Pluriactivity in Italian Agriculture: Are Farmers Using Interlinked Strategies?

Farm Management,

Treatment and valorization plants in materials recovery supply chain

Aim of industrial symbiosis is to create synergies between industries in order to exchange resources (by-products, water and energy) through geographic proximity and collaboration [1]. By optimizing resource flows in a “whole-system approach”, a minimization of dangerous emissions and of supply needs can be achieved. Resources exchanges are established to facilitate recycling and re-use of industrial waste using a commercial vehicle. Several paths can be identified in order to establish an industrial symbiosis network (Figure 1, left), in relation (i) to the life cycle phase (raw material, component, product) and (ii) to the nature (material, water, energy) of the resource flows to be exchanged. Sometimes by-products and/or waste of an industrial process have to be treated and valorized in order to become the raw materials for others. In particular, two main treatment processes can be identified: refurbishment/upgrade for re-use (Figure 1, center) and recycling for material recovery (Figure 1, right). A brief overview of technological and economic aspects is given, together with their relevance to industrial symbiosis

Turkey's relations and energy cooperation with the BESC

Turkey is conducting an increasingly active energy diplomacy and in order to understand the role and strategies of Ankara in energy geopolitics, it is important to apprehend Turkey's behaviours at international level. In this respect, Turkey's energy ties with international (energy) organizations have key importance. Hence, this paper seeks to analyze the energy relationship between Ankara and the BSEC. Turkey attends activities of the organization in order to increase its visibility at international level, become a leader in the Black Sea region, and boost its political and economic ties with member states. However, due to the limited effectiveness of the organization in general and in the field of energy in particular, its contribution to the Turkish energy sector has remained modest

Support of Local Entrepreneurship During Periods of Crisis: A Case Study for Serres-Greece on NSRF Programmes

AbstractThe role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) to regional development is crucial. Taking as a granted that National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) focuses on regional disparities reduction, the main scope of this paper is to examine the influence of the NSRF programs on Regional Unity of Serres taking under consideration the existence of great intraregional disparities in region of Central Macedonia.Recently, peripheral disparities undoubtedly deteriorate Greek recession, something that is underlined at the relevant literature. According to Joseph Stiglitz “with inequality at its highest level since before the Depression, a robust recovery will be difficult in the short term” Also, Paul Krugman adds “countries doing a lot of redistribution have, if anything, weathered the crisis better than those that do less”As enterprises confront huge sustainability problems, their investments are deteriorated. Greek state, under the framework of NSRF 2007-2013, announced on spring 2013 the program “Support of SME's which are activated in Manufacturing - Tourism - Commerce & Services” (the program will de completed until the end of 2015). The NSRF provide subsidizes using general geographical-economic (mainly income) criteria (at regional level NUTS2) without examining the NUTS3 level.It is common knowledge that Greek banks nowadays do not support firms sufficiently. Thus, many of the eligible (under the umbrella of the examining program) investments may not be completed. Hellenic Fund for Entrepreneurship and Development (ETEAN), the associated institution, does not provide the necessary funds to all the entrepreneurs.During the last 4 years the 20% of local enterprises have been closed. It is obvious that crisis badly affected local entrepreneurship. According to Serres Chamber of Commerce and Industry the number of enterprises at Regional Unity of Serres have been reduced from 14.103 (January 2010) to 10.715 (January 2015).All the above mentioned are analyzed in our theoretical part.Our empirical research was conducted in February 2014. The survey consists of two parts. At the first part, a comparative analysis between the region of Central Macedonia and the Borough of Serres takes place. At the second part, all the local eligible enterprises, that will receive subsidizes from ESPA were participated in this research (total 123 ones). The used methodology is the calculation of the main descriptive statistical measures (the average, the standard deviation and the coefficient of variation) and the statistical moment of distribution (the coefficient correlation).According to our main findings, the contribution of NSRF programs as they are regulated by the developmental national laws to the survival and development of local enterprises has been significant, although the legislator disregarded the fact that borough of Serres is poorer than the core region Thessaloniki. The intraregional disparities (which have been indicated both in the theoretical and in the empirical part) should be taken under consideration when a low is reconsidered. Finally it should point out that the general results of our empirical research are relying to the relevant used literature

