Institutions of the ‘Belt & Road’ Initiative: A Systematic Literature Review

China is the second largest economy in the world. It has experienced tremendous economic growth in the history of development. Recently China is going through a period of slow economic growth. In 2013, it launched a large-scale global project-the Belt and Road Initiative. It is termed as ‘project of the century’. Almost 65 countries are assembled under the Initiative. There have been pertinent questions and much confusions with regard to the aims and structure of the Initiative. This article reviews some high-quality peer-reviewed works to find out the nature and goals of the Belt and Road Initiative. In doing so, we have followed the research methodology of systematic literature review. The institutional dynamics and aspects of the Initiative; such as, the Silk Road Fund, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the economics corridors are explained in the paper. The data reveal that trade and economic activities in the countries along the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative are on the increase. The evidence presented in this study would facilitate to advance further research in the newly emerging field of the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative. Keywords: China, The Belt and Road Initiative, Institutions, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Maritime Silk Road, Silk Road Economic Belt

Factors influencing place of delivery : evidence from three south-Asian countries

Background High maternal mortality is still a significant public health challenge in many countries of the South-Asian region. The majority of maternal deaths occur due to pregnancy and deliveryrelated complications, which can mostly be prevented by safe facility delivery. Due to the paucity of existing evidence, our study aimed to examine the factors associated with place of delivery, including women's preferences for such in three selected South-Asian countries. Methods We extracted data from the most recent demographic and health surveys (DHS) conducted in Bangladesh (2014), Nepal (2016), and Pakistan (2017-18) and analyzed to identify the association between the outcome variable and socio-demographic characteristics. A total of 16,429 women from Bangladesh (4278; mean age 24.57 years), Nepal (3962; mean age 26.35 years), and Pakistan (8189; mean age 29.57 years) were included in this study. Following descriptive analyses, bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted. Results Overall, the prevalence of facility-based delivery was 40%, 62%, and 69% in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, respectively. Inequity in utilizing facility-based delivery was observed for women in the highest wealth quintile. Participants from Urban areas, educated, middle and upper household economic status, and with high antenatal care (ANC) visits were significantly associated with facility-based delivery in all three countries. Interestingly, watching TV was also found as a strong determinant for facility-based delivery in Bangladesh (aOR = 1.31, 95% CI:1.09-1.56, P = 0.003), Nepal (aOR = 1.42, 95% CI:1.20-1.67, P<0.001) and Pakistan (aOR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.03-1.32, P = 0.013). Higher education of husband was a significant predictor for facility delivery in Bangladesh (aOR = 1.73, 95% CI:1.27-2.35, P = 0.001) and Pakistan (aOR = 1.19, 95% CI: 0.99-1.43, P = 0.065); husband's occupation was also a significant factor in Bangladesh (aOR = 1.30, 95% CI:1.04-1.61, P = 0.020) and Nepal (aOR = 1.26, 95% CI:1.01-1.58, P = 0.041). Conclusion Our findings suggest that the educational status of both women and their husbands, household economic situation, and the number of ANC visits influenced the place of delivery. There is an urgent need to promote facility delivery by building more birthing facilities, training and deployment of skilled birth attendants in rural and hard-to-reach areas, ensuring compulsory female education for all women, encouraging more ANC visits, and providing financial incentives for facility deliveries. There is a need to promote facility delivery by encouraging health facility visits through utilizing social networks and continuing mass media campaigns. Ensuring adequate Government funding for free maternal and newborn health care and local community involvement is crucial for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and achieving sustainable development goals in this region

Evaluating the concept of sustainable agriculture practices: A systematic review of the possible definition

