Contract Farming for Better Farmer-Enterprise Partnerships: ADB\u27s Experience in the People\u27s Republic of China

[Excerpt] Agriculture should provide safe and nutritious food to people. In the People’s Republic of China (PRC ) and many other developing members of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), agriculture is also the main source of income for rural residents. Yet as compared with the total labor force absorption, the contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product is very small, suggesting lower productivity, often resulting in poverty. Recognizing the invaluable contribution of agriculture to the PRC ’s development, the government has been prioritizing agricultural modernization in its policy agenda with an aim to further improve the agricultural sector’s productivity and efficiency. ADB’s support to the sustainable development of agriculture in the PRC covers broad areas ranging from irrigation infrastructure and farmland upgrading to agribusiness development and food safety. The Dryland Sustainable Agriculture project commenced in 2009 with ADB assistance supports the development of partnerships between private agro-enterprises and farmers using contract farming arrangements to strengthen farm productivity, food production, and processing capacity in 27 counties in Gansu, Henan, and Shandong provinces. After 6 years, the project has delivered considerable amount of outputs in terms of facilities established and farmers engaged, showing promise in achieving its outcome. Concurring with the request from the Ministry of Agriculture, the project executing agency, ADB provided a grant to study the experiences arising from the project with respect to developing sustainable farmer–enterprise partnerships particularly contract farming models. Equally important, the study examines the issues involved in current contract farming practices and recommends policies that may help resolve them

Options for sustainability improvement and biomass use in Malaysia : Palm oil production chain and biorefineries for non-food use of residues and by-products including other agricultural crops

The Division Biobased Products of the WUR institute A&F was approached by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality with a policy support question about the potential of Bio-based economic developments in Malaysia. Malaysia is one of the major international trade partners of the Netherlands. Annually 4.500 – 5.000 million euro’s worth of goods are imported from Malaysia. The Netherlands are Malaysia’s most important trading partner within the EU. The volume of agricultural commodities and especially palm oil products are substantial and the use of biobased resources for the generation of energy or biofuel has created a fierce debate on the sustainability of expansion of use of the biomass resources. In the context of the international policy to support the transition towards a biobased economy the potential resources that can be used for production of materials, chemicals and energy needs to be indentified. This report is reviewing the options that the current Malaysian agro-forestry sector may provide for sustainable developments. The main conclusions are that especially the currently underutilized residues and polluting wastes from the palm oil production have big potential for value addition and technical product development that also could substantially contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Examples can be found in fermentation of residues and effluents to produce bio-gas / ethanol or bioplastics but also fibre boards and building materials. Demonstration on pilot scale of such technologies could create new business and bilateral interactions between Malaysia and The Netherlands

A study tour of organic poultry production in France - current & future implementation of standards & EU legislation

Introduction There have recently been major changes in the regulations governing the production of organic poultry products in the EU. Member States have been required to set Standards for production that meet the minimum set in Regulation (EC) 1804/99 if products, including poultry, are to be sold as organic within the EU. This has raised concerns over consistency of implementation in other Member States, and whether, directly or through derogation, this might lead to competitive advantage over the UK. MAFF were aware that France had drafted derogations in accordance with Regulation (EC) 1804/99, and intended to implement some aspects of the Regulation which were claimed to be more stringent than the basic requirements. The aim of this project was to establish any differences between France and the UK in the interpretation of Regulation (EC) 1804/1999 and the application of derogations within the standard, and to assess whether there was likely to be an effect on the competitiveness of UK organic poultry production. The project comprised a study tour of organic poultry production in France, and was undertaken by an experienced ADAS poultry consultant. Arrangements for the study tour were made in December 2000 and the study tour was undertaken between the 8 January 2001 and 14 January 2001. Results While for the most part the application of organic standards in France results in no competitive disadvantage to UK organic poultry producers, there are three aspects, related to laying hens, in which they do. These are detailed below. 1) Derogations under 8.5.1 of the French Standards stipulate that the effective date for “production units already notified for the purposes of organic farming” is before the 30 August 2000, not the 24 August 1999 as in Regulation (EC) 1804/99, the the UKROFS Standards, and in the 22 May 2000 French authorities draft organic standards for transmission to the EU. It is difficult to see how the French authorities can justify the adoption of this later date which appears to contravene Regulation (EC) 1804/99. 2) Application of French organic Regulations to laying hens appears to contravene Regulation (EEC) 1274/91 on Special Marketing Terms relating to free range production. Regulation (EEC) 1274/91 requires that in order to use the term free range (or in French ‘plein air’) hens must have continuous daytime access to open-air runs, whose grounds must be mainly covered with vegetation. Secondly, the maximum permitted stocking density in the run is one hen per 10m2. The accepted practise of keeping hens in the house until 28 weeks of age in order to meet the requirement to rest outside runs for at least two months, and then stocking them in the runs at a high density (only 3 to 4 m2 of run/hen), would appear to breach Regulation (EEC) 1274/91. Eggs from hens kept in this way should not therefore be sold as free range or organic in France, or exported to the UK. 3) The debeaking of pullets at eight to ten weeks of age as practised systematically in France would be unacceptable in the UK where beak trimming is allowed only up to 10 days of age. It is questionable whether eggs from French debeaked hens should be acceptable for export to the UK. Details relating to Standards, derogations, certification bodies, breed choice and suitability, house design and stocking density, outside runs and pasture management, feeding issues (in particular, the ban on the use of synthetic amino acids), cereal production , manure usage , marketing, economics, pullet rearing and organic research are reported more fully in the attached Scientific Report. There is a more comprehensive summary at the start of the main report

Blockchain-Based Digitalization of Logistics Processes—Innovation, Applications, Best Practices

Blockchain technology is becoming one of the most powerful future technologies in supporting logistics processes and applications. It has the potential to destroy and reorganize traditional logistics structures. Both researchers and practitioners all over the world continuously report on novel blockchain-based projects, possibilities, and innovative solutions with better logistic service levels and lower costs. The idea of this Special Issue is to provide an overview of the status quo in research and possibilities to effectively implement blockchain-based solutions in business practice. This Special Issue reprint contained well-prepared research reports regarding recent advances in blockchain technology around logistics processes to provide insights into realized maturity

Cold Chain Synergy of Chain Restaurant

With the economic development and social progress, the modern catering industry represented by chain operation is gradually moving towards industrialization, chain operation, and modernization. The chain restaurant industry relies more on professional and efficient cold chain supply chain design and services. The cold chain supply chain system includes a distribution center based on the central kitchen, specialized third-party logistics based on its own or outsourced cold chain logistics, and food taste quality research and development represented by new technologies

Evaluation of the Impact of "A strategy for the Sustainable Development of European Aquaculture" COM (2002) 511 Final

The 2002 strategy COM(2002) 511 FINAL was a landmark for European aquaculture and looked to build on the excellent growth seen in the sector during the 1990s. This study compares the impact of the 2002 Communication as perceived by various stakeholders across Europe, measured against recent statistics, facts, outcomes of economic, legislative and research processes. While the core objectives of consumer health and safety and environmental issues were perceived to have been partially successful, the growth and development objective was not. In the period examined, Community aquaculture production has stagnated and even declined in some species sectors. Aquaculture development since 2002 was perceived to have been held back by access to coastal and rural space, including competition from other resource users. The administrative burdens placed on (new) aquaculture operations was also considered to be important.Reasons for the gap between the perceived impact and "documented" implementation success of the 2002 strategy are suggested. Some of the less successful actions have also been recognised by the Commission in its COM(2009) 162 aquaculture strategy