In response to a drying climate, an integrated property planning tool was developed over three years to help landowners make better use of available rainfall. A sequence was identified which indicated how parts of each property are affected by soil moisture limitations. The sequence was combined with soil properties to indicate targeted strategies for each location aimed to improve soil moisture availability, biomass utilisation, and long-term viability of the farm or ranching enterprise. As a result of training of land owners (...) and operators in use of this tool, 97% of participants indicated that they have begun or intend to make changes in land management; 78% are intending to make three or more substantial changes; and 91% felt better prepared for the impacts of climate change. The key to the success of this technique is that it identifies critical sustainable production drivers in a simple plan format and offers tailored management options which can address more variable climate conditions. The integrated planning tool has application as a driver of climate change adaptation in agricultural regions where farm units contain substantial landscape variation and seasonal rainfall is frequently limiting to production. (shrink)

The purpose of the study is to develop methodological recommendations for strategic planning of the development of enterprises in the sphere of material and technical supply of agriculture on the basis of the theoretical provisions of strategic management. The article focuses on the specifics of the considered wholesale sector, certain aspects of the marketing strategy of enterprises in this area, the recommended parameters of the customer survey, the possibilities of using the balanced scorecard and the justification of the (...) economic feasibility of the planned activities. The scientific novelty of the work carried out consists in identifying the features of developing a strategy for wholesalers of agrochemical products and forming an appropriate methodological complex. As a result, various aspects of substantiating strategic directions of development were demonstrated using specific examples and the advantages of measures for their implementation were argued. (shrink)

The current and prevailing paradigm of intensive agricultural production is a straightforward example of the mainstream way of doing business. Mainstream enterprises are based on a negativistic view of human nature that leads to counter-productive and unsustainable behaviours producing negative impact for society and the natural environment. If we want to change the course, then different players are needed, which can flourish thanks to their capacity to serve others and creating values for all the participants in the network (...) in which they are embedded. In the article, through the analysis of the Slow Food movement and the use of recent theoretical and empirical contributions in behavioural sciences and psychology, we support the collaborative enterprise model as an alternative to the still prevailing, mainstream business models. Evidence shows that caring and responsible efforts of economic agents are acknowledged and reciprocated even in highly competitive markets. (shrink)

Free enterprise economic systems evolved in the modern period as culturally transmitted values related to honesty, hard work, and education achievement emerged. One evolutionary puzzle is why most economies for the past 5,000 years have had a limited role for free enterprise given the spectacular success of modern free economies. Another is why if humans became biologically modern 50,000 years ago did it take until 11,000 years ago for agriculture, the economic foundation of states, to begin. Why didn’t free enterprise (...) evolve long ago and far away? (shrink)

Agricultural restructuring in Eastern Europe is a part of the restructuring of the economy as a whole. After democratic changes, Eastern European countries have fallen into a deep crisis. There are several reasons for this, including the large debt burden, decreased export opportunities, and monetary restrictions. The major reasons, however, are the lack of a clear economic policy at the governmental level and lack of confidence in the future of enterprises. In the industry and service sectors, ownership conditions (...) are uncertain, and this hinders investing from both private investors and managers of state owned enterprises.An unambiguous situation can be created only by rapid privatization. Privatization is slow and difficult, however, and there is no agreement even on its form.In agriculture, problems arise differently. Privatization there would mean giving up economies of scale. For widespread small farming, both capital and producer motivations are lacking as well. Working on state and cooperative farms with additional part-time farming has been a lifestyle of the people for decades. Apart from that, new smallholders, left on their own, could not survive falling domestic demand for agricultural products and decreasing export opportunities. Therefore, measures need to be implemented in order to reduce agricultural supply, labor, and land area.A feasible solution would be for socialist producer cooperatives to be transformed into real cooperatives, with cooperative and individual farming allowed to develop side by side. (shrink)

As the primary ingredient in gunpowder, saltpeter was an extraordinarily important commodity in the early modern world. Historians of science and technology have long studied its military applications but have rarely focused on its uses outside of warfare. Due to its potential effectiveness as a fertilizer, saltpeter was also an integral component of experimental agricultural reform movements in the early modern period and particularly in seventeenth-century England. This became possible for several reasons: the creation of a thriving domestic saltpeter (...) production industry in the second half of the sixteenth century; the development of vitalist alchemical theories that sought a unified explanation for the “growth” of minerals, metals, and plants; the rise of experimental natural philosophy; and the mid-seventeenth-century dominance of the English East India Company in the saltpeter trade, which allowed agricultural reformers to repurpose domestically produced saltpeter in agriculturally productive ways. This paper argues that the Hartlib Circle – a loose network of natural philosophers and social reformers – adopted vitalist matter theories and the practical, experimental techniques of alchemists to transform agriculture into a more productive enterprise. Though their grandiose plans never came to fruition, their experimental trials to develop artificial fertilizers played an early role in the origins and development of saline chemistry, agronomy, and the British Agricultural Revolution. (shrink)

