AGRICULTURAL POLICIES INFLUENCE ON SMALLHOLDERS’ FARMING IN NIGERIA: A REVIEW

Nigeria's agricultural policy is the synthesis of the framework and action plans of Government designed to achieve overall agricultural growth and development. The policy aims at the attainment of self-sustaining growth in all the sub-sectors of agriculture and the structural transformation necessary for the overall socio-economic development of the country as well as the improvement in the quality of life of Nigerians. The small-holder farmers are vital for Nigeria's agriculture and rural economy. They are defined as those marginal and sub-marginal farm households that own or/and cultivate less than 5.0 hectares of land and constitute about 70 per cent of the country's farmers. This paper therefore reviewed the Nigerian agricultural policy influence as it affects small holder farming. It reviewed the Nigerian agricultural policy landscape and the new national agricultural policy as they affect some macro-economic policies since the post- civil war era. The paper depended mainly on content analysis and secondary information. Some gaps identified in the national agricultural policy were also reviewed. A critical examination of the reforms/policies and their implementation over the years constituted major obstacles to the implementation and achievement of the goals and objectives of these policies. The role of the small holder farmer in Nigeria who occupies the majority of land and produced most of the crops and livestock's products was also examined. The paper recommends that the various stakeholders should be involved in the planning and execution-of agricultural policies as well as an increase in investment and extension for irrigation facilities targeted at market-oriented, younger and educated farmer

Formy umiędzynarodowienia polskich przedsiębiorstw na rynkach zaopatrzenia

The article focuses on the process of internationalization of the firm and looks at how Polish enterprises take advantage of a strategy known as global/international sourcing, or the practice of sourcing from the global market for goods and services across geopolitical boundaries. The author examines the benefits and limitations of various forms of internationalization of the firm on foreign markets. The main aim is to show that imports are still the predominant form of internationalization of Polish companies active on foreign markets. The author also highlights the differences between the various forms of internationalization used by Polish enterprises buying goods and services abroad. The analysis also covers Polish companies operating as either subsidiaries or affiliates of multinational corporations. The research uses the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) method. The interviews were held in 2010 on a sample of 244 randomly selected medium-sized and large Polish companies from the electrical engineering sector that uses global sourcing strategies in their operations. The study showed that imports are the most common form of internationalization, used by 91.8 percent of the surveyed companies, including 96.7 percent of companies that are not subsidiaries/affiliates of foreign corporations and 87.1 percent of those companies that are subsidiaries/affiliates of multinational corporations. Equity-based forms of internationalization, such as the establishment of joint-venture companies and wholly-owned subsidiaries abroad, are used by a much larger percentage of those companies that operate in the form of subsidiaries/affiliates of foreign corporations, compared with those that are not subsidiaries/affiliates of multinational corporations. Those of the surveyed companies that are subsidiaries/affiliates of multinational corporations in Poland display a higher level of internationalization than those companies that are not subsidiaries/affiliates of foreign companies, the author says, and the former companies also tend to use more advanced forms of internationalization, including financial linkages such as joint ventures and wholly-owned subsidiaries

Teoretyczne aspekty konkurencyjności przedsiębiorstwa – w kierunku koncepcji eklektycznej?

The article reviews and evaluates the main theoretical concepts of enterprise competitiveness. In particular, the authors focus on the evolutionary and cumulative nature of the development of enterprises. The article begins with an attempt to define the concept of enterprise competitiveness. The authors discuss various aspects of enterprise competitiveness understood as competitive potential, competitive strategy and competitive position. This is designed to not only provide a framework for defining these variables, but also suggest indicators that could be used in further empirical studies, Dzikowska and Gorynia say. Later in the article the authors trace the development of the concept of enterprise competitiveness in the context of the two basic approaches – the positioning approach and the resource-based view – highlighting differences between the two, including differences in terminology. The authors examine the relationships between different aspects of competitiveness resulting from both approaches. They also come up with a third, eclectic approach that combines selected features of the positioning and resource-based models. This new approach takes into account dynamic relationships between the analyzed aspects of competitiveness, Dzikowska and Gorynia say

National Farm Program Data, 1932-1940: Illinois Highlights

Contents: Part One: Farm Income (Cash Farm Income and Cash Income from Principal Farm Products – Prices of Farm Commodities – Farm Purchasing Power – Farm Real Estate Values and Farm Foreclosures, Sales and Bankruptcies – Payments to Farmers Under A.A.A. Programs – Crop Insurance – Farm Credit and Farm Debt Adjustment – Commodity Loans - Export Payments and Distribution of Surplus Foodstuffs) --- Part Two: Conservation and Wise Use of Agricultural Resources (Agricultural Conservation Programs – Soil Conservation Service Programs – Forest Service Programs) --- Part Three: Greater Security and Better Living on the Land (Farm Security Administration Programs – Rural Electrification Administration Programs) --- Part Four: Strengthening Democracy Through the Farm Programs (Participation in A.A.A. Programs – Results of A.A.A. Referenda – Farmer Committees in the National Farm Programs – Land Use Planning by Farmers)

