Search results

China's agricultural sector has developed very rapidly in the past 30 years and agricultural technological progress is deemed one of the most substantial factors leading to its rapid agricultural GDP growth. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impacts of China's agricultural technological changes on its regional disparity.

The study uses a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of multiple regions and multiple sectors to investigate the impacts of agricultural technological changes on regional disparity. The CGE model structure includes production side, demand side, and market clearing conditions.

The results suggest that agricultural technological changes significantly reduced China's agricultural regional disparity and accounted for 40 percent reduction in agricultural regional disparity in terms of agricultural GDP per capita. Agricultural technological changes, however, led to an increase in China's overall regional disparity and accounted for 6 percent increase in its overall regional disparity in terms of per capita GDP.

China's GDP has been growing very rapidly since 1978 and agricultural GDP has been playing a decreasing role in China's overall GDP. Regional disparity in non‐agricultural GDP per capita overweighted the equalization of agricultural GDP per capita. The results imply that the Chinese government should resort more to non‐agricultural development to fight against the enlarging regional disparity.

China's agricultural technological changes have led to an increase in China's overall regional disparity while the changes have significantly reduced China's agricultural regional disparity.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse aspects of technological change in rice agriculture, related to adoption of the Green Revolution (GR) in Indonesia. Rice production is selected in this study because it plays an important role in the development of Indonesian economy. Particular attention is paid to the use of agrochemicals that has potentials of contaminating the environment.

The paper uses an econometric model to investigate the impact of different technologies and policies related to rice production. Production function technology that enables non-neutrality of input use is the underlying concept of this paper. Types of land and transformation in policies related to rice production were accounted for to determine biased technological change. National-wide data were compiled from the Indonesian Bureau of Statistics.

The results show that rice agriculture underwent technological progress with biased technological change. The technological change was capital- and labour-saving, and agrochemical-augmenting. Production system in wetland led to technological change less capital- and labour-intensive, whilst the GR led to technological change more labour-saving and more agrochemical-augmenting.

This study only pays attention to environmentally detrimental inputs as a cause of externalities. This is a not full representation of real environmental consequences. In some studies on environmental degradation associated with intensive agricultural practices, however, there are other factors that can degrade the environment, such as soil erosion and soil compaction resulting from certain agricultural practices, and deforestation resulting from agricultural expansion. These are also important environmental impacts. The author expects that these factors are interesting and challenging subjects to be modelled in future research on sustainability of agricultural productivity growth, both theoretically and empirically.

Increase in use of agrochemicals was strongly GR linked. Moving from the GR towards more environmentally friendly policy was a wise step to reach sustainable rice production. After the GR, an act that removed pesticide subsidies and disseminated environmentally friendly technology, called integrated pest management was able to reduce the intensity of agrochemical use in rice agriculture. Further actions to support environmentally friendly policy could be the use of bio-agents such as bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides. Enhancing farmers’ knowledge on the environmental issues and engaging farmers as a part of agro-ecosystem would synergise the actions.

This study uses the concept of biased technological change, estimated econometrically using national-level data. The production function used in this analysis enables non-neutrality of agrochemical use. When the result significantly shows the agrochemical-augmenting technological change, it is a convincing evidence, not just by accident, that the GR really led to environmental problem.

By discussing the spatial spillover effect and regional heterogeneity of digital economy and green agricultural development level, this paper aims to provide countermeasures and suggestions for the better development of green agriculture in the contemporary era when digital economy is universally developed and at the same time provide development suggestions suitable for green agriculture's development characteristics and initial conditions for different regions.

This paper discusses the theoretical foundation of the digital economy and green agriculture development and utilizes panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2018. By employing the Super-Efficiency Slack-based Measure and Malmquist-Luenberger (SBM-ML) model based on unexpected output to measure the total factor productivity of green agriculture and employing the spatial panel Durbin model to empirically test the spatiotemporal effects of the digital economy on green agriculture development from both temporal and spatial dimensions. Finally, the model is tested for robustness as well as heterogeneity.

The research findings are as follows: First, from the perspective of time effect, digital economy has a continuous driving effect on the development of green agriculture and with the passage of time, this effect becomes more and more prominent; second, from the perspective of spatial effect, digital economy has a significant positive impact on the development of local green agriculture, while digital economy has a significant negative impact on the development of surrounding green agriculture. Finally, the impact of digital economy on the development of green agriculture shows significant differences in different dimensions and regions.

As an important driver of economic growth, the digital economy has injected new impetus into agricultural and rural development. Along with the intensifying environmental pollution problems, how to influence the green development of agriculture through the digital economy is a proposition worthy of attention nowadays. This paper analyzes the relationship between the digital economy and agricultural green development in multiple dimensions by exploring the temporal and spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on agricultural green development, as well as the heterogeneity in different dimensions and in different regions and derives policy insights accordingly in order to improve relevant policies.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the determination of China's agricultural foreign trade pattern since the World Trade Organization (WTO) accession.

The neoclassical trade theory indicates that differences in both technology levels and factor endowments can explain the international trade pattern. In terms of a neoclassical framework based on the restricted profit function, this paper employs the province‐level panel data to investigate whether China's agricultural foreign trade pattern is consistent with the neoclassical explanation.

