Under de senaste årtiondena har klimatförändringarna påverkat naturliga och mänskliga system världen över, och som en följd har extrema väderhändelser inträffat oftare och blivit mer intensiva. Många ekosystem och mänskliga system är både mycket sårbara och exponerade, däribland jordbruket. Klimatförändringarna innebär ökade risker för översvämningar och torka, behovet av växtskyddsåtgärder kommer öka, djur riskerar att drabbas av värmestress oftare, samt förändringar inom sjukdomsspridning och insektsinvasioner förväntas. Dessa förändringar kommer leda till ökad instabilitet som påverkar kvalitén och tillgången på mat, det kan förändra den sociala och ekonomiska stabiliteten, och den regionala konkurrenskraften inom jordbruket. Sverige drabbas årligen av översvämningar, och sommaren 2018 präglades av en torka som sträckte sig över stora delar av landet. De ovanligt torra och varma förhållandena varade i ca tre månader och orsakade en halvering av den normala skördenivån. Det blir samtidigt allt tydligare att samhällen måste gå från en reaktiv, oplanerad katastrofhantering till ett proaktivt fokus. Teorin om resiliens förklarar att socioekologiska system behöver ha en förmåga att absorbera störningar, kunna utvecklas genom lärande och anpassning, och att kunna hålla sig inom de mänskliga och miljömässiga gränserna och samtidigt uppnå en kontinuerlig utveckling. Syftet med studien är att få en fördjupad förståelse för hur jordbrukssektorn operationaliserar resiliens för att hantera extrema hydrologiska händelser. Detta ska uppnås genom att undersöka de strategier som införts för att hantera torka och översvämningar och analysera dessa med ”the Disaster Resilience Of Place” (DROP) modellen. Denna studie syftar även till att undersöka vilka förutsättningar som skapar möjligheter och hinder för aktörer inom jordbrukssektorn att bygga resiliens. Studiens metod är en kvalitativ fallstudie av Västra Götalands jordbrukssektor med ett abduktivt förhållningssätt. Genom ett kombinerat strategiskt urval och snöbollsurval har relevanta respondenter från länsstyrelsen, Lantbrukarnas riksförbund (LRF) och jordbruksföretag inkluderats i studien. Baserat på DROP-modellen utvecklades semi-strukturerade intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod, intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades med en kvalitativ textanalys. En triangulering genomfördes med en dokumentanalys för att stärka studiens validitet. Resultatet analyserades och diskuterades utifrån DROP-modellen. Resultatet visade att jordbrukssektorn operationaliserar resiliens med många olika strategier inom kommunikation och samarbete, lärande, förebyggande och förberedande, samt anpassning. Jordbrukssektorn visade en god anpassnings- och samarbetsförmåga, och vilja att arbeta proaktivt för att hantera vädervariationer. Viktiga förutsättningar för att bygga resiliens var de lokala förhållandena, tidigare erfarenheter, samt jordbrukspolitiska och ekonomiska strukturer. Resultatet visade att sociala system är komplexa och att strategier både kan bygga resiliens och öka sårbarheten. / Climate change have had an impact on natural and human systems worldwide over the last decades, causing higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Many ecosystems and human systems are both highly vulnerable and exposed, and agriculture is one of them. The climate change causes increased risks for droughts and floods, increased need for plant protection measures, heat stress among animals will likely increase, and changes in spread of disease and insect invasions are expected. These changes are expected to cause increased instability that impacts the quality and supply of food, it can change the social and economic stability, and the regional competitiveness within the agricultural sector. Floods occurs annually in Sweden and the drought of 2018 was an exceptional event that extended throughout most regions of the country. The unusual dry conditions lasted for about three months and caused decreased yields. It has become clearer that societies must go from a reactive, unplanned disaster management, towards a more proactive focus. The theory of resilience explains that socio-ecologic systems needs a capacity to absorb disturbances, be able to develop through learning and adaptation, and be able to keep itself within the human and natural boundaries and at the same time sustain a continuous development. The purpose of this study is to obtain a deepened understanding for how the agricultural sector operationalise resilience in order to manage extreme hydrological events. This will be accomplished by reviewing strategies implemented by the sector to handle droughts and floods and analyse these with the Disaster Resilience of Place (DROP) model. This study will also review the requisites that enables and hinders actors in the agricultural sector in Västra Götaland County to build resilience. The method is a qualitative case study of the agricultural sector in Västra Götaland County with an abductive approach. Relevant respondents from the county administrative board, LRF, and agriculture companies where selected through a mix of strategic and snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews where developed based on the DROP-model, they were transcribed and analysed with a qualitative text analysis. A triangulation including a document analysis was done in order to strengthen the study’s validity. The result was analysed and discussed based on the DROP-model. The results showed that the agricultural sector operationalise resilience through a range of different strategies, including communication and cooperation, learning, preparedness and preparations, and trough adaptation. The agricultural sector showed a good adaptive and cooperative capacity, and a will to work proactively in the management of weather variations. Important requisites to build resilience included the local conditions, experience, and agricultural political and economic structures. The results showed that social systems are complex and that strategies can both cause increased resilience and increased vulnerability.