Importance of the Small Medium Enterprises sector cannot be overemphasized in the industrial development of a country. 90% of all the enterprises in Pakistan are consisting of Small Medium Enterprises; 80% labor force is employed in non-agriculture sector, Small Medium Enterprises are sharing annually 40% to GDP of the country. However providing huge part in the development of the country Small Medium Enterprises are still encountering with some perilous pitfalls and the survival of the Small (...) Medium Enterprises is getting harder. Now the economy system of the country has been converted from the production based to knowledge-based economy. The review of the previous results pointed out that the twenty first century is the era of technological and intellectual capital and it has added the ultimate importance in the knowledge-based economy. Currently, the economy is based on knowledge-based economy and it is based on the intellectual capital. Therefore, it is difficult for Small Medium Enterprises in Pakistan to transfigure and acquire the concept and applications of intellectual capital in order to counter and mitigate the emerging economics problems. (shrink)

In recent decades, constituenciesserved by land-grant agricultural research haveexperienced significant demographic and politicalchanges, yet most research institutions have not fullyresponded to address the concerns of a changingclientele base. Thus, we have seen continuingcontroversies over technologies produced by land-grantagricultural research. While a number of scholars havecalled for a more participatory agricultural scienceestablishment, we understand little about the processof enhancing and institutionalizing participation inthe US agricultural research enterprise. We firstexamine some of the important issues surroundingcitizen participation in science and (...) technologypolicy. We then review and assess variousinstitutional mechanisms for participation that havebeen implemented in diverse settings by institutionsof science and technology. Based on evidence from theexperiences of these institutions, we argue that acloser approximation of the ‘public good’ can beachieved by encouraging the participation of thefullest range possible of constituents as an integralpart of the process of setting research priorities. (shrink)

There is growing interest in the role of new urban agriculture models to increase local food production capacity in cities of the Global North. Urban rooftop greenhouses and hydroponics are examples of such models receiving increasing attention as a technological approach to year-round local food production in cities. Yet, little research has addressed the unintended consequences of new modes of urban farming and food distribution, such as increased competition with existing peri-urban and rural farmers. We examine how small-scale farmers perceive (...) and have responded to a recently established rooftop greenhouse and online marketplace enterprise in Montréal, Canada. Drawing on interviews with key informants and small-scale farmers, we find that peri-urban and rural producers have been affected in three key ways that represent tensions, adaptations, and synergies arising from this new urban agriculture and food distribution enterprise. First, many farmers are concerned about increased competition and value conflation with the ideals of community supported agriculture and organic farming. Second, some farmers have adapted by developing novel marketing strategies and working with local bridge organizations to collectively market their produce to urban consumers. Third, a few farmers have decided to wholesale their produce to this new enterprise, allowing them to specialize production and avoid marketing their produce directly to urban consumers. Our study suggests that the emergence of a new form of alternative food network in Montréal has created both positive and negative disruptions for existing small-scale producers. Advocates for the expansion of new urban food production and distribution models should therefore give greater consideration to the effects on other actors in the local food system. (shrink)

Robotic and Autonomous Agricultural Technologies (RAAT) are increasingly available yet may fail to be adopted. This paper focusses specifically on cognitive factors that affect adoption including: inability to generate trust, loss of farming knowledge and reduced social cognition. It is recommended that agriculture develops its own framework for the performance and safety of RAAT drawing on human factors research in aerospace engineering including human inputs (individual variance in knowledge, skills, abilities, preferences, needs and traits), trust, situational awareness and cognitive (...) load. The kinds of cognitive impacts depend on the RAATs level of autonomy, ie whether it has automatic, partial autonomy and autonomous functionality and stage of adoption, ie adoption, initial use or post-adoptive use. The more autonomous a system is, the less a human needs to know to operate it and the less the cognitive load, but it also means farmers have less situational awareness about on farm activities that in turn may affect strategic decision-making about their enterprise. Some cognitive factors may be hidden when RAAT is first adopted but play a greater role during prolonged or intense post-adoptive use. Systems with partial autonomy need intuitive user interfaces, engaging system information, and clear signaling to be trusted with low level tasks; and to compliment and augment high order decision-making on farm. (shrink)

