Development of land rental market and its effect on household farming in rural China : an empirical study in Zhejiang Province

This paper investigates the impact of land rental market development on the efficiency of labor allocation and land utilization in rural China. To test the hypothesis that the shadow wage of a rent-in household with limited off-farm opportunities will increase with the development of a land rental market for households, a statistical comparison between the shadow wage and the estimated market wage was conducted. The results showed that the shadow wage for both rent-in households and non-rent-in households was significantly lower than the market wage, but that the wage for the rent-in households was statistically higher than that for non-rent-in households in Fenghua and Deqing, the two counties surveyed in this study. In addition, the estimated marginal product of farmland for rent-in households was statistically higher than the actual land rent that those households paid, while a null hypothesis that the actual rental fee accepted by rent-out households is equivalent to the marginal product of farmland for those households was not rejected in Fenghua county where land transactions by mutual agreement were more prevalent. These results indicate that the development of the land rental market facilitates the efficiency of labor allocation and farmland utilization in rural China.

Estrategias innovadoras para la gestión del riesgo de sequía en sistemas ganaderos extensivos

La vulnerabilidad de los sistemas ganaderos de pastoreo pone en evidencia la necesidad de herramientas para evaluar y mitigar los efectos de la sequía. El avance en la teledetección ha despertado el interés por explotar potenciales aplicaciones, y está dando lugar a un intenso desarrollo de innovaciones en distintos campos. Una de estas áreas es la gestión del riesgo climático, en donde la utilización de índices de vegetación permite la evaluación de la sequía. En esta investigación, se analiza el impacto de la sequía y se evalúa el potencial de nuevas tecnologías como la teledetección para la gestión del riesgo de sequía en sistemas de ganadería extensiva. Para ello, se desarrollan tres aplicaciones: (i) evaluar el impacto económico de la sequía en una explotación ganadera extensiva de la dehesa de Andalucía, (ii) elaborar mapas de vulnerabilidad a la sequía en pastos de Chile y (iii) diseñar y evaluar el potencial de un seguro indexado para sequía en pastos en la región de Coquimbo en Chile. En la primera aplicación, se diseña un modelo dinámico y estocástico que integra aspectos climáticos, ecológicos, agronómicos y socioeconómicos para evaluar el riesgo de sequía. El modelo simula una explotación ganadera tipo de la dehesa de Andalucía para el período 1999-2010. El método de Análisis Histórico y la simulación de MonteCarlo se utilizan para identificar los principales factores de riesgo de la explotación, entre los que destacan, los periodos de inicios del verano e inicios de invierno. Los resultados muestran la existencia de un desfase temporal entre el riesgo climático y riesgo económico, teniendo este último un periodo de duración más extenso en el tiempo. También, revelan que la intensidad, frecuencia y duración son tres atributos cruciales que determinan el impacto económico de la sequía. La estrategia de reducción de la carga ganadera permite aminorar el riesgo, pero conlleva una disminución en el margen bruto de la explotación. La segunda aplicación está dedicada a la elaboración de mapas de vulnerabilidad a la sequia en pastos de Chile. Para ello, se propone y desarrolla un índice de riesgo económico (IRESP) sencillo de interpretar y replicable, que integra factores de riesgo y estrategias de adaptación para obtener una medida del Valor en Riesgo, es decir, la máxima pérdida esperada en un año con un nivel de significación del 5%.La representación espacial del IRESP pone en evidencia patrones espaciales y diferencias significativas en la vulnerabilidad a la sequía a lo largo de Chile. Además, refleja que la vulnerabilidad no siempre esta correlacionada con el riesgo climático y demuestra la importancia de considerar las estrategias de adaptación. Las medidas de autocorrelación espacial revelan que el riesgo sistémico es considerablemente mayor en el sur que en el resto de zonas. Los resultados demuestran que el IRESP transmite información pertinente y, que los mapas de vulnerabilidad pueden ser una herramienta útil en el diseño de políticas y toma de decisiones para la gestión del riesgo de sequía. La tercera aplicación evalúa el potencial de un seguro indexado para sequía en pastos en la región de Coquimbo en Chile. Para lo cual, se desarrolla un modelo estocástico para estimar la prima actuarialmente justa del seguro y se proponen y evalúan pautas alternativas para mejorar el diseño del contrato. Se aborda el riesgo base, el principal problema de los seguros indexados identificado en la literatura y, que está referido a la correlación imperfecta del índice con las pérdidas de la explotación. Para ello, se sigue un enfoque bayesiano que permite evaluar el impacto en el riesgo base de las pautas de diseño propuestas: i) una zonificación por clúster que considera aspectos espacio-temporales, ii) un período de garantía acotado a los ciclos fenológicos del pasto y iii) umbral de garantía. Los resultados muestran que tanto la zonificación como el periodo de garantía reducen el riesgo base considerablemente. Sin embargo, el umbral de garantía tiene un efecto ambiguo sobre el riesgo base. Por otra parte, la zonificación por clúster contribuye a aminorar el riesgo sistémico que enfrentan las aseguradoras. Estos resultados han puesto de manifiesto que un buen diseño de contrato puede tener un doble dividendo, por un lado aumentar su utilidad y, por otro, reducir el coste del seguro. Un diseño de contrato eficiente junto con los avances en la teledetección y un adecuado marco institucional son los pilares básicos para el buen funcionamiento de un programa de seguro. Las nuevas tecnologías