Exploring Mechanisms for Putting Agriculture Value Chain Oriented Research into Use： Empirical Cases from the Research into Use （RlU） Program

Innovation systems principles are increasingly applied for putting agricultural research into use. This paper presents and analyses three such initiatives located in South Asia, with an aim to generate empirical evidence about practical aspects of the innovation process. These cases seem to suggest that the initial stages of innovation trajectory comprise of social engineering and creation of appropriate architecture of actors, after which need for new knowledge arises and favourable conditions develop for putting such knowledge into use. The cases also present how different types of agencies assume lead roles during different stages of innovation trajectory. The paper urges authorities from policy and practice to consider status of social architecture and the fact that different types of agencies play lead role in the innovation process before planning agricultural innovation initiatives.

The evolution analysis of agricultural global value chains

With the Uruguay Round bringing agricultural trade into multilateral regulation,the major countries have actively participated in agricultural global value chains(AGVC)and occupied an important position according to their comparative advantages.Utilizing bilateral agricultural trade data of 66 countries based on the OECD Inter-Country-Input-Output Tables(OECD ICIO)from 2010 to 2018,this study applies social network analysis indicators to measure each country’s eigenvector centrality within AGVC and to examine the current global agricultural trade patterns,with particular attention to the changes in the status of world powers within AGVC.The main findings are as follows:first,with the multilateral and regional trade liberalization,growing numbers of developing nations,including China and India,are engaging in international agricultural trade,which contributes to its diversification;second,as AGVC develops,the structure of global agricultural trade networks has become more decentralized and balanced.This is evidenced by the emergence of additional central nodes,and large nations like the United States,which formerly held the most central position as indicated by a drop in its centrality,are becoming less dominant.

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.

Association between Agricultural Production Value and the Use of Rural Area within the Municipalities in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Rural economic development can differ intensely among municipalities within the same region. The economic activity disparity among them makes public policy actions difficult. It is possible to find highly efficient and globally competitive producers, as well as those producing for subsistence, in the same area. This disparity stands out the total productivity importance of the factors of production in the agricultural sector, especially the productivity of the land. The way the land is occupied in the rural area, namely crops, pastures, reforestation and other areas, can be indicative of the productivity of the land factor and the value of agricultural production. The products that compose the value of the agricultural production present different land occupation through their own productive characteristic. The main objective of this work was to measure the association between the production value of groups of agricultural products and the diversified uses of the rural area in the production of the municipalities in the state of Sao Paulo. In this research, 52 agricultural products produced in 2008 were used, grouped in five production value variables and other nine variables of the land use in production of the municipalities in Sao Paulo. The multivariate statistical technique of canonical correlation was used to measure the association between the product variables group of the production value with the land use group in agricultural activities. It was concluded that there is a strong correlation （94.3%） in the first pair of canonical variables, representing the production value and the land use, allowing groups of municipalities to be formed at different stages of development in agricultural production. It can be verified that 61.8% of the municipalities in the state were below the average in the production group and land use and that only 4.8% were above average for the production variables group and with values below the average in land use. The stages of agricultural development in the municipalities of Sao Paulo and the association between the production and use of the area can contribute to identify the direction of public policies to increase the productivity of the agricultural sector.

An Analysis on the Ecological Value and Contribution of Agriculture in Tianjin City

Agriculture has both economic value and non-economic value. The calculation of the non-economic value of agriculture has become a research hotspot in academic circles. This paper divides the value of agriculture into products production value and ecological value, and adopts an authoritative ecological value calculation idea, i.e. the method proposed by Costanza et al. in 1997 as the basis to calculate the ecological value of agriculture. However, the study has come under heavy criticism：for example, some data have major deviation, underestimating the ecological value of cultivated land while overestimating the wetland. XIE Gaodi et al. in 2003 came up with more reliable results to make up for the deifciency of the methods from Costanza et al. Referring to some of the results and on the basis of a questionnaire survey to 200 Chinese ecologists, this paper presented an equivalent factor table for evaluating the ecological service value （ESV） of China’s ecosystem. Based on this table and the practical situation of Tianjin, the paper formulates an applicable calculation method for ecological value and actual y calculates the ecological value of agriculture in Tianjin with ofifcial statistics. The results show that the actual value of the ecological value of agriculture in Tianjin in 2012 was 111.20 bil ion CNY, about triple of the economic value of agriculture （37.56 bil ion CNY） in the same year.

Research on Agricultural Economic Development under the Background of Urbanization

Agriculture is the basic industry of China and the support of all other industries. In order to clarify the impact of urbanization on China＇s agriculture, a cointegration test was conducted between the urbanization rate and the total agricultural output value in China during the past 30 years of 1986-2015. The results showed that the development of urbanization and agricultural economy had no severe effect on weakening the agricultural economy in China, while on the contrary, there was a long-term equilibrium relationship between the two, which was only limited to a certain range, and in the future high development of urbanization of China, the development of agricultural economy would face great challenges. Therefore, China should specify cultivated land use, strengthen the supervision standard of land circulation; increase investment in science and technology, improve the efficiency of agricultural output; optimize financial support for agriculture, enhance the enthusiasm of farmers; cultivate new agricultural operators, promote the process of agricultural industrialization, so as to form economies of scale and explore a new road of urbanization which is not at the expense of the cost of agricultural economy.