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This work introduces an alternative paradigm that claims that the primary industry of imperial Ethiopia has been (and still is) one that has evolved around the Abyssinian national mission vis-a-vis the populations it rules from a point of conquest. Abyssinia, like Catholic Spain in the Americas, carried out a series of 'civilising' missions (Christianising), that has spanned centuries to modern times. Around a theocratic mission evolved a service type industry, the author calls theo-industry. On that basis, the work demonstrates how well-known categories of 'land-tenure', namely, the gult/goolt, the gultenya/gooltenya, the rist, the ristenya, the gabbar and related others are categories of a fiscal system of theo-industry, not of an agrarian system or agrarian industry. It is argued how these rather complex categories belong in the realm of wages and pensions of a service-type industry, not in those of agriculture. By failing to establish the functional link between agriculture and the national mission of the rulers, the scholars of Ethiopian studies have so far been unable to identify this 'elusive' but all-pervasive primary industry of Ethiopia. That in turn, the author argues, has had a rub-off effect in hindering a clear and comprehensive understanding of issues such as poverty and famine. The central topic of this work is the 'identification' of this 'elusive' industry. The study of its evolution, set in historical grounds, of its dynamics and the intricate maze of multi-natured relations is attempted. On this basis, the option of creating an independent (from theo-industry), and more importantly, renewable agricultural industry is proposed as the key to tackling chronic levels of poverty and famine in Ethiopia / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study of the institutionalization and professionalization of agricultural chemistry during the second half of the nineteenth century analyses the relationship between chemical theories and social issues, ideas and experience of recycling, the development of fertilizers, and industrialization of agriculture. The study mainly takes a history of science and environmental history perspective with focus on the Swedish case. It does, however, address the international context offering a historical perspective of issues such as the relationship between population and natural resources, the sustainability of society and connections between science, technology and nature. The center of this study consists of an analysis of the work of the following agricultural chemists employed by the Swedish Royal Agricultural Society, enumerated in chronological order: Alexander Müller, Carl Erik Bergstrand, and Lars Fredrik Nilson. Other actors, such as agriculturists, administrators and politicians, were also important in the formation of agricultural chemistry in Sweden. Changes of aims and agricultural chemical ideals during the period of study reflect changes in society and shifting ideologies. During the second half of the nineteenth century a national "agricultural scientific infrastructure" was erected with experimental stations, agricultural schools, local experimental fields and agrarian experts. This network constituted a basis for agricultural science in society and functioned as an important channel for the modernization of agriculture and society. With agricultural chemistry as an empirical point of departure, this thesis also analyzes the transformations of agriculture with the establishment of cultural, economical and physical links between agriculture and the surrounding world. Theories about chemical cycles promoted recycling of nutrition and other materials between the city and the countryside, thereby connecting agriculture to the city. The development of new mineral and nitrogenous fertilizers gradually involved an increased use of inorganic raw materials and energy to manufacture nutrition. This process resulted in the intertwining of agriculture, science, mining, industry and energy production and the creation of an agro- industrial network, which was crucial for the development of agriculture during the twentieth century. In this context, agricultural science legitimized the development toward resource intensive farming methods. / digitalisering@umu

