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The factors which influence costs of production of food and the prices to the consumer have changed dramatically during this century, but especially since the establishment of trading systems all over the world. Gone are the days when the simple expedients of supply and demand alone governed the situation. The erosion of these principles began at the turn of the century, mainly as a result of the introduction by the rapidly developing industrial power of the USA to protect her own industries against the cheaper products of European countries. They introduced the system of tariffs on imported manufactured goods; it grew and eventually was made to apply to wide sectors of industry. European countries retaliated but the free trade policy of Britain's Liberal government was making the country a dumping ground for all other country's cheap products and surpluses.

The Common Agricultural Policy has tried to address a host of issues including security of food supply, stable prices for farmers and consumers, preservation of the environment and maintenance of links with the rest of the European economy. In 1984, the EC was forced to take steps to curtail surplus milk production which its policies had initially encouraged. Milk quotas were introduced. However, as with many CAP instruments, the outcome of policy implementation has been the opposite to that which was expected. The overall effect has been to discourage production efficiency and the development of any kind of competitive edge. The limitations of quotas are leading to industry polarization, with large producers getting larger at one end, and increasing numbers of smaller producers, unable to achieve the scale to survive, at the other. Suggests that whatever new or revised national or EC policy measures are introduced, price will ultimately control the fortunes of the dairy sector – whether or not quotas remain a tool to control supply. Concludes by asking whether the sale of milk has changed from an agricultural issue to a social one, as increasing numbers of small farmers require income support as a direct result of the quota scheme. Should quotas continue or should a completely new strategy be devised to promote an industry able to compete favourably with producers on a global scale in the future?

Purpose – This chapter discusses farmers' and policy responses to global shocks, specifically in terms of soaring prices for agricultural products in 2007. We discuss whether these shocks influenced Norwegian agricultural policy and Norwegian farmers perceptions of their situation.

Design/methodology/approach – As a background, we review trends in agricultural policy post-World War II both globally and in Norway, including empirical evidence for the changing global situation of agriculture. This chapter also analyses farmers' perceptions of their situation from 2002 to 2010 in light of these changing reality and policy response.

Findings – One immediate effect of increasing food prices was increasing incomes for food exporters and food exporting countries, an increase which also trickled down to the producers. Simultaneously, production costs rose as many input-factors became more expensive. In Norway, we saw the emergence of more optimism among farmers, more willingness to invest in farming (as opposed to a focus on cost reduction), and clear signs of a ‘repositioned productivism’.

Originality/value – In this chapter, we present an analysis of the relationship between global events, agricultural restructuring and local responses. The chapter also discusses the case of productivism along the lines drawn by Burton and Wilson (this volume), and argues that in the Norwegian system we can indeed see traces of an emerging ‘repositioned productivism’.

Intellectual property right constitutes play a forceful role to promote economic growth and create a fortune. However, it is not yet clear to what extent the agricultural intellectual property rights represented by geographical indications of agricultural products (AGIs) can affect the development of regional economy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze this impact and its mechanism as well as to draw policy implications from this empirical analysis.

Using county-level panel data from 2006 to 2020, this paper employed the difference-in-differences (DID) model.

The authors find that AGIs can significantly improve economic development at the county level. The AGIs can stimulate the flow of commercial and industrial capital to the countryside, thus fueling county-level economic development. Unlike AGIs for cereals and cash crops, AGIs for aquatic products and animal products cannot influence or have a negative impact on county-level economic. Compared with Eastern regions, the acquisition of AGIs in Western regions can more significantly boost county-level economic development. Therefore, AGIs can pronouncedly narrow down the gap of cross-county economic growth.

Conclusions of this paper can provide references for building the county-level countryside into a main ground of agricultural economic development and brand construction, continuously promoting the agricultural supply-front structural reform and boosting realization of all-around rural revitalization.

Total factor productivity (TFP) has become a prominent concept in agriculture economics and policy over the last three decades. The main aim of this paper is to obtain a detailed picture of the field via bibliometric analysis to identify research streams and future research agenda.

The data sample consists of 472 papers in several bibliometric exercises. Citation and collaboration structure analyses are employed to identify most important authors and journals and track the interconnections between main authors and institutions. Next, content analysis based on bibliographic coupling is conducted to identify main research streams in TFP.

Three research streams in agricultural TFP research were distinguished: TFP growth in developing countries in the context of policy reforms (1), TFP in the context of new challenges in agriculture (2) and finally, non-parametric TFP decomposition based on secondary data (3).

This research indicates agenda of future TFP research, in particular broadening the concept of TFP to the problems of policy, environment and technology in emerging countries. It provides description of the current state of the art in the agricultural TFP literature and can serve as a “guide” to the field.

