Search

Smallholder farmers in developing countries often lack resources. They rely mostly on extensive production approaches, such as cattle keeping and resort more to extracting forest resources at no charge. Our objective is to assess the relationship between the diversification of income sources, poverty and livelihood capital for smallholder farm households which combine cattle farming with forest extraction. We collected 600 surveys from Indonesian farmers specialized along the cattle rearing supply chain (464 breeders, 66 feeders and 70 mixed breeder-feeders). We found no correlation between poverty and income diversification. Cattle breeders have been found to rely most on forest resources. Distance to cropland and forest correlated positively, whereas their education level correlated negatively with income diversification. Feeders who were owning other livestock, were a member of a forest user group and owned some modest capital like a motorbike showed increased income diversification. Crops are the most important source of income for farmers, whereas cattle keeping and forest extraction play a role in income diversification. Increasing ecological pressure caused by forest extraction due to expanding cattle production could be best avoided by extending those parts of the cattle sector that use forest resources in a sustainable manner, for instance, through silvopastural systems or agroforestry so that incomes of poor farmers get more diversified and, therefore stabilized.

Taking concepts from economic geography, this study decomposes locational factors as ‘first-nature’ and ‘second-nature’ geography, and argues that the second-nature geography, which is the concentration of entrepreneurial activities, helps entrepreneurs to discover entrepreneurial opportunities and gives them an incentive to integrate business with supporting activities in close proximity due to pecuniary and technological externalities. This study has taken the agricultural sector as the context of its research, and finds that the agricultural entrepreneurship literature has neglected the impact of the second-nature geography. Findings from the Netherlands show that the higher the concentration of entrepreneurial diversification in a region, the greater the likelihood that a farmer undertakes entrepreneurship on the farm.

We explore the mechanisms of the attitude–behavior paradox and how multiple stakeholders strategize to compromise their attitudes and behaviors. Through an instrumental variable probit model, we examine the effect of income heterogeneity and social ties on the farmers’ attitude–behavior paradox for collective action. The empirical results demonstrate that weak and strong ties, income heterogeneity, interaction terms, education, community environment, and community rules negatively affect the paradox, whereas water stealing and water use conflicts positively affect it. After dividing the paradox into two forms, we find that weak ties, the interaction terms thereof, negatively affect the paradox for “having negative attitude but do have behavior”, while income heterogeneity negatively affects the paradox for “having positive attitude but no behavior”. We contribute to the understanding of mechanisms whereby economic incentives and social structures interplay in addressing the above paradox. We conclude by discussing the implications for policies to overcome this social dilemma.

The understanding of the role of using forest resources in the livelihood strategies of smallholder farmers is limited. Rural household surveys often omit this aspect. From a survey of 600 Indonesian cattle farmers, we apply the sustainable livelihood framework to investigate the role extracting forest resources has in livelihood strategies and household income. We also quantify which farmers’ characteristics impact the decision to extract them. Forest extraction appears a core livelihood strategy of farmers who rely in some way on forests, which are on average poorer. Our findings suggest that forest extraction increases with increased income diversification. Farmers who specialize as feeders in the cattle supply chain engage significantly less in that. The promotion of sustainable forest resource usage schemes, such as agroforestry or silvopastoral systems that facilitate, and support cattle breeding would maintain the supply of youngstock for feeders and contribute to sustainable future use of forest resources.

Amartya Sen, the economist and philosopher, defines entitlement as command over resources that permits a household to have access to essential goods and services to sustain life within legal and established social norms and practices. Entitlement failure occurs when a household's command over all available combinations of resources does not ensure sufficient provisions of food to avoid starvation. This paper provides an overview of the literature on causal relations between civil war and household entitlements. It suggests a conceptual framework for empirically analysing the ramifications of armed political conflict on household entitlements. In addition, it develops a composite index as a tool to investigate the effect of civil war on household entitlements and to guide policy in the context of conflict-related international humanitarian interventions. The paper's key contribution is to suggest an empirical framework for quantitative measurement of the impact of civil war on household entitlements and to improve targeting criteria in post-conflict rehabilitation efforts.

One of the key issues in collective action is whether stakeholders are able to realize commons governance through a trust-based mode or control-based mode. This paper, examines whether trust and control affect the commons governance for small-scale irrigation facilities, and the moderating effects of group size on the relationship between trust and control and cooperative performance. The data were collected from 504 households who participated in the collective action for small-scale irrigation facilities in Shaanxi, Gansu Province, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of Northwest China. The analysis was performed by Structural Equation modeling and hierarchical regression. The findings show that trust and control are contrasting forces that influence the participation degree and the cooperative performance, although their relationship is not of a simple supplementary character but could be moderated by the group size. Both trust-based and control-based modes of irrigation management are effective in small groups, whereas only a control-based mode of management has an effect in big groups. The theoretical contribution of this paper clarifies the mechanisms through which the contrasting forces of group size are exerted on trust and control, directly and indirectly influences the participation degree and the cooperative performance in commons governance.

