美国Agribusiness学科发展及对中国农经学科的借鉴

在文献研究基础上,对美国Agribusiness学科发展背景、研究内容、学科发展历程以及学科课程设置进行了全面回顾,结合中国农业产业发展状况,提出了未来中国Agribusiness学科发展方向和研究关注的重点。

A Study on Foreign Capital M&A of Agribusiness

After joining the WTO,Chinese government has gradually fulfilled various promises,such as cancellation of restrictions on foreign capital share ratio,and opening up of foreign investment areas. There are new changes in foreign merchants' direct investment in China,and it shifts from " green investment" featured by high risk and long period of return on investment to cross-border M&A. Since Coca-Cola failed to complete M&A of Huiyuan Juice in 2009,people have paid close attention to foreign capital M&A of domestic agribusiness. New changes and features appear in both scale and industrial areas,and M&A incidents have mushroomed in the industries of meat processing,wine,dairy and beverage,and the related industries have become the hot areas of cross-border M&A. Through the study of M&A incidents in China's agriculture-related areas in recent years,this paper aims to offer an overview of current foreign capital M&A of China's agribusiness in terms of scale and industry.

Evaluation on the Competitiveness of the Agribusiness with Plateau Characteristics in Yunnan Province Based on AHP

The development of agriculture with plateau characteristics is a market-oriented strategic choice,made by Yunnan Province,of agricultural economy with regional characteristics,on the basis of resources and location advantages,as well as geographical division of the national economy. The characteristic agribusiness is an important carrier for building a new agricultural management system with plateau characteristics,and also a key way to promote characteristic agricultural industrialization. In this paper,with 26 agribusinesses with plateau characteristics in Yunnan Province as samples,we establish the competitiveness evaluation system for the agribusiness with plateau characteristics,and use the operating data( 2012-2014) and AHP to calculate and the sample business competitiveness index and sort these businesses. Finally,we make a comprehensive analysis on the competitiveness of sample agribusinesses with plateau characteristics in Yunnan Province,in order to provide decision-making basis for promotion of the competitiveness of the agribusiness with plateau characteristics.

Creative Economy, Manufacturing Industry, and Agribusiness in the New Era of Globalization

The aim is to examine how the creative sectors and professionals contribute to the manufacturing industry and agribusiness in the new era of globalization.Creative sectors can develop innovations and experiences as part of their own activities,as well as procedures,technologies,and routines in business models,which increase the efficiency or the quality of the results.Creative professionals can support innovation and the generation of experiences.

A Company Presents Itself to the World

As we all know,environmental breakdown is rooted in capitalism’s quest for perpetual growth.According to O’Connor(quoted in Büscher et al 2010/2013,p.3)the“environmental crisis has given liberal capitalist society a new lease on life.”He continues:“Now,through purporting to take in hand the saving of the environment,capitalism invents a new legitimation for itself:the sustainable and rational use of nature”.“Those who hold the power and they are not all heads of state,see themselves as saviours of the world,and offer the population the opportunity of becoming their clients”is how John Berger has referred to such cognitive dissonance.Critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics are employed to scrutinize a powerful corporation’s website.This company produces and distributes food globally.The story it presents to the world maintains that it protects animal welfare,the environment and people,among other things,in all its operations.The language it employs on its corporate websites will be subjected to close analysis.

Strategic Agricultural Commodity Value Chains in Africa for Increased Food: The Regional Approach for Food Security

The challenge Africa faces the most is how to feed the 2.4 billion people in 2050. This will require a transformational agriculture. Africa doesn’t need subsistence agriculture, but rather agriculture linked to the market where market demand and the consuming habits are taken in consideration. Agriculture evolves in an environment where small holders are linked to markets (national and regional), where economies of complementarity and economies of scale are taken advantage of by producers and private sector. In short, Africa will need a paradigm shift to industrialise and commercialise its agriculture sector in order to increase food production, and income and to create jobs in and outside the sector. Africa needs agribusiness and agro-industries to domesticate the benefits of the sector, to create wealth in the sector and retain that wealth in the continent. Agricultural commodities regional value chains for increased food should be the target for Africa. The continent remains the region with the highest prevalence of under-nourishment. Since agriculture remains the mainstay of most African economies except the mineral producers, the sector deserves a close attention from leaders. It accounts for 65% of employment and 40% of Africa’s export earnings and accounts for 17% of the GDP. This shows how important the sector is. Agriculture needs to be seen as a conduit for farmers to get connected to markets, a conduit for revenue, for jobs and for transformation. Africa needs to come back on the international scene as food sufficient continent and even food exporter. This can be achieved only with a stable, productive agricultural resource base. Thus, achieving and sustaining food security and economic prosperity in Africa will require significant efforts to modernize the continent’s agriculture sector through injection of agribusiness and agro-industries and through the application of science and technology in agriculture. In essence, agriculture needs to be viewed as knowledge based entrepreneurial activity. Smart investments in agriculture will have multiplier effects for the whole economy and hence induce prosperity to other sectors. In recent years, a renewed focus on agriculture has been evident in policy and development agendas across the African continent. This paper outlines the status of agriculture, agribusiness and agro-industries in Africa, their role in the agenda of agricultural transformation and economic transformation and the focus on regional value chain to increase food production, transformation and trade. The paper adopts a new thinking in agriculture, which reflects a regional value chain approach. The author covers such issues as: need for agricultural transformation, the role of value chain in agricultural sector, the need for regional value chain for increased income and increased food, the role of markets and the common denominator of all, the regional integration to push forward the African agriculture agenda. Evidence shows that it is agricultural growth, through its leverage effects on the rest of the economy that typically enables poor countries, poor regions and ultimately poor households to take the first steps toward economic transformation. Therefore agricultural productivity, at the small holder’s level, has the potential to lift millions of Africa’s vulnerable out of poverty and provide sustainable jobs. Other factors, namely “the rapid urbanization” and “increased population growth”, are quoted to be of critical importance. Africa population is projected to double, attaining the 2.3 billion people mark over the next 40 years representing half of the globe’s total population. This could trigger competition for resources and can have devastating effects on natural resources if not rightly channelled.

