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The purpose of this paper is to assess the impacts on production of five fruit crops from 1961 to 2018 of energy use, CO₂ emissions, farming areas and the labor force in China.

This analysis applied the autoregressive distributed lag-bound testing (ARDL) approach, Granger causality method and Johansen co-integration test to predict long-term co-integration and relation between variables. Four machine learning methods are used for prediction of the accuracy of climate effect on fruit production.

The Johansen test findings have shown that the fruit crop growth, energy use, CO₂ emissions, harvested land and labor force have a long-term co-integration relation. The outcome of the long-term use of CO₂ emission and rural population has a negative influence on fruit crops. The energy consumption, harvested area, total fruit yield and agriculture labor force have a positive influence on six fruit crops. The long-run relationships reveal that a 1% increase in rural population and CO₂ will decrease fruit crop production by −0.59 and −1.97. The energy consumption, fruit harvested area, total fruit yield and agriculture labor force will increase fruit crop production by 0.17%, 1.52%, 1.80% and 4.33%, respectively. Furthermore, uni-directional causality is correlated with the growth of fruit crops and energy consumption. Also, the results indicate that the bi-directional causality impact varies from CO₂ emissions to agricultural areas to fruit crops.

This study also fills the literature gap in implementing ARDL for agricultural fruits of China, used machine learning methods to examine the impact of climate change and to explore this important issue.

In Nepal, crop insurance is at initial phase. However, since its implementation seven years ago, the adoption rate has been fairly low even with the government's lucrative subsidy on premium. There have been very limited studies on specifics of insurance for different crops, and farmer's acceptability on insurance. This study examines WTP for tree-based insurance, a potential insurance scheme on fruit crops in hilly areas of Nepal.

The authors used a contingent valuation method to estimate farmer's willingness to pay (WTP) premium for insurance. They used a double-bounded dichotomous choice (DBDC) framework to elicit WTP and an interval regression method to estimate the WTP model.

The authors found that the farmers revealed WTP for tree-based insurance is three times higher than the premium they would pay under government's current subsidy plans of insurance. The authors’ result from interval regression also suggests that the factors such as farm size, farmer's adverse experience about invasive pest and weather, awareness of crop insurance, farming experience, and family involvement in agriculture significantly influence farmers' WTP.

A distinct modality of insurance, like tree-based insurance for fruit crops in mid and high hill areas, may enhance the adoption rate rather than a broad area-based plan generalized for all crops.

Only a few studies have examined specifics of insurance in fruit crop insurance in developing countries. The authors’ estimated WTP factors influencing WTP on citrus fruit-crop insurance in Nepal indicates that there is a scope for extending this insurance program. However, the authors also found that there is a gap in understanding of crop insurance and have limited awareness on the government's subsidy programs among farmers.

Malnutrition is widespread and affects about one-third of humanity. Increasing production and consumption of vegetables is an obvious pathway to improve dietary diversity, nutrition and health. This chapter analyses how climate change is affecting vegetable production, with a special focus on the spread of insect pests and diseases. A thorough literature review was undertaken to assess current global vegetable production, the factors that affect the spread of diseases and insect pests, the implications caused by climate change, and how some of these constraints can be overcome. This study found that climate change combined with globalization, increased human mobility, and pathogen and vector evolution has increased the spread of invasive plant pathogens and other species with high fertility and dispersal. The ability to transfer genes from wild relatives into cultivated elite varieties accelerates the development of novel vegetable varieties. World Vegetable Center breeders have embarked on breeding for multiple disease resistance against a few important pathogens of global relevance and with large evolutionary potential, such as chili anthracnose and tomato bacterial wilt. The practical implications of this are that agronomic practices that enhance microbial diversity may suppress emerging plant pathogens through biological control. Grafting can effectively control soil-borne diseases and overcome abiotic stress. Biopesticides and natural enemies either alone or in combination can play a significant role in sustainable pathogen and insect pest management in vegetable production system. This chapter highlights the importance of integrated disease and pest management and the use of diverse production systems for enhanced resilience and sustainability of highly vulnerable, uniform cropping systems.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of what motivates farmers to participate in inter-organizational relationships with farm product buyers. Interest in inter-organizational relationships in the Ghanaian agri-food sector has been stimulated in recent years by policies seeking to reduce farmers’ market risks while improving buyers’ access to commodity inputs. The decision of how to sell farm produce is an economic imperative for the farmer; therefore, the coexistence of spot markets and inter-organizational relationships suggests that the farmers who use them must be having some gains from them.

This study employed binary logit regression using both qualitative and quantitative data and the transactions cost theory to understand the Ghanaian farmers’ motivation for participating in inter-organizational relationships.

This study found that a farmer having better information regarding product buyers’ needs was an important motivator for participation. The farmers’ certainty about the price they would get and the quantity they would sell were also major factors that motivated farmers’ participation. Again, the motivation to engage in inter-organizational relationships with processors was also influenced by the nature of the crop. Fruit farmers, for example, were 3.7 times more likely to participate in these relationships than non-fruit farmers.