The thesis examines how resource-poor smallholder farmers in Mexico are integrated into a Global Value Chain. Most Global Value Chains depend on production located in developing countries. In agriculture, Global Value Chain tend to concentrate production in large enterprises and exclude smallholder farmers. The logic of Global Value Chains is to reduce the cost of production by allocating low value activities, such as production of commodities to developing countries to take advantage of cheap labour cost. High value activities such as branding, marketing and product development remain in high income countries. The thesis consists of the in-depth case study of San Francisco Produce/Peninsula Organics (SFP/PO) Global Value Chain. It is located throughout Southern Baja Peninsula in Mexico and San Francisco California, U.S.A. It sells organic certified produce to the American market, particularly California and east coast. SFP/PO was founded by a social entrepreneur and has been functioning for over 30 years. This Global Value Chain has an explicit social purpose. It focuses on integrating smallholder farmers into agricultural production. This value chain requires farmers to adopt organic production. The methods consisted of semi-structured interviews. In total, 50 interviews were conducted in Mexico to farmers that belong to the value chain in 9 co-operatives and 3 single farmers. The interviews focused on how farmers learned organic production to meet quality requirements of global buyers. The analysis uses three perspectives to explain the integration of smallholder farmers into SFP/PO and the development of organic production capabilities. First Global Value Chains are used to describe the network, connections and production activities smallholder farmers and global buyer carry out. The study sheds light on how the value chain achieves its social aims by using global markets and providing external inputs to improve farmers' livelihoods. Second, using Technological Capabilities the study explains the skills farmers need to develop to participate in the value chain. Third, a Communities of Practice perspective is used to explain how social learning is involved in developing production capabilities. The research explains how farmers collectively define competence and how they display three different levels of participation in the value chain, periphery, medium and full participation. And fourth, using the theory of Knowing in Action, the research explores co-learning between novice and expert farmers and the interactions among farmers that results in co-innovation to develop new technical solutions and crop varieties. The thesis presents a case of a value chain which is motivated by social purpose to improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers. The study demonstrates that there is a change of ethos, where global value chain integrates farmers into agricultural production. These data highlight the importance of social structures which allow farmer-to-farmer connections which enhance novice farmer skills enabling interactions where there is respect, and negotiation of knowledge. These interactions take indigenous farmers' knowledge into account in ways that can be acknowledged and harnessed in the form of practices and techniques to produce globally marketable products.