Agropastoral societies in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa are facing challenges in their land use. Land shifts toward large-scale land investments have exacerbated the scarcity of pastures, thus affecting the resilience of pastoral systems. In this study, we assessed how large-scale land investments affect household resilience using data from the Living Standards Measurement Survey in Ethiopia. We estimated household resilience capacity by a multivariate two-step factor analysis and welfare resilience from net changes in welfare outcomes between two survey intervals. We also assessed the effect of large-scale land investment on household resilience using random effects ordered logistic regression model. Factors that enhanced the resilience capacities of households included access to livestock markets, social safety nets, extension, mobility, and social services. Approximately one-third of the study population had a low resilience capacity, and more than half had low welfare resilience. Moreover, proximity to a large-scale land investment significantly reduced households' likelihood of having high resilience capacity. Therefore, future resilience programs in agropastoral areas should mitigate the adverse effect of large-scale land investments by enhancing livelihood diversification and households' access to communal pastures.

This article discusses two methods to measure the concept of local competitiveness: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The goal of this analysis is to determine whether these two methods used in social sciences research lead to comparable model results. By non-parametric tests we show that there is a significant correlation between the PCA and AHP local competitiveness indexes. Thereafter, a developed mixed method examination of whether the methods can be used interchangeably is presented and illustrated with detailed examples of two mixed approaches. The mixed method confirms the correlation between the PCA and AHP models. However, the mixed modelling results indicate the utility of the PCA in the situation of a multicriteria local competitiveness data examination.

We examined the determinants of conflict among agro-pastoral households in areas affected by large-scale land investments in Ethiopia. We combined household and community surveys to collect data and used descriptive statistics and a binary logit model to analyze them. The results indicated that, in the last decade, land conflicts were prevalent in more than a quarter of the studied communities and that they increased since the establishment of large-scale land investments. The scarcity of pastureland and tenure insecurity are the key drivers of land conflict. We conclude that the state appropriation of traditional pastures for industrial plantations and a lack of property rights for the commons exacerbate land conflicts.

In Ethiopia, large scale land investments have been expanding into pastoral regions. However, little is known about the consequences of these investments on the food security of the pastoral community. Using Living Standard Measurement Survey data of the World Bank, we find that, on average, about 32% of the respondents from the (agro-)pastoral regions are food insecure. After controlling for confounders, proximity to large scale land investments is associated with additional food intake of up to 745 kcal per day per adult compared to the households located farther away from a large scale land investment. Proximity to large scale land investment has no significant effect on the coping strategies based food security. For households located in proximity to a large scale land investment, food intake significantly increases with access to roads and markets. Proximity to a large scale land investment has a positive effect on household food consumption not necessarily because of direct benefits from large scale land investments, but due to land and soil quality near the large scale land investments.

This paper measures the development of the national income share of the bioeconomy for 28 European Union Member States (MS) and 16 industries of BioMonitor scope from 2005 to 2015. The paper proposes a model which includes the up- and downstream linkages using Input-Output tables. The results show that for the majority of the MS the value added of the up- and downstream sector is at the band of 40%–50% of the total bioeconomy value added and has on average increased since the financial crisis.

Despite the purposeful governmental programs, agricultural cooperation in Russia is not developing - on the contrary, the number of cooperatives has been continuously declining. This study investigates the reasons for farmers' refusal to join cooperatives. A prepared questionnaire was distributed in one of the Russian regions (the Republic of Tatarstan), and the collected data were analyzed via the cross tabulation method and logit analysis. According to the study results, the major reasons for not cooperating are as follows: respondent farmers lack the experience of cooperation, they have problems trusting each other, they are not socially active in their communities, and they rarely have a higher education. The study results recommend that the Ministry of Agriculture, willing to develop agricultural cooperation, pay special attention to educating farmers in terms of cooperation. Particular work should be done in teaching farmers to work in groups, trust each other, and organize systems of cooperative ventures in a way that would exclude cheating and free-riding behavior on the parts of both the cooperative members and the leaders. Stimulating social activities among farmers in rural areas might also increase cooperation. In addition, there is a need for agricultural consulting services offering high quality educational courses explaining the advantages of cooperatives and profits that they may provide to the members.

Russia’s agricultural import ban is one of the most recent examples of protectionism in agricultural trade. Introduced in 2014 and renewed every year since then, it has disrupted food supply chains and agricultural trade in Europe and influenced the prices and structure of food production in Russia. Current literature on Russia’s import ban mentions the multidirectional effects of the ban, with limited negative effects on agricultural output, employment, and trade flows for countries within the scope of the ban (the EU, the USA, Canada, Australia, and Norway), and a significant increase in the self-sufficiency of certain sectors of agricultural production in Russia. In parallel, Russia’s domestic prices of food products included in the ban have increased, shifting the cost of the ban on consumers and providing additional support for producers via a price channel. Trade flows from countries within the scope of the ban have been partially substituted by supplies from Latin America and Asia, as well as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Russian agricultural producers received some benefits after the introduction of the ban, while Russian consumers and EU agriculture suffered losses, although there is a possibility of a compensating effect from the re-export of banned products via neighboring countries.

