MEETING PRIVATE GRADES AND STANDARDS IN TRANSITION AGRICULTURE: EXPERIENCES FROM THE ARMENIAN DAIRY INDUSTRY

One of the main trends emerging from the agroindustrialization process is the rise of 'grades and standards' (G&S) in food products. G&S were initially developed by the public sector to reduce transaction costs and ensure product quality and safety but have become a strategic instrument of competition in differentiated product markets (Reardon et al, 2001). Firms are using grades and standards to protect and develop brands in the international marketplace and in some cases to fill in for missing public standards. While producers in developed countries have the resources to meet these requirements, in developing countries these changes have tended to exclude small firms and farmers from participating in market growth, because of the implied investment requirements (Reardon et al, 2001). This is leading to already disadvantaged farmers in these countries being forced to produce basic subsistence food crops and become further excluded from the opportunity to join the global food industry. While past research has evaluated the effects and trends of G&S (Reardon, et al, 2001; Farina & Reardon, 2000; Reardon & Farina, 2002) the organizational structure to enable small farmers to meet these requirements has largely been overlooked. In this paper we use a theoretical contract enforcement framework to argue that private enforcement capital developed through the facilitation of an external aid agency can be an effective means for creating credible and sustainable relationships capable of meeting G&S. We draw upon theory from Cocks and Gow (2002), Oliver and Gow (2002) and Gow et al. (2000) to argue that in situations characterized by high discount rates and low reputation or trust levels (such as transition agriculture) that the use of a third party external enforcement agent can be used to provide the necessary linkage between the parties to facilitate transactions. Through the facilitation role of the external agency, private enforcement capital is developed between the firm and the farmers, opening the path for a sustainable mutually beneficial relationship. Empirical evidence is provided by the case of the United States Department of Agriculture Marketing Assistance Project (USDA MAP) in Armenia and its role in establishing farmer owned milk marketing cooperatives. By acting as an external facilitator in the initial establishment and ongoing development of milk supply cooperatives the USDA MAP has provided a solution to the dual market failure problems of reliable supply of the consistent quality of milk required by processors while enabling farmers access to markets and ensuring timely payment and therefore enabling farmers and firms to credibly contract for the collective marketing of their milk. Through the establishment of a unique and flexibly designed combination of leadership development, training in governance, financial management, dairy management, and quality improvement programs, the USDA MAP has assisted the groups in expanding the self enforcing range in such a manner that the cooperative should be capable of sustaining long term credible exchange relationships once the external agency withdraws. This is important as aid programs have often failed at ensuring sustainability once external management and financial support is removed. Data for this paper was collected through a series of semi-structured interview with USDA MAP staff, dairy processing firm managers, cooperative managers, and cooperative presidents during the fall of 2002, and over a two week period in March, 2003.Livestock Production/Industries,

MEETING PRIVATE GRADES AND STANDARDS IN TRANSITION AGRICULTURE: EXPERIENCES FROM THE ARMENIAN DAIRY INDUSTRY

Livestock Production/Industries,

Strategic and Scenario Planning in Ranching: Managing Risk in Dynamic Times

ContentSteps Toward Success Stage 1: Charting the Course: Creating the Vision Step 1: Assess current situation and inventory of ranch resources Step 2: Conduct SWOT analysis Step 3: Establish a vision for the ranch business Stage 2: Determining Strategies to Achieve the Ranch’s Vision Step 4: GAP analysis Step 5: Alternative strategies to close the gap Stage 3: Scenario Planning for the Ranch Step 6: Describe multiple scenarios Step 7: Select and evaluate the most-probable Scenarios Stage 4: Merging Strategies and Scenario Planning Step 8: Determine strategies with the highest likelihood of success Stage 5: Putting the Plan Into Action and Measuring Success Step 9: Implementation of the strategic plan Step 10: Monitor performance with the Balanced Scorecard Conclusionase for Strategic Planning: Consider ethanol’s impact Appendi

Using the Balanced Scorecard for Ranch Planning and Management:Setting Strategy and Measuring Performance

The key to business success—whether operating a ranch or a Fortune 500 company—lies in management and planning. It’s the ability to have foresight, to carefully evaluate and choose appropriate new concepts and technologies, and to implement a well thought- out plan that complements all aspects of the business. The highly-respected former CEO and chairman of General Electric Jack Welch put it this way: Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. How does that description apply to you? Are you a visionary business leader for your ranch enterprise? Or can you become one? This manual introduces the “Balanced Scorecard” developed by Dr. Robert Kaplan of the Harvard Business School and Dr. David Norton. The duo authored the book The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy Into Action, and the scorecard format has been used by thousands of global companies and small businesses since the early 1990s when it was initially developed. While this concept may be relatively new to the ranching community, adopters of this approach to management include corporate icons like General Electric, DuPont, Ford Motor Company, IBM, and Walt Disney World. Using the scorecard, a manager can clearly see the things that need to be measured to “balance” different competing parts of the ranch. For example, rather than analyze financial records alone—which are only capable of telling of past events—this approach also takes into account things such as customer relationships, ranch processes, and investment in family members and employees’ learning and growth— all of which can have an impact on future business success. Central to the effectiveness of the Balanced Scorecard is viewing the business (your ranch) from these perspectives and then developing strategies and evaluating outcomes relative to each of those perspectives. By doing so, you can build a stronger base for your future sustainability. To that end, this manual offers a step-by step guide for the ranching industry to adopt the Balanced Scorecard and move toward managing for ranch business success

Nanosecond laser texturing for high friction applications

AbstractA nanosecond pulsed Nd:YAG fibre laser with wavelength of 1064nm was used to texture several different steels, including grade 304 stainless steel, grade 316 stainless steel, Cr–Mo–Al ‘nitriding’ steel and low alloy carbon steel, in order to generate surfaces with a high static friction coefficient. Such surfaces have applications, for example, in large engines to reduce the tightening forces required for a joint or to secure precision fittings easily. For the generation of high friction textures, a hexagonal arrangement of laser pulses was used with various pulse overlaps and pulse energies. Friction testing of the samples suggests that the pulse energy should be high (around 0.8mJ) and the laser pulse overlap should be higher than 50% in order to achieve a static friction coefficient of more than 0.5. It was also noted that laser processing increases the surface hardness of samples which appears to correlate with the increase in friction. Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) measurements indicate that this hardness is caused by the formation of hard metal-oxides at the material surface