Modeling of Structural Adjustment Processes of Farming Enterprises: The Need for Implementation of Cooperation and Collaboration Strategies

The research objective is to shed light on the structural adjustment process of farming enterprises in Switzerland. To this end, an analytical tool is developed which allows us to identify the most important influencing factors and to estimate in advance their effects on the structural adjustment process. The resulting structures will be compared with the relevant goals of the (agricultural) policy in order to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the adjustment process. Using scenario techniques combined with an agent-based simulation, the influencing factors are varied to investigate alternative options like cooperation and collaboration strategies for improving the effectiveness with respect to the social, ecological and economic goals.Agent-based simulation, structural change, cooperation strategies, collaboration, Agricultural Finance, C61, Q12, Q15,

Explaining the conversion to particularly animal-friendly stabling system of farmers of the Obwalden Canton, Switzerland - Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior within a Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

Farmers' intentions about conversion to particularly animal-friendly stabling system (PAFS) are analyzed with a structural equation model. The Theory of Planned Behavior (ToPB, Ajzen 1985) is used as the theoretical basis of this study. Though ToPB is a well-defined theory, it is static rather than procedural and cannot model the individual decision-making as a process. Therefore, we first examine the general applicability of ToPB in an agricultural context and explain the variance in intentions of farmers to convert to PAFS. Second, we extend the ToPB to make it more procedural. For this purpose, research findings from the Diffusion Theory are included as part of the behavioral model. The empirical results indicate that the model has a good fit to the data. The effects of the additional variables "Goal" and "Communication" are highly significant. This illustrates the importance of forming personal goals in the behavior domain and that people act in a goal-directed, rational way. Moreover, it gives empirical evidence that communication through personal channels has a great impact on individual decision-making. Altogether, this study shows that the extended ToPB provides an appropriate approach to investigate individual decision-making processes in agriculture.Farm Management,

Explaining the Conversion to Organic Farming of Farmers of the Obwalden Canton, Switzerland - Extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior within a Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Farmers' decisions about conversion to organic farming are analyzed with a structural equation model. The Theory of Planned Behavior (ToPB), one of the prominent theories in the social psychology, is used as the theoretical basis of this study. Though ToPB is a well-defined theory, it is static rather than procedural and cannot model the individual decision-making as a process. Therefore, we first examine the general applicability of ToPB in an agricultural context and explain the variance in intentions of farmers to convert to organic farming. Second, we extend the ToPB to make it more procedural. For this purpose, research findings from the Diffusion Theory are included as part of the behavioral model. The empirical results indicate that, overall, the model has an acceptable fit to the data. The effects of the additional variables "Goal" and "Communication" are highly significant. This illustrates the importance of forming personal goals in the behavior domain and that people act in a goal-directed, rational way. Moreover, it gives empirical evidence that communication through personal channels has a great impact on individual decision-making. Altogether, this study shows that the extended ToPB provides an appropriate approach to investigate individual decision-making processes in agriculture.behavior research, conversion to particularly animal friendly stabling system, theory of planned behavior, diffusion theory, structural equation modelling, Farm Management, C8, D1, Q12, Z13,

Distributional effects of direct payments in Switzerland

The switch from market-support to direct payments in Switzerland had impacts on the income distribution among farmers. In this paper, the distributional effect of the switch as a whole and of the different kinds of direct payments are elaborated through a presentation of different decomposed Gini coefficients. Although the income distribution in Swiss Agriculture is still more equal than in most other countries, the Gini coefficient has risen from 0.27 in 1990 to 0.38 in 2009 and is by now strongly dependent on the composition of direct payments. Off-farm income and direct payments decrease, while market income increases income inequality.income distribution, direct payments, Gini decomposition, agricultural policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q00, Q18, Q28.,

The effect of environmental cross compliance regulations on Swiss farm productivity

This paper analyzes the evolution of Swiss farm productivity during the implementation of environmental policy reforms. We employ a production model formulation with technology parameters defined as the functions of subsidies, as well as individual farm characteristics. Our estimates for two groups of farms – milk-producing and crop farms – show that introducing environmental regulations induced serious changes in the production technology and productivity of inputs, especially of land, labor and fertilizer. The overall effect of the subsidies on the production output has been found negative. At the same time, we find that farms do not use their resources optimally, which indicates some deficiencies in structural adjustments, primarily in the land and labor markets.environmental regulations, productivity analysis, Swiss agriculture., Environmental Economics and Policy, Q120, D240,

Strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas and nitrogen emissions in Swiss agriculture: the application of an integrated sector model

