Rural Reform and Fiji's Indigenous Sugarcane Growers: An Application of Stochastic Frontier Analysis

We examine the performance of Fiji's indigenous sugarcane growers, measuring their technical efficiency using a stochastic frontier production function. Of particular interest are the cooperative or communal farming structures among new entrants into Fiji's sugar industry. These structures are emerging in response to government rationalisation policies in agricultural support-from individuals to groups-and the growing emphasis from the indigenous community on economic activity to reflect community requirements, values and imperatives. Our study finds that growers who are members of a cooperative group have higher levels of technical efficiency than growers who live in villages and that their performance is on par with galala or independent growers. Group structures are used as vehicles to centralise management decision-making and pool resources, thereby overcoming experience and capital accumulation constraints. The research also shows that these structures provide a vital mechanism for aligning cultural values and legitimising individual economic activity that has communal benefits. This finding is not only important for Fiji's struggling agricultural sector, it points a way forward for other South Pacific island nations and other countries where agricultural intensification is carried out on communally owned land

Natural resources conservation management and strategies in agriculture

This paper suggests a holistic framework for assessment and improvement of management strategies for conservation of natural resources in agriculture. First, it incorporates an interdisciplinary approach (combining Economics, Organization, Law, Sociology, Ecology, Technology, Behavioral and Political Sciences) and presents a modern framework for assessing environmental management and strategies in agriculture including: specification of specific “managerial needs” and spectrum of feasible governance modes (institutional environment; private, collective, market, and public modes) of natural resources conservation at different level of decision-making (individual, farm, eco-system, local, regional, national, transnational, and global); specification of critical socio-economic, natural, technological, behavioral etc. factors of managerial choice, and feasible spectrum of (private, collective, public, international) managerial strategies; assessment of efficiency of diverse management strategies in terms of their potential to protect diverse eco-rights and investments, assure socially desirable level of environmental protection and improvement, minimize overall (implementing, third-party, transaction etc.) costs, coordinate and stimulate eco-activities, meet preferences and reconcile conflicts of individuals etc. Second, it presents evolution and assesses the efficiency of diverse management forms and strategies for conservation of natural resources in Bulgarian agriculture during post-communist transformation and EU integration (institutional, market, private, and public), and evaluates the impacts of EU CAP on environmental sustainability of farms of different juridical type, size, specialization and location. Finally, it suggests recommendations for improvement of public policies, strategies and modes of intervention, and private and collective strategies and actions for effective environmental protection

Agricultural Agent Land-Use and Land Ownership Behavioural Analysis: A Casa Study From a Southern Italian Region

The recent CAP reform introduced new income support instruments much more related on agricultural agents land-use and land-ownership conditions than before. In this perspective the behavioural analysis of land-use and land-ownership decision process seems to be a basic condition to evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness and equity of those instruments, and to understand and to forecast the agents response to these stimuli. The land-use and land-ownership behaviour differs according to various land managers, not only on the base of "economic-productive" conditions, but also on the base of exogenous and endogenous "institutional" conditions, such as the presence of formal or informal contracts, cultural values, intergenerational linkages, family-farm organisation and land-market imperfections and regulations. In this study an analytic methodology is presented together with an explanatory model which both try to show the role and the relationships between the various land-use and landownership driving factors at an agricultural agent level. It is also showed the different behavioural response to the exogenous stimuli coming from the "economic-institutional" environment, in which the agents operate. The model was tested in a Southern Italian region case study. In the first part of the analysis the various "economic-institutional" environment typologies, in which the region is articulated, were detected, on the base of official census data at the communal administrative units level. The Factorial Analysis through the Principal Components Analysis and Groups Analysis, is the analytic methodology used for this aim. In the second part of the analysis two specific "environments" were chosen in which the empirical survey was led at the agricultural agent level. The data coming from the survey were used to test the behavioural explanatory model. The results showed not only some specific "behavioural" paths which may be detected in the two different environments, but also deep differences among the various typologies of agricultural agents inside the same environments, depending on the "economic-productive" size, the presence of strong familiar roles, informal contracts for hiring work and renting land, the specific history of the agricultural agent, the perception of land as a productive factor, an investment good or a "social status symbol". The results are presented in the last part of the article.Behavioural studies, Institutional structure of land ownership, Land Economics/Use,

Social capital, transition in agriculture, and economic organisation: a theoretical perspective

