Organic Farming Research Worldwide – An Overview

Research in organic farming has increased considerably in recent years. Up to now, activity has been greatest in Europe, but recently organic research has increased in other parts of the world, and more and more players are appearing on the scene. Research is mostly carried out in a national context, but international coordination and cooperative efforts are increasing. This article summarizes some key facts about organic farming research worldwide

An Information Economic Rationale for Cooperatives

We consider how to organize the processing and marketing of an agricultural product when farming costs are known only by the individual farmers. We show that when marginal costs are un-correlated, the market for …nal goods is competitive, and the market for processing is non-competitive, the socially optimal production levels are sustained by a cooperative and a cooperative only. We show also that the cooperative form is particularly useful when the cost uncertainty is large and the net average revenue product is small.economics of cooperatives, asymmetric information, incentives, rationing, Agribusiness,

A coherent agri-energy policy to foster social inclusion for peasant families: the role of Petrobras on the João Câmara and Ceará-Mirim sites (state of Rio Grande do Norte)

This article depicts the improvement in living conditions for those families of peasants (the “landless peasants”) who have benefited from agrarian reform (termed “assentamentos” i.e. homesteads) through the creation of farming cooperatives. The farming cooperative examined herein was supported by the Petrobas group following the guidelines of the Brazilian National Biofuels Program. This program seeks to foster biofuels production among peasant farmers in Brazil's semi arid regions. The present research project comprises a field study which describes the aforesaid program's evolution and, more critically, ascertains the conditions requisite for success. Several crucial conditions stand forth: 1) First, convincing peasants to join the project; in this regard, a charismatic leader sharing the same social origins as the farming families has played a major role in gaining their confidence. 2) Second, developing a coherent set of value-adding activities that incorporate a range of by-products and waste products (from sunflower crops grown for biofuels, a number of corollary activities have arisen: honey, animal feed and fish farming). 3) Finally Petrobas's essential role as a partially state-owned corporation which has implemented a policy of social and environmental responsibility (assigning of a full-time engineer to oversee the project, providing farm equipment rentals needed for the crops as well as paying the salaries for two agronomic technicians working for the cooperative)biofuel ; family-based farming ; cooperatives ; social and environmental responsibility ; social inclusion

PROSPEK PENERAPAN SISTEM CORPORATE FARMING

Corporate farming is a farmland merger activity that is organized together by farmers in an integrated single management. This system could be a solution for many problems facedby farmerstoday, such asbusiness efficiency, quality standardization, and effectivenessas well as input use efficiency.Gerbang Emas Agricultural Cooperative is a farmer’s business organization focusing on the production and marketing of horticultural crops. The cooperative has implemented the collective marketing since 2014, but the production is carried out individually by the farmers. Low level of productivity is the problem the cooperative faced. The farming activities that are currently done by the farmers would be more efficient if managed by implementing the corporate farming system. The purpose of this study is to analyze the prospect for the implementation of corporate farming system and also to determine the factors affecting the likelihood of success or failure in the system implementation at Gerbang Emas Agricultural Cooperative. The research method used is the descriptive method, analyzing the prospect from three perspectives (economic, institutional, and social). The result shows that the corporate farming system has a good prospect to be implemented on the cooperative, viewed from all perspectives. In addition, this study also obtained several factors that affect the likelihood of success or failure in the implementation of the system on the cooperative namely: 1)Integration of corporate farming development with local economic development,2)Availability of capable institutions (government / non-government) of functioning as a facilitator, 3)Emotional and cultural ties between the farmer and his land, 4)Differenceperceptions among farmers, 5)Deferentin the development of agribusiness system

Cooperative Longevity and Sustainable Development in a Family Farming System

This paper focuses on small holding, family farming in Southeast Spain where agricultural economic activity is predominantly organized around cooperative business models. A variety of diverse studies on the Almería agricultural and credit cooperative sector and the exploration of social-economic and eco-social indicators, in addition to economic-market indicators are presented. Each correspond to a cooperative “logic” that spans theoretical perspectives from the dominant economic-market model, new institutionalism, and an eco-social approach, echoing theories on collective coordination governance, and the avoidance of the “tragedy of the commons”. The latter is of particular importance given environmental challenges and scarce resources for agricultural activity. The cooperatives in Almería have increasingly relied on collective collaboration and coordination in order to meet social-economic and social-ecological challenges, transforming their role from that founded on a market dominant logic to that of cooperation as a coordination mechanism based on the mutual benefit of the community and environment. In turn, their ability to meet a wide range of needs and challenges of members and the community leads to their longevity. Cooperatives are able to act as both a market and non-market coordination mechanism, balancing the economic, social, and environmental dimensions, such that neither market nor non-market logics are dominant or exclusive