Agro-pastoral areas in Ethiopia have been targeted by large-scale land investments, particularly for the establishment of sugar plantations, since the 1970s. This has led to the displacement of local communities. We investigate the impact of this displacement due to large-scale land investment on land degradation in semiarid agro-pastoral areas in Ethiopia. We conducted a survey of 866 households in two agro-pastoral sites in Ethiopia in 2019, where extensive large-scale land investment was implemented. We use an endogenous (switching) treatment model to assess the effect of the displacement of households on land degradation. The result shows that 75% of the surveyed households experienced moderate–severe land degradation. Forestlands and grasslands are ranked as the most degraded areas. About 43.7% of the households face a reduction in herd size and 55.8% lost land due to large-scale land investment, while 86% of the households show a substantial decline in crops and livestock productivity due to land degradation. The results also reveal that the displacement of households leads to a significant increase in land degradation. Household exposure to drought and conflict, the number of livestock, overgrazing, and sharecropping are other drivers of land degradation. Market access, extension services, household income, and mobility, on the other hand, limit the occurrence of land degradation. We conclude that the shifts in property rights from common land used by pastoralists to private land in large-scale plantations aggravate land degradation in semiarid drylands.

Recent research has indicated an increase in the likelihood and impact of tree failure. The potential for trees to fail relates to various biomechanical and physical factors. Strikingly, there seems to be an absence of tree risk assessment methods supported by observations, despite an increasing availability of variables and parameters measured by scientists, arborists and practitioners. Current urban tree risk assessments vary due to differences in experience, training, and personal opinions of assessors. This stresses the need for a more objective method to assess the hazardousness of urban trees. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of factors that influence tree failure including stem failure, root failure and branch failure. A systematic literature review according to the PRISMA guidelines has been performed in databases, supported by backward referencing: 161 articles were reviewed revealing 142 different factors which influenced tree failure. A meta-analysis of effect sizes and p-values was executed on those factors which were associated directly with any type of tree failure. Bayes Factor was calculated to assess the likelihood that the selected factors appear in case of tree failure. Publication bias was analysed visually by funnel plots and results by regression tests. The results provide evidence that the factors Height and Stem weight positively relate to stem failure, followed by Age, DBH, DBH squared times H, and Cubed DBH (DBH3) and Tree weight. Stem weight and Tree weight were found to relate positively to root failure. For branch failure no relating factors were found. We recommend that arborists collect further data on these factors. From this review it can further be concluded that there is no commonly shared understanding, model or function available that considers all factors which can explain the different types of tree failure. This complicates risk estimations that include the failure potential of urban trees.

With the rapid development of urbanization, industrialization and decentralized fiscal reform in China, large areas of farmlands are being converted from rural land to urban construction (residential, commercial and industrial) land. Taking Wuhan City in Hubei Province, China as a case study, we analyze land value creation by value creators including farmers (collectives), the government and developers at the level of the individual parcel, community, township and district in the process of rural-urban land conversion from farmland to residential, commercial and industrial use. The results show that (1) at the individual analysis level, land prices increase significantly during the process of land acquisition, land leasing and real estate development and sales. Land prices and incremental values differ greatly across the three land types, with higher prices for residential and commercial land, and lower prices for industrial land. In addition, farmers (collectives) receive the lowest share of the land value revenue, while the highest share is obtained by developers, followed by the government. (2) At the community, township and district levels of analysis, the spatial distribution of land values shows similar characteristics at different scales. Moreover, scale effects are found in land value creation and benefit distribution. Average land prices and incremental values decrease from the scale of the community, to the township, to the district. Furthermore, the difference in land values decreases gradually when moving from the community scale to the district scale. This study contributes to a better understanding of land value increments and benefit distribution at multiple levels of analysis, for multiple stakeholders, and for multiple land use types.

Next to heat and energy production, geothermal energy presents with opportunities for rural and suburban areas linking sustainable development goals with expansion of new local economy sectors. We conduct the shift share analysis for the ten municipality cases of the geothermal exploitation in Poland, comparing their employment structure with their reference poviat as a control group, in the years 2005 and 2018. The results reveal a strong shift in the trade and service sectors employment in all of examined geothermal localities, outperforming the reference poviats. In the tested period, more jobs were generated in the geothermal municipalities than in poviats too. Moreover, the structure of the differential shift component indicates that the trade and services employment growth is related with the development of the geothermal spas and recreational centers in the examined municipalities. The hypothesis that the geothermal resources utilization increases the employment in the local services sectors is corroborated.