Currently, the concepts of sustainable agriculture are holding rigorous attention among policymakers, academia, and international communities as a set of potential practices that can lower environmental degradation while not compromising productivity and economic viability. To this end, there has been a prolific and diverse conceptualization of the innovative tactics within the extent of academic publishing. However, different researchers use the key terms sustainable and agriculture differently. There is a lack of unified definitions or any sort of compilation of the definition of these key terms which we believe restricts the development of a unified concept of sustainable agriculture practices. The review tends to outline a conceptual clarification regarding the core definition of SAP by assessing how the notion of sustainability and agriculture is thematized in the scientific publications through an in-depth systematic review of 405 research articles. Moreover, with the help of the term “keywords plus” denoted by a combined assessment of the author’s keyword, title, and abstract we conducted a network analysis of the corpus and outlines a total of 139 definitions used by the authors and structurally categorized them through connotations, actions, and main objectives. The outcomes of the study depict that the notion of sustainable agriculture substantially shifted from its social obligations to more economic and environmental aspects. The outcome depicts that the researchers within the field did not provide much attention to the societal obligation of SAP rather focussing on more practical setups/ instrumental indicators of eco-environmental aspects. This approach of putting greater emphasis on exploring the market factors will be perilous for the dilution of their unique characteristics for influencing the major stakeholder in the sector. The review will be one of the first attempts to explore, compile and categorize the possible definitions of sustainable practices by evaluating published articles. The review will be helpful for future researchers to comprehensively grasp the popular definitions used by the existing literature and therefore contribute to the diverse field of sustainable agriculture practices

Does Internet and Information Technology Help Farmers to Maximize Profit: A Cross-Sectional Study of Apple Farmers in Shandong, China

The adoption of Internet and Information Technology (IIT) in organizations has been growing at a staggering pace. In agriculture, IIT has emerged from the prospects of modern agricultural structure, which profoundly bring revolution in the way of agribusiness. While the impacts of IIT for selecting productive sales and marketing channels is evidenced by the substantial literature in the field, there is a crucial research scope of inclusive analytical views, especially in an economics context. The prime objective of the article is to assess the impacts of IIT for choosing a productive sales and marketing channel. Moreover, we tend to find whether the usage of IIT can eventually foster the profitability of the farmers. The empirical set of data is collected from a cross-sectional survey conducted in Shandong province, China. We utilize the Ordinary Least-Squares (OLS) regression, propensity score matching (PSM), and Heckman’s two-stage regression approaches to craft the findings. The greater extent of the use of IIT, the more significant and positive the impact of agricultural income is. After using the Heckman regression and PSM model, IIT’s use significantly increases the efficiency for selecting the sales channel, and the impact on agricultural income is also prominent (around 40%). We also find that the supporting and nonagricultural income exceeded 30%. Finally, the outcomes of the study reveal significant positive impacts for selecting productive sales and marketing channels. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested that the government and relevant departments should strengthen the construction of agricultural information platforms and websites. Authorities should also extend the training facilities of fruit farmers regarding the use of IIT, which could be useful to boost the capability of fruit farmers to develop markets and promote the value chain

Evaluations of the Roles of Organizational Support, Organizational Norms and Organizational Learning for Adopting Environmentally Friendly Technologies: A Case of Kiwifruit Farmers’ Cooperatives of Meixian, China

Environmentally friendly technologies have long been recognized as a widespread phenomenon working within the functions and performance of farms. Farmer’s cooperative organization might profoundly foster the environmentally friendly technologies (EFT) and availing competitive advantage to the farmer. Illustrated by the natural-resource-based view of the farm (NRBV), this study examined the influence of organizational support, organizational norms, and organizational learning on adopting EFT and proposed a model quantifying the impacts of these approaches towards availing competitive capabilities (i.e., cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery). The framework is empirically endorsed by employing the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the help of a household survey from a spectrum of 292 farmers of 38 kiwifruit cooperatives of Meixian County, China, from August to September 2020. The findings demonstrate that organizational support, organizational norms, and organizational learning positively influence EFT. Moreover, the study found EFT positively impacts product cost, product quality, product delivery, and production flexibility. Interestingly, the relationship between the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies and the competitive capabilities of kiwifruit farmers of Meixian is positively significant. The study proposes several policy recommendations emphasizing the role of organizations in the form of farmer’s cooperatives in boosting farmers to engage in proenvironmental behavior and, therefore, shifting the trends of future research directions on the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies

An Integrated Assessment of Different Types of Environment-Friendly Technological Progress and Their Spatial Spillover Effects in the Chinese Agriculture Sector

The progress of environment-friendly technology is an important means and fundamental way to achieve high-quality agricultural development. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces of China from 2000 to 2010, the study used the slack-based models (SBM) to measure the progress of China&rsquo;s environment-based technology and its different types and discusses its dynamic evolution characteristics over time. First, the study adopted MATLAB software and used a slack-based models (SBM) method to split the environment-friendly technology progress (AGTP) into agricultural emission-reduction environment-friendly technology progress (AEGTP) and the agricultural re-source-saving environment-friendly technology progress (ARGTP). Then, global and local spatial autocorrelation analysis, spatial model testing, and Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) were performed on different types of environment-friendly technology progress using STATA15. Moreover, OpenGeoDa and ArcGIS software was used for visualization. The empirical results showed that: (i) from the perspective of time and space, the AGTP showed a slightly higher level in technological regression trend from 2000 to 2012, and rebounded rapidly from 2012 to 2019. In the spatial dimension, the spatial autocorrelation test results of environment-friendly technology progress at the global Moran I level showed a significant positive correlation; however, the phenomenon of the regional level showed a negative correlation. (ii) From the perspective of the type of heterogeneity, only the spatial distribution has a high degree of chance, and the aggregation area is more concentrated. Various influencing factors have a very significant impact on ACGTP but are less significant on agricultural resource-saving environment-friendly technology progress. However, various influencing factors have a more significant impact on the ACGTP than AEGTP. (iii) From the perspective of the spatial spillover effect, labor level, per capita agricultural gross product, and agricultural internal structure are positively and significantly related to environment-friendly technology progress and its different types. Agricultural price policy, financial support policy, economic environmental regulation, and administrative environmental regulation have significant negative effects on the progress of environment-friendly technology and its different types

Does Participation in Agricultural Value Chain Activities Influence Smallholder Fruit Grower Production Performance? A Cross-Sectional Study of Apple Farmers in Shandong, China

The value chain comprises several factors and activities useful for strengthening production and distribution by connecting producers with suppliers, intermediaries, and marketplaces and collaboratively creating added value for products or goods. However, the values of agricultural products mostly depend on various factors and actors, which should be linked together for fostering added values. Thus, there may be strong ground for facilitating a smooth transition of the agricultural value chain (AVC) within the prospects of emerging countries. It could be a key means of promoting a profound connection between smallholder farmers and modern agriculture facilities. It could be especially crucial for the highly perishable and high-value product such as fruits. The main aims of the study are to evaluate the factors influencing smallholder apple farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain and determine whether participation in AVC improves farmers’ production performance. The empirical setup of the study was chosen based on survey data of apple growers in Shandong, China. The propensity score matching (PSM) and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) models were employed to craft the study’s outcomes. The main conclusions are as follows. (1) Fruit farmers’ gender, total household expenditure, housing value, planting scale, planting years, degree of specialization, days of family labour input, and total days of employment have significant effects on their participation in AVC activities. (2) Fruit farmers’ usage of improved fertilizers and organization participation supports a higher yield and net income per acre. (3) Participating in two kinds of AVC can significantly improve the yield per acre and net income per acre compared with only using one type of AVC (improved fertilizer). Policy makers should improve the existing policy by eliminating institutional barriers and enhancing human factors for farmers to participate in high-value chain activities. Governments should extend technical support, and enhance training facilities, and comprehensively promote the AVC among smallholder farmers. Finally, farmers’ organizations (e.g., cooperatives and credit organizations) should come forward to help facilitate the effectiveness of AVC

Does the Host Country’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Restrictiveness Inhibit the Export Sophistication of the Home Country? Evidence from China’s Manufacturing Data