ORGANIC IS MORE OF AN AMERICAN TERM--WE ARE TRADITIONAL FARMERS\u27: DISCOURSES OF PLACE-BASED ORGANIC FARMING, COMMUNITY, HERITAGE, AND SUSTAINABILITY

The following study looks at how traditional, organic, cooperative farmers who are starting a new farming cooperative in the Albuquerque South Valley in New Mexico communicate about their farming as a set of (sustainable) cultural practices. The study draws on environmental communication theories, the theory of the Coordinated Management of Meaning, and Actor Network Theory to construct a communication-based framework through which to view farmers stories about sustainability and visions for the future of their farming cooperative. This framework is productive, showing how some Nuevo Mexicano farmers (and others) orient toward farming, sustenance, and human-nature relationships through community, family, heritage, education, and resistance to agribusiness models, among other orientations. Finally, the study looks at how these farmers orient toward sustainability, and how they see their work as sustainable practice

Farming styles and cooperatives disputes of swine farmers under economic pressure in southern France

In Southern France, the regression of swine farms and swine is ongoing. It involves reorientation of socio-professional networks, especially the farmers’ cooperatives. For understanding the various ways of maintaining swine production under the regressive circumstances, we focus on the farmers’ initiatives and motivations for cooperative action. This article is build upon an inquiry of the diversity in swine farming strategies and styles in a production basin in regression: the departments Lot, Aveyron and Tarn in Midi Pyrenees, Southern France. We studied the motivations for the modes of farm management and the search for support from cooperatives, including the ambitions for product diversification. The survey consisted of 30 semistructured interviews, followed by 90 structured questionnaires. The diversity in farming styles is explained by local opportunities and contrasts in socio-professional integration in farmers’ cooperatives

PERAN KOPERASI PERTANIAN (KOPTAN) MITRA SUBUR DALAM PENINGKATAN PENDAPATAN DAN KESEJAHTERAAN PETANI PADI DI KECAMATAN GUNUNG SUGIH KABUPATEN LAMPUNG TENGAH

The purposes of this research are to compare income of rice farming members and nonmembers of Mitra Subur Agricultural Cooperative, analyze the economic benefits received by members from the cooperative, the contribution of the cooperative economic benefits to members household income, the distribution of members and nonmembers household income, and compare the level of welfare of cooperative members and nonmembers. This research uses a case study method at Agricultural Cooperative of Mitra Subur subdistrict Gunung Sugih, the Central Lampung district and the number of respondents is sixty people that consist of members and nonmembers. Data of this research were collected in February – March 2018 and analyzed descriptively. The reseach results showed that the rice farming income of members and nonmembers of Mitra Subur Agricultural Cooperative in season one was significantly different, while in season two was not significantly different. The economic benefits of cooperative received by members was still considered low and the distribution of remaining business proceeds had not been carried out fairly. The contribution of the cooperative economic benefits to household income of rice farmers members was still relatively low. Additional income from activities outside of the rice farming resulted in higher income inequality of nonmember farmers, while the income inequality of member farmers was lower. Rice farmer members and nonmembers were in the prosperous category, but the welfare level of non members was higher than that of member farmers.Key words: cooperative, income, member, nonmembe

Agricultural Cooperative Enterprise in the Transition from Socialist Collective Farming

Cooperative enterprise has appeal as a means of filling gaps in the economic institutions of the rural sectors of the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. But in addition to problems that have faced cooperatives in the West because of their inherent characteristics, the Soviet-era legacy created cultural burdens that cooperatives will have to overcome. A review of countries’ experiences since 1989 indicates some commonalities in attempts to create “new cooperatives,†but also instructive differences across countries. The evidence so far is unfavorable for cooperatives in agricultural production. In marketing and input supply the current situation is more promising. In both production and marketing, the economic institutions remain in flux. Unique approaches involving cooperatives may take permanent root, but their long-term prospects are in doubt.Agribusiness,