Social capital is defined as the shared knowledge, trust, and culture, embodied in the structural forms of networks and other stable inter-agent relationships. Social capital has been shown to be more difficult to build than economic capital, and to have greater beneficial effects for community as a whole. The relevance of the social capital concept for transitional agenda is explained by the increasing responsibility of private collective action and grass-roots decisions in managing the business activities in agriculture, since this is required by the more democratic foundations of the market economy. Different forms of business organisations are shown to be differentially but consistently associated with social capital, with the major social capital dependent organisational form being the cooperative. The growing complexity of inter-agent relations (particularly in transitional context) causes the increasing amount of economic responsibility being transferred from authority-based to social capital-based forms of economic organisation, i.e. from markets and hierarchies, based mainly on economic capital, to networks with their primary accent on social capital. The social capital-based organisation in agriculture is particularly important in view of its industry-specific limitations and is represented mainly by cooperatives and farmers associations. The optimal role of the government is to invest in social capital in order to enable rural communities to solve their problems by means of private collective action (self-organisation), rather than attempt to substitute the latter. -- G E R M A N V E R S I O N: Sozialkapital wird definiert als geteiltes Wissen, Vertrauen und gemeinsame Kultur, eingebettet in Netzwerkstrukturen und andere stabile Beziehungen zwischen Agenten. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass Sozialkapital schwieriger aufzubauen ist als ökonomisches Kapital und dass es größere Auswirkungen auf die Gemeinschaft als Ganzes hat. Die Relevanz des Sozialkapital-Konzeptes für die Agenda der Transformationsländer wird erklärt durch die wachsende Verantwortung von privaten, kollektiven Handlungen und Basisentscheidungen beim landwirtschaftlichen Betriebsmanagement, wie es für die demokratischen Strukturen der Marktwirtschaft erforderlich ist. Verschiedene Betriebsformen sind unterschiedlich, jedoch durchweg verbunden mit Sozialkapital. Die landwirtschaftlichen Produktionsgenossen-schaften erweisen sich dabei als am meisten abhängig von Sozialkapital. Die wachsende Komplexität der Inter-Agenten-Beziehungen (insbesondere im Kontext des Transformationsprozesses) bewirkt, dass ein steigender Anteil ökonomischer Verantwortung von autoritätsbasierten zu sozialkapital-basierten Organisationsformen übergeht, d. h. von Märkten und Hierarchien, die vor allem auf ökonomischen Kapital basieren, zu Netzwerken mit dem Schwerpunkt auf Sozialkapital. Die sozialkapitalbasierten Organisationen in der Landwirtschaft werden hauptsächlich durch Genossenschaften und Bauernverbände repräsentiert und sind besonders wichtig in Hinblick auf ihre industriespezifischen Beschränkungen. Politische Maßnahmen sollten Investitionen in Sozialkapital unterstützen, um ländliche Gemeinden zu befähigen, ihre Probleme durch private, kollektive Handlungen (Selbstorganisation), anstatt zu versuchen, diese zu ersetzen.social capital,agricultural cooperative,economic organisation,Sozialkapital,Agrargenossenschaft,ökonomische Organisation

STIMULATING COOPERATION AMONG FARMERS IN A POST-SOCIALIST ECONOMY: LESSONS FROM A PUBLIC-PRIVATE MARKETING PARTNERSHIP IN POLAND

This paper shows how the involvement of local governments and individuals allowed the successful creation of a public-private partnership for agricultural marketing in South-Eastern Poland, despite a generally negative perception of cooperation among the rural population. While the regional distribution network for agricultural products is largely market-based, the partnership only emerged due to collective action between local leaders. The partnership does not require farmers to become shareholders, uses a small decision making body and offers complementary services to farmers. However, there has been little stimulation of broader development activities within the local society, and the involvement of local governments has become unstable over time.Public-private partnership, Endogenous initiatives, Rural development, Poland, Agribusiness, Marketing,

Evolution of Cooperative Thought, Theory, and Purpose

The evolution of agricultural cooperative thought, theory, and purpose in the United States is reviewed from the standpoint of the reemergence of interest in how cooperatives can provide some of the security and benefits that might be lost with gradual phasing out of federal government farm support programs. By accomplishing group action for self-help, the early development of cooperatives drew considerable attention from economists, social theorists, and politicians. Alternative schools of cooperative thought developed, but most proponents of cooperatives regarded them as having enormous potential to provide a public service role in building a more economically stable and democratic society This paper also surveys how cooperative theory was developed more rigorously in the post-WWII period. It has provided better analytical tools for understanding how and why cooperatives have changed in response to technological and economic developments, as well as to social trends, like individualism. Given the new perspectives on cooperative theory and the scope of changes in how cooperatives operate and are structured, cooperatives have even greater potential for coordinating self-help actions, but this potential needs the support of cooperative education services.Agribusiness,

Linking Farmers to Markets Through Cooperatives Vegetables Supply Chain Redesign Options for Kapatagan, Mindanao, Philippines

The paper looks into the temperate vegetable industry in Kapatagan, an upland community in Mindanao, the Southern part of the Philippines. The intention in general is to identify ways by which smallholder vegetable producers are appropriately linked to markets through cooperatives with the end in view of increasing farmers’ income. Specifically the paper documented existing vegetable supply chains in Kapatagan as well as other relevant chains, assessed the various chains’ gaps and potentials in view of changing concepts and market requirements with supply chain and agro-industrial concepts as bases and identified entry points for chain enhancements.Farm Management, Production Economics,