Agricultural policies can only be effective if intended beneficiaries are sufficiently aware of them. This basic condition for policy success is substantially challenged by smallholder farmers’ lack of awareness of existing support schemes. We studied the perceptions of 600 farmers of preservation policies for the traditional Indonesian Ongole cattle breed. We measured farmers’ knowledge of existing policies, their perceived ease of participation, their participation level and their satisfaction with the benefits obtained. We found that the target group has little awareness of existing policies. Policy awareness increases with education, the less remote the farm is, and with increasing specialization in cattle farming. We recommend therefore that policymakers should simplify and redesign existing policy schemes to create one coordinated policy. The various support schemes currently implemented should be combined in this policy and it should be presented in such a way that is easily understood by farmers. Incentives for Ongole breeders should be tailored, the establishment of farmers groups facilitated, and a breeding and selection programme initiated to improve the genetic potential of Ongole for domestic beef production.

Agglomerations of agricultural activity yield a number of institutional and infrastructural benefits for farmers. However, these regional concentrations also increase competition between farmers. We quantify to what extent competitive pressure affects farmers’ behaviour in agro-clusters analysing a survey of 1,250 farmers in West Java. This assessment is derived from a conceptual model based on the theory of planned behaviour and the behavioural interaction model. We also derive several hypotheses which are econometrically tested. We find that the specific competitive environments farmers are exposed to for specific aspects of agricultural production matter most. In high density agglomeration environments, lower degrees of peer pressure foster cooperative behaviour. Food insecurity is found to enlarge self-interest, more intense cooperation is associated with lower income levels and appears to be regionally heterogeneous. Policies intended to facilitate cooperation could therefore be tailored to specific aspects of agricultural production and the specific region of interest.

The EU&rsquo, s 2018 Bioeconomy Strategy Update and the European Green Deal recently confirmed that the bioeconomy is high on the political agenda in Europe. Here, we propose a conceptual analysis framework for quantifying and analyzing the development of the EU bioeconomy. The bioeconomy has several related concepts (e.g., bio-based economy, green economy, and circular economy) and there are clear synergies between these concepts, especially between the bioeconomy and circular economy concepts. Analyzing the driving factors provides important information for monitoring activities. We first derive the scope of the bioeconomy framework in terms of bioeconomy sectors and products to be involved, the needed geographical coverage and resolution, and time period. Furthermore, we outline a set of indicators linked to the objectives of the EU&rsquo, s bioeconomy strategy. In our framework, measuring developments will, in particular, focus on the bio-based sectors within the bioeconomy as biomass and food production is already monitored. The selected indicators commit to the EU Bioeconomy Strategy objectives and conform with findings from previous studies and stakeholder consultation. Additionally, several new indicators have been suggested and they are related to measuring the impact of changes in supply, demand drivers, resource availability, and policies on sustainability goals.

Farm diversification is an important component of rural development and policy in Europe. We examine the influence of neighbouring farms on farm diversification decisions. Our analysis investigates spill-over effects between farms and different activities in a spatial econometric framework. Using census data from about 66,000 farms in the Netherlands, we find significant correlations of diversification activities between spatially proximate farms. These are positive for some activities, for example for nature conservation. On a local level, positive spatial dependencies between farms may result from (tacit) cooperation and information sharing within neighbourhoods. However, for other activities, such as on-farm sales, we find negative correlations on a higher spatial level, i.e. within the region, which could result from competition. Spatial aspects of cooperation and competition have important consequences for the success of policies supporting the uptake of farm diversification. Our findings thus reveal that policy measures promoting farm diversification require implementation beyond the scale of individual farms and single activities., Land Use Policy, 99, ISSN:0264-8377, ISSN:1873-5754

Adverse environmental effects of intensive agriculture, together with scarcity in phosphates and water, urge farmers to find more sustainable practices. An example of such a sustainable practice is on-farm processing of organic waste. This paper explores three mechanisms that can lead to a widespread uptake of this technique: (1) economies of scale, (2) information sharing, and (3) adjustment of social norms. Although each of these mechanisms has been studied before, this paper provides new insights by considering the interactions that might exist between the different mechanisms when they are applied to real-life situations. Based on a pilot study, we developed a multi-criteria mathematical programming model at individual farm level. We used this model to simulate the uptake of on-farm processing of organic waste, as a result of the three mechanisms and their interactions. Our results show that each mechanism results in an increased uptake, but is not likely to cause a widespread uptake. Interaction between the mechanisms, will lead to a much higher uptake. This result suggests that simultaneous consideration of multiple mechanisms is essential to understand the behaviour of social–ecological systems.