O presente trabalho analisa a evolução do diferencial de rendimentos entre os empregados no setor agrícola brasileiro, no período entre 1995 e 2009. Utilizando-se dos microdados da PNAD disponibilizados pelo IBGE, são estimadas cinco equações de rendimento como forma de verificar quais os determinantes do rendimento no setor, considerando-se idade, nível de escolaridade, situação censitária, região, atividade, entre outras variáveis. Também são consideradas interações entre região e atividade como forma de identificar o efeito de cada atividade dentro de uma mesma região e entre regiões. Os dois primeiros modelos permitem constatar que o nível educacional é um determinante significativo para a formação do rendimento no setor, o qual passa a ser intensificado a partir dos dez anos de escolaridade. Houve, entretanto, redução do retorno do rendimento à escolaridade, o que corrobora a convexidade do rendimento à educação verificada para outros setores. As horas trabalhadas também mostraram-se um fator significativo para a formação do rendimento do trabalho no setor. Verifica-se ainda um efeito regional significativo, o que está associado aos diferentes níveis de desenvolvimento de atividades agropecuárias entre as regiões. Já os coeficientes associados à cor do indivíduo indicaram que tal variável não apresenta um efeito relevante para a formação dos rendimentos no setor, diferentemente do que ocorre em outros setores. Um aspecto importante foi apresentado pelos coeficientes associados aos indivíduos de cor preta, os quais indicaram que, apesar de existir um diferencial negativo em relação aos indivíduos brancos, tal diferencial mostrou-se inferior ao verificado para a população brasileira em geral. Assim, pode-se afirmar que a diferenciação em termos de cor no setor agrícola não é tão intensa quanto a dos demais setores da economia, sendo o efeito inferior ao verificado no meio urbano. Já os resultados associados ao gênero apontaram para um diferencial positivo de rendimento dos indivíduos do sexo masculino inferior ao verificado para a economia como um todo, o que é um indício de que o gênero é uma característica mais fortemente observada no mercado de trabalho não agrícola. Considerando-se as atividades constata-se que o rendimento associado ao cultivo de milho é, em média, inferior ao obtido nas outras atividades agropecuárias, ao passo que para as atividades cultivo de soja e de cana-de-açúcar constata-se um diferencial positivo. Os resultados associados ao terceiro e ao quarto modelos indicam que a introdução de interações entre região e atividade não altera de maneira significativa os coeficientes das variáveis consideradas nos modelos anteriores. Verifica-se em termos intrarregionais um diferencial predominantemente negativo de rendimentos associado ao cultivo de milho, comportamento contrário ao verificado para o cultivo de soja. Já para o cultivo de cana-de-açúcar constata-se um comportamento distinto entre as regiões, o que ocorre também no caso da criação de bovinos. Já em termos interregionais constata-se um diferencial negativo associado ao cultivo de milho para todas as regiões, considerando-se como base de comparação tal cultivo na região Centro-Oeste, sendo que.as demais atividades apresentam um comportamento distinto entre as regiões. Por fim, o quinto modelo permite verificar que há um efeito significativo sobre o rendimento decorrente da conclusão de cada nível completo de escolaridade. / This paper analyzes the evolution of the earnings gap among employees in the Brazilian agricultural sector, in the period of 1995 to 2009. Using the microdata of the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), five earnings equations are estimated as a means of identifying the determinant factors of earnings in the sector, considering age, educational background, census situation, region, activity, and other variables. Interactions between region and activity are also considered, as a means of identifying the effect of each activity in the same region and between regions. The first two models show that level of education is a significant determinant factor for the formation of earnings in the sector, which starts to intensify at ten years of school education. However, there has been a reduction in the earnings from investments in schooling, which corroborates the convexity of earnings from education seen in other industries. Hours worked also appeared to be a significant factor for the formation of labor earnings in the sector. There is also a significant regional effect, which is associated with the different levels of development of agricultural and livestock activities between regions. The coefficients associated with the individual\'s skin color indicated that unlike other sectors, this variable does not have a material effect on the formation of earnings in this sector. An important aspect was presented by the coefficients associated with Black individuals, which indicated that in spite of the existence of a negative difference in relation to White individuals, this difference was less than that verified for the Brazilian population in general. Accordingly, it can be said that differentiation in terms of skin color in the agricultural sector is not as intense as that of the other sectors of the economy, and the effect is less than that observed in the urban environment. The results associated with gender, in turn, pointed towards a positive earnings differential for males that is lower than that verified for the economy as a whole, an indication that gender is a characteristic more strongly observed in the nonagricultural job market. In relation to activities, it can be seen that earnings associated with maize cultivation are, on average, lower than those of other agricultural and livestock activities, while a positive differential is observed for soya and sugarcane cultivation activities. The results associated with the third and fourth models indicate that the introduction of interactions between region and activity does not significantly alter the coefficients of the variables considered in the previous models. In intraregional terms, there is a predominantly negative earnings gap associated with maize cultivation, while the opposite behavior occurs in soya cultivation. In sugarcane cultivation, we see a different behavior between regions, which also occurs in the case of cattle breeding. However, in interregional terms, it is possible to observe a negative differential associated with maize cultivation in all regions, taking this crop in the Midwest as a basis for comparison, while the other activities present different behavior between regions. Finally, the fifth model shows the presence of a significant impact on earnings resulting from the conclusion of each complete level of schooling.