As food scares have hastened the growth of safety and quality standards around the world, certification schemes to assure various attributes of foods have proliferated in the global marketplace. High-value food commodities produced in the global south for export have been the subject of such schemes through third-party environmental certifications, providing regulatory and verification mechanisms welcomed by global buyers. As certification becomes more common, re-localization in the current global context can also mean the projection of place onto a food commodity to highlight its origin or attributes secured by transparent verification mechanisms. However, environmental food certification is often criticized for its inapplicability in the context of the global south, due to the extensive documentation requirements and high costs. The key question here is the process for small-scale producers in the global south to navigate increasing international regulation of food safety and quality. This dissertation examines (1) how the environmental standards (as defined by the global north) were translated in the rural global south through international certification schemes, and (2) what the implications are at the local level, especially where producers had not yet integrated into conventional global markets before the introduction of certification. The dissertation also analyzes the influence of such certification in determining the development trajectories of rural society in the global south. A case study is used to examine newly-introduced certified organic shrimp production in Ca Mau Province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. The selected shrimp production site is the first pilot organic shrimp project in Vietnam working with an international third-party certification scheme. It is located in rural Vietnam where, as in other parts of Southeast Asia, an accelerated process of agrarian transition is underway. Whereas elsewhere the trend with intensified regulation has been the consolidation of large-scale farms and the exclusion of small-scale farms from international agrofood markets, this case study demonstrates comparative advantages of small-scale farms over large-scale farms in producing sensitive high-value crops. This dissertation employs two main analytical approaches. The first approach is to examine the network of actors and the flow of information, payment and shrimp at the production level using environmental regulatory network (ERN). In contrast to chain analyses, which can be useful in identifying linear structure of supply chains for global commodities, ERN can capture the interrelatedeness of actors in the network built around environmental certification for agrofood products. The second analytical lens is that of agrarian transition. Countries experiencing agrarian transition at present are doing so in a very different international context from countries that accomplished their transitions in the past. Results of this research indicate that technical and financial constraints at the time of initial certification are not the primary obstacles to farmers getting certified, since the extensive farming method employed at the study site is organic by default. In spite of this, many farmers unofficially withdrew from the organic shrimp project by simply shifting their marketing channel back to a conventional one. Inefficient flows of information and payments, and a restrictive marketing channel within the environmental regulatory network that does not take into account local geographical conditions and farming practices, all contributed to limiting the farmers’ capacity and lowering their incentives to get involved in the network. The analysis also indicates that, by influencing those agrarian transition processes, food standards and certification based on values developed in the global north may modify, reshape and/or hold back agrarian transition processes in agricultural sectors of developing countries. The potential benefits of environmental certification are enhanced rural development, by generating opportunities for small-scale farmers to connect to global niche markets. The findings of this dissertation highlighted that such certification schemes or their environmental regulatory networks need to ensure information sharing and compensation for farmers. As an empirical finding, this dissertation also captures where ecological credibility and market logic meet: the success of this kind of certification depends on finding a balanced point where standards are ecologically (or ethically) credible to the level that does not attract too much criticism for being green washing, but not too unrealistic to become a disincentive for farmers to participate.

The nineteenth century was an era that great centralization and codification attempts were realized in the Ottoman Empire. One of these attempts was the Ottoman Land Code of 1858, which put various land regulations throughout the empire into a standard code. But this standard Code gave different results when applied to different regions which had their own characteristic features. Eastern Anatolia, which had an autonomous position since its incorporation to the Ottoman Empire, was also in the scope of the Land Code. The object of this study is to examine the implementation of the Land Code of 1858 in eastern Anatolia and the impacts of this implementation process in the region. Indeed, the general situation of the region greatly disaffected the implementation of the Code in eastern Anatolia. Because of the dominant disorder within the region and problems of the state in these lands, the Land Code could not be properly implemented in eastern Anatolia. The Land Code and the title deeds, which were distributed in accordance with the Code, were so important that they became the base of later ownership claims. Therefore, the implementation of the Code had deep and long lasting effects on the land patterns and social relations in the region. In this respect, this study will evaluate the implementation process of the Land Code throughout eastern Anatolia and the socio-economic transformation of the region as a result of this process.

Understanding the class position of family owned small scale agricultural production units, which constitute a common feature of the rural context in the later capitalized countries, have been one of the major discussion points in the Marxist literature. The continual existence of such a form of production organization with significant non-capitalist features under the enlarging capitalist organization of production despite the initial assumptions of Marxist analysis that it was a transitory form which will soon differentiate between proletariat and bourgeoisie have prompted a number if attempts at explaining the survival of this category. These debates have strongly influenced the analyses in the field of rural sociology from 1960s onwards, providing the conceptual tools for sociological analysis of rural relations of production. This thesis engages in an attempt of re-appraising the theoretical debates within Marxist analysis of petty agricultural production organization together with considering the recent transnational reorganization of agricultural production. The neo-liberal retraction of state as a regulating force and loosening the protectionist policies has lead to the rise of the power of Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) in the field of agriculture in the past couple of decades. Contractual farming is defined as a major form of direct relationship TNCs establish with petty agricultural producers to exercise their determining power over the organization of agricultural production. Together with a case study of contractual farming, the thesis discusses how could we define the class positions of this segment and whether their relationship with TNCs have a significant affect over our definitions.

Diss. (sammanfattning). Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv.

