VERTICAL COORDINATION IN THE AGRO-FOOD INDUSTRY AND CONTRACT FARMING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TURKEY AND THE USA

Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

Agriculture - Elements of Its Future Control

Exact date of working paper unknown

Analysis of the revenue-sharing contract under different power structures with application in the biodiesel niche market

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

The Shape of Utility Functions and Organizational Behavior

Based on measurements with 332 owner-managers, the global shape of the utility function (i.e., S-shaped versus concave or convex over the total range of outcomes) appears to discriminate organizational behavior. Whereas the degree of risk aversion, based on the local shape of the utility function, may be important in explaining owner-manager's trading behavior, the global shape of the utility function appears to drive more structural organizational behavior.utility theory;prospect theory;risk aversion;organizational behavior

California Water Myths

Presents eight common myths about water supply, ecosystems, and the legal and political aspects of governing California's water system and explains how each myth drives the debate, the reality, and alternatives for better informed policy discussions

Environmental Implications of the Foodservice and Food Retail Industries

The growing size and importance of service sector industries in the U.S. economy raises questions about the suitability of the current environmental management system to deal with perhaps a changing set of environmental concerns. This paper analyzes the environmental impacts associated with the activities undertaken and influenced by two service sector industries—foodservice (e.g., restaurants) and food retail (e.g., grocery stores). This paper is not a definitive analysis of the magnitude of the environmental effects of these industries, but is intended to be a comprehensive survey of the types of environmental implications—positive and negative—of these two service sectors. The foodservice and food retail industries are components of a larger industrial system, the food marketing system, that extends from the production of food to the marketing of food products to consumers. The U.S. foodservice industry comprises an estimated 831,000 individual establishments, employs an estimated 11 million people (about 8.6% of the U.S. workforce), and is expected to have total sales of $376 billion in 2000. The U.S. food retail industry encompasses approximately 126,000 grocery stores, employs approximately 3.5 million people (about 2.7$449 billion in 1998. For this analysis, we use a simple conceptual framework that segregates the environmental impacts of these industries into three categories: direct, upstream, and downstream. We conclude that, while the direct environmental impacts (e.g., energy use, solid waste generation; air and water emissions; food safety concerns; refrigerants) of these industries are important to recognize and address, opportunities also exist for these industries to address their upstream and downstream environmental impacts.

Agricultural Contracting Update: Contracts in 2008

Marketing and production contracts covered 39 percent of the value of U.S. agricultural production in 2008, up from 36 percent in 2001, and a substantial increase over 28 percent in 1991 and 11 percent in 1969. However, aggregate contract use has stabilized in recent years and no longer suggests a strong trend. Contracts between farmers and their buyers are reached prior to harvest (or before the completion stage for livestock)and govern the terms under which products are transferred from the farm. Contracts are far more likely to be used on large farms than on small farms, and they form one element in a package of risk management tools available to farmers. Production contracts are used widely in livestock production, while marketing contracts are important to the production of many crops.Production contracts, marketing contracts, farm structure, farm size, farm income, contracting, Agricultural Resource Management Survey, ARMS, risk analysis, Agribusiness, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Collective action and marketing of underutilized plant species: The case of minor millets in Kolli Hills, Tamil Nadu, India

"Minor millets are examples of underutilized plant species, being locally important but rarely traded internationally with an unexploited economic potential. In the Kolli hills of Tamil Nadu, India, a genetically diverse pool of minor millet varieties are grown by the tribal farming communities to meet their subsistence food needs. Most of these minor crops were not traded outside the farming community. Despite a consumption preference among the farming communities for minor millets, in the recent past the acreage under minor millet crops have declined considerably due to the availability of substitute cash crops. As a response, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) based in Chennai has led targeted conservation cum commercialization intervention programs over the last 7-9 years in the Kolli Hills. In this paper we provide a first evaluation of the success of marketing development for minor millets in the Kolli Hills with a specific focus on collective action and group initiatives undertaken by the women and men self-help groups organized by the concerned non-governmental organization. We analyze the key collective actions that are taking place in the minor millet marketing chain through a series of field visits and focus group discussions with the stakeholders involved. We then compare the role of collective action in this new market with the case of marketing chains for cassava and organic pineapples, two cash crops with an expanding production in Kolli Hills. Our analysis shows the critical role of collective action and group initiative as a necessary but not sufficient condition for the successful commercialization of underutilized plant species for the benefit of the poor and the conservation of agrobiodiversity." authors' abstractCollective action, Underutilized species, Agricultural marketing, Agrobiodiversity, Markets, Small farmers,