This study considered analysis at the farmer level. However, some farmers produced multiple crops. This means that the farmers who participate in inter-organizational relations with buyers for one crop enterprise may be nonparticipant with the other crop(s). Future studies could target analysis at the crop level while accounting for the associated transactions costs.

This study explores how a combination of transaction costs theory and the different crops that farmers produce explains farmers’ decision to participate in inter-organizational relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to determine which factors influence the choice to adopt subsidized multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) in the Netherlands and whether prior hail insurance uptake is one of the determinants of MPCI adoption. In addition, it is analyzed whether subsidized MPCI has reduced disaster relief spending.

Cross-sectional survey with 512 respondents using a stratified design comprising MPCI adopters and non-adopters sampled from the Dutch national census data base. The national census, including information on subsidized MPCI adoption from 2010 up to and including 2015, was supplemented with information on (prior) traditional market-based hail insurance uptake, and other underlying determining factors were elicited. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine which factors influence the choice to adopt MPCI.

Analysis of MPCI adoption reveals that subsidized MPCI mainly substituted for market-based hail insurance uptake up to now. Growers who did not insure against hail in the past were hardly reached. Approximately, three-quarter of MPCI adopters insured hail prior to market introduction of MPCI. In the arable sector, MPCI adoption was 2.89 (p<0.01) more likely for prior hail insurance adopters compared to non-adopters, while it was 9.67 (p<0.01) more likely in the fruit sector.

In the arable sector, it is expected that MPCI uptake in the coming years will reach more prior non-adopters of hail insurance as demand is expected to increase. Prior hail insurance adopters in the arable sector can be seen as the early MPCI adopters. In the fruit sector, adoption rates are already at a relative high level and a further significant increase by targeting non-adopters of hail insurance is not likely.

Governmental support has crowded out to some extend traditional market-based hail insurance in the Netherlands. Since the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union is creating more momentum to subsidize crop insurance more member states with a long history of a mature hail insurance market may be confronted with similar crowding-out effects.

The purpose of this paper is to determine compatibility groups of different fruits and vegetables that can be stored and transported together based upon their requirements for temperature, relative humidity, odour and ethylene production. Pre-cooling which is necessary to prepare the commodity for subsequent shipping and safe storage is also discussed.

The methodology used in this journal is an attempt to form clusters/groups of storing together 43 identified fruits and vegetables based on four important parameters, namely, temperature, relative humidity, odour and ethylene production. An agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm is used to build a cluster hierarchy that is commonly displayed as a tree diagram called dendrogram. The same is further analyzed using K-means clustering to find clusters of comparable spatial extent. The results obtained from the analytics are compared with the available data of grouping fruits and vegetables.

This study investigates the usefulness and efficacy of the proposed clustering approach for storage and transportation of different fruits and vegetables that will eventually save huge investment made in terms of developing infrastructure components and energy consumption. This will enable the investors to adopt it for using the space more effectively and also reducing food wastage.

Due to limited research and development (R&D) data pertaining to storage parameters of different fruits and vegetables on the basis of temperature, relative humidity, ethylene production/sensitivity, odour and pre-cooling, information from different available sources have been utilized. India needs to develop its own crop specific R&D data, since the conditions for soil, water and environment vary when compared to other countries. Due to the limited availability of the research data, various multi-criteria approaches used in other areas have been applied to this paper. Future studies might be interested in considering other relevant variables depending upon R&D and data availability.

With the increase in population, the demand for food is also increasing. To meet such growing demand and provide quality and nutritional food, it is important to have a clear methodology in terms of compatibility grouping for utilizing the available storage space for multi-commodity produce and during transportation. The methodology used shall enable the practitioners to understand the importance of temperature, humidity, odour and ethylene sensitivity for storage and transportation of perishables.

This approach shall be useful for decision making by farmers, Farmer Producer Organization, cold-storage owners, practicing managers, policy makers and researchers in the areas of cold-chain management and will provide an opportunity to use the available space in the cold storage for storing different fruits and vegetables, thereby facilitating optimum use of infrastructure and resources. This will enable the investors to utilize the space more effectively and also reduce food wastage. It shall also facilitate organizations to manage their logistic activities to gain competitive advantage.

The proposed model would help decision makers to resolve the issues related to the selection of storing different perishable commodities together. From the secondary research, not much research papers have been found where such a multi-criteria clustering approach has been applied for the storage of fruits and vegetables incorporating four important parameters relevant for storage and transportation.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how Argentina has successfully developed a non-traditional export business such as blueberry, explain the causes of the most recent competitive crisis and analyze the emerging public–private strategies as a response.

The unit of analysis of this study is the blueberry agro-system which is a complex network of backward, forward and lateral linkages with specialized buyers, suppliers, institutions and other economic agents. Considering the qualitative and relational nature of the dimensions studied, a case study methodology was adopted. The data were collected from primary and secondary sources through in-depth interview techniques and documentary analysis. These techniques were complemented by the processing of quantitative information to enrich the analysis and put the case into a broader context.

