THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS EXPENDITURES: FOOD SAFETY AND THE STRAWBERRY CASE

Food safety has become an important issue affecting public health and grower profits. Outbreaks of foodborne illnesses are typically accompanied by press accounts of the incident and a decrease in demand. This study estimates the short- and long-run impacts of adverse and positive information delivered through print media on strawberry grower profits. Positive information may arise as apart of the promotional efforts of grower associations. It is found that adverse information reduces grower profits, but that positive information can partially offset their effects. It is suggested that grower groups could redirect funds used for promotion to food safety initiatives.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

To Be, or Not To Be, That Is the Question - In a Group That Is

There is a perception in Western Australia that some regions do not have many farmer groups and that there are large numbers of farmers who aren't involved with group activities. This was seen to be a problem for government and industry research organisations that are attempting to encourage change in rural communities through group processes. This perception was not supported by the results of a study of in which 172 south western grain belt farmers were surveyed at three major field days in WA during 2002. With 79% of those surveyed currently involved in an average of 1.7 farmer groups, it can be argued they are heavily involved with group activities. Interestingly older farmers tended to be involved in more groups. Those that are involved in groups do so to gain information, social interaction and to improve themselves, their enterprise and the community; whereas those not involved said they have other sources of information, limited time and the groups offered were not perceived to be applicable. Another trend emerging in WA is the increasing role and membership of farmer initiated and managed groups.Agribusiness,

Establishing Local Certification Bodies In Developing and Transition Economies

There are certification bodies from Western countries offering their services all over the world providing efficient, reliable and qualified services. Nevertheless there are good arguments for establishing local certification bodies in developing and transition economies. FiBL has been cooperating with local certification bodies in South-Eastern Europe (Albinspekt in Albania, Balkan Biocert in Bulgaria and Macedonia, Ecoinspect in Romania) and Asia (Biocert in Indonesia, Indocert in India, LibanCert in Lebanon and OFDC in China). These certification bodies are part of the local organic movement either by a multiple ownership reflecting the sector or by involving the sector in committees. The following report describes the opportunities but also the challenges of setting up local organic certification bodies

Evaluation of a Hybrid Seed Contract Between Smallholders and an MNC in East Java, Indonesia

Three hundred smallholders near Malang in East Java were surveyed of whom 150 were participating in a hybrid seed contract with Pioneer Hybrid International Inc, an American MNC that has been contracting in the area since 1986. The objectives of the study were to determine whether the contract improved the welfare of those who participated and, if participation did improve welfare, to evaluate why this contract, in contrast to many other farm contracts in developing countries, is successful. A transaction cost framework was used to specify a framework for probit analysis of contract participation and regression analysis used to measure the contribution made by contract participation to gross margins. The empirical results suggest (i) contract selection was by Pioneer and not through self-selection, (ii) the contract is likely to favour larger farmers and (iii) the Pioneer contract improved returns to farm capital and hence was likely to be welfare improving for contractors. The success of the contract over many years was attributed to the nature of the contracting process which was between Pioneer and grower groups and not at the individual smallholder level.Farm Management,

Farmer Crop Update Series - Western Region\u27 Project Number DAW630

The aims of this project are to: • Provide regional forums for updating growers with the latest R&D in cropping systems and grain production. • To foster participative R&D through effective interchange between agency based R&D groups, agribusiness R&D groups and grower based groups with potential to participate in R&D at a range of levels (from merely providing feedback to linking broadscale on-farm tests with the research). • To reduce research segmentation by fostering a climate of mutual benefit in R&D exchange. There is already emergence of research segmentation from proprietary research. However, apart from an initial proprietary advantage (within a single season) the mutual benefits from R&D exchange far outweigh these initial gains

A Perspective on Organic Agriculture in China - Opportunities and Challenges

With the rapid development of international production and trade in organic food, organic agriculture is also boosting in China. The milestone of Chinese organic agri-culture was set in 1990 with the first export of a certified organic product (tea) from Lin’an county of Zhejiang Province, China, which marked the launch of organic pro-duction in China. By the end of 2005, there had been about 4.384 million ha organic land, including 1.694 million ha organic, 0.61 million ha conversion as well as 2.08 million ha collection area, about half of which is certified area. About 4.93 million tons organic products and nearly 1600 projects had been certified with 300~400 varieties. According to the above data, now China ranks the 3rd largest country of organic production in the world. In China, organic development mostly is export oriented, the export products include beans, rice, tea, mushroom, vegetable, processed oil and herbs, etc. According to the certifying body COFCC of Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the value of exported organic products increased from 0.3 million USD in 1995 to 0.35 billion USD at the end of the year 2004. Chinese domestic organic market started from 2000. Presently, most of the products sold in domestic markets are certified by COFCC and OFDC in some largest cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Shenzhen, etc. The price of the organic products is often up to 3 times the price of conventional products. Average organic food consumption accounts for 0.08% of the conventional food (LI 2006)

Information provision and retrieval in the farming industry in Western Australia

Agricultural information dissemination to farmers has been studied extensively. However, farmers preferred methods of delivery has not been investigated thoroughly within a Western Australia (WA) context. Availability of different information delivery channels have led to the overwhelming and overlapping of information available to farmers. As a consequence, the type of information required by WA farmers should be considered as knowing information needs could allow farmers to access relevant, concise and timely agricultural information. To answer the research questions, a survey was designed, using Likert-scale, close ended and open ended questions techniques, enabling qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The study‘s findings are relevant to agricultural information providers, government and public agencies, and other researchers who work in the agricultural and farming industries in Western Australia, and Australia