Development of an advisory system that supports good animal welfare in organic production in Norway

Organic agriculture wishes to emphasise animal welfare, and aims to be at the forefront with regard to promoting the welfare of farm animals. It is therefore important to increase the expertise in the field of animal welfare in organic farming systems among veterinarians, advisers and farmers. An advisory service that includes on-farm assessment of animal welfare will contribute to securing a high level of animal welfare in organic production. To meet the need for information and expertise, an advisory and development project ”Good animal welfare in organic dairy farming” started in May 2003 and will last until the end of 2005. The project’s main goal is to develop and establish a permanent advisory service aimed at securing a high level of animal health and welfare in organic dairy farming

Which advisory system to support innovation in conservation agriculture? The case of Madagascar's lake Aloatra

To promote sustainable agriculture, various development projects are encouraging farmers around Madagascar's Lake Alaotra to adopt conservation agriculture techniques of direct-seeding, mulch-based cropping systems (DMCs). The increase in area under coverage where these new techniques have been applied, though real, remains modest and calls into question the relevance of the support currently being extended to farmers, especially in the form of advice. This article's objective is to advance a method of designing advisory services suitable for supporting complex innovation (the adoption of DMCs for rainfed crops) by promoting learning, access to services and the empowerment of actors. Results of farmer surveys and advisory actors highlight the current domination of technical advice provided by projects dedicated to promoting conservation agriculture methods, amongst which DMCs, based on recommendations arising from a technicist research. Nevertheless, these advisory actors have shown a recent willingness to promote advisory services which address overall farm complexity in interaction with the proposed technical changes. Results not only call into question the advisory method used but also the ability of advisors to adopt an advisory system built jointly with the farmers. But the farmers and famers' organizations have a limited ability to influence choices made by the projects. They question the sustainability of the advisory mechanism beyond the end of the project in the context of external funding of the advisory system. (Résumé d'auteur

Investment opportunities in kiwifruit processing : a case study in product development that considers the advisory role of the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries : a thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Agricultural Science at Massey University

This thesis is set in the context of the Economic Section of the Advisory Services Division of the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF). MAF provides management advice to farmers and horticulturalists on what and how to produce. The direction for MAF services is taken from the national development strategy which has historically centred on expansion of traditional agriculture, but is now focusing on the development of non traditional agriculture. This shift in strategy, which involves the development of new food and fibre products, has caused MAF to adopt an industrywide market orientation that focuses on the needs of consumers rather than methods of production, so that marketing and production of both primary and processed products could be considered within the domain of MAF advisory activities. The Economic Section of MAF's Advisory Services Division is responsible for economic evaluations of opportunities in agriculture. While the national development strategy has centred on expansion of traditional agriculture these evaluations have concentrated on opportunities to improve farm management. With the shift in both the national development strategy and MAF's orientation to its work, the Economic Section must consider industrywide market orientated economic evaluations of both product and manage­ment opportunities. This study therefore involves the development and evaluation of an analytical framework for consumer orientated economic evaluations of new product opportunities. The analytical framework that is developed is, in the broadest sense, one of strategic planning, and it is evaluated through its application to a case study in kiwifruit processing. The results of the case study show that the framework is a useful one that allows a systematic consideration of new alternatives given information on markets and the objectives and characteristics of the developing firm. The second aim of the study was to evaluate and discuss MAF's industrywide market orientated approach to its advisory work. The study concludes that MAF should confine its advisory services to on-farm production, and that MAF should assume an industrywide but not a market orientated approach to its work. It is also concluded that the Economic Section of MAF's Advisory Services Division should assume responsibility for the divisions strategic planning and that this planning should involve an industrywide approach to the evaluation of farm production opportunities. To this end it is considered that a production orientated version of the analytical framework developed in this study is appropriate for use by the Economic Section

Contract Farming for Better Farmer-Enterprise Partnerships: ADB\u27s Experience in the People\u27s Republic of China

[Excerpt] Agriculture should provide safe and nutritious food to people. In the People’s Republic of China (PRC ) and many other developing members of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), agriculture is also the main source of income for rural residents. Yet as compared with the total labor force absorption, the contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product is very small, suggesting lower productivity, often resulting in poverty. Recognizing the invaluable contribution of agriculture to the PRC ’s development, the government has been prioritizing agricultural modernization in its policy agenda with an aim to further improve the agricultural sector’s productivity and efficiency. ADB’s support to the sustainable development of agriculture in the PRC covers broad areas ranging from irrigation infrastructure and farmland upgrading to agribusiness development and food safety. The Dryland Sustainable Agriculture project commenced in 2009 with ADB assistance supports the development of partnerships between private agro-enterprises and farmers using contract farming arrangements to strengthen farm productivity, food production, and processing capacity in 27 counties in Gansu, Henan, and Shandong provinces. After 6 years, the project has delivered considerable amount of outputs in terms of facilities established and farmers engaged, showing promise in achieving its outcome. Concurring with the request from the Ministry of Agriculture, the project executing agency, ADB provided a grant to study the experiences arising from the project with respect to developing sustainable farmer–enterprise partnerships particularly contract farming models. Equally important, the study examines the issues involved in current contract farming practices and recommends policies that may help resolve them