European Regional Science: Between Economy of Culture and Economy of Catastrophes (Review of the ERSA 2005 Amsterdam Congress Reports)

ERSA Congress can be seen as laboratory of ideas with broad representation not only European, but also scientists from US, Japan, Korea, Brazil, African and Asian countries. With very high speed new thoughts and phenomena from the European regional scientific community appear on the stages of the ERSA annual Congresses. Three new features were characteristic for the 2005 ERSA Congress in comparison with the previous ones. First, special focus on the factors of density in the regional development. That was not surprising as the meeting was held in the city of Amsterdam with the highest density in Europe where land and space are scarce goods. Second, integrative tendencies in attempt to use natural factors to explain traditional phenomena of the regional science. Issues of land and water management coincide with economic growth and regional development in many reports. Third, for the first time theme of networks and network society was embedded in many sections of the Congress and in the very title of the Congress itself. All these aspects as participants demonstrated could be positive creative factors increasing cultural assets of the European regions, efficiency of the knowledge transfer, leisure activities; or negative as the source of disaster and risk for human beings. Density factors (lack of people or lack of space?) divide European regional science into two sciences – urban for the populated regions and regional for the territories scarcely populated with very different themes, methods and tools of research. Housing markets, urban sprawl and commuting patterns are popular topics in the first case; labour markets and human capital in the second case. New Economic Geography models work smoothly in the first regions but are inappropriate in the second. Competition is harder in the labour markets of the populated regions but is softer in the regions with scattered population where it is substituted by the forces of cooperation. Contemporary regional society can be sustainable only as network society. In the reports networks were examined on different levels: a) as transportation networks in the investment national or interregional projects; b) as policentricity urban structures replacing Cristaller’s hierarchy of central places; c) as public-public, public-private partnerships combining public and private stakeholders in the decision-making process. Transition of the European regions from the industrial to network/service has begun 25 years ago. Position of the concrete region on this route determines clearly the type and intensity of its problem and research agenda. The more advanced is the region or nation on this route the more often terms like “reinventâ€, “rethinkâ€, “revisited†are used in the scientific community. Rediscovery of the old concepts, definitions, essence (as Amsterdam Congress demonstrated) is very creative and challenging process of the post-industrial regional science.

Foreign-Market Entry Strategies in the European Union

This study utilized intra-firm, socio-cultural, geographical-proximity, and political-stability variables to explain bimodal foreign direct investment (FDI) patterns by agri-food and beverage multinational companies into and within the European Union. A logit framework incorporated a unique-count database of firm-level investment patterns from 1987–1998. The results showed the 1992 structural changes under the Maastricht Treaty increased the probability of wholly owned FDI modes such as greenfields and buyouts. The model also found that past modal strategies of firms, language barriers, and exchange-rate volatility all correctly explained modal investment patterns. The results provide important contributions toward understanding modal investment strategies including the role of macroeconomic changes within a custom union.International Relations/Trade,

The Vanishing Farms? The Impact of International Migration on Albanian Family Farming