In 1973, Jim Hightower and his associates at the Agribusiness Accountability Project dropped a bombshell – Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times – on the land-grant college and agricultural science establishments. From the early 1970s until roughly 1990, Hightower-style criticism of and activism toward the public agricultural research system focused on a set of closely interrelated themes: the tendencies for the publicly supported research enterprise to be an unwarranted taxpayer subsidy of agribusiness, for agricultural research and extension to favor (...) large farmers and be disadvantageous for family farmers, for public research to stress mechanization while ignoring the concerns and interests of farm workers, and for the research and extension establishment to ignore rural poverty and other rural social problems. By 1990, however, there had been a quite fundamental restructuring of the agricultural technology opposition movement – one that is not often well recognized. Two overarching changes had occurred. First, agricultural-technology activism had shifted from contesting land-grant/public research priorities and practices to contesting private agribusiness technological priorities and practices. Second, the relatively integrated, overarching Hightower-type opposition had undergone bifurcation into two quite distinct social movements: the agricultural sustainability/local food systems movement on one hand, and the anti-GM food/crop and anti-food-system-globalization movement on the other. In this paper I explore the causes and consequences of these restructurings of the agricultural research and technology opposition movement. Chief among the major factors involved was the fact that “Hightowerism'' involved an ineffectual representational politics. Hightowerist claims – especially the claim that land-grant research was detrimental to family farmers – generated little support among the groups it claimed to represent (particularly “small'' or “family'' farmers). The two successor movements, by contrast, have relatively clear and dependable constituents. Further, the progressive molecularization of agricultural research, which proved to be both an antecedent and consequence of corporate involvement in agricultural research in the US, has decisively changed the issues that are contested by technology activists. Since the age of Hightower, the agricultural technology activist movement has shifted its 1970s and early 1980s emphasis from contesting public sector/land-grant research priorities to contesting private sector activities, particularly genetic engineering, GM crops, and globalization of agricultural technologies and regulatory practices. Even the sustainability/localism wing of the new agricultural technology movement configuration has progressively backed away from contesting public research priorities. The efforts of the sustainable agricultural and localism movement have increasingly focused on quasi-private efforts such as community supported agriculture, green/“value-added'' labeling and marketing strategies, and community food security. Some implications of this increasingly bifurcated, agricultural technology, activist movement configuration in which there is decreased interest in land-grant/public research priorities are discussed. (shrink)

In this special issue we will investigate, from the perspective of agricultural ethics the potential to develop a Responsible Research and Innovation approach to agriculture, and the limitations to such an enterprise. RRI is an emerging field in the European research and innovation policy context that aims to balance economic, socio-cultural and environmental aspects in innovation processes. Because technological innovations can contribute significantly to the solution of societal challenges like climate change or food security, but can also have negative (...) societal consequences, it is assumed that social and ethical aspects should be considered during the R&I process. For this reason, the emerging concept of RRI calls for ethical reflection on the nature, scope and applicability of responsibility and innovation in innovation practices in general, and the way social–ethical issues can be applied and addressed in agriculture. (shrink)

A major reason for the low adoption of modern varieties of seed among small-scale farmers in developing countries is the inability of formal, centralized seed production systems to meet their complex and diverse seed requirements. Drawing on experiences in Uganda with the common bean, the paper proposes seed production by farmer seed enterprises (FSEs) as a strategy for meeting dual objectives: to sustainably distribute and promote modern crop varieties and to establish a regular source of “clean” seed of either (...) local or modern varieties. It reports on lessons learned from the Ugandan experience and offers a conceptual framework and guidelines for establishing economically and institutionally sustainable FSEs. While FSEs offer a potentially sustainable solution to the problem of seed supply, the challenge of implementing and scaling up this approach in eastern and southern Africa remains formidable. Collaborative linkages need to be fostered between farmers, researchers, agro-enterprise specialists, NGOs, and the formal seed industry. Seed policy reforms need to be implemented and more client-oriented research systems must be institutionalized. (shrink)

Feminization in agriculture due to increased labour migration has directed the national plan toward gender-inclusive youth involvement in commercial agriculture in Nepal. To understand the willingness to pursue agriculture among such youth and gender-based differences in their opinion, a convergent parallel mixed method survey among remittance receivers from 231 households, was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire in the Parbat district of Nepal. The willingness to pursue agriculture and factors affecting the willingness were studied using t-tests, chi-square test, and spearman’s correlation. (...) A 5-point Likert-type scale was used to measure the difference in opinion and reasons behind the willingness to pursue agriculture among the gender. The majority of women responded unwilling to pursue agriculture and factors like gender, income and education level had a significant impact on the decision. The prioritized reason for pursuing agriculture and the primary choice of the enterprise were similar but preferences in government facilities and services were found different among the gender. (shrink)

A growing number of multi-stakeholder initiatives seek to improve labor and environmental standards through third-party certification. Fairtrade, one of the most popular third-party certifications in the agro-food sector, is currently expanding its operations from its traditional base in commodities like coffee produced by peasant cooperatives to products like flowers produced by hired labor enterprises. My analysis reveals how Fairtrade’s engagement in the hired labor sector is shaped by the tensions between traditional market and industrial conventions, rooted in price competition, (...) bureaucratic efficiency, product standardization and certification and alternative domestic and civic conventions, rooted in trust, personal ties, and concerns for societal wide benefits. At the global level, these tensions shape Fairtrade’s global standard setting as reflected in Fairtrade’s recently revised labor standards. At the local level, these tensions shape the varied impacts of certification on the ground as revealed through a case study of certified flower production in Ecuador. (shrink)

Digital technological innovation is reshaping the pattern of industrial development. Due to the shortage of digital talents and the frequent mobility of these people, the competition for talents will be very fierce for organizations to realize digital transformation. The digitization transformation of China’s service industry is far ahead of that of industry and agriculture. It is of great significance to study the organizational management and talent management of service enterprises to reduce the negative impact of insufficient talent reserve and (...) meet the needs of digital development. Based on 378 valid questionnaires from China’s service industry, this paper applied polynomial regression and a response surface model to analyze the impact of two kinds of person-environment fit on work engagement and individual creativity. The results show that: under the combination of high morality and high talent, work engagement and individual creativity are the highest; individual creativity is stronger under the condition of high morality and low talent than under low morality and high talent; and work engagement mediates the influence of morality and talent on individual creativity. The research reveals the internal mechanism by which morality and talent cooperatively promote individual creativity, which provides theoretical guidance for management practice of service firms to improve individual creativity in the process of digital transformation. (shrink)

