A Quantile Regression Analysis of the Effect of Farmers’ Attitudes and Perceptions on Market Participation

The objective of this study is to investigate the subjective determinants of farmers’ participation in output markets in five EU New Member States (NMS) characterised by large semi-subsistence sectors. It employs quantile regression to model market participation reflecting the heterogeneity amongst farmers. The study also uses the Bayesian adaptive lasso to simultaneously select important covariates and estimate the corresponding quantile regression models. The empirical results show that only two variables affect all quantiles, while their effect varies across quantiles. Some of the remaining variables affect the share of output sold at the lower quantiles (i.e. for subsistence- and semi-subsistence-oriented farmers) only, whereas other variables are only significant at the upper quantiles (i.e. for more commercially oriented farms). Advisory services, and particularly agricultural business advice, and information and advice on markets and prices can facilitate the market participation of subsistence-oriented farms

CAP Direct Payments and Distributional Conflicts Over Rented Land within Corporate Farms in the New Member States

This paper aims to investigate whether distributional issues within corporate farms in the New Member States will be exacerbated by the introduction of the CAP direct payments. The paper focuses on the specific impact of the payments on the land rented to the corporate farms by private landowners. If the latter are not satisfied with the level of rent they receive, they have the option to end their rental contract and withdraw their land from the farm. Before the accession to the EU the landowners did not have strong incentives to withdraw, as the other available opportunities were not associated with higher returns on land ownership. However, this situation might change as the landowners can now cash the direct payments themselves, providing they keep their land in good agricultural and environmental condition. Propositions generated by a simple game, representing the negotiations between a corporate farm manager and an individual landowner about the level of the rent, suggests that the CAP direct payments might induce more rent renegotiations but that overall withdrawals will be infrequent. The results from a survey of landowners in corporate farms in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic seemed to corroborate these a priori expectations. The investigation of the determinants of landowners' intended behaviour showed that what seems to be important in the decision-making is the relationship between landowners and managers. Landowners who have frequent contacts and close relations with the farm are less likely to withdraw.CAP direct payments, corporate farms, distributional conflicts, game theory, landowners, Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Roles of Small and Semi-subsistence Farms in the EU

Small and semi-subsistence farms (SSFs) in the EU play a number of socio-economic roles. They maintain rural welfare, keep rural areas populated, contribute to the rural non-farm economy, and provide environmental public goods such as attractive landscapes. Particularly in the New Member States and in the poorer regions of the Southern EU-15, one of the most important roles of small and SSFs is supporting social and economic welfare, by acting as a ‘safety net’ for poor families. The disappearance of small and SSFs would often mean increased poverty, losses to the rural non-farm economy, and depopulation, especially in remote areas, and might result in environmental loss. Variation in the importance of small and SSFs across the rural areas in Europe and the complex reality in which small and SSFs are not the only suppliers of ‘joint products’, explain some of the difficulties of designing EU policy for small and SSFs. What appears to be clear is that small farms and SSFs do produce a range of public goods for which, arguably, compensation is justified, and the case for support on welfare grounds is strong. However, the ability of the Common Agricultural Policy budget and its mechanisms to provide effective compensation for the provision of public goods is a matter of some debate

Subsistence and Semi-subsistence Farming in Selected EU New Member States

Factor and cluster analysis are used to analyse the attitudes and perceptions of agricultural households in five EU New Member States towards farming, commercialisation, and barriers to and drivers for an increased integration in agricultural markets. The contribution of unsold output to the total household income is valued. A stepwise linear regression is employed to detect important variables explaining the degree of agricultural market integration of farm households. The analysis indicates that subsistence farming is of utmost importance for the rural poor, and particularly in Bulgaria and Romania. The proportion of consumption from own production, manual cultivation techniques and distance to an urban centre negatively affect output sales. Rural development policies targeted at rural physical and market infrastructure might relieve some of these constraints.agricultural households, subsistence, commercialisation, incomes, cluster analysis, stepwise regression, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Q12,