The findings indicate that China's agricultural foreign trade pattern is evidently characterized by regional specific features. In the eastern region, agricultural foreign trade pattern is jointly determined by differences in technology levels and factor endowments. Agricultural foreign trade patterns are driven in the central and western regions by land and capital endowments, respectively. The findings also imply that the utilization of comparative advantage in China's agriculture needs to be exploited further.

As far as the author knows, this paper is the first to apply the neoclassical framework based on the restricted profit function and employ the province‐level panel data to investigate the determination of China's agricultural foreign trade pattern.

The purpose of this paper is to show the impact of digital agriculture on food supply chain, research trend, emphasis and implications for future research.

The paper analyzes how the digital technology reshapes the production, assembly, transaction, retail and logistics. Impact from each main technological progress is discussed.

First, digital agriculture develops quickly and changes all parts of the food supply chain. Second, while many technological progresses show their impacts in agriculture and food sector, e-commerce and progress of artificial intelligence show its comprehensive impact on the argi-food sector.

The paper shows the technological trend and progress in food and agriculture sector. Researchers focusing on agricultural economics and agribusiness should pay attention to recent developments in the real world, know the recent developments from other disciplines, get more data for empirical research and show the impact of digital agriculture on consumer's preference and social welfare.

The case illustrates how environmental forces affect an industry’s profitability. PESTEL and five forces analyses can be used to examine the retail agricultural equipment industry.

Single case study.

Jonathan Sullivan has a decision to make. His company is struggling due to difficult industry conditions. He is questioning if the company can continue to survive. MEC is an agricultural equipment dealer. The industry has experienced boom-and-bust periods since the company was founded. But the current downturn seems different. The past five years have been difficult as manufacturers have changed their dealership practices. Jonathan has struggled with some of the new practices the manufacturers have implemented. These new practices could negatively impact the company’s ability to survive. Jonathan wonders, “What is the best path forward for the business?”

The case is designed to be used in an undergraduate strategic management course.

There is growing interest from the global development community in the role of agricultural research and extension (AR & E) systems to achieve development targets. Despite this interest, many smallholders in developing countries continue to lack access to updated agricultural information and reliable services. In an effort to increase the effectiveness, impact, and reach of AR & E programs, many governments have attempted to reform their national systems. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper systematically compares the systems and reforms of AR & E in China and India in order to draw out lessons applicable to developing countries. This paper first reviews the existing literature on AR & E systems and their role in agricultural and economic development. The authors then provide a detailed review and comparative analysis of the reforms and approaches implemented in the AR & E systems of China and India. The authors apply this comparative analysis to draw out lessons that can be applied to inform the reformation of AR & E systems in developing countries.

The authors find that although both countries face similar agricultural development challenges, each took a different approach in the reformation of AR & E to address these challenges. Each country’s approaches had different impacts on the effectiveness of the system. Lessons from the reformation of the AR & E systems in China and India can be used to inform and improve the impact of AR & E in developing countries.

The paper examines two systems together using a set of common indicators and factors. The paper’s value comes from its usefulness in informing future AR & E reforms in other developing countries in order to increase the impact of these reforms on development outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of agricultural credit on technical efficiency of Ghanaian maize farmers using a unique dataset drawn from the database of Sub-Saharan Africa’s intensification of food crops agriculture (Afrint II) in 2008 period.

In this study, a two-stage estimation procedure is employed to determine impact of agricultural credit on technical efficiency of Ghanaian maize farmers. The first stage utilized probit model while the second stage utilized stochastic frontier approach to estimate impact of credit on technical efficiency of Ghanaian maize farmers.

The study found that farmers are producing below the frontier with average technical efficiency of 47 percent. Policy variables such as credit access; education, extension access and farm size played a stronger role in technical efficiency. Agricultural credit in particular increased technical efficiency by 3.8 percent.

The results should not be extended to the impact of agricultural credit on economic efficiency since the allocative efficiency component is not considered in this study. Also, caution should be taken in the interpretation of these results because the data could not permit the incorporation of all variables that might affect technical efficiency.

The originality of the paper and its contribution to existing literature largely lies from the use of a unique dataset to find evidence of the impact of credit on efficiency in Ghana.

The application of modern biotechnology to crop and food production is one of the most significant technological advances to impact modern agriculture. Barely a dozen years since their introduction, genetically modified (GM) crops are currently grown on more than 300 million acres worldwide. GM (or transgenic) crops are produced using plant biotechnology to select desirable characteristics in plants and transfer genes from one organism to another. As a result, crops can survive under harsher conditions, costs are lowered, and yields are improved. Scientists are introducing genes into plants that will give the plants resistance to herbicides, insects, disease, drought, and salt in the soil. Crop research in bioengineering is also aimed at improving the nutritional quality of food, such as providing healthier vegetable oils. Pharmaceutical and industrial crops (or “pharma” crops) are also on the horizon, with the potential to dramatically reduce drug production costs. Compared to traditional plant breeding, biotechnology can produce new varieties of plants more quickly and efficiently, and it can introduce desirable traits into plants that could not be established through conventional plant breeding techniques.

The purpose of this paper is to set the stage for the proceeding articles with background of the impressive yet incomplete progress made in eliminating hunger and malnutrition in China and India.

The paper provides background of the progress and challenges to achieving food security and nutrition in China and India. It then highlights the lessons learned from this special issue, and concludes with remaining knowledge gaps.

The paper summarizes findings from each article in the special issue.

Comparing the experiences of these two countries is essential to share knowledge and accelerate progress in eliminating poverty, hunger, and malnutrition both within these countries and globally.