The Malabo Declaration places the transformation of agriculture and food systems at the centre of regional and national policy priorities across Africa. Transformative change in the way that food is produced, processed and consumed is seen as not only necessary for addressing the complex challenges of food security and poverty alleviation, but also as a driver of new employment opportunities and economic development. As pointed out within the recent UN Food Systems Summit, essential elements of food system transformations include digital (...) transitions and the empowerment of women and youth. However, there are few empirical examples demonstrating how these agendas come together to affect food system change. Here we focus on an enterprising group of young farmers referred to as Malawi’s new achikumbe elite, who are urban based, educated and engaging in agriculture on a commercial basis. The aim is to characterise this emergent group of agriculturalists and to understand the role that they have within the transformation of Malawi-s agricultural sector. We explore how digital platforms are supporting the emergence of this new category of farmer and positioning young people as agents of change in food systems transformation. Based on interviews and ethnographic research with 32 young farmers between 2018 and 2022 combined with interviews with representatives of service providers and agricultural organisations, we argue that this group is characterised by a higher level of education, self-dependency and use of digital platforms, enabling them to adapt their context to sourcing production resources and engaging in commercial agriculture. We present evidence that digital platforms are supporting the new achikumbe elite (NAE) to engage flexibly with new commercial markets, contracts and access a wider range of training and advice. However, while digital platforms can offer more equitable access to information and market opportunities, they also represent potential avenues for food system transformations that are inequitable. As such, we argue that there is need for digital technologies to mitigate against potential inequalities. (shrink)

The attention to ethics has gradually become a concurrent topic of modern companies’ management. In the last years Social Responsibility has become a key issue in the strategic agenda of competitive agriculture cooperatives. However, reputation management has not been a visible strength in the cooperative enterprises. First of all, this work theoretically analyzes the relationship between Social Responsibility and reputation in cooperatives. Later, from a practical point of view, we carry on an empirical analysis focused on the olive oil (...) cooperatives in the south of Spain, in the province of Jaén. With respect to the previous studies on the topic, this work reveals a main reason of interest reinforcing the role of research in addressing real problems of cooperatives. The article points out the characteristics of this kind of agribusiness and shows the importance of the adoption of a responsible orientation in fostering reputation for creating sustainable competitive advantages. (shrink)

The necessity of incorporating societal and environmental concerns into publicly funded agricultural initiatives in research, extension, and practice is increasingly evident. Agriculturalists are urged to acknowledge and respond to societal concerns before an insensitive and largely ill-informed urban majority assumes a dominant posture in agricultural policy. In recent history, the availability of unrealistically cheap energy encouraged the evolution of a form of commercial agriculture unfettered by sound ecological principles. At present, external, resource-intensive intervention of increasing magnitude is needed (...) to compensate for the apparent ecological instability generated by practices such as intensive cereal management or conservation tillage practices. Polarization of the enterprises of plant and animal agriculture to enable centralized, concentrate-intensive, confinement feeding has disrupted the natural cycling of nutrients and carbon in the soil, encouraged the withdrawal of perennial forages from crop rotations, and invoked a widely ramifying network of agricultural and societal problems. Solutions to these problems must evolve from a holistic and far-reaching appraisal of causes, rather than from a piecemeal approach to individual symptoms. (shrink)

This article examines the experiences of female farmers in the Australian context who neither married into nor were born into farming and how they construct their farmer identity. Drawing on interviews with seventeen first generation female farmers it demonstrates a detraditionalized farmer identity created in response to concern for environmental and social sustainability. They are enabled by an online, global community of practice and shifting narratives of what constitutes responsible farming. Participants leveraged their skills from previous occupations to their farming (...) enterprises to internalize a managerial and entrepreneurial farming identity. First generation female farmers have been empowered as new actors in Australian agriculture, reflecting a disruption in traditional patterns of gendered privilege. (shrink)

Innovation leads to new products, business models and even changes to socio-economic systems. However, it is important that innovation has the ‘right impacts’. Responsible innovation can help to achieve this; however, it is unclear how to introduce responsible innovation to real-world, competitive, industry settings. We explore this challenge in the context of sustainability orientated start-up enterprises, developing innovations within agriculture, food or energy. We develop a tool that provides innovators with a systematic way to identify socio-ethical issues. Using the (...) concept of experiential learning, we track the impact of the tool across 12 cases. For the tool to install responsible innovation, we propose that a full learning cycle must be completed. We find evidence that the tool can enable a full learning cycle and provide a method to identify socio-ethical factors. We contribute by articulating and operationalising an approach to introduce responsible innovation principles into real-world contexts. (shrink)

Economic pressures and information policy changes in the public and private sectors are influencing the kinds, amounts, and availability of information to agricultural producers. This analysis identifies some of the major changes, examines their effects, identifies some issues of equity, and poses questions for further study. The changes are found to have special negative effects on producers with smaller operations, fewer financial resources, lower levels of formal education, remote locations, specialized enterprises, and low input enterprises.