Cooperatives are established to improve farmers' production conditions, to increase their bargaining power and to enable them to benefit from modern value chains. In China, farmers are members of a cooperative for multiple reasons. Little is known on whether and how cooperative membership affects farmers’ choice of marketing channels. This paper examines determinants of farmers’ choice of marketing channels, especially how cooperative membership impacts upon this choice. Our analysis is based on survey data collected in 2015 among 625 apple growing farm households in the provinces Shaanxi and Shandong. We employ endogenous switching probit models to deal with potential endogeneity of membership in estimating the determinants of marketing channel choices. We find that cooperative membership has a positive impact on selling to wholesalers and a negative impact on selling to small dealers, but no significant impact on selling to the cooperative itself. As products sold through cooperatives generally comply with relatively stringent food quality and safety standards, these results imply that policies promoting cooperative members to sell their products through cooperatives are likely to have a significant impact on food quality and food safety in China.

This paper investigates how land tenure reform has affected livestock production in the pastoral areas of China. County-level data for Inner Mongolia between 1985 and 2008 are used in a fixed effects model to disentangle the effects of land tenure reform on livestock production from factors related to market forces, grassland condition, technological development and environmental heterogeneity. The results show that the implementation of the land tenure reform slowed down the increase in livestock production, although it did not completely stop this increase. It therefore appears that land reform is in itself unable to offset the impact of other factors that accelerate the increase in livestock production. Moreover, the constraining effect of the land tenure reform on the increase in livestock production decreases over time, and ultimately disappears. Finally, the constraining effect of the land tenure reform was shown to be stronger on the increase of the livestock population than on that of meat output. This indicates that the land tenure reform has helped to improve livestock productivity.

This paper investigates whether the endogenous geothermal energy resources used for local tourism facilities are a factor of local development. We answer this research question by examining the local socioeconomic development dynamics in years 1995–2015 in the six selected Polish municipalities that established geothermal spas at different years. A model introduces the concept of switch variables, where a geothermal spa is the assumed switching factor in a municipality’s socioeconomic development. The statistical procedures are adopted from factor analysis and trend estimation methodologies. Our conclusions lead to a positive assessment of a geothermal water park’s contribution to a municipality’s socioeconomic development.

The mining sector has become one of the main pillars in the Mongolian economy. Although the sector is the main driver of better export performance, it may also have a negative effect on traditional tradeable sectors and worsen their competitiveness. The study focuses on whether the Dutch disease symptoms have appeared in the Mongolian economy. A time series model is developed using quarterly data from the period of 2004 to 2012, the so-called mining boom years in Mongolia. Econometric results are derived from the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and suggest that the Dutch disease symptoms, the spending effect as well as the resource movement effect, have appeared during the researched period in Mongolia.

Collective action in geographically concentrated farming regions can lead to improvements in farmer income. We model farmer cooperation inside such agro-clusters as a two-stage decision process. From 1,151 completely filled-in questionnaires, we find that being located in an agro-cluster increases farmers' likelihood to cooperate as well as enhances their income. Farmers' attitude towards cooperation is positively influenced by being male, having more assets, and operating a larger farm, but negatively affected if the farmer reports that her household is food vulnerable. The number of hours worked by farmers on the farm and the frequency of face-to-face meetings also raise the probability of engaging in cooperation. A higher density of agro-clusters, higher crop diversity and being located farther away from urban centers are found to increase on average the income level of a farmer. Hence, the promotion of agro-clusters also in rural regions remains a promising initiative for increasing farmer income.

•Factors affecting sustainable management of rangeland by user groups in Mongolia are examined.•Model specification is based on Agrawal's user-based resource governance framework.•Data collected in 2010 among 330 herding households, belonging to 11 Pasture User Groups, are used for the empirical analysis.•We find that well-defined rangeland boundaries are key in supporting rangeland quality.•Inequality in herd sizes within a PUG negatively affects rangeland quality.

In addition to large-scale environmental benefits, geothermal resources are nowadays expected to deliver an endogenous competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to investigate this phenomenon for Poland. Since geothermal resources are of an endogenous nature, we assume their competitive advantage character for eleven selected municipalities in Poland. A municipality competitiveness model is built using an expert method. Panel data analysis is used to estimate four models of geothermal competitiveness. A sensitive analysis examines if the results are dependent on the model we developed. All four model scenarios are robust. The results show that the geothermal estimators significantly impact the created municipality competitiveness indicator. The geothermal energy production and geothermal bathing centres are both significant elements of municipality competitiveness in Poland. Therefore, this paper provides an argument for further expansion of the extraction of the available geothermal resources in Poland.

Improving household livelihoods through tourism, while at the same time achieving the goals of conservation, remains a challenge in high-value nature areas around the world. This paper studies a herder-community-based tourism system in Mongolia in light of these challenges. The social–ecological system (SES) framework was used as a conceptual foundation. The generic SES framework was adapted to the case of the herder-community-based tourism system. The adapted framework was then used to assess the economic, ecological, and social objectives of the herder-community-based tourism system characterised by natural resources and cultural landscapes. Primary data collection included interviews with key informants in the tourism sector: tourism researchers, representatives of donor projects, managers of tour operators, and guides. Based on their responses, the study site was selected in the buffer zone of the Hustai National Park, which is a protected area. Respondents in the second stage of interviews were herders who participate in herder-based tourism and who live in the vicinity of the protected area. Results show that the SES framework is able to diagnose the sustainability of the herder-community-tourism system, but sustainability outcomes indicate an imbalance between social, economic, and environmental performance. The herder-community-based tourism system is successful in conserving wildlife and habitats, however, the distribution of revenues gained from tourism shows that only a small and inequitable share reaches the herder community.