Magistrantūros studijų baigiamasis darbas, 58 puslapiai, 10 paveikslų, 7 lentelės, 64 literatūros šaltiniai, 5 priedai. PRASMINIAI ŽODŽIAI: globalinė ekonominė krizė, žemės ūkis, perdavimo kanalai, globalizacija, rinka. Tyrimo objektas – Lietuvos žemės ūkis globalinės ekonominės 2008-2009 metų krizės sąlygomis. Tyrimo tikslas – įvertinti globalinės ekonominės 2008-2009 metų krizės poveikį Lietuvos žemės ūkiui. Uždaviniai: 1) atskleisti ekonominio ciklo koncepciją šiuolaikinių ekonominių teorijų kontekste; 2) išanalizavus globalinės ekonominės 2008-2009 metų krizės priežastis, identifikuoti šios krizės perdavimo kitų šalių ekonomikoms kanalus; 3) pateikti požiūrių į globalinės ekonominės 2008-2009 metų krizės poveikį žemės ūkiui analizę ir identifikuoti rodiklius, padėsiančius įvertinti jos poveikį žemės ūkiui; 4) remiantis identifikuotais rodikliais atlikti globalinės ekonominės 2008-2009 metų krizės poveikio Lietuvos žemės ūkiui statistinę analizę. Tyrimo metodai. Mokslinėje literatūroje pateikiamų teiginių ir rodiklių sisteminimas bei lyginamoji analizė, užsienio autorių tyrimų rezultatų apibendrinimas, ekonominių – statistinių duomenų rinkimas ir analizė. Statistinei informacijai apdoroti ir sisteminti panaudoti grupavimo, palyginimo ir grafinio vaizdavimo būdai. Statistiniam vertinimui atlikti naudojamas programos paketas „STATISTICA“. Analizuojamai medžiagai apibendrinti, darbo išvadoms suformuluoti naudoti loginis ir apibendrinimo metodai. Tyrimo rezultatai. Pirmojoje... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Final work of Undegradeduate Studies, 58 pages, 10 figures, 7 tables, 64 References, 5 appendices, in Lithuanian. KEY words: global economic crisis, agricultural sector, transmission channels, globalization, market. Research object – agriculture in Lithuania in the conditions of global economic crisis in 2008-2009. Research aim – to evaluate the effects of global economic crisis in 2008-2009 on the Lithuanian agriculture. Objectives: 1) to demonstrate the concept of economic cycle in the context of modern economic theories; 2) to analyse the reasons of global economic crisis in 2008-2009, to identify the transmission channels of this crisis to the economies of other countries; 3) to analyse the approaches to the impact of global economic crisis in 2008-2009 on agriculture, to identify indicators that help to evaluate its effects on agriculture; 4) to perform the statistical analysis of the impact of the global economic crisis of 2008-2009 on the Lithuanian agriculture. Research methods. Systematization, comparative analysis, analysis of scientific literature, data collection and analysis, clustering, graphical visualization, STATISTICA software package. Research results. The first part describes the concept of economic cycle in terms of modern economic theories and identifies the transmission channels of the global economic crisis of 2008-2009 to the economies of other countries. The second part of the work, after carrying out the analysis of approaches to the impact of... [to full text]

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Accounting / M.Com. (Accounting0

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:58:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6715.pdf: 6146079 bytes, checksum: feeb40b58372b527046493d3f4e8d2cf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-04 / The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is an important tool for the integration of environmental dimension to elaborate Policies, Plans and Programs (PPPs). The SEA may contribute to the elaboration of Plans and Programs (PPs) in the agricultural sector, inserting values which are led to sustainability. In SEA, the scope is crucial for the proper fulfillment of the other steps, ensuring that the planning process from the start integrates environmental and social issues. The stage of the scoping establishes the focus and content of the SEA and the basic and relevant criteria for evaluation. In this context, the present study aims to present subsidies, through a proposal for guidelines for the development of SEAs scope step for plans and programs - PPs - the agricultural sector in the Brazilian Amazon, more specifically in the North and Northeast State of Mato Grosso, which are inserted in agricultural frontier areas in the Cerrado and in their transition to the Amazon biome. Due to the expansion of the agricultural sector in these regions, critical situations were identified in relation to environmental issues, such as accelerated deforestation, fires, loss of biodiversity and the decline in the level of quality of water and soil. These