Chinese e-commerce platforms have long helped to sell agricultural products through farmer-assisting marketing activities, effectively alleviating the problem of stagnant agricultural products in some areas, and have become a valuable cause-related marketing strategy. The ethical attributes of farmer-assisting agricultural products have unique value compared with other agricultural products. However, the existing research rarely pays attention to the influence of the ethical attributes of farmer-assisting agricultural products on consumers’ willingness to buy farmer-assisting agricultural products online. (...) Based on collective efficacy theory and risk perception theory, this study systematically explores the influence mechanism of ethical attributes on consumers’ willingness to buy farmer-assisting agricultural products online through three situational experiments. The results show that compared with functional ethical attributes, symbolic ethical attributes have a more positive impact on consumers’ willingness to buy farmer-assisting agricultural products online. In addition, it further reveals two mediating pathways of ethical effects and boundaries. This study helps to understand the ethical attributes of farmer-assisting agricultural products, and provides some practical suggestions for e-commerce enterprises implementing farmer-assisting marketing communication activities or marketers developing and promoting farmer-assisting agricultural products. (shrink)

Interactions with global markets offer development opportunities for Indigenous communities. They also place pressure on the natural resources that communities depend upon for their livelihood and, in many cases, their political and cultural autonomy. These markets often interact with family-based enterprises embedded within commons, with important implications for the social relationships and shared territorial resources that characterise such regimes. In this paper, we analyse the relationships that exist between commons, global markets, and small-scale family enterprises, using the case (...) of mezcal production—an alcoholic beverage made from agave—in an Indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico. Most mezcal production is organized at the family level; yet the raw materials and inputs necessary for making mezcal are held communally and regulated by locally-crafted institutions. Empirical data show that as family enterprises engage with an emergent global market for mezcal, the commons become essential for not only protecting territorial resources but also maintaining a degree of autonomy from powerful global markets and value chains. However, this requires substantial investment in monitoring and enforcement, and for community members to value sustainable commons management over short-term economic self-interest. To seek autonomy while participating in global markets, producer families also join together to develop cooperative strategies to access markets on better terms. (shrink)

Understanding stakeholders’ perceptions and motivations is of significant importance in relation to conservation and protected area projects. The importance of stakeholder analysis is widely recognized as a necessary means for gaining insight into the complex systemic interactions between natural processes, management policies, and local people depending on the resource. Today, community and group-based participatory inquiry approaches are widely used for this purpose. Recently, participatory approaches have been critiqued for not considering power relations and conflict internal to the community. In this (...) article, we suggest that the five-step Rapid Stakeholder and Conflict Assessment (RSCA) methodology addresses this critique. The objective of the methodology is to provide a facilitator with a comprehensive foundation on which to plan and conduct subsequent participatory project development. The RSCA integrates elements of soft systems and critical systems thinking. Qualitative research interviews and cognitive mapping of stakeholders’ mental models are used for collection of empirical material and analysis. The RSCA methodology is demonstrated in a case study concerning buffer zone management in the coastal wetlands of southern Vietnam. The case study shows that the RSCA methodology can provide an efficient way of obtaining a holistic and critical understanding of a complex resource management situation, thus potentially enhancing project performance in an instrumental as well as an ethical sense. (shrink)

Agricultural modernisation is a longstanding goal of China’s Party-state. Since the early 2000s, it has pursued this goal through policies designed to facilitate land consolidation and support the expansion of large agricultural enterprises – ‘New Agricultural Operators’ (NAOs). In this paper we explore the effect of these policies on the livelihoods of a cohort of smallholder orange growers in the mountainous regions of Hubei province and the local political economy. An analysis of data from a 2019 (...) survey of 266 households and interviews with villagers, agribusiness executives, cooperative leaders, and government officials, we find smallholder farmers are earning good incomes as independent commodity producers, withstanding attempts by local officials at land consolidation, and bypassing NAOs to self-determine their own modes of production and exchange. Our results speak to the ongoing debate about the future of smallholder farming in China, identify the strengths and limitations of recent state-centric analyses of agrarian transition, and re-iterate the pitfalls of the central government’s agricultural modernisation agenda. (shrink)

In an effort to fulfill the commands of Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou, our people are working strenuously to build our country into a powerful, modernized socialist state before the end of the century. Following the gradual progress of the four modernizations, the productive forces will rapidly grow, and the socialization level of production is bound to rise noticeably. How to understand the socialization of production, how to promptly readjust the relations of production and the superstructure in order to fit (...) in with the new situation in which the socialization level of production is continuously on the rise, and how to reform the management of industrial and agricultural enterprises as well as the administrative system of the national economy in order to quicken the speed of economic development pose a new problem calling for earnest study and exploration. (shrink)

У статті проаналізовано сучасний стан виробництва продукції сільськогосподарських підприємств. Проведений економіко-статистичний аналіз виробництва продукції рослинництва та тваринництва сільськогосподарськими підприємствами України. Описано стратегії оптимального розвитку сільськогосподарських підприємств у тваринництві та рослинництві.