This paper considers innovations as one of the factors of sustainable agricultural development of the Stavropol Territory. It focuses on the impact of state policy at the regional level in the field of innovations on the sustainable development of the region’s agriculture. This paper tests whether the implementation of the policy in innovations increased the sustainable growth of agricultural development. To do so, a model with switch variables was used. Principle component analysis was used to calculate a composite sustainability index of selected socio-economic and environmental indicators. The hypothesis that the introduction of a state policy aimed at innovation has a positive impact on the sustainable development of the regional agriculture was corroborated. We also assessed the impact of implementing this policy within each dimension separately. The socio-economic indicator is more important than the environmental indicator.

Neighbouring economies are likely to influence one another. The concentration of farming activities referred to as an ‘agro-cluster’ generates opportunities for income and employment in a given region and its surrounding area. We analyse the link between poverty rates and agro-clusters by accounting for spatial spillovers. To quantify agroclusters, we employ one input-oriented and one output-oriented measure. Our analysis applies six spatial econometric specifications and focuses on 545 subdistricts of West Java, where about 10% of the population live in poverty. We find that the concentration of agricultural employment substantially reduces poverty in a subdistrict as well as in neighbouring subdistricts. We also find that specialisation in crop outputs has positive impacts on poverty reduction and that localisation externalities are fundamental to agriculture's success. These findings imply that policy interventions may be applied in a spatially selective manner because they will generate spatial-spillover effects on poverty reduction in surrounding areas.

The paper deals with the subject Transition economy and happiness – a case study of the Czech Republic in a comparison with The Netherlands in the 1990- 2004 period. The paper addresses the following two questions: 1. How has the level of happiness changed since 1990 in the Czech Republic and in The Netherlands? 2. Are there differences with respect to variables that explain differences in happiness between both countries. It appears that. at the beginning of the 1990s of the last century, the Czechs were less happy than the Dutch and, that, people in the Czech Republic were less happy in 1999 than they were in 2004. Furthermore, Happiness in the Czech Republic is approaching the level of happiness in The Netherlands. In both countries happiness is positively affected by subjective health status, perceived freedom of choice over life, being married or living together and satisfaction with one’s financial situation and having trust in social institutions. But there are differences with respect to the impact of age, education and religion .

Farmers’ pro-environmental agricultural practices (PAPs) are important measures to limit agricultural pollution and improve farmland quality. Given the positive externality of PAPs, the Chinese government has proposed a series of farmland protection policies to encourage farmers to implement PAPs. However, land transfer, an increasingly common phenomenon, may affect the effectiveness of policies. This study aims to explore how farmers’ PAPs have been affected by land transfer and farmers’ knowledge of farmland protection policy (KFPP). A systematic theoretical framework for this relation is developed. The probit model is applied to empirically investigate the relationship between land transfer, KFPP and the PAP of straw return to fields based on data collected from 400 farmers in Ningxia Province in China. The findings reveal that farmers’ KFPP has a positive effect on PAPs. Rented-in land has a positive effect on PAPs, while rented-out land has a negative effect, which is significantly reduced with the adjustment effect of KFPP on land transfer. Our analysis provides policy implications for the successful implementation of PAPs. The positive effect of rented-in land and the negative effect of land fragmentation on PAPs suggest the importance of policies promoting land consolidation by incorporating plot-connecting interventions in the land rental market. The positive and significant effect of KFPP on PAPs suggests further enhancing farmers’ knowledge of farmland protection policy, for example, by improving information channels and extension services.

This dataset corresponds with the manuscript “The impact of geothermal resources on the competitiveness of municipalities: evidence from Poland” [1] . In the paper, the geothermal resources are assumed as a local competitive advantage for the municipalities that exploit them. In order to examine the relation between the exploitation of the geothermal resources and local competitiveness we determine the model of municipality competitiveness in Poland. Concept of local competitiveness is referred to place-based measures (Lovering [2] , Mytelka and Farinelli [3] , Plummer and Taylor [4] , Kitson et al. [5] ) and it is related to the management of local resources (Malecki [6] , Turok [7] ). Literature review suggests that the local competitiveness is best reflected in the indicators of economic welfare and sustainability (see Meyer-Stamer [8] , Audretsch et al. [9] ). Therefore, we use an expert method to build the model of a municipality competitiveness indicators on the example of Poland. Throughout the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method engaged experts select the 24 indicators of local competitiveness. This method serves in situations of problem complexity (Kamenetzky [10] , Saaty [11] ) and as a multicriteria method in regional studies (Dinc et al. [12] ). Aggregation of the AHP selected indicators yields a synthetic competitiveness index for each of the municipalities that we examine. This index constitutes the model dependent variable in the related research article. This procedure of building municipality competitiveness model sets an example of approaching a complex phenomenon such as local competitiveness definition. The versatility of this method enables its application into related research cases.