Conservation Tradeoff: Inflation Reduction Act vs. Baseline

The Farm Bill conservation programs are capped either in terms of total funds available or total acres that can be enrolled. This has significant consequences for budget baseline and scoring, or cost estimates, projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This, in turn, has implications for program implementation and operation, as well as for the farmers seeking assistance with conservation efforts on their farms. CBO’s score of the Farm Bill reported by the House in May further highlighted this matter, presenting a tradeoff for conservation policy that is explored further herein (farmdoc daily, August 8, 2024)

Loss of US Farmland in the 21st Century: The National Perspective from the Census of Agriculture

One of the widely-watched variables tracked by the US Census of Agriculture is land in farms. This article is the first of two that examines changes in land in US farms between the Agricultural Censuses of 1997 and 2022. This quarter-century period is of interest because the 1996 Farm Bill enacted a fundamental change to US farm policy by eliminating acreage set aside programs that in various forms had existed since modern US farm support policy began in 1933, thus giving farmers, with a few exceptions, the freedom to decide what crops to plant and not plant. Since this seminal change in US farm policy, land in US farms has declined by 74.7 million acres or -8%. By far, pastureland declined the most, accounting for 88% of the total decline. The other two major farmland categories also declined: woodland by -6% and cropland by -2%

Higher Costs and Lower Grain Prices Lead to Lower Farm Earnings in 2023

Based on Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Association (FBFM) records, average farm operator returns for labor and management on 2,013 Illinois farms was much lower for all geographic areas in the state in 2023 compared to 2022 and below the average for the last five years. Higher costs, along with lower grain prices were the main reasons for the lower incomes. Livestock farmers were also much lower. Farm earnings were highest in the central and east central areas of the state. Earnings were lowest in the far southern part of the state

Wpływ unijnej polityki spójności na wielkość produktu i zatrudnienia w polskich regionach

The main aim of the paper is an ex-post assessment of the 2004-2006 European cohesion policy programs in Poland. The authors analyze the potential impact of structural interventions on production and employment in Polish regions at the NUTS2 level. Instead of the typical demand and short-term approach dominant in the majority of previous studies, the authors rely on a supply approach based on an augmented regional production function. Moreover, the authors take into account regional heterogeneity by distinguishing three different groups of regions: high-income regions, middle-income regions and low-income regions. The authors find that the EU’s cohesion policy in Poland is effective in terms of both regional output and employment. This means that in the case of Polish regions, structural funds and the Cohesion Fund play an important role in regional economic growth and in income convergence with the “old” EU15 countries. Yet, the article also shows that the real impact of structural interventions on regional employment is much lower than suggested by previous simulations based on Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models, the authors say

Potential for Cooperative Sugar Beet Processing in Southern Minnesota

Excerpts: Subsequent discussions with Messrs Ruebel and David Johnson of the Southern Minnesota group, officials of the St. Paul Bank for Cooperatives, and staff of the University of Minnesota's Agricultural Economics Department provide a basis to delineate the scope of this study to provide answers to the following questions: 1. What are the projected costs and returns of a sugar beet processing plant that has the capabilities of processing 5,000 to 6,000 tons of beets a day thus permitting the slicing of 750,000 tons of beets or more over a 150 day campaign? 2. How will projected sugar beet returns compare with estimated costs and returns of alternative farm crops grown in the same area? 3. What is the optimum location for a processing plant and upwards of 6 beet piling stations

Dynamika płac w cyklu życia a indywidualny stan zdrowia

The article examines the relationship between health, employment and productivity growth within a person’s life cycle, as measured with the level of individual wages in line with the neoclassical theory. The authors proxy productivity with wages and analyze employment rates, wages and their dynamics by age for people with different health status in Poland. Using nonparametric methods and data from the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU‑SILC) in 2005–2009, the authors show that poorer health is associated with lower earnings and lower employment rates. Poorer health diminishes the probability of employment, the authors say, but the declining employment rate at an older age is more closely connected with falling employment within a health group than with a rising percentage of people in poor health. Lower wages for persons with poorer health are mainly due to their lower education and shorter work experience as well as their concentration in low‑paid sectors and occupations, Lis and Magda note. The isolated impact of health on wage dynamics within a person’s life cycle is very small, according to the authors. Moreover, the results of the study suggest that the decline in health is not the main driver of the observed slump in employment rates at older ages in Poland. The very low employment rates for younger people and those in poor health remain a major challenge for labor market and social policy makers, the authors conclude