This research aims at assessing the extent to which the political rhetoric related to the role of cooperatives in agricultural development in Lebanon corresponds to the producers' own view of benefits and problems in their cooperatives. It explores the role and impacts attributed to producers' cooperatives in agriculture by the Lebanese government and development agencies. The thesis is based on text analysis and semi-structured interviews with the government, development agencies, directors and members of producers' cooperatives. Active cooperatives, identified as such by the Lebanese Directorate General of Cooperatives, were examined under five dimensions: initiation phase and progress, organisational structure, partnership and environment, services supply and participation, and problems and benefits. The investigation results are quantified through 22 components and 89 indicators. Special attention is given to differences between agricultural regions and agricultural sub-sectors, the impact of gender on cooperation, and membership practices at the producers' level. The findings reveal that the official rhetoric on the role of producers' cooperatives in inducing socio-economic development in Lebanon does not match the empirical reality of how the producers evaluate the benefits and challenges resulting from the cooperatives. Producers' cooperatives in Lebanon are tools of political influence and corruption, formally legalized under the cooperative law and occasionally sustained by development aid offered by development agencies. They are generally wasteful, failing to reduce the cost of production or to increase income. This research argues that under the Lebanese neoliberal environment, agricultural cooperatives did not carry adaptation, hybridization, or degeneration to increase their performance, but have instead wasted development aid, fostered corruption, and increased political control. Neoliberal post-war reconstruction and development policies in Lebanon have produced a weak cooperative sector with funding-dependent enterprises characterised by corruption and mismanagement.

The management and utilisation of resources in agroforestry systems are influenced by both land and tree tenure systems, especially where land and tree tenure are distinct, and rights to one do not necessarily lead to rights over the other. Most academic research has examined the impact of land tenure on management and productivity in these landscapes. This thesis investigates the impact of tree tenure alongside other socioeconomic factors through the research question: 'how do local institutional arrangements affect the management, utilisation and ecology of indigenous economic trees in agroforestry parklands?' Shea and locust bean trees, two of the most economically, culturally and ecologically important indigenous agroforestry species in Northern Ghana, are chosen for the case study. This multidisciplinary study utilises several methodologies of data collection and analysis to assess individual and household behaviour in the management of shea and locust bean trees, and the impact on the ecology of these species. The analysis of incentives (and constraints) stemming from differing tenure arrangements reveals differing attitudes among the households to the preservation and planting of these trees on their farmlands. Women, who are primary gatherers of non-timber products from these trees and hence the main beneficiaries, have differing access to these trees, depending both upon the status of their household within the community and the tenure rules in place. Econometric modelling of shea and locust bean tree densities reveals the socioeconomic and institutional determinants of these tree densities on the farmland, highlighting the importance of economic and institutional incentives and constraints in shaping the management practices, and subsequently the ecology of these indigenous economic species. The findings demonstrate that the vagaries of the resource-use dynamics should be taken into consideration by any policy targeted towards promoting sustainable management and utilisation of these valuable parkland species.

Scientific progress and developments in technology have improved our understanding of climate change and its potential impacts on smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the persistence of such smallholder farming systems, despite multiple exposures to climate hazards, demonstrates a capacity to respond or adapt, i.e. adaptive capacity. There is potential to gain useful insights from how smallholder farmers have mobilised their adaptive capacity to identify how they may adapt to future climate hazards. However, empirical studies that explore and link past and present experiences with future climate projections are lacking. Using smallholder farming systems in Uganda as a case study, this thesis addresses this gap. The thesis develops and applies a framework for understanding farming system adaptive capacity (FSAC) across different points in time. It uses a mixed-method, multi-level approach, combining a historical analysis of farming systems and adaptive capacity (1960-2012) with agricultural adaptations to 2030s’ rainfall projections. It integrates quantitative and qualitative data from household surveys, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews, using a systems approach. Bringing such elements together offers an opportunity to advance understanding of smallholder farming systems and adaptation in the context of climate changes. Findings provide insight into the dynamic nature of adaptive capacity and also enable the identification of factors that enable or constrain adaptive capacity at different levels. Over time, households that are able to maintain flexibility and diversity at the farm level are better able to respond to climate hazards. Current agricultural policy in Uganda supports specialization and intensification as market-oriented strategies, which can erode flexibility and diversity at both the farming system and individual farm level. This potentially undermines the ability of smallholder farming systems to adapt to future climate changes. Applying and advancing the FSAC framework demonstrates that a range of actors at different levels are found to make decisions that involve a number of trade-offs between components of adaptive capacity. Policies’ narrow focus on increasing productivity inadequately considers the multi-functionality of smallholder farming systems, and can undermine local-level institutions. Policies can also reduce the diversity and flexibility of smallholder farming, thus undermining adaptive capacity. Supporting a range of adaptation options provides one way to address this. This thesis suggests that there are overlaps between policy-driven and autonomous adaptations, and thus supports calls for critical reflection on the defining characteristics of autonomous adaptation. Adaptation planning also needs to be integrated into national level and sector policy making, and policies should help to support diversity and flexibility as well as productivity and foster inclusive institutions at the local level to reduce risks of fragmentation, conflict and inefficient policy and increase the risk of policy-driven maladaptations. Finally, this thesis supports calls for a critical rethink of the suitability of agricultural modernisation policies to support smallholder farming in the context of climate change and variability.