У статті проаналізована існуюча на сьогодні демографічна ситуація, зайнятість сільського населення, рівень продуктивності праці та заробітної плати в аграрному секторі економіки України. Запропоновано розробити єдину концепцію зрівноваженого розвитку сільських територій України, яка б ґрунтувалася на "Стратегії інтелігентного і зрівноваженого розвитку, який сприяє суспільній активності", що використовується країнами ЄС, та включала підтримку зайнятості на сільських територіях і допомогу в збереженні соціальних структур на селі; покращення сільської економіки й підтримку диверсифікації; урахування структурної різноманітності сільськогосподарських систем, покращення кондиції малих підприємств та розвиток місцевих (...) ринків; запровадження для сільських населених пунктів міських стандартів рівня якості життя. (shrink)

Family farm ideology encapsulates one strand of the historical relations of Americans to the land. An examination of gender differences in historical experiences of land in Iowa suggests that men and women have had different patterns of access to land and to profits from agricultural enterprises. Where men have seen the land as a resource to be exploited, women have tended to view land as a setting for reciprocal interaction.In the late nineteenth century the state promoted the family (...) unit as a source of cheap labor in the development of the central United States to provide capital for the industrialization of the Atlantic seaboard. It was on this basis that Iowa farming developed. Before World War II the farm man, as head of the farm operation, managed the production of farm commodities and conducted the farm market transactions; the woman reproduced the farm labor force and exchanged goods and services locally through personal contacts.Since World War II the family farm has changed structurally, but the family farm ideology has persisted as a basis for the construction of farm policy emphasizing private property and free enterprise. Such an ideology is no longer consistent with a goal of economic democracy. The experience of women on the land provides elements of an alternative ideology which stresses reciprocal nurture, cooperation and shared good. (shrink)

Industrial agriculture has extensive environmental and social costs, and efforts to create alternative farming systems are widespread if not yet widely successful. This study explored how a set of grain farmers and rotational graziers in Iowa transitioned to agroecological management practices. Our focus on the resources and strategies that farmers mobilized to develop opportunities for, and overcome barriers to, transitioning to alternative practices allows us to go beyond the existing literature focused on why farmers transition. We attend to both the (...) ecological and socioeconomic context of innovation by comparing processes of technical change in two contrasting regions of Iowa. Farmers cultivated farm-level biodiversity and enterprise diversity, developed new cognitive and psychological competencies, and overcame barriers to innovation by developing external network linkages with peers, knowledge organizations, and federal policies. Our research provides insights into how biophysical, cognitive, structural and market considerations can be integrated into research efforts that aim to make sense of innovation toward sustainable agriculture. (shrink)

Communities, scientists, policy-makers and industries are requiring farmers to address environmental and wellbeing challenges in their on-farm management, transitioning away from a productivity dominated focus towards a multi-faceted system focus that includes environmental and social values. This paper analyses how Miraka Ltd., an Aotearoa-New Zealand indigenous owned and operated milk company, has taken on the role of institutional entrepreneur to enable and support change towards a multi-faceted system amongst its supply farmers. Observations and interviews were carried out to: (i) identify (...) farmers’ changes in practices, beliefs and values over the last ten years; and (ii) identify how Miraka functions as an indigenous entrepreneur in the agricultural sector. Findings show that interviewees were initially guided by business and family-oriented values, beliefs and practices, but in response to the institutional entrepreneurship by Miraka, approximately half of the interviewees changed these values, beliefs and practices, by internalising people and environmental values. The main strategies employed by Miraka were mobilisation of material resources such as incentives and awards, creation of a rationale addressing environmental and social concerns in the dairy sector, and proactive connection with new actors. The research shows an indigenous owned small-medium enterprise can make changes in values, beliefs and practices amongst its supply farmers, but requires a stronger shared base of values to contribute to a wider economic change. The discussion connects these findings to wider literature on diverse economies and indigenous entrepreneurship to identify to what extent an indigenous small-medium enterprise can contribute to a system change. (shrink)

Nowadays many debates are going on that relate to the agricultural and food sector. It looks as if present technological and organizational developments within the agricultural and food sector are badly geared to societal needs and expectations. In this article we briefly present a toolkit for moral communication within the food chain. This toolkit is developed as part of a European research project. Next, we discuss what such a toolkit can bring about, given the characteristics of the present (...) day agricultural and food sector and its wider context. We defend that the toolkit can be seen as one of the mechanisms that can help enterprises in the agricultural and food sector to be accountable. It should, however, be complemented with other mechanisms, first, to empower the wider public and, second, to stimulate a dialogue, on a more equal footing, between public authorities, citizens, and economic actors. (shrink)

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN EASTERN EUROPE: THE NON?AGRICULTURAL PRIVATE SECTOR IN POLAND AND THE GDR, 1945?83 by Anders Aslund. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. 320 pp., $29.95. COLLECTIVE FARMS WHICH WORK? by Nigel Swain. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 320 pp., $39.50. LABOUR AND LEISURE IN THE SOVIET UNION: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DECISION?MAKING IN A PLANNED ECONOMY by William Moskoff. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. 225 pp., $27.50. COERCION AND CONTROL IN COMMUNIST SOCIETY: THE (...) VISIBLE HAND OF BUREAUCRACY by M. Hirszowicz. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. 256 pp., $27.50. (shrink)