Taking advantage of new data on a high migration country, the main goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of migration on resource allocation to, and income from, agricultural production of farm households. The main channels through which these impacts can be expected to materialize are via the allocation of labor and capital resources of the households, as modified by the loss of "resident" family workforce to migration and the gain in access to working capital or credit made possible by the inflow of remittances or simply by an improved economic and financial status of the household associated with migration. Our results suggest that migration of one or more household members is being used by rural households in Albania as part of a strategy to move out of agriculture. The impact of family labor is unequivocal: members of households with migrants abroad work significantly fewer hours in agricultural production, both in total and on a per capita basis. Also, women in migrant households work proportionately more than men, when compared with their counterparts in non-migrant households. Contrary to expectation, and despite sizable remittances, migrant households do not appear to invest more in productivity-enhancing and time-saving farm technologies in crop production such as chemical fertilizers and farm equipment. Despite the reduced labor effort, however, agriculture income does not seem to decline as a result of migration, and total income (as expected) increases significantly. Although a relative decline of agriculture is an inevitable part of the development process, a stagnating agriculture ought to be a matter of concern to policy makers, given the number of Albanian households still relying on farming as main source of income, and the pervasive lack of non-farm income opportunities for rural households. Also, the lack of productivity growth and investment in agriculture that the evidence presented in this paper seems to be hinting to, can be interpreted as signals of a foregone opportunity particularly in areas of the country with higher farming potential.Farm Management,

Agriculture in the Face of Changing Markets, Institutions and Policies: Challenges and Strategies

Since the late 1980s, agriculture in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) has been under considerable adjustment pressure due to changing political, economic and institutional environments. These changes have been linked to the transition process, as well as the ongoing integration into the European Union and the world market. Reduced subsidies, increased environmental and food quality demands, as well as structural changes in the supply, processing and food retailing sector call for major structural adjustments and the improvement of farmersâ managerial abilities. Though such changes always carry significant threats to farms, they also offer new opportunities for the farms' entrepreneurial engagement. Upcoming changes in the agricultural environment and their possible consequences for farm structures across Europe are thus still timely subjects. The objective of the IAMO Forum 2006 is to contribute to the success of agriculture in the CEECs, as well as their neighboring countries, in todayâs increasingly competitive environment. Concrete questions the conference focuses on are: What are the most suitable farm organizations, cooperative arrangements and contractual forms? How to improve efficiency and productivity? Where do market niches lie and what are the new product demands? This book contains 33 invited and selected contributions. These papers will be presented at the IAMO Forum 2006 in order to offer a platform for scientists, practitioners and policy-makers to discuss challenges and potential strategies at the farm, value chain, rural society and policy levels in order to cope with the upcoming challenges. IAMO Forum 2006, as well as this book, would not have been possible without the engagement of many people and institutions. We thank the authors of the submitted abstracts and papers, as well as the referees, for their evaluation of the abstracts from which the papers were selected. In particular, we would like to express our thanks to OLIVER JUNGKLAUS, GABRIELE MEWES, KLAUS REINSBERG and ANGELA SCHOLZ, who significantly contributed to the organization of the Forum. Furthermore, our thanks goes to SILKE SCHARF for her work on the layout and editing support of this book, and to JIM CURTISS, JAMIE BULLOCH, and DÃNALL Ã MEARÃIN for their English proof-reading. As experience from previous years documents, the course of the IAMO Forum continues to profit from the support and engagement of the IAMO administration, which we gratefully acknowledge. Last but not least, we are very grateful to the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Nutrition, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Haniel Foundation and the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO) for their respective financial support.Agribusiness, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Farm Management, Industrial Organization, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use, Productivity Analysis,

Agriculture in the face of changing markets, institutions and policies: Challenges and strategies