This chapter aims to apply the ecological concept of ‘resilience’ to the socio-economic development of the rural region. It argues that two elements are crucial for and prerequisite to ‘rural resilience’: (1) regional specialisation and, connected with that, the development of regional clusters; and (2) the regional ability to transform. In our view rural resilience is shaped within the context of social, economic and environmental (biophysical) possibilities and constraints. This means that ‘rural resilience’ is inextricably connected to the design of the rural landscape; that is, landscape design and spatial organisation determine and influence ‘rural resilience’. In this chapter, we focus on two main functions of rural areas, namely agriculture and the supply of rural services, such as agro-tourism and nature and landscape management.

The literature on the theory of public goods is voluminous. This chapter provides an overview of public goods related to rural amenities. Many of these amenities tend to be non-exclusive and rival (e.g. forests and irrigation systems), exclusive and subject to some rivalry (e.g. nature reserves) or non-exclusive and non-rival (e.g. scenic views and clean air and water). Many beneficiaries of these amenities choose not to pay and will free ride on the efforts and activities of others (such as farmers and agro-foresters). This can present a problem for provision. Hence, rural amenities require collective action to be properly and efficiently provided since the logic of individual interests results in a socially less than optimum response.

From an economic point of view, melting ice is making the Arctic ocean increasingly important for a number of countries – Arctic states as well as non-Arctic states. Also, the EU has clear interests in the area. This chapter provides a brief description of those interests and its implications on the EU's relationship with the Arctic partners. This note takes seven aspects of the EU-relations with the Arctic states into consideration (i.e., the institutional framework, the EU Arctic interests and policies, shipping, fishing, marine mammals, offshore oil and gas operations, and the EU's Arctic partners).

Since the start of the land tenure reform in the pastoral areas of China in the 1980s, grassland use rights have increasingly been assigned to individual households. However, this period has also been accompanied by extensive grassland degradation in China, which has raised the question of whether a tragedy of privatisation has occurred. This paper investigates the impact of land tenure reform on the changes in grassland condition, using data from 60 counties in Inner Mongolia between 1985 and 2008. A fixed effects model is employed to control for time-invariant factors. Two alternative model specifications in terms of land tenure reform and time-variant factors are conducted to verify the robustness of the estimation results. The results show that land tenure reform did not affect the grassland condition significantly, and the major drivers of grassland degradation include the land use change and the increase in market demand (meat prices). Thereby, we provide empirical evidence that the privatisation of grasslands did not cause grassland degradation in Inner Mongolia, China.

​This two-volume book provides an important overview to EU economic and policy issues related to the development of the bioeconomy. What have been the recent trends and what are the implications for future economic development and policy making? Where does EU bioeconomy policy sit within an international context and what are the financial frameworks behind them? Volume I explores the economic theory of bioeconomy policy, as well as European integration, European agriculture, EU budget and future developments in EU agriculture policies.

This research note compares the results of the measurement of the relationship between happiness and GDP in the EU based upon unweighted data with the results based upon weighted data. The data are weighted in order to correct for the different sizes of the populations in the EU countries concerned. The result of the weighing is an even stronger relationship between happiness and GDP per capita than in the case with unweighted data.

This article examines whether relationships between social capital characteristics and the willingness of farmers to cooperate in collective action is moderated by the farmers' income level. We employed a structural equation model to analyze the influence of social capital components (social networks, interpersonal trust, social reciprocity, and social participation) on the willingness of farmers to cooperate in collective small-scale irrigation in Guangling County, Shanxi Province of China. This analysis was complemented by a multigroup analysis to measure the potential variance effects across income groups. Our results show that low- and middle-income farmers give more importance to the aspects of social networks, social reciprocity, and social participation, while high-income farmers place emphasis on interpersonal trust and social participation. Accordingly, the willingness of farmers to cooperate for the different income groups was influenced in different ways in relation to the various social capital components. Therefore, social capital and income differences have complex effects on the willingness of farmers to cooperate. In this regard, our research provides an alternative way to understand the complex process involved in the formation of collective action under the presence of increasing economic heterogeneity in local communities.