The economic and social problems, including high unemployment, facing the Greek economy in recent years are substantial. The role of the agri-food sector and agriculture in dealing with unemployment is a concern. To support the agricultural economy, a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2007–2014 was adopted and implemented in the EU Member States. However, boosting employment, in the industry itself and indirectly in the economy, has almost never been a key goal of any policy. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the CAP 2014–2020 in maintaining and enhancing employment and income distribution in the region of Central Macedonia.

The authors used the regional social accounting matrix (SAM), which examines the depiction of the interconnections between the sectors of economic activity and local economy (households, businesses, public) but also interconnections and transactions with the rest of the world. The SAM presents a more complete picture of the economic figures of the region, evaluating the interconnections of cross-sectoral relations and the implemented policies, both in the production sectors and in the regional society.

For the Central Macedonia region, the agricultural sector is a key player, holding a regulatory role for regional economic viability, and shows marked connections with the other industry branches of the region.

The new CAP 2014–2020 through Pillar 2–Rural Development may reinforce the new role of the industry in terms of the environment, integrated rural development and social structure of rural areas, ensuring coherence.

At the outset of this book, we argued that it was important that we study agricultural “policy regimes” rather than agricultural policy itself. Our reasoning was that our interest lies in the actual outcomes in terms of farming practice, industry arrangements, global trade linkages, technology assemblages, and agroecological relationships in particular countries and regions. It is a convenient fiction that these practices and arrangements are the direct result of the formal agricultural policy arrangements in each specific country. In reality, the formal policy process in each country (including not only agriculture, but also, in some cases, rural, environmental, trade, and social development policy) can be argued to be in constant interaction with wider global politics, geographically specific environmental and cultural dynamics, prevailing farm practices, and new technologies. To recognize this full assembly of dynamics that coordinate to determine actual farm practice, we use the term “policy regimes.” In neoliberalized economies such as New Zealand, there is even a strong sense in which devolved governance at the industry and sector level now operates within these regimes in the same way that formal agricultural policy does in European countries.

This paper aims to assess the economic effects of climate change on the Mediterranean’s irrigated agriculture and how the adoption of alternative crop varieties adapted to the expected length of the growing season can be an effective adaptation measure.

A case study of two irrigation areas in Southern Portugal is used to assess the response to climate change impacts on crop yields and irrigation requirements, and an agricultural supply model is calibrated using a positive mathematical programming (PMP) approach was developed.

Climate change reduces crop yields and causes a slight decrease in irrigation requirements, which could allow an increase in the irrigated area. However, positive impacts on rural areas regarding employment and investment are not expected. The adoption of adaptation measures based on alternative crop varieties, which could maintain crop yields at current levels, increases dramatically the economic value of water and mitigates losses in farm income.

The impacts on output and input market prices, as well as other biophysical impacts (for instance, CO₂ and water availability), are important in understanding the effects of climate change on irrigated agriculture, but they were not considered in this study. While this may be a limitation, it can also be a stimulus for further research.

This is an empirical paper, whose results contribute to improving knowledge about the effects of climate change on irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean areas, namely, its economic impacts on returns and the use of agricultural resources (land, water, labour and capital). Other practical implications of the paper are associated with the methodological approach, which provides a framework able to deal with the complexity and multidimensional effects of climate change.

The results of the paper provide important information for scientists, politicians and other stakeholders about the design of more effective adaptation measures able to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Crop yields and irrigation requirements were previously calculated based on data generated by the regional climate models. This is the first time that an application is developed for Portugal. Two distinct profiles of irrigation areas were studied and a large set of crops was considered, which is not common in the existing studies. To specify the PMP approach used to calibrate the agricultural supply model, exogenous crop-specific supply elasticities were estimated through a least square model, which is not common in previous studies.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the income sources of Italian farm tourism businesses, considering some economic, social and environmental variables that represent internal business factors and highlighting their contribution to the development of this income.

The empirical analysis is based on the Italian section of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) that includes 365 Italian farm tourism businesses. FADN is an instrument to assess the income of European agricultural holdings and the impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy. The analysis has been carried out through a Multivariate Regression Model.

The results of this paper have showed that some economic variables (food service, direct selling and public subsidies) determine an increase in farm income, whereas an increased number of family employees may have a negative impact on this income.

External factors, such as proximity to urban or cultural centres, may impact on agri-tourism income, but these are not considered in the statistical analyses. Another limit of this paper is the exclusion of tourists’ motivational variables and others mostly referring to the market (pricing policies, promotional strategies, etc.). Furthermore, this paper focuses on a specific country and this could reduce the generalization of its results.

Thanks to the selected regression drivers, farmers who offer tourism services could recognize a priori their entrepreneurial opportunities and understand the variables on which to focus to increase their income, which could be in turn strengthened by policies seeking to develop the endogenous potential.

Agri-tourism can fulfill various functions in the regional economy, with positive implications for the quality of life of rural societies.

On the European level, there is currently a lack of research studying the variables affecting agri-tourism revenue and entrepreneurial choice that mostly define profitability. This may be the first time that FADN data set has been utilized for researching farm tourism businesses in Europe.