Information Measures of Wages and Employment: Application to Senegal

This paper develops an information theoretic estimator of wage and employment shifts that provides quantification of and inference about type of employment (full time, part time, seasonal, unemployed) and industry share of employment. It is applied to determine the effects of two United States Agency for International Development (USAID) projects on employment in villages in the Tambacounda and Kedougou provinces in Senegal. The projects support the development of local forest-based production and processing industries. The results demonstrate statistically significant and positive effects on employment and the industry composition of employment.

GLIMPSE: Using Social Media to Identify the Barriers Facing Farmers’ Quest to Feed the World

The ubiquitous nature of social media in today’s world offers unparalleled insights into human thinking. When people write Facebook posts, blogs, Tweet, Instagram and WeChat they allow their real feelings and reflections to be exhibited, unvarnished and unfiltered. From this perspective the use of data analytical tools such as Wordle word association mapping and other tools can truly show through frequency of word used, word connections and consumer insights. The example of farming and food production is instructive. Five years ago a new acronym GLIMPSE in IFAMR was proposed to summarize the barriers faced by agriculture in its quest to feed the world. This was based on a Delphi analysis of 25 expert interviews. In order to confirm GLIMPSE, a larger research effort interviewed 57 experts, conducted an online survey with almost 600 experts and for the first time ever in this sector algorithms were applied to over 1.3 million qualified social media postings on the internet referring to the challenge of feeding a growing world population. This allowed the comparison to confirm the factors that most clearly depict the general public’s concerns with respect to food production and agriculture. The value for policy makers is clear. While international policy makers, governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, industry organizations, integrated food companies and farmers often struggle to explain to the general population the challenges of increasing food production of both large and small scale farming the social media analysis is unique and original in its ability to confirm the GLIMPSE framework as a manner to encompass the main challenges agriculture faces on its journey to feed over 9 billion people by 2050.

The assessment of climatic,environmental,and socioeconomic aspects of the Brazilian Cerrado

Background The Cerrado is the most biodiverse savanna and maintains other biomes.Aware of its significance,this paper evaluated the Brazilian Cerrado’s climatic,environmental,and socioeconomic aspects using remote sensing data and spatial statistics(correlation analysis and principal components analysis—PCA).Following the measures of sample adequacy(MSA)and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin(KMO)tests,seventeen variables were evaluated.Results The MSA revealed that the dataset had a good quality(0.76),and nine variables were selected:elevation,evapotranspiration,active fires,Human Development Index(HDI),land use and land cover(LULC;shrubland and cropland/rainfed),rainfall(spring and autumn),and livestock.The correlation matrix indicated a positive(negative)association between HDI and autumn rainfall(HDI and active fires)with a value of 0.77(-0.55).The PCA results determined which three principal components(PC)were adequate for extracting spatial patterns,accounting for 68.02%of the total variance with respective values of 38.59%,16.89%,and 12.5%.Due to economic development and agribusiness,Cerrado’s northern(central,western,and southern)areas had negative(positive)score HDI values,as shown in PC1.Climatic(rainfall—spring and fall)and environmental(cropland/rainfed and shrubland)aspects dominated the PC2,with negative scores in northern and western portions due to the transition zone between Amazon and Cerrado biomes caused by rainfall variability.On the other hand,environmental aspects(LULC-shrubland and elevation)influenced the PC3;areas with high altitudes(>500 m)received a higher score.Conclusion Agricultural expansion substantially affected LULC,leading to deforestation-caused suppression of native vegetation.