ofrecen un importante potencial para la innovación en la gestión del riesgo climático. Los avances en este campo pueden proporcionar importantes beneficios sociales en los países en desarrollo y regiones vulnerables, donde las herramientas para gestionar eficazmente los riesgos sistémicos como la sequía pueden ser de gran ayuda para el desarrollo. The vulnerability of grazing livestock systems highlights the need for tools to assess and mitigate the adverse impact of drought. The recent and rapid progress in remote sensing has awakened an interest for tapping into potential applications, triggering intensive efforts to develop innovations in a number of spheres. One of these areas is climate risk management, where the use of vegetation indices facilitates assessment of drought. This research analyzes drought impacts and evaluates the potential of new technologies such as remote sensing to manage drought risk in extensive livestock systems. Three essays in drought risk management are developed to: (i) assess the economic impact of drought on a livestock farm in the Andalusian Dehesa, (ii) build drought vulnerability maps in Chilean grazing lands, and (iii) design and evaluate the potential of an index insurance policy to address the risk of drought in grazing lands in Coquimbo, Chile. In the first essay, a dynamic and stochastic farm model is designed combining climate, agronomic, socio-economic and ecological aspects to assess drought risk. The model is developed to simulate a representative livestock farm in the Dehesa of Andalusia for the time period 1999-2010. Burn analysis and MonteCarlo simulation methods are used to identify the significance of various risk sources at the farm. Most notably, early summer and early winter are identified as periods of peak risk. Moreover, there is a significant time lag between climate and economic risk and this later last longer than the former. It is shown that intensity, frequency and duration of the drought are three crucial attributes that shape the economic impact of drought. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess the sustainability of farm management strategies and demonstrates that lowering the stocking rate reduces farmer exposure to drought risk but entails a reduction in the expected gross margin. The second essay, mapping drought vulnerability in Chilean grazing lands, proposes and builds an index of economic risk (IRESP) that is replicable and simple to interpret. This methodology integrates risk factors and adaptation strategies to deliver information on Value at Risk, maximum expected losses at 5% significance level. Mapping IRESP provides evidence about spatial patterns and significant differences in drought vulnerability across Chilean grazing lands. Spatial autocorrelation measures reveal that systemic risk is considerably larger in the South as compared to Northern or Central Regions. Furthermore, it is shown that vulnerability is not necessarily correlated with climate risk and that adaptation strategies do matter. These results show that IRESP conveys relevant information and that vulnerability maps may be useful tools to assess policy design and decision-making in drought risk management. The third essay develops a stochastic model to estimate the actuarially fair premium and evaluates the potential of an indexed insurance policy to manage drought risk in Coquimbo, a relevant livestock farming region of Chile. Basis risk refers to the imperfect correlation of the index and farmer loses and is identified in the literature as a main limitation of index insurance. A Bayesian approach is proposed to assess the impact on basis risk of alternative guidelines in contract design: i) A cluster zoning that considers space-time aspects, ii) A guarantee period bounded to fit phenological cycles, and iii) the triggering index threshold. Results show that both the proposed zoning and guarantee period considerably reduces basis risk. However, the triggering index threshold has an ambiguous effect on basis risk. On the other hand, cluster zoning contributes to ameliorate systemic risk faced by the insurer. These results highlighted that adequate contract design is important and may result in double dividend. On the one hand, increasing farmers’ utility and, secondly, reducing the cost of insurance. An efficient contract design coupled with advances in remote sensing and an appropriate institutional framework are the basis for an efficient operation of an insurance program. The new technologies offer significant potential for innovation in climate risk managements. Progress in this field is capturing increasing attention and may provide important social gains in developing countries and vulnerable regions where the tools to efficiently manage systemic risks, such as drought, may be a means to foster development.

Non invasive moisture measurement in agricultural fiel using a rolling spherical robot

Irrigation management in large crop fields is a very important practice. Since the farm management costs and the crop results are directly connected with the environmental moisture, water control optimization is a critical factor for agricultural practices, as well as for the planet sustainability. Usually, the crop humidity is measured through the water stress index (WSI), using imagery acquired from satellites or airplanes. Nevertheless, these tools have a significant cost, lack from availability, and dependability from the weather. Other alternative is to recover to ground tools, such as ground vehicles and even static base stations. However, they have an outstanding impact in the farming process, since they can damage the cultivation and require more human effort. As a possible solution to these issues, a rolling ground robot have been designed and developed, enabling non-invasive measurements within crop fields. This paper addresses the spherical robot system applied to intra-crop moisture measurements. Furthermore, some experiments were carried out in an early stage corn field in order to build a geo-referenced WSI map.