critical situations are related to actions induced by many PPs deployed in the region and SEA is a proper tool to evaluate the relationship between the development options of the agricultural sector in a sustainable manner in relation to natural resources and the effects resulting therefrom. The methodology used in the research was literature review, identifying support methodologies for the preparation of defining the scope of an SEA in the national and international context, collection of secondary data in government institutions, preparation of an environmental baseline and to hold two workshops with a multidisciplinary team of experts. Using driven approach baseline (baseline-led) a sequence of procedures was developed to provide subsidies to the definition of SEAs scope. It was sought to observe both the guiding principles of the European Directive 042/2001/CE and the a practical guide to the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive of Office of the Deputy Prime Minister-ODPM of 2005, as well as to be based on the current good practices, checked in the bibliography review and in the analyzed case studies. The research main results are the context definition for SEA, the survey of the main PPs of the agricultural sector and the Interfering strategic actions, such as the energy and transportation, the environmental baseline construction, the identification of fundamental environmental themes and their indicators; and the elaboration of a matrix of identification and valuation of the environmental effects, which assist to identify relevant issues to define the SEA strategic objectives. / A Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica (AAE) é um instrumento importante para a integração da dimensão ambiental na elaboração de Políticas, Planos e Programas (PPPs). A AAE pode contribuir na elaboração de Planos e Programas (PPs) do setor agrícola, inserindo valores direcionados para a sustentabilidade. Em AAE, a etapa de definição de escopo é determinante para o cumprimento adequado das outras etapas, garantindo que o processo de planejamento integre desde o início questões ambientais e sociais. O escopo deve estabelecer o foco e o conteúdo da AAE e os critérios básicos e relevantes para a avaliação. Neste contexto, a presente pesquisa tem por objetivo apresentar subsídios, por meio de uma proposta de orientações para o desenvolvimento da etapa do escopo de AAEs para planos e programas PPs - do setor agrícola na Amazônia Brasileira, mais especificamente nas regiões Norte e Nordeste do Estado de Mato Grosso, as quais estão inseridas em áreas de fronteira agrícola no Bioma Cerrado e na sua transição para o Bioma Amazônico. Em decorrência da expansão do setor agrícola nesta região, foram identificadas situações críticas em relação à questão ambiental, como o desmatamento acelerado, as queimadas, perda da biodiversidade e o declínio do nível de qualidade dos recursos hídricos e dos solos. Estas situações críticas estão relacionadas a ações induzidas por diversos PPs implantados na região e a AAE é uma ferramenta indicada para avaliar a relação entre as opções de desenvolvimento do setor agrícola de forma sustentável em relação aos recursos naturais e os efeitos delas resultantes. A metodologia utilizada na pesquisa foi a revisão bibliográfica, com a identificação de metodologias de suporte à elaboração da definição do escopo de uma AAE no contexto nacional e internacional, levantamento de dados secundários em instituições governamentais, elaboração de uma baseline ambiental e a realização de dois workshops com uma equipe multidisciplinar de especialistas. Utilizando a abordagem orientada pela linha de base (baseline-led) foi desenvolvida uma sequência de procedimentos para fornecer os subsídios à definição do escopo de AAEs. Procurou-se também observar os princípios orientadores da Diretiva Européia 042/2001/CE e do Guia Prático para Diretiva de Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica do Office of the Deputy Prime Minister-ODPM de 2005 e se basear nas boas práticas atuais, verificadas em revisão bibliográfica e em estudos de caso analisados. Os principais resultados do trabalho são a definição do contexto para a AAE, o levantamento dos principais PPs do setor agrícola e das ações estratégicas que nele interferem, como o de transporte e de energia; a construção da baseline ambiental; a identificação dos temas ambientais fundamentais e de seus indicadores; e a elaboração de um modelo de matriz de identificação e valoração dos efeitos ambientais que auxiliam na identificação das questões relevantes para a definição dos objetivos estratégicos da AAE.