In tourism management, traditional input–output models are often applied to calculate economic impacts, including employment impacts. These models imply that increases in output are translated into proportional increases in labour, indicating constant labour productivity. In non-linear input–output (NLIO) models, final demand changes lead to substitution. This causes changes in labour productivity, even though one unit of labour ceteris paribus still produces the same output. Final demand changes can, however, also lead to employees working longer, harder and/or more efficiently. The goal of this article is to include this type of ‘real’ labour productivity change into an NLIO model. To do this, the authors introduce factor augmenting technical change (FATC) and a differentiation between core and peripheral labour. An NLIO model with and without FATC is used to calculate the regional economic impacts of a 10% final demand increase in tourism in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. Accounting for real productivity changes leads to smaller increase in the use of labour, as productivity increases allow output to be produced using fewer inputs.

In tourism and recreation management it is still common practice to apply traditional input–output (IO) economic impact models, despite their well-known limitations. In this study the authors analyse the usefulness of applying a non-linear input–output (NLIO) model, in which price-induced input substitution is accounted for. For large changes in final demand, a NLIO model is more useful than a traditional IO model, leading to higher or lower impacts. For small changes in final demand input substitution is less likely. In that case the application of the NLIO may lead to the same results as a traditional IO model. To analyse changes of subsidies, a traditional IO model is not an option. A more flexible model, such as the NLIO, is required. The NLIO model forces researchers to make choices about capacity constraints, factor mobility and the substitution elasticity, which can be difficult but create flexibility and allow for more realism.

The aim of this paper is to understand and evaluate agricultural sustainability in the Stavropol Territory by means of a composite indicator. In particular, the paper applies principal component analyses to calculate a composite sustainability index by integration of selected economic, social and environmental indicators. The results demonstrate the utility of analyzing several indicators in conjunction. The results also may indicate which variables influence development of regional agriculture. This information is important in order to design agricultural support policy and to implement an increase the sustainability of the agriculture sector. JEL Code: O13, Q11

What impact has the Brexit on the allocation of money from the structural funds? As the UK is a net contributor to the EU budget, the budget for Structural and Cohesion Policy will shrink. This will have an impact on the allocations of the structural funds to the remaining members of the EU. In order to estimate the allocation of the structural funds to the remaining EU members an allocation model is developed in this article. It appears that the model results do not only show the sharing of the cake, but also the size of it. JEL Code: F00, Q00

The paper includes overview of the current state of the EU-CIS and the EU-Russia trade flows with particular attention to trade in agricultural commodities, as well as contemporary tendencies in agricultural production and foreign trade in agricultural commodities and food in Russia. The paper specifically addresses the possible effects of the trade restrictions between the EU and Russia, particularly the imposed ban on agricultural trade, on the Visegrad countries. The paper is concluded with an overview of the expected influences of the trade tensions on Russia’s domestic agricultural market, including consumers, producers, and retailers.

The contemporary relevance of ensuring sustainable rural development is stipulated, on the one hand, by the growing economic and social backwardness of rural territories, and on the other hand by their ultimate importance for the nation in such issues as food security, preservation of soil and environmental resources, and the utilisation of agricultural, production and labour potentials. One of the key conditions of sustainable rural development is sufficient employment which provides rural inhabitants with a sustainable income which is competitive in comparison to urban territories. This paper includes an analysis of the current problems of rural development, based on the example of the Stavropol Region, one of the most agricultural regions of Russia; the paper addresses threats to sustainable rural development such as unemployment and depopulation, and substantiates the practicality of diversification of traditional rural sources of income by means of tourism and other alternative activities.

To prevent further biodiversity loss as a result of intensive agricultural practices, Agri-Environmental Schemes (AES) have been implemented on European farmland. Unfortunately these AES have not always been effective in terms of biodiversity and farmer participation. In an effort to improve the AES programme the Dutch government switched from an individual application system to a collective application system for AES payments in 2016. The goal of this paper is to analyse how the resilience of the land use system in terms of farmer participation in the AES and biodiversity is affected by the value farmers attach to biodiversity, and whether the shift from an individual to collective AES will affect the resilience of the land use system. We constructed a multi-objective mathematical programming model in which farmers maximise utility. Farmers are linked through their common effect on biodiversity. In the collective application system payments are only available when the biodiversity in the region is above a certain threshold. Simulation results show no difference in farmer participation and biodiversity between the individual application system and the collective application system when biodiversity weights are high. The land use system loses its resilience in terms farmer participation in the AES and biodiversity if we lower the biodiversity weights, this effect is stronger in the collective AES programme.

This article studies the economic value and roles of rural festivals. The authors investigate the festivals of ‘Kuruma-ichi’ and ‘Suishamatsuri’ in the Yamane area of Kuji city, Iwate prefecture, Japan. They estimate a travel demand model to infer the value of these festivals for visitors and apply the chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) method to analyse the reasons for visiting. The results indicate that the consumer surplus of these festivals is ¥3,627 (US$45.3) for a tourist per trip. From the CHAID analysis it follows that the annual frequency of visits depends on the opportunity for exchange among tourists and the local residents. It appears that the festivals are important occasions for the gathering of former residents in this depopulated and aged mountainous area.