The paper looks into one branch of Ukrainian economy - the food industry. It is established that marketing activities of food industry companies have some specific features, namely mismatching of an agricultural performance period and production time; a perishable nature of products, which necessitates tight time frames of storage and sales; production focus on the direct consumer; a high level of materials consumption of products released, which requires a large quantity of feedstock as well as high qualification skills and (...) expertise from workers. The activity of a domestic bakery is described. It is determined that the complexity of its production processes and increased information flows requiring in-line processing for acquisition of appropriate data served as a basis for introduction of the special 'Marketing' software by its Marketing Department. The conducted analysis of the information product allowed to establish that the user of the above software maintains routine accounting and control of product supplies. To that end, information is processed, parameters related to production and supplies analyzed. The software significantly improves operational efficiency owing to an increased number of accountable factors and reduced decision making time. That bundled software however makes no provisions for development of a unified integrated management system, which reduces the company operating efficiency. It is established that to date there are many information systems available for food production automation, the Oracle E-Business Suite-based technology, developed by TopS BI, among them. It was offered for application at the food enterprise in question. The above system allows to automate production planning and management processes at various levels: from daily shop planning and management with step-by-step product quality control to scaled-up calendar planning of production, including that for a group of enterprises. (shrink)

This essay proposes African-based ethical solutions to profound human problems and a working African model to address those problems. The model promotes sustainability through advanced agroecological and information communication technologies. The essay’s first section reviews the ethical ground of that model in the work of the Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop. The essay’s second section examines an applied African model for translating African ethical speculation into practice. Deeply immersed in European and African ethics, Godfrey Nzamujo developed the Songhaï Centers to (...) solve the problem of rural poverty in seventeen African countries. Harnessing advanced technologies within a holistic agroecological ecosystem, Nzamujo’s villages furnish education spanning the fields of ethics, information communication technology, microbiology, international development, and mechanical, electrical, civil and biological engineering in a community-based and centered development enterprise. The essay proposes a global consortium of ecovillages based on Nzamujo’s model. The final section explores funding methods for the consortium. The conclusion contemplates a return to Africa to supplement environmental ethics that enhance life’s future on earth. (shrink)

During times of economic uncertainty, such as the current period, all costs of agricultural production become important and worthy of close scrutiny if the threat of farm foreclosures is to be minimized. This concern particularly applies to the cost of plant nutrients, which, under conventional approaches, typically represents 24%–30% (or more) of the total variable costs of production [Lu et al. (2000) Food Reviews International 16(2): 121–157; Bullen and Brown (2001) Economic Evaluation of UNR Cotton, NC State University, Raleigh, (...) North Carolina]. The purpose of this paper is to examine, via a review of the literature, the economics and profitability of various plant nutrient management strategies–both conventional and alternative ones–in an attempt to identify those strategies that can lead to financial resource optimization and, ultimately, maximum profits for farm enterprises. The results of this analysis are as follows: In a meta-analysis of 120 studies, conventional nutrient management systems, using commercial fertilizers, showed higher profit for most grain crops (with the exception of corn and sorghum), than organic nutrient management systems. Both cover crop and animal manure-based systems show considerable promise as alternative nutrient management strategies for increasing farm profitability. A cover crop system produced the highest average corn yield and gross margin per hectare with the smallest coefficient of variation compared to no-tillage conventional, manure-based, or crownvetch systems. Manure-based systems that do not require purchase or transport of the manure (as in combined animal and crop production systems) can be considerably more profitable than conventional systems. Both manure-based and cover crop systems that do not include the use of commercial fertilizers (i.e., organic systems), hold particular promise due to the output price premiums typically garnered by the organic crops grown under such conditions. (shrink)

This study examines the process of knowledge transfer between a pair of social enterprises, organizations that are embedded in competing social and economic logics. Drawing on a longitudinal case study of the interaction between social enterprises operating in emerging economy settings, it uncovers factors which influence the transfer of a social innovation from a dense, population-rich setting to one where beneficiaries are geographically dispersed and the costs of service delivery are correspondingly elevated. Evidence from the case study suggests (...) that institutional bricolage—the crafting of improvised solutions in resource-constrained settings—can serve as potent driving force in driving innovation transfer, and that this process of re-combining available resources may be facilitated by the extent to which the values between partner social enterprises are aligned. With such alignment, social enterprise partners may be able to increase trust, develop a smoother knowledge-transfer process, and find practical solutions which facilitate the transfer of life-enhancing social innovations to neglected rural settings. (shrink)

Small and medium size business enterprises (SMEs) are the linchpin in systems of food provisioning in sub-Saharan Africa. These businesses occupy the middle of the agri-food chain and face a food security conundrum: they must ensure that smallholder producers of limited means can operate under fair terms while low-income consumers are supplied with affordable and nutritious food. This task becomes even more challenging when resources are scarce. This paper explores how resource-constrained SMEs arrange the terms on which both farmers (...) and consumers are included in agri-food chains. To this end, it combines the concept of inclusion with that of frugality. We use the case of a Kenyan SME to demonstrate how a focus on frugality can advance our understanding of how business practices create thriving business relationships with smallholders while simultaneously ensuring access to affordable food for consumers. We additionally identify what conditions for inclusion emerge from this type of dynamic business practices. Our perspective departs from assessing induced organisational interventions, such as contract farming or cooperatives, which deliberately shorten the agri-food chain, thereby overlooking the skilful practices being employed by business actors in the middle of the chain. (shrink)