O presente trabalho analisa a evolução do diferencial de rendimentos entre os empregados no setor agrícola brasileiro, no período entre 1995 e 2009. Utilizando-se dos microdados da PNAD disponibilizados pelo IBGE, são estimadas cinco equações de rendimento como forma de verificar quais os determinantes do rendimento no setor, considerando-se idade, nível de escolaridade, situação censitária, região, atividade, entre outras variáveis. Também são consideradas interações entre região e atividade como forma de identificar o efeito de cada atividade dentro de uma mesma região e entre regiões. Os dois primeiros modelos permitem constatar que o nível educacional é um determinante significativo para a formação do rendimento no setor, o qual passa a ser intensificado a partir dos dez anos de escolaridade. Houve, entretanto, redução do retorno do rendimento à escolaridade, o que corrobora a convexidade do rendimento à educação verificada para outros setores. As horas trabalhadas também mostraram-se um fator significativo para a formação do rendimento do trabalho no setor. Verifica-se ainda um efeito regional significativo, o que está associado aos diferentes níveis de desenvolvimento de atividades agropecuárias entre as regiões. Já os coeficientes associados à cor do indivíduo indicaram que tal variável não apresenta um efeito relevante para a formação dos rendimentos no setor, diferentemente do que ocorre em outros setores. Um aspecto importante foi apresentado pelos coeficientes associados aos indivíduos de cor preta, os quais indicaram que, apesar de existir um diferencial negativo em relação aos indivíduos brancos, tal diferencial mostrou-se inferior ao verificado para a população brasileira em geral. Assim, pode-se afirmar que a diferenciação em termos de cor no setor agrícola não é tão intensa quanto a dos demais setores da economia, sendo o efeito inferior ao verificado no meio urbano. Já os resultados associados ao gênero apontaram para um diferencial positivo de rendimento dos indivíduos do sexo masculino inferior ao verificado para a economia como um todo, o que é um indício de que o gênero é uma característica mais fortemente observada no mercado de trabalho não agrícola. Considerando-se as atividades constata-se que o rendimento associado ao cultivo de milho é, em média, inferior ao obtido nas outras atividades agropecuárias, ao passo que para as atividades cultivo de soja e de cana-de-açúcar constata-se um diferencial positivo. Os resultados associados ao terceiro e ao quarto modelos indicam que a introdução de interações entre região e atividade não altera de maneira significativa os coeficientes das variáveis consideradas nos modelos anteriores. Verifica-se em termos intrarregionais um diferencial predominantemente negativo de rendimentos associado ao cultivo de milho, comportamento contrário ao verificado para o cultivo de soja. Já para o cultivo de cana-de-açúcar constata-se um comportamento distinto entre as regiões, o que ocorre também no caso da criação de bovinos. Já em termos interregionais constata-se um diferencial negativo associado ao cultivo de milho para todas as regiões, considerando-se como base de comparação tal cultivo na região Centro-Oeste, sendo que.as demais atividades apresentam um comportamento distinto entre as regiões. Por fim, o quinto modelo permite verificar que há um efeito significativo sobre o rendimento decorrente da conclusão de cada nível completo de escolaridade. / This paper analyzes the evolution of the earnings gap among employees in the Brazilian agricultural sector, in the period of 1995 to 2009. Using the microdata of the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), five earnings equations are estimated as a means of identifying the determinant factors of earnings in the sector, considering age, educational background, census situation, region, activity, and other variables. Interactions between region and activity are also considered, as a means of identifying the effect of each activity in the same region and between regions. The first two models show that level of education is a significant determinant factor for the formation of earnings in the sector, which starts to intensify at ten years of school education. However, there has been a reduction in the earnings from investments in schooling, which corroborates the convexity of earnings from education seen in other industries. Hours worked also appeared to be a significant factor for the formation of labor earnings in the sector. There is also a significant regional effect, which is associated with the different levels of development of agricultural and livestock activities between regions. The coefficients associated with the individual\'s skin color indicated that unlike other sectors, this variable does not have a material effect on the formation of earnings in this sector. An important aspect was presented by the coefficients associated with Black individuals, which indicated that in spite of the existence of a negative difference in relation to White individuals, this difference was less than that verified for the Brazilian population in general. Accordingly, it can be said that differentiation in terms of skin color in the agricultural sector is not as intense as that of the other sectors of the economy, and the effect is less than that observed in the urban environment. The results associated with gender, in turn, pointed towards a positive earnings differential for males that is lower than that verified for the economy as a whole, an indication that gender is a characteristic more strongly observed in the nonagricultural job market. In relation to activities, it can be seen that earnings associated with maize cultivation are, on average, lower than those of other agricultural and livestock activities, while a positive differential is observed for soya and sugarcane cultivation activities. The results associated with the third and fourth models indicate that the introduction of interactions between region and activity does not significantly alter the coefficients of the variables considered in the previous models. In intraregional terms, there is a predominantly negative earnings gap associated with maize cultivation, while the opposite behavior occurs in soya cultivation. In sugarcane cultivation, we see a different behavior between regions, which also occurs in the case of cattle breeding. However, in interregional terms, it is possible to observe a negative differential associated with maize cultivation in all regions, taking this crop in the Midwest as a basis for comparison, while the other activities present different behavior between regions. Finally, the fifth model shows the presence of a significant impact on earnings resulting from the conclusion of each complete level of schooling.