Impediments to Employment and Enterprise Diversification: Evidence from Small-Scale Farms in Poland

In an environment of low returns to agricultural activities and slow structural change, both employment and enterprise diversification have been presented as possible strategies for raising the incomes of farm households. This paper focuses on the barriers to taking up off-farm employment and establishing new non-agricultural enterprises. Factor and cluster analysis are applied to a data-set of individual farms in Poland in order to identify groups of households facing similar constraints and profile policy measures that are most likely to assist diversification. The majority of non-diversifiers are unlikely to become pluriactive in the near future due to a combination of age, a desire to concentrate on farming and remoteness. Farm households that are willing to diversify are characterised by the lowest agricultural incomes. For these households, a poor endowment of human and physical capital is a major constraint.Poland, diversification, off-farm employment, non-agricultural enterprises, cluster analysis, Industrial Organization, Labor and Human Capital, R0, Q12,

Non-Agricultural Diversification of Farm Households and Corporate Farms in Central Europe

Consumer/Household Economics, Farm Management,

AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT AND THE DIVERSIFICATION OF FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN CENTRAL EUROPE

Survey evidence from three Central European Countries (Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) is analysed to identify the degree of non-agricultural farm diversification and the factors facilitating or impeding it in individual farms. The effect of diversification on rural job creation is investigated. The results indicate that the level of diversification is relatively small and enterprise diversification by farmers is unlikely to generate sufficient new jobs and solve the problem of high rural unemployment. The attempt to transpose the Western European model of agricultural diversification to the acceding countries via the SAPARD programme is questionable, as non-farm centric rural policies appear to be more appropriate.Farm households, non-agricultural diversification, job creation, Central Europe, Consumer/Household Economics,

Socio-environmental relations of non-discrete spaces and architectures

The paper puts into the context of practical applications my case study research of responsive wood located in Czechia, being inspired by Norwegian and oriental traditional architecture. Approaching the field from a socio‐environmental perspective, the article relates human, social and biotic behaviour with climatic and geographical data, addressing interactions in the performance of architectures and its additional issues in urban design. The opportunistic activities, use or habitation of spaces and objects, meets its performance through environment – material and/or design interactions. The paper claims that, at least in observed climatic locations, semi‐interior, or so called non‐discrete architecture addressed by Hensel and others, are the grounds for and generators of individualistic and social activities in public and public‐private spaces, securing environmental comfort. In this time of increased weather extremes coming with climatic change in certain locations, noise, light pollution, etc., the topic is gaining greater relevance. Inspired by Library of Systemic Relations for GIGA‐mapping introduced by Sevaldson (Sevaldson, 2016c), the relationing of such in GIGA‐maps required its own coding or update and/or combination of the existing proposed library. The maps are expressing different ranges and intensities of behaviour or performance in relation to placement or designs that are represented by informational layers of images. Relating gradients within (Allen, 2011; Banham, 2009; Michael Hensel & Menges, 2009; Hight, 2009) and among the fields, thus generating a matrix of interlinked information where zooming, sequencing or feedback looping appears. This way somewhat develops the core ideas of Allen from 1997 on matrixes and fields (Allen, 2009). The three thematic GIGA‐ maps are in fact developed ZIP‐analyses (Sevaldson, 2016d) of each other, zooming a problem of the theme’s topic. The semi‐interior or non‐discrete spaces as a climatic, sound, etc. and biotic – including social gradient‐are complex interlinkings of outside and inside environments and have implications for activities and forms of life. Therefore, a systemic approach is needed to fully understand it

Environmental efficiency of small farms in selected EU NMS

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the environmental efficiency and farm commercialisation in selected EU NMS (Bulgaria, Romania and Poland). Using a cross- section of agricultural households, environmental technical efficiency scores are calculated using hyperbolic distance function approach. The results indicate there is a negative relation between the increase in commercialisation of small farms and the production of negative externalities, like nitrogen surplus.distance function, nitrogen surplus, market integration, stochastic frontier analysis, Community/Rural/Urban Development,