Since the late 1980s, agriculture in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) has been under considerable adjustment pressure due to changing political, economic and institutional environments. These changes have been linked to the transition process, as well as the ongoing integration into the European Union and the world market. Reduced subsidies, increased environmental and food quality demands, as well as structural changes in the supply, processing and food retailing sector call for major structural adjustments and the improvement of farmers' managerial abilities. Though such changes always carry significant threats to farms, they also offer new opportunities for the farms' entrepreneurial engagement. Upcoming changes in the agricultural environment and their possible consequences for farm structures across Europe are thus still timely subjects. The objective of the IAMO Forum 2006 is to contribute to the success of agriculture in the CEECs, as well as their neighboring countries, in today's increasingly competitive environment. Concrete questions the conference focuses on are: What are the most suitable farm organizations, cooperative arrangements and contractual forms? How to improve efficiency and productivity? Where do market niches lie and what are the new product demands? CONTENT: Preface; Jarmila Curtiss, Alfons Balmann, Kirsti Dautzenberg, Kathrin Happe. The success of gradualism: Empirical evidence from China's agricultural reform; Jikun Huang, Johan F. M. Swinnen, Scott Rozelle. Land reform and farm restructuring in Moldova, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan: A stocktaking; David Sedik. Land market developments, imperfections, and effects in transition countries; Johan F. M. Swinnen, Pavel Ciaian, Liesbet Vranken. Farmland markets, boom/bust cycles, and farm size; Charles B. Moss, Andrew Schmitz. Duality of farm structure in transition agriculture: The case of Moldova; Zvi Lerman, Dragos Cimpoies. Organizational restructuring of the agrarian sector in Bulgaria during the pre-accession period; Julia M. Doitchinova, Ivan St. Kanchev, Albena Miteva. Governance of Bulgarian farming - Modes, efficiency, impact of EU accession; Hrabrin Bachev. Leadership may have a decisive influence on the successful transition of production cooperatives - A social capital approach; Csaba Forgács. Contractual arrangement and enforcement in transition agriculture: Theory and evidence from China; Hongdong Guo. Contractrual relationships in the Hungarian horticultural sector; Imre Ferto. Contract farming in China: Perspectives of smallholders; Hongdong Guo, Robert W. Jolly, Jianhua Zhu. Are macro policies adjusted to institutional arrangements at the micro level? Some evidence from Polish Agriculture during transition; Jan Falkowski, Dominika Milczarek. The Austrian private foundation as a legal form in farm management, with special emphasis on tax issues; Hermann Peyerl, Günter Breuer. Credit as a tool of integration between the Polish farms and buyers of their products; Alina Danilowska. Who, why and how: Problems of farmers' interest representation in Poland; Aldona Zawojska. How competitive is milk production in the Central and Eastern European countries in comparison to Western Europe? Mikhail Ramanovich, Torsten Hemme. Production and trade of animal products in selected ECO countries; Farhad Mirzaei, Olaf Heidelbach. European agriculture without direct payments - A partial equilibrium analysis; Oliver Balkhausen, Martin Banse. Measuring the degree of market power in the Ukrainian milk processing; Oleksandr Perekhozhuk, Michael Grings. Determinants of foreign direct investments in the food processing industry: An empirical analysis for Ukraine; Oksana Luka. Allocative efficiency of corporate farms in the Leningrad region; David Epstein. Pathways towards efficient levels of machinery investments needed for the sustainable development of arable farms in Bulgaria; Nikolay Naydenov. Small-scale farming in Romania - Shadow prices and efficiency; Johannes Sauer, Borbala Balint. How large is the marginal product of land in the Moscow region? Natalia Il'ina, Nikolay Svetlov. Spatial price transmission on the Turkish wheat market - An initial application; Enno-Burghard Weitzel, Ahmet Bayaner. Farm to retail price transmission on the pork market: A German-Hungarian comparison; Lajos Zoltán Bakucs, Imre Ferto, Heinrich Hockmann, Oleksandr Perekhozhuk. The nature of selected price transmissions in the agri-food chain and their consequences; Lukáš Čechura. Labor mobility in transition countries and the impact of institutions; Thomas Herzfeld, Thomas Glauben. Choosing to migrate or migrating to choose: Migration and labor choice in Albania; Carlo Azzarri, Gero Carletto, Benjamin Davis, Alberto Zezza. Rural non-farm employment in Ukraine; Oleg Nivyevskiy, Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel. Opportunities and challenges for farm household livelihood strategies: Pluriactivity in Finland and the UK; Claire Newton. Territorial aspects of enterprise development in remote rural areas of Europe; Zuzana Bednarikova, Tomas Doucha, Zdenek Travnicek. New policy approaches for rural development: The experience of two case regions in Eastern Germany; Theodor Fock --