Productivity Progress in Sugar Beet Production - With Special Emphasis on the Contribution of Breeding

Sugar beet production during the past 50 years has been characterised by remarkable progress in productivity. In this contribution the influence of the different production factors on productivity and value added growth is analysed by regarding input and output development as well as price changes, with special focus on the breeding progress. During this period there has been a shift in the importance of the different factors of production for productivity development. Until the 1980s sugar beet breeding mainly initiated remarkable yield and quality improvements as well as seed and especially labour savings. Since then, technical progress in plant protection, mechanisation and organization allowed considerable cost savings especially through labour savings and partly yield and quality growth. On the whole, the contribution of sugar beet breeding to value added growth during the last 30 years annually amounted to around 80 DM per hectare. During the last 20 years, based on beet price reductions, the seed related progress only amounted to around 20 DM per hectare, whereas cost savings and partly yield increases of 80 DM per hectare, based on chemical, mechanical and organizational technical progress, where considerably high. But, the remarkable benefit of various disease resistant varieties developed since the 1980s is not included here. As sugar beet cropping in large infested areas without the new resistant varieties would not be competitive any more, their benefit partly amounts to more than 2000 DM per hectare. With the technical optimisation of the production process for sugar beets being mostly completed now, further productivity progress is mostly expected from bio-technological progress.Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

International Competitiveness of Sugar Production

Sugar market is one of the most protected markets for agricultural products world wide. In almost every sugar producing country the sugar market is regulated in some way. With an increasing liberalization of agricultural trade in the "Millennium Round" of the WTO trade negotiations, the question of international competitiveness is of increasing importance. Based on empirical studies, in this article the competitiveness of sugar production in the most important sugar producing countries is analysed, including the whole production process from beet or cane production in the field to sugar processing in the factory. Special emphasis is focussed on the different location factors and their influence on competitiveness, so that finally, conclusions can be drawn on future development of the world sugar market and the single production locations. From the countries included in this study, at present only Brazil, Australia, Thailand and partly South Africa would be able to produce sugar under world market conditions. While Brazil and Australia profit from favourable natural, economical and political location factors, in Germany high opportunity costs as well as high environmental and social standards predominate the advantages of high efficiency in the sugar industry. In the United States partly disadvantageous climatic conditions together with high opportunity costs are responsible for the insufficient international competitiveness of sugar production. Low productivity in Thailand and South Africa is overbalanced by low wages as well as comparatively low environmental and social standards. Without standardised environmental and social regulations, a liberalization of the world market would force movements of sugar production from beet to cane areas with favourable natural, economical and political conditions.Crop Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis,

Die Zukunft der Agrarwissenschaften

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Nachwachsende Rohstoffe für den Energiesektor

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

WIRTSCHAFTLICHE ANALYSE UND RISIKOBEWERTUNG DER DIVERSIFIZIERUNG DER LANDWIRTSCHAFT IN KASACHSTAN

Mangelhafte Reformen in der Landwirtschaft Kasachstans am Anfang der Transformationsperiode sowie die Finanzkrise 1998 hatten stark negative Auswirkungen auf den Umfang und die Struktur der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion. Wegen der schwierigen finanziellen Lage Anfang bis Ende der 90-ger Jahre haben viele Landwirtschaftsunternehmen und Farmwirtschaften die Tierbestände fast vollständig abgeschafft und sich auf die Getreideproduktion spezialisiert. Die Tierhaltung befindet sich überwiegen in privaten Hauswirtschaften1. In vielen Betrieben wird Weizen als Monokultur angebaut. Solche enge Spezialisierung birgt erhebliche Produktions- und Preisrisiken, bedroht die Liquidität der Betriebe und führt zur Erschöpfung der Böden. Dabei bestehen gute Voraussetzungen für den Anbau von alternativen Kulturen, sowie für die Entwicklung der Tierhaltung. Deswegen wird mit diesem Beitrag die Frage gestellt, welche Vorteile kann eine Diversifizierung als Risikomanagementstrategie bringen. Ermittlung und Bewertung von risikomindernden Kombinationen von Aktivitäten erfolgt mit dem MOTAD-Ansatz. Als Ergebnis soll eine optimale Diversifizierungsstrategie für landwirtschaftliche Großunternehmen in der Nordregion Kasachstans erarbeitet werden.Kasachstan, Landwirtschaft, Diversifizierung, Risiko, MOTAD, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Industrial Organization, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Flächenpotenziale für die Erzeugung von Energiepflanzen der Landwirtschaft der Europäischen Union

The production potential for bio-energy sources of the EU agriculture is quantified. In doing so, set-aside land and rededication of land for other purposes are considered. Furthermore, the simplifying hypothetical assumption is made that on the one hand in the case of subsidized surplus production beyond food self-sufficiency could be used as technical potential for the production of energy plants and on the other hand in deficit situations for typical agricultural products in the EU as e.g. grain crops, rape seed, sunflowers the production of food would have priority. On the base of these assumptions the changes in the food consumption as well as increasing yield and efficiency in agricultural production are balanced. The estimates of the potential result for Germany in 2020 at up to 7 mill. hectares agricultural land and for the EU-27 depending on the policy scenario adopted between 19 and 51 mill. hectares.agricultural potential, bio-energy source, food consumption, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Should Russia comply with EU food safety norms in the wheat sector?

The impressive volumes of wheat production in Russia on the one hand, and the good baking quality of Russian wheat on the other hand enabled Russia to become one of the important wheat producers and exporters of the world since the recent few years. However Russia has a long way to go in the “front” of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS), i.e. food safety, standards. As part of a larger study, financed by the German Research Foundation, the current research addresses the objective of estimating the potentials of wheat production in Russia under more stringent food safety standards as the current Russian national SPS regulations are. The comparative advantage analysis based on the Domestic Resource Cost approach (DRC) is applied to estimate the possible compliance of Russian norms with EU SPS standards. The DRC analysis resulting in a ratio of 0,37 provides evidence of high social profitability of wheat chain in Stavropol region. Also the scenarios of compliance of Russian food safety norms with those of EU offers plausible solutions with DRC ratios varying within the range of 0,49 – 0,96 dependent on the fluctuations of model parameters. This is the third paper from the series of analysis of competitiveness of the Russian wheat sector under different food safety policies. The first paper estimated the policy of the full enforcement of national SPS regulations . The second work assessed the policy of compliance with the international SPS norms and considered also the sensitivity analysis under this policy. As far as the EU SPS norms are more stringent as the international standards, there is a necessity to assess also this policy option.DRC, wheat, food safety standards., Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Landwirtschaft und Agrarpolitik in Deutschland und Frankreich: Auf der Suche nach neuen Wegen

Agricultural and Food Policy, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

NACHHALTIGER ANBAU VON BIOENERGIE – EINE ÖKONOMISCH-ÖKOLOGISCHE ANALYSE FÜR DAS UMWELTMINISTERIUM IN BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG

Agrarumweltpolitik, Naturschutz, Bioenergie, ökonomisch-ökologische Analyse, Regionalmodell, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,