Environmental impacts of agricultural production, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen emissions, are of major concern for scientists and policy makers throughout the world. Global agricultural activities account for about 60% of nitrous oxide and about 50% of methane emissions. From a global perspective, methane and nitrous oxide constitute crucial GHGs. They contribute substantially to climate change due to their high potential for effecting global warming compared to carbon dioxide. Emissions of these gases depend on the extent of agricultural production and applied technologies. Therefore, analysis of potential mitigation opportunities is challenging and requires an integrated approach in order to link agricultural economic perspectives to environmental aspects. In view of this, a mathematical programming model has been developed which enables assessment of cost-effective strategies for mitigating GHG and nitrogen emissions in the agricultural sector in Switzerland. This model is applied to improve understanding of the agricultural sector and its behavior with changing conditions in technology and policy. The presented recursive-dynamic model mimics the structure and inter- dependencies of Swiss agriculture and links that framework to core sources of GHG and nitrogen emissions. Calculated results for evaluation and application indicate that employed flexibility constraints provide a feasible approach to sufficiently validate the described model. Recursive-dynamic elements additionally enable adequate modeling of both an endogenous development of livestock dynamics and investments in buildings and machinery, also taking sunk costs into account. The presented findings reveal that the specified model approach is suitable to accurately estimate agricultural structure, GHG and nitrogen emissions within a tolerable range. The model performance can therefore be described as sufficiently robust and satisfactory. Thus, the model described here appropriately models strategies for GHG and nitrogen abatement in Swiss agriculture. The results indicate that there are limits to the ability of Swiss agriculture to contribute substantially to the mitigation of GHG and nitrogen emissions. There is only a limited level of mitigation available through technical approaches, and these approaches have high cost.resource use, environmental economics, greenhouse gas emission, nitrogen emission, integrated modeling

Climate change, theory of planned behavior and values: a structural equation model with mediation analysis: A letter

An online survey about climate change was conducted 2008/2009 among all university members (N = 3541). Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and Cultural Theory within a structural equation modeling approach, one main goal was to explain climate-friendly behavioral intentions and the underlying psychological processes comprehensively and to show the interdependencies between both approaches. The model explained 72% of the variance in Intentions to use public transport. Attitude towards public transport (beta = 0.67, p < .001) most strongly influenced Intentions followed by Subjective Norms (beta = 0.23, p < .001). In turn, Attitudes and Norm were explained by the value types Egalitarian, Individualist and Fatalist (24% and 14% respectively). These value types are mediated through Attitudes and Subjective Norms. Recommendations regarding the support of climate friendly behavior are formulate

Sustainable Value: an application to the Swiss dairy farms of the mountainous area

The improvement of the sustainable performance of the agricultural sector is a priority of the Swiss agricultural policy. The sustainability of Swiss dairy farms located in the mountainous area might be critical as many of them show a weak performance in the use of their economic and/or social resources, and sometimes also of their environmental resources. An improvement of the sustainability of these farms prerequisites to better know on a large scale their sustainable performance and its determinants. For a representative sample of 480 dairy farms, we perform an assessment of their sustainable efficiency with the “sustainable value”, an approach to assess corporate sustainability based on the capital and opportunity cost theories. Using a linear regression, we analyze the determinants of the sustainable efficiency. The results show a tight positive relationship between sustainable performance and pure economic performance. The intensity of the use of intermediate consumptions is found to be the most important determinant of the sustainable efficiency. Farms with a high sustainable efficiency are those that use their intermediate consumptions in the most efficient way. The part of direct payments in the gross profit is shown to negatively affect the sustainable efficiency. The structural characteristics of the farms and the sociologic characteristics of the farmer managers are shown to hardly influence the sustainable efficiency.corporate sustainable performance, dairy farms, Switzerland, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries,

Sustainable development of rural areas - Methodological issues

Sustainable development is both a global and local challenge to managing change. It requires integrating social, ecological and economic objectives and system requirements that are generally expressed in terms of maintaining some suitably defined aggregates of social, ecological and economic capital. Apart from global environmental constraints, these aggregates are mainly determined at the local scale. This is of particular importance for the development of rural areas that more directly depend on environmental resources than urban economies, and that are characterised by a semi-natural to natural landscape which provides amenity and recreational values to the urban and rural population. Yet, the threat to rural areas is that they are under pressure of urbanisation. This goes along with land use change and socio-cultural change, and thus with alterations of the regional ecological and social capital. This results in trade-offs between short-term goals of development and long-term goals of sustainability. On the one hand, the development of rural areas depends on available resources, current institutions and technologies, and the competitiveness of local goods and services. On the other hand, sustainability calls for maintaining the regional capital stock (local economic, social and ecological assets) over time. An integrated approach is required to address these trade-offs. To this end, we provide a transdisciplinary synthesis of research on rural development, and present a concept for improving rural development strategies toward achieving long-term goals of sustainability. Apparently, sustainable development is the key concept for integrating the above issues. It does not need each asset to be conserved. Rather, sustainable development requires that conservation and change are balanced through an adaptive process of optimisation across the various system goals. This implies a development path which is constrained by the boundaries of the regional opportunity space for sustainable development. These boundaries are characterised by general system requirements, such as compliance with critical levels of natural and social capital, economic stability, satisfaction of basic needs, equity within and between generations, and efficient use of scarce resources. They are not constant, but vary in space and time. As an adequate method of research on sustainable development in rural areas, and to provide assistance to local actors and the political process, we propose a combination of formal analyses and participatory approaches. First, to assess the boundaries of the above opportunity space, within which sustainable development is feasible, a formal analysis is required. It must integrate scientific and local knowledge, cultural values, along with local and national goals of economic and social development. Second, to create new development potentials, the opportunity space must be expanded. This can be achieved through innovation and institutional change, which requires local initiative and capacity building amongst all actors involved. Finally, the local actors are the key players in implementing measures at their respective level of activity in order to manage change within the boundaries of the opportunity space of sustainable development