1995 PRICING PERFORMANCE OF MARKET ADVISORY SERVICES FOR CORN AND SOYBEANS

The purpose of this research report is to present an evaluation of advisory service pricing performance in 1995 for corn and soybeans. Specifically, the average price received by a subscriber to an advisory service is calculated for corn and soybean crops harvested in 1995. The average net advisory price across all 25 corn programs is $3.04 per bushel. The range of net advisory prices for corn is quite large, with a minimum of$2.34 per bushel and a maximum of $3.81 per bushel. The average net advisory price across all 25 soybean programs is$6.61 per bushel. As with corn, the range of net advisory prices for soybeans is substantial, with a minimum of $5.75 per bushel and a maximum of$7.92 per bushel.Agricultural Market Advisory Service (AgMAS) Project, D4, D7, D8, G1, G2, H4, H8, Q1, Z1, Marketing,

Consulting Services in Agriculture

At the paper the dynamics of the development of the services market in Ukraine and its structure are analized. The influence of global economic processes on the services market has been studied. The concepts of "services" and "outsourcing" are characterized. Attention is paid to the development of services in the field of informatization and consulting. The main functions of information and consulting services in agriculture are defined. The purpose of the paper is to study and analyze the current state of the Ukrainian market of services, its structure and dynamics of development, the definition of the dominant sectors of the market of services, as well as substantiation of the possibilities of using professional advisory services in agriculture

The influence of local governance on agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan

The present article investigates the influence of local governance on agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan. The Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan is an agricultural country that has been described as a hybrid state, where local governance tends to be dominated by a few powerful actors. Local governance processes do have a strong influence on the agriculture practise and on the exchange of the knowledge. Agricultural advisory services claim various effects in the country. Especially in regions that are dominated by monocultures, advisory services have limited success. Therefore the present article assumes that the nexus of knowledge and innovation in Tajik agriculture is largely dependent on the decision-making of local governance processes. The article outlines the important role of local governance for distribution and use of knowledge in rural areas and emphasizes the context of agricultural advisory services in Tajikistan. --Tajikistan,Agriculture,Advisory service,Local governance,Elites

EVALUATION OF MARKET ADVISORY SERVICE PERFORMANCE IN HOGS

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pricing performance of agricultural market advisory services in hogs. Pricing recommendations are available for all quarters from the beginning of 1995 through the end of 2001. The results show that average differences between advisory programs and market benchmarks are small in nominal terms for all three benchmarks, -$0.41/bu.,$O.OO/cwt. and $-0.27/cwt. versus the cash, index and empirical benchmarks, respectively, and none of the average differences are significantly different from zero. Hence, advisory programs as a group do not outperform the market benchmarks in terms of average price. Advisory programs also do not outperform the market benchmarks in terms of average price and risk. Finally, there is little evidence that advisory programs with superior performance can be usefully selected based on past performance in the hog market.Marketing,

DO AGRICULTURAL MARKET ADVISORY SERVICES BEAT THE MARKET? EVIDENCE FROM THE WHEAT MARKET OVER 1995-1998

The purpose of this report is to address two basic performance questions for market advisory services in wheat: 1) Do market advisory services, on average, outperform an appropriate market benchmark? and 2) Do market advisory services exhibit persistence in their performance from year-to-year? Data on wheat net price received for advisory services, as reported by the AgMAS Project, are available for the 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 crop years. Not only do market advisory programs in wheat consistently fail to "beat the market," their performance is significantly worse than the market. On average, market advisory service performance is about $14 per acre below benchmark revenue, an economically non-trivial amount by any reasonable standard. The predictability results provide little evidence that future advisory service pricing performance can be predicted from past performance.Marketing,

Innovative Activities of Agricultural Consultative Networks as a Factor in Strengthening the Economy of Rural Areas of Ukraine

The article highlights the scientific substantiation of perspective ways of innovative development of national agricultural advisory services in the context of stimulating economic development in rural areas of Ukraine in the conditions of decentralization of power. The study allowed to establish the existing imbalance in the ratio of the main types of agricultural enterprises and agricultural service cooperatives, falling on one advisory service, as well as to determine the causes of significant imbalances in the regional context, the determination of which offers a number of key innovation priorities, activating the integration of education, research, marketing, economic and financial, consulting and other services necessary to provide a complete infrastructure of the economy of rural areas with the potential of basic institutions of NAAS and MES