Percepção de pequenos e médios produtores rurais sobre a tecnologia Integração Lavoura-Pecuária-Floresta (iLPF) no município de Ipameri - GO

As práticas agrícolas, muito além de processos estritamente ecológicos, constituem processos sociais. Simplificações na dinâmica ecológica, impostas pela artificialização dos sistemas agrícolas, tem causado desequilíbrios entre produção e diversidade de espécies. A utilização de modernas tecnologias de manejo agrícola, desenvolvidas com o intuito de restabelecer o funcionamento de agrossistemas complexos e facilitar mecanismos de autoregulação do ambiente, estão amplamente conectadas a questões socioeconômicas. Concebidas com o propósito de conservar e ampliar a biodiversidade, facilitar a ciclagem de nutrientes, assim como diminuir impactos ao solo (tais como erodibilidade e compactação) além de, entre outros efeitos, preservar a umidade dos solos e propiciar microclima mais estável e ameno, as tecnologias de integração agropecuária e florestal tem sido implementadas em diferentes regiões do mundo. Pesquisas tem sido conduzidas quanto às práticas de implementação adequadas a cada ecossistema e às especificidades locais, com a expectativa de obtenção de resultados satisfatórios a partir das perspectivas ecológica, agronômica, econômica e social. Identificar e avaliar o grau de identificação dos pequenos e médios produtores rurais do município de Ipameri, sudeste de Goiás, com formas de produção agrícola diversificadas e integradas, bem como a viabilidade de utilização destas tecnologias em seu cotidiano, são os propósitos desta pesquisa. Buscou-se compreender, a partir da perspectiva destes atores sociais, as implicações dos efeitos decorrentes de variáveis econômicas, sociais, ambientais e simbólicas inerentes às práticas agronômicas eleitas por estes produtores, para condução de suas atividades e expressão de seus valores, preceitos, tradições e estilos de organização social. Concluiu-se que os sistemas integrados constituem alternativas para recuperação de áreas de pastagens degradas e da paisagem, representam oportunidades de geração de empregos, diversificação de renda para micro, pequenos e médios produtores locais. A despeito das dificuldades elencadas pelos interagentes da pesquisa para sua implementação, constitui-se em uma estratégia compreendida como viável e de interesse para os potenciais usuários

The influence of the rearing period on intramammary infections in Swiss dairy heifers: A cross-sectional study

Healthy replacement heifers are one of the foundations of a healthy dairy herd. Farm management andrearing systems in Switzerland provide a wide variety of factors that could potentially be associated withintramammary infections (IMI) in early lactating dairy heifers. In this study, IMI with minor mastitispathogens such as coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS), contagious pathogens, and environmentalmajor pathogens were identified. Fifty-four dairy farms were enrolled in the study. A questionnaire wasused to collect herd level data on housing, management and welfare of young stock during farm isitsand interviews with the farmers. Cow-level data such as breed, age at first calving, udder condition andswelling, and calving ease were also recorded. Data was also collected about young stock that spent aperiod of at least 3 months on an external rearing farm or on a seasonal alpine farm. At the quarterlevel, teat conditions such as teat lesions, teat dysfunction, presence of a papilloma and teat lengthwere recorded. Within 24 h after parturition, samples of colostral milk from 1564 quarters (391 heifers)were collected aseptically for bacterial culture. Positive bacteriological culture results were found in 49%of quarter samples. Potential risk factors for IMI were identified at the quarter, animal and herd levelusing multivariable and multilevel logistic regression analysis. At the herd level tie-stalls, and at cow-level the breed category “Brown cattle” were risk factors for IMI caused by contagious major pathogenssuch as Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). At the quarter-level, teat swelling and teat lesions were highlyassociated with IMI caused by environmental major pathogens. At the herd level heifer rearing at externalfarms was associated with less IMI caused by major environmental pathogens. Keeping pregnant heifersin a separate group was negatively associated with IMI caused by CNS. The odds of IMI with coagulase-negative staphylococci increased if weaning age was less than 4 months and if concentrates were fed tocalves younger than 2 weeks. This study identified herd, cow- and quarter-level risk factors that may beimportant for IMI prevention in the future.

Information programs affect attitudes toward sewage sludge use in agriculture /

Mode of access: Internet.

FM.

Title from cover.

Praktische Anleitung zur Führung der Wirthschafts-Geschäfte für angehende Landwirthe.

Mode of access: Internet.

Die ökonomischen Grenzen der Intensivierung der Landwirtschaft; betreibswissenschaftliche Untersuchungen auf Grund der Buchführung von fünfunddreissig vorzüglich geleiteten Betrieben in Mittel- und Nordwest-Deutschland.

Issued also as Inaug.-Diss.--Berlin.

Preliminary report on cost of producing beef in Illinois.

Mode of access: Internet.

Circular /

No. 530 also issued as Southern farm management publication no. 4.

Report.

"Co-operating with The Office of Farm Management, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture," 1913-

Dairy farming primer,

Published by United States Department of agriculture. Bureau of agricultural economics. Division of farm management and costs, and New York State college of agriculture, Cornell university. Department of agricultural economics and farm management cooperating.