La thèse interroge les transformations induites par la prolifération des fonds et des firmes de private equity sur l’organisation économique et sociale de l’agriculture en Afrique du sud. Au croisement de l’économie politique et de la sociologie économique, elle propose d’analyser un dispositif d’intermédiation financier original, le private equity, et de ses effets de transmission. Grâce à la collecte de matériaux empiriques et à l’analyse approfondie d’une quinzaine d’études de cas, la thèse reconstitue la circulation et la reproduction des capitaux au sein des « filières agro-financières » du private equity. Ces circuits de capitaux sont composés de trois groupes d’acteurs –les investisseurs institutionnels, les gestionnaires d’actifs, les dirigeants d’entreprise- qui sont collectivement engagés dans la production d’un actif agricole à partir d’entreprises-cibles. La thèse se situe principalement au niveau des gestionnaires sud-africains et analyse leur travail au niveau commercial et productif, c’est-à-dire leurs capacités à faire émerger, à coordonner et à maintenir les filières du private equity. Elle pénètre aussi dans les entreprises agricoles et agroalimentaires en Afrique du sud et en Afrique sub-saharienne pour étudier les effets de leur intégration aux filières. Enfin, au-delà des seules entreprises, la thèse s’intéresse aux répercussions sur l’organisation politique et sociale de l’agriculture dans l’Afrique du sud postapartheid. A partir de ces cas particuliers, l’ambition de la thèse est d’analyser les conditions et les effets de la financiarisation des économies contemporaines au niveau méso du secteur. « L’extension du domaine de la finance » repose sur la constitution d’espaces sociaux transectoriels, structurés autour des exigences des marchés financiers, lesquels remettent en cause les formes et l’intensité de la régulation sectorielle. / The dissertation examines the transformations generated by the proliferation of private equity funds and firms in South African agriculture. Positioning itself at the crossroad of economic sociology and political economy, it analyses a specific financial device, i.e. private equity, and its transmission effects. By collecting empirical data and analyzing about 15 case studies, the dissertation exposes capital’s circulation and reproduction along private equity’s “agro-financial filières”. Three groups of actors are part of such circuits of capital –institutional investors, asset managers and companies’ managers, collectively engaged in the production of agricultural assets. Firstly, the dissertation focuses on asset managers’ level and analyses their daily commercial and productive work, i.e. their capacities to develop, coordinate and maintain private equity’s filières. Secondly, it also examins the agro-food companies in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, in order to assess the impacts on the firms’ structure and governance. Thirdly, it analyses the political and social restructuration in particular of the agricultural sector in the post-apartheid era. From these specific case studies, the project of this dissertation is to analyze the terms and effects of contemporary economies’ financialisation on agriculture. Indeed, the extension of the financial realm is based on trans-sectorial spaces, structured around financial markets’ requirements, contesting the form and intensity of sectors’ economic regulations.

This mini-dissertation deals with the impact of child labour in the Vhembe Region. Africa reportedly has the highest incidence of child labour in the world. Vhembe as a region and South Africa as a whole has the problem of child labour which is influenced by poverty. To respond to this problem, some scholars recommend an outright ban on child labour through legislation. Child labour refers to dangerous and exploitative work which is carried out at too early an age, involves long working hours, carried out in inadequate conditions, not sufficiently paid, involves excessive responsibility, and undermines the child’s dignity and self-esteem. The mini-dissertation has clearly defined the child labour and discusses the legislative framework, international law framework and the challenges of child labour in the Vhembe Region.