant role in reducing food inflation. On January 1, 2016, the 18% Value Added Tax (VAT) rate in fertiliser was reduced to 1 percent with the Council of Ministers’ decision numbered 2015/8353. Then, on February 10, 2016, fertiliser was included in the scope of the exception. As these tax reduction decisions exogenously affect fertiliser prices, there is an opportunity to conduct a natural experiment. Using the difference-in-differences (DID) method, this paper examines whether the decisions reduce fertiliser prices. The analysis results provide some hints that consumers received benefits from the tax reduction decisions.

This paper analyses the composition and volatility of the total income and wealth of dairy farmers and the importance and volatility of the different components contributing to their total income and wealth based on Dutch FADN data. The results confirm some existing findings on the stabilising impact of CAP subsidies and off-farm income on farmers’ total income. The paper extends the existing analyses by exploring the impact of taxes on income volatility and the important role of savings in stabilising consumption of farm households. In this paper we show that a broader perspective (including off-farm income and wealth) provides a more realistic picture of the income and wealth effects as experienced by farmers.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index composed of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators. Currently, wine consumption is increasingly becoming significant both for reducing several diseases and for improving well-being and quality of life. The aim of this paper is to investigate spatial and temporal characteristics of wine consumption in 45 countries belonging to the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region and its relationship with the HDI. We use a balanced panel data by WHO database (2005-2015). Random effects panel data model was selected over the fixed effects model based on the Hausman test in order to assess the effect of HDI, European Union (EU) membership and geographical areas on wine consumption. Results highlight that wine consumption decreases as HDI increases. We noted higher values of wine consumption in EU countries and a positive gradient from West to East in the area considered. These findings highlight the presence of a new consumer profile seeking quality and healthy consumption and whose awareness increases coinciding with a rise in the degree of country development. National and international policies can address issues of consumption style and persuade consumers to have a new eating cultural approach towards buying...

The advancement of crop production has not yet been followed by the increase in maximum permitted nitrogen doses set out in the Hungarian Action Programme of the Nitrate Directive. According to the farmers’ observations, crops grown in nitrate vulnerable zones with good agricultural conditions already have much higher nitrogen uptake than the maximum permitted values, so the genetic potential of the plants cannot be exploited at the current level. In order to prove this, in the autumn of 2017, a small-plot long-term experiment was set up in three different regions of Hungary. The results were evaluated in a complex way, based on an agronomic approach, Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) and an economic approach. In terms of the agronomic evaluation, no clear differences were found between treatments: the highest yields were obtained in respect of different treatments at the three experimental sites, but the differences were not significant. From the point of view of NUE, the Nmax experiment on the Nagyhörcsök calcareous chernozem soil showed the highest values, which, according to the EU N Expert Panel (EUNEP), are already in the unfavourable soil depletion range. From the economic point of view, there was no significant difference in net profits between the...