The main finding of this study is that Argentina's export-oriented business model based on off-season high prices and scarcity of supply in the Northern Hemisphere markets must be revised and reformulated. This revision, already underway, was triggered by the Peruvian competition and is driven by the firm compromise of companies and chambers and in many cases has the backing of public bodies; this revision is an open-ended process in which the success of efforts to recreate profitability and competitiveness of the sector is not guaranteed.

The case study methodology implemented in the study implies that the main findings cannot be directly extrapolated to other fruits or crops. In fact, lessons and policy implications for other sectors should be conceived with caution. Another limitation is that the research relies on the perspectives of domestic stakeholders who have to respond and adapt to specific rules established by traders and supermarkets. The views and perspectives of these big companies, which manage a buyer-driven global value chain, could not be incorporated and is an area for further research.

The study uses the concept of temporal window to analyze the business opportunity for off-season fresh fruits exports. This concept is a key to understand both the development of a modern value chain in a South American country to market blueberries in the Northern Hemisphere and the crisis created by the emergence of new more competitive suppliers such as Peru. The main explanatory factors are historical, technological, institutional, firm-related and market.

Food and water safety is a major international concern. Among the food groups implicated with greater frequency in recent years as having caused or been associated with enteric diseases in humans are raw fruits and vegetables. Outbreaks of diseases caused by infectious and toxigenic bacteria as well as parasites and viruses have been documented to occur as a result of consumption of contaminated produce. This paper seeks to review the scientific literature reporting evidence to support the potential for preharvest contamination of fruits and vegetables intended to be eaten raw.

Sources of preharvest contamination of produce include manure, manure compost, sewage sludge, irrigation water, runoff water from livestock operations, and wild and domestic animals. Literature was reviewed to assess the conditions affecting survival of pathogenic microorganisms originating from these sources in preharvest environments and potential for contamination of produce before or at the time of harvest.

Prevention of preharvest contamination is essential to minimizing the risk of illness caused by consuming raw produce because postharvest treatment with sanitizers cannot be relied upon to eliminate pathogens.

A better understanding of the behaviour of pathogens in preharvest environments will enhance the prospect of developing effective strategies and interventions that will assure the delivery of safe produce to the consumer.

This paper aims to study Qard-al-Hasan (QH) (good loan) from the stand point of its possible application to agricultural farming with a view to augmenting the sources of Riba (interest)-free agricultural financing for Muslim farmers of Islamic countries like Pakistan.

This paper is a study of QH (good loan) from the stand point of its possible application to agricultural farming with a view to augmenting the sources of Riba (interest)-free agricultural financing for Muslim farmers of Islamic countries like Pakistan.

The study reports that Riba-free financing is essentially needed by poor Muslim farmers who, owing to prohibition of Riba, do not rely on interest (Riba)-based financing. The study also shows that QH is a viable option for fulfilling this need and is beneficial for the farmers as well as for the Islamic banks or financial institutions.

The case of QH as a potential mode of agricultural financing, as presented in this paper, is based on a theoretical or conceptual framework. The findings need to be further substantiated with empirical evidence. A future study, based on reliable empirical data would certainly add value to the subject.

Islamic banks and financial institutions typically rely on Musharakah (partnership), Murabaha (sale with profit), Ijarah (leasing), Salam (advance payment sale), Istisna’ (manufacturing contract), etc., and they rarely use QH as a mode of financing. Despite its huge utility, QH is practically non-existent in its application as an agricultural financing instrument. This paper presents a case for QH that can be adopted by Islamic banks or financial institutions for provision of the much needed financing for the small farmers of Islamic countries, as well as those living in non-Islamic countries.

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of the pandemic on sustainable agricultural practices (SAP) adoption such as: organic fertilizers, minimal use of tillage, crop rotation, soil burning and crop association in the frame of family farming systems in Ecuador.

The present research employed probit models' estimation with pooled data from 2018 to 2020. The study combined three sources of information with The Survey on Surface and Agricultural Continuous Production, as the main. This study also proposed the analysis of six regions: Coast, Coast Mountains, Northern Highlands, Central Highlands, Southern Highlands and the Amazon.

The authors see a lower adoption in the year 2020, where the pandemic was one of the causes. The only exception was the use of organic fertilizer. The adoption of these sustainable practices differed across the six regions. The findings also reveal that the employment generated by agricultural enterprises had a negative influence on the adoption of three sustainable practices, and that for the remaining practices the effect was positive.

The data set lacks information on the acceptance and the application of the practices promoted by agricultural technical assistance, which could provide insights into the effectiveness of the learning process. The limited observation period does not allow for investigating long-term effects on sustainable practices adoption.

This study helps to understand the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in the adoption of SAP. Additionally, this research can help with the scalability of the practices starting from the regions that are most likely to adopt each of them.