Since the going-global approach of Chinese enterprises has accelerated, the host country’s foreign direct investments (FDI) restrictiveness index has dramatically influenced the upgrading of China’s trade structure. This study investigates the relationship between the host country’s FDI restrictiveness index and the export sophistication of the home country. Using two-way fixed-impact models and firm-based microcosmic data, it verifies the impacts of reverse technology spillover (RTS) by the intermediary model. The empirical outcomes illustrate that the host country’s FDI restrictiveness index significantly inhibits the export sophistication of the home country. In particular, overseas equity restrictions, selection and endorsement requirements, and additional operational limitations hold more substantial influence. However, the limits on key foreign experts have promoted the export sophistication of the home country. Seemingly, host countries’ FDI restrictiveness has inhibited export sophistication in the textile industry and the processing of the resource industry but promoted the same in the mechanical and electronic industries. Likewise, the host country’s FDI restrictiveness impacts the export sophistication of the home nation through resource allocation. Manufacturing enterprises increased export sophistication by guiding resource allocation, and export trade models were changed from the previous quantitative competition to quality competition

Evaluating the Impacts of Smallholder Farmer’s Participation in Modern Agricultural Value Chain Tactics for Facilitating Poverty Alleviation—A Case Study of Kiwifruit Industry in Shaanxi, China

Market-based initiatives like agriculture value chain (AVC) are becoming progressively pervasive to support smallholder rural farmers and assist them in entering larger market interventions and providing a pathway of enhancing their socioeconomic well-being. Moreover, it may also foster staggering effects towards the post-era poverty alleviation in rural areas and possessed a significant theoretical and practical influence for modern agricultural development. The prime objective of the study is to explore the effects of smallholder farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain for availing rural development and poverty alleviation. Specifically, we have crafted the assessment employing pre-production (improved fertilizers usage), in-production (modern preservation technology), and post-production (supply chain) participation and interventions of smallholder farmers. The empirical data has been collected from a micro survey dataset of 623 kiwifruit farmers from July to September in Shaanxi, China. We have employed propensity score matching (PSM), probit, and OLS models to explore the multidimensional poverty reduction impact and heterogeneity of farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain. The results show that the total number of poor farmers who have experienced one-dimensional and two-dimensional poverty is relatively high (66.3%). We also find that farmers’ participation in agricultural value chain activities has a significant poverty reduction effect. The multidimensional poverty level of farmers using improved fertilizer, organizational acquisition, and using storage technology (compared with non-participating farmers) decreased by 30.1%, 46.5%, and 25.0%, respectively. The multidimensional poverty reduction degree of male farmers using improved fertilizer and participating in the organizational acquisition is greater than that of women. The multidimensional poverty reduction degree of female farmers using storage and fresh-keeping technology has a greater impact than the males using storage and improved storage technology. Government should widely promote the value chain in the form of pre-harvest, production, and post-harvest technology. The public–private partnership should also be strengthened for availing innovative technologies and infrastructure development

Evaluation of Farmers’ Ecological Cognition in Responses to Specialty Orchard Fruit Planting Behavior: Evidence in Shaanxi and Ningxia, China

Developing specialties in orchard fruits productions with ecological and economic benefits is a practical and effective way to guarantee eco-friendliness and increase farmers’ income in the Loess Plateau area. Therefore, to understand these factors, the study constructs an agriculture ecological cognition index from three dimensions of eco-agriculture cognitions (increase income cognition, water conservation cognition and eco-product price cognition). Our analysis was based on micro survey data from 416 farmers in Shaanxi and Ningxia, China. The study used two main econometric models, double-hurdle and Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM), to examine the relationship and influence pathways between cognition of ecological agriculture and farmers’ specialty orchard fruit planting behavior. The results show that: (i) the cognition of eco-agriculture affects whether farmers plant specialty fruits (participation decision). The cognition of eco-agriculture increases income and the cognition of eco-product price significantly affect the scale of specialty orchard fruits planting (quantity decision). (ii) Household resource endowments influence specialty orchard fruit planting responses through ecological farming cognitions. (iii) The factors influencing the participation and quantity decisions of orchard fruit planting are significantly different. Therefore, when the government actively encourages farmers to participate in specialty orchard planting, it should fully consider the cognitive factors of ecological agriculture of the growers and develop targeted training strategies