Multifunctional Agriculture: How to Provide Incentives to Farmers?

In this paper we anlyse the meaning of multifunctionality at farm level. After defining the concept, a number of examples are given to illustrate problems in delivery of non-commodity outputs. Based on a general micro-economic model, it is shown that farmers' behavior will depend on personal characteristics as well as on relative prices. Next, Instruments to give incentives to farmers to engage in the delivery of non-commodity outputs are discussed as well as the possibility of collective action. The paper ends with some conclusions and recommendations for further research and discussion.Farm Management,

Understanding the System Context of Alternative Food Supply Chains

This paper focuses upon the case of alternative food supply chains (AFSCs) as a "laboratory" for the implementation of sustainability concepts on a larger scale. To realize this type of upscaling, two important conditions should be fulfilled: the initiatives have to combine a performing internal organisation with the ability to understand and interact with the larger food system. To explore these concepts, the theory of hybrid organisations and the system innovation policy approach are discussed. Theory and empirical evidence learns that both concepts are complementary, as they both stress the importance of networking with actors that can be situated within or outside the supply chain.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

The succession effect within management decisions of family farms

The preparation of the farm transfer or farm exit is a process that starts in the consolidation stage of the farm life cycle. In this stage, the decision to transfer the farm or not is taken and the farm management is adapted to this decision. The objective of this paper is to model the succession effect on farm management. The results show that the succession effect plays a role from the age of 45. An early designation of the successor gives an incentive to invest and to improve the management.farm transfer, succussor, farm life cycle, Farm Management,

Decentralized Rural Development Policies: Does it Make Sense? The Example of Diversification in Flanders

Changes in consumer preferences and demands, the process of globalisation, etc. together with the pressure of the United States to continue liberalisation of the farm sector in Europe, have caused the European Union to adapt its policy. There has been a shift in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) towards a more decentralised approach. In this paper, it is analysed if this approach is justified for rural development, by describing the case of on-farm diversification in Flanders. Using survey results, it is tested if the decision to do on-farm diversification depends not only on farm and farmer characteristics (e.g. age and gender of the farmer, his or her education, having a successor, arable surface, farm type and financial situation) but also on the location of the farm. By including a location variable in the regression, the explanatory power improves and the influence of some variables changes. This suggests that location is important when trying to alter the decision of a farmer to do on-farm diversification. Therefore policy should be decentralised to a level where location differences can be dealt with. This decentralisation is to a certain extent already taken up in the Rural Development Policy in Flanders where location specificities are taken into account for when on-farm diversification in different zones is stimulated. The results support the idea of strengthening bottom-up policies as proposed in the new Rural Development Policy 2007-2013 of the EU and this not only for on-farm diversification, but for all parts of rural development.On-farm diversification, local policy, decentralisation, farm location, farm strategy, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Coordination of collective action in the agro-food sector

Collaboration between stakeholders in the agro-food sector is nowadays a common phenomenon. Despite the huge diversity observed, this paper argues that collective action always results in the establishment of a collective organization (whether formally organized or not), which is characterized by the presence of a coordination centre. This organism represents all partners united in the collective and performs tasks by order of the individual members and the group. From a theoretical point of view, all collective organizations qualify as hybrid organizations, which can be studied through the lens of Transaction Costs Economics. Hybrids governance structures are a large set of arrangements that are situated between markets and hierarchies. When organizing transactions, hybrids do not purely rely on the price mechanism or authority, but rather on an interplay of four coordination mechanisms. These coordination mechanisms are the central element of this paper and we hypothesize that their degree of formalization is positively correlated with the complexity of the tasks faced by the coordination centre. To test this hypothesis, a survey was designed and information was gathered on some general and organizational characteristics of 65 collective initiatives in the Flemish agro-food sector. Information on the coordination mechanism could thereby be directly gathered, but the complexity of the tasks was approximated by the collective organization’s objectives, the characteristics of the specifications in force and the entry rules for members. The analysis proves that there is indeed a positive relationship between the degree of formalization of the coordination mechanisms on the hand and the complexity of coordination centre’s tasks. Information devices occurs in combination with informal cooperation in small groups, contracts are adopted by groups of 5 to 14 members to realize medium complex objectives and formal coordination (extern regulation and new governance bodies) is finally linked to quality differentiation, which requires considerable efforts in the definition and enforcement of product and/or process specifications.Collective action, coordination mechanisms, hybrid governance structures, Agribusiness,

Energy consumption, CO2 emissions and the economic growth nexus in Bangladesh: cointegration and dynamic causality analysis

The paper investigates the existence of dynamic causality between the energy consumption, environmental pollutions and economic growth using cointegration analysis for Bangladesh. First, we tested whether any long run relationship exist using Johansen bi-variate cointegration model which is complemented with auto-regressive distributed lag model introduced by Pesaron for the results robustness. Then, we tested for the short run and the long causality relationship by estimating bi-variate vector error correction modeling framework. The estimation results indicate that a unidirectional causality run from energy consumption to economic growth both in the short and the long run; a bi-directional causality from electricity consumption to economic growth in long run but no causal relationship exists in the short run. A uni-directional causality run from CO2 emissions to energy consumption in the long run but it is opposite in the short run. CO2 granger cause to economic growth both in the short and in the long run, which is conflicting to the familiar environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Our results are different from existing analysis for electricity consumption and economic growth, however. The result of dynamic linkage between energy consumption and economic growth significantly reject the ‘neo-classical’ assumption that energy use is neutral to economic growth. Hence clearly an important policy implication, energy can be considered as a limiting factor to the economic growth in Bangladesh and conservation of energy may harm economic spurs. Therefore, it is a challenge for the policy makers to formulate sustainable energy consumption policy to support smooth energy supply for sustainable economic growth

Spatial Modelling of Water Availability and Choice of Crop Production in a River Basin

This paper analyze the problems of water resource allocation and crop choice in a river basin using spatial analytical tools. Spatial variability of water availability is modelled by the product sum model. Here the water availability at any farm Z(xj) is a joint spatio-temporal environment and socioeconomic process. Water availability is estimated using spatial econometric tool. Here the spatial weight matrix (W) is constructed by taking water user associations (WUA) as boundaries. The choice of a crop is explained using spill over model in which the choice of a crop is influenced by the choice of neighbouring farmers. Here the spatial lag model is modified to adapt the latent variable (y*) which has a binary outcome.Riverbasin, Spatio-temporal process, spatial water institutions, Crop Production/Industries,

Sustainability experiments in the agri-food system : uncovering the factors of new governance and collaboration success

In recent years, research, society and industry recognize the need to transform the agri-food system towards sustainability. Within this process, sustainability experiments play a crucial role in transforming the structure, culture and practices. In literature, much attention is given to new business models, even if the transformation of conventional firms toward sustainability may offer opportunities to accelerate the transformation. Further acceleration could be achieved through collaboration of multiple actors across the agri-food system, but this calls for a systems approach. Therefore, we developed and applied a new sustainability experiment systems approach (SESA) consisting of an analytical framework that allows a reflective evaluation and cross-case analysis of multi-actor governance networks based on business and learning evaluation criteria. We performed a cross-case analysis of four agri-food sustainability experiments in Flanders to test and validate SESA. Hereby, the key factors of the success of collaboration and its performance were identified at the beginning of a sustainability experiment. Some of the key factors identified were risk sharing and the drivers to participate. We are convinced that these results may be used as an analytical tool for researchers, a tool to support and design new initiatives for policymakers, and a reflective tool for participating actors