Science is a global phenomenon that knows no frontiers. But in the real world, production and efficient utilization of scientific knowledge are highly concentrated in a few countries. A large majority of countries—those on the periphery, contribute precious little to the growth of scientific knowledge. Indeed, the distribution of science is even more skewed than is the distribution of wealth among nations. As a result, peripheral countries are left out of the intellectual discourse that is at the very foundation of (...) the knowledge enterprise. The extent of this skewness and the relative neglect of the perihpery can be seen in some quantitative form from publication and citation data. However, while it may be true that mainstream science has not greatly benefitted from the efforts of the periphery, scientifically advanced societies are certainly benefitting from the traditional medical and agricultural knowledge base of the peripheral societies. Countless numbers of plants used in the traditional medical systems of India, China, Africa and Latin America are being drafted into the western system of medicine. A number of multinationals are learning from folk medicine and are gathering tons of plant material from these regions for the manufacture of modern medicine. Ironically, very little transfer of knowledge from ancient to modern systems takes place in the pheripheral countries themselves. Even when it does occur, it does not result in the manufacture and marketing of products for profit. (shrink)

The contributions of Portuguese and Spanish sixteenth century science and technology in fields such as metallurgy, medicine, agriculture, surgery, meteorology, cosmography, cartography, navigation, military technology, and urban engineering, by and large, have been excluded in most accounts of the Scientific Revolution. I review several recent studies in English on sixteenth and seventeenth century natural history and natural philosophy to demonstrate how difficult it has become for Anglo-American scholarship to bring Iberia back into narratives on the origins of "modernity." The roots (...) of this exclusion, to be sure, hark back to the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. The oversight is unfortunate for it has blinded scholars to the fact that the Iberians first created a culture of empirical, experimental, and utilitarian knowledge-gathering of massive proportions that did not get its cues from the classics or the learned, but from merchants, enterprising settlers, and bureaucrats. The Portuguese and the Spanish confidently saw themselves as the first "moderns," superseding the ancients. The English were the first to recognize this fact and they sought to imitate the new institutions of knowledge-gathering created by the Iberians. I demonstrate, for example, the Iberian origins of many of Francis Bacon's epistemological insights and metaphors. Spanish and Portuguese scholars have long been making this point. I therefore introduce English-speaking audiences to some of the most recent scholarship by Spanish scholars on sixteenth century Iberian science and technology. (shrink)

Because wicked problems are beyond the scope of normal, industrial-age engineering science, sustainability problems will require reform of current engineering science and technology practices. We assert that, while pluralism concerning use of the term sustainability is likely to persist, universities should continue to cultivate research and education programs specifically devoted to sustainable engineering science, an enterprise that is formally demarcated from business-as-usual and systems optimization approaches. Advancing sustainable engineering science requires a shift in orientation away from reductionism and intellectual specialization (...) towards integrative approaches to science, education, and technology that: draw upon an ethical awareness that extends beyond the usual bounds of professional ethics or responsible conduct of research to include macroethics, adopt anticipatory and adaptive approaches to unintended consequences resulting from technological innovation that result in more resilient systems, and cultivate interactional expertise to facilitate cross-disciplinary exchange. Unfortunately, existing education and research training programs are ill-equipped to prepare scientists and engineers to operate effectively in a wicked problems milieu. Therefore, it is essential to create new programs of graduate education that will train scientists and engineers to become sustainable engineering science experts equipped to recognize and grapple with the macro-ethical, adaptive, and cross-disciplinary challenges embedded in their technical research and development programs. Content Type Journal Article Category Articles Pages 1-18 DOI 10.1007/s10806-011-9342-2 Authors Thomas Seager, School of Sustainability and The Built Environment, Arizona State University, Phoenix Metropolitan Area, AZ, USA Evan Selinger, Department of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Henrietta, NY, USA Arnim Wiek, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Phoenix Metropolitan Area, AZ, USA Journal Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics Online ISSN 1573-322X Print ISSN 1187-7863. (shrink)

This paper examines the “biotechnology problem” in the history of molecular biology, namely the alleged reinvention of a basic academic discipline looking for the logic of life, into a typical technoscientific enterprise, closely related to agriculture, medicine, and the construction of markets. The dominant STS model sees the roots of this shift in a radical change of the regime of knowledge production. The paper argues that this scheme needs to be historicized to take into account the past in our biotech (...) present. Looking at the development of breast cancer genetic testing and GMOs as examples of mounting issues of intellectual property, risk and regulation, the paper also argues that historians of biology should pay closer attention to the political, the economical and the legal changes of the last thirty years. Solving the biotech problem requires new categories. The notion of “way of regulating” is given as an example of such notions linking the local and the global. (shrink)