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This thesis explores several topics related to agricultural commodities. It is comprised of three empirical chapters: In Chapter 2, we show the validity of investing capital in fertilizer mining companies, both from a market return perspective for individual or institutional investors, and from a hedging standpoint for insurance companies and other economic actors exposed to inflation risk and high agricultural commodity prices. First, we explore the relationship between corn, wheat, and fertilizers, showing how price spikes in corn and wheat, followed by a price spike in fertilizers, made fertilizers visible to investors for the first time. We then analyse an exhaustive sample of listed fertilizer-mining companies and look at the sensitivities of their stocks to agricultural indexes and the fertilizer index in order to better explain the high returns they offered at the time of the first food crisis. Chapter 3 focuses on corn and wheat and is twofold. Firstly, we argue that the coefficient of variation and standard deviation of prices are more informative measures of uncertainty than the volatility of returns, since it is food prices and their “volatility” that matter for the survival of human beings. Secondly, we compare the quality of future price prediction provided by individual forward contracts with the geometric average of the forward curve introduced by Borovkova and Geman (2006).

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Using a comparative case study research design, the thesis examines the similarities and differences in farm wives' work on family owned and operated dairy and potato farms in New Brunswick, Canada. New Brunswick, Canada was selected as the research site because of the opportunity it provided to study two highly contrasting but comparable farm industries. Potato production is an intense and seasonal process, involving the planting, tending and harvesting of a field crop. Dairy farms are all-year operations involving animal husbandry and milk collection on a daily schedule. Potatoes are sold in 'open', uncertain markets; milk is sold in a 'closed' market protected and regulated in the provincial Milk Marketing Board. The differing labour demands, marketing arrangements and other conditions surrounding the production and sale of milk and potatoes made them ideal industries to study the effects of a farm's commodity on farm wives' work. The family, farm and work histories of fourteen farm wives on potato farms and sixteen farm wives on dairy farms were gathered, between November 1995 and September 1996, using an in-depth, open-ended interview format. What the farm sets out to produce effectively establishes its labour requirements, its work rhythms, as well as the marketing and pricing arrangements farm families will face. As a result, the farm's commodity provides the key for understanding the various ways farm wives' become 'incorporated' into their husband's work. Dairy farmers are not engaged in the same work as potato farmers even though both are called farmers and there are similarities in their work. It is not enough to study farm wives' work without ascertaining the particularities of being a dairy farmer's wife or a potato farmer's wife. At the same time both sectors must contend with agricultural restructuring, the cost-price squeeze and the economic uncertainties facing their rural communities. In examining the implications of this case study for future research on farm women's work, the thesis adds we must re-evaluate the spatial locations of work - household, on farm, off farm and community - and analytic dichotomies of work - productive and reproductive, paid and unpaid, direct and indirect - in order to better appreciate how farm wives contribute to family farming and how family farming contributes to farm wives' work.

This thesis looks at the economics of staples trade in the sub-Saharan region, verifying an economic model using data from the white maize markets of Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Both countries have reformed their grain marketing system in the recent past. In the early 1980s, the government was the main actor in the food distribution system, operating through large state-owned marketing boards. However, under pressure from international agencies, first Tanzania and then Zimbabwe, liberalised their food markets and the role of the private sector increased. The state has remained a player in the market and a mix between public and private marketing system has evolved. White maize is the main staple of both the countries and there is only one harvest, around April. The peculiar agroecology of the crop means that inter-regional trade has to be combined with storage to meet consumer needs. The economics of this food system is analysed using an optimal control framework. In a model of inter-regional trade where there is a single harvest at the start of the period and an external market which fixes a low buying and a high selling price, it is shown that trade is intermittent. In particular, regions would first source consumption from own stocks, then trade and finally purchase grain from the external market until the following years harvest. The model is first investigated using household survey data collected in 1994-95 from 356 households in Buhera Communal Area, Zimbabwe. The harvest was poor and private traders had, for the first time since liberalisation, established direct trade links between food deficit parts of Buhera and surplus neighbouring areas. Also, the analysis gives the first indication of the role of the state marketing agency, post-reform.

The scope of this study is the development of electronic market systems in agricultural products and fish. These systems allow buyers to bid remotely in auctions without attending, based on descriptions of the lots. The study draws upon evolutionary models of organisational change, social constructivist approaches to technology and network models of social structure to uncover the processes by which groups of sellers, buyers, existing intermediaries and technical experts build the electronic market systems and then use them. The research was based upon a survey of literature describing electronic market systems and empirical studies of the developers and users of electronic market systems in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Iceland, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. These studies were supplemented with telephone interviews with system users in the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands and the Republic of South Africa. From these studies, patterns shaping the development of electronic markets are identified. The hard technology of hardware and software is shown to be unproblematic relative to the social barriers of gaining acceptance within a trading community. The first social barrier faced in the transition from live to remote markets is the specification of a system for describing the lots for sale. While the justifications for electronic markets stressed the opportunity to restructure agricultural supply, introduce improved price discovery mechanisms and create markets covering larger areas than live markets, the history of electronic markets shows that markets building upon existing social structures are more successful. By enrolling existing intermediates and simulating the practices of the live market they are able to exploit the trust and expertise embedded in existing social relationships. The case studies lead to a questioning of the dominant view of electronic commerce - that the technical feasibility of trading electronically and its apparent efficiency advantages over conventional trade make its introduction inevitable. Instead, the limited success of electronic markets in agricultural products suggest that the barriers to the formation of electronic markets are greater than an economic analysis would suggest and that the social impacts of electronic markets are less extensive than expected.