At the turn of the century agrarian parties emerged in large parts of Europe. The parties had one thing in common: they stood up for the social, economic, cultural, and political interests of the agrarian society. The Swedish agrarian parties - 1 Bondeförbundet ' and 'Jordbrukarnas Riksförbund1 - were formed between 1913 and 1915.In this study the agrarian parties are not considered to be class parties. Instead, they are described as traditional parties, defending the old agrarian community against expansive industrialization. Their potential voters belonged to various social strata in the agrarian community, and their political programme, often characterized by a markedly negative view of modern society and by cultural protectionism, is summarized here under the term agrarianism. Agrarianism seen as a political theory and an applicable ideology had features in common with Conservatism as well as with Fascism and Socialism. Liberal values, however, were kept in the background.A modernization perspective is adopted in order to demonstrate that the agrarian parties were in fact traditional parties. It is assumed that regional variation in the electoral support of the agrarian parties reflects the modernization process, and, consequently, that the parties were weaker in industrial areas and stronger in socially and economically backward areas.The empirical studies show that the Agrarian parties stand out as traditional parties rather than class parties. Their voter support was stronger in areas where the historical and economic development was characterized by stagnation and conservatism, as well as in areas where social mobilization advanced slowly. In more industrialized and modernized areas conditions were quite the opposite. A study of Swedish interwar agrarianism with special regard to regional variations in party strength proves the agrarian parties to be the inheritors of a way of life formed by centuries of agrarian traditions. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis contains five chapters dealing with different aspects of the social relations of aquaculture development in South and Southeast Asia. This analysis is presented with reference to a series of qualitative empirical studies conducted in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand, and challenges conventional narratives relating to the causes, effects and significance of different forms of aquaculture development. Chapter 1 compares the impacts associated with projects intended to promote pro-poor forms of fish culture with the impacts of commercial forms of aquaculture originating in the private sector, and examines complementarities between the two forms of development. It finds that the latter form of aquaculture development, which it terms ‘immanent’, has generally resulted in far more significant economic impacts that the former, which it terms ‘interventionist’. Impacts occur particularly through the creation of employment in associated value chains, although some caution must be exercised in equating these effects with reductions in poverty. The conditions under which immanent aquaculture development is able to take place are elaborated. Chapter 2 provides a critical evaluation of the private sector development (PSD) discourse adopted under the post-Washington consensus. This is achieved with reference to a detailed comparative study of the establishment of hatcheries for mono-sex tilapia in Thailand and Pangasius catfish in Vietnam. This exercise shows the transfer of technical knowledge from public institutions to actors in the private sector to have been largely informal in both cases. The subsequent establishment of hatchery enterprises has also been shaped by culturally specific patterns of economic behaviour that go unrecognised by champions of PSD. The chapter cautions against taking the existence of causal links between increased economic activity and reductions in poverty for granted. Chapter 3 examines patterns of development associated with the extraordinary expansion of the Pangasius catfish industry in Vietnam. It concludes that the ability of catfish producers to access a range of key production factors including land and credit has been mediated by relationships between individuals and the state and its associated institutions, as has access to some markets and services. As a result, the integration of producers into global markets has tended to reinforce existing class relations rather than radically transforming the rural class structure. Chapter 4 evaluates the likely outcomes of governance by third party certification for Pangasius producers in Vietnam and Bangladesh. Widespread insistence on compliance with emerging standards by Northern retailers will have little impact on Bangladeshi producers at present given their domestic orientation, but will probably involve severe consequences for smaller Vietnamese producers who will struggle to comply due to their unfavourable organisation of production and lack of integration. Although Pangasius production in Bangladesh appears more ecologically sustainable than its Vietnamese counterpart, the manner in which standards are formulated means that these advantages are unlikely to be recognised or rewarded. It is also concluded that standards will have limited impact on the industry’s environmental performance in Vietnam. With reference to the literature on agricultural growth and two case studies of aquaculture in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, Chapter 5 argues that commercially oriented quasi-capitalist forms of aquaculture have far greater capacity to alleviate poverty and enhance food security at the national level than the quasi-peasant forms traditionally promoted by development projects. The majority of poverty impact associated with aquaculture is demonstrated to derive from employment in associated value chains and service provision, with likely horizontal benefits also created in the rural non-farm economy via consumption linkages. By contrast, forms of aquaculture traditionally considered ‘small-scale’ and ‘pro-poor’ are shown to be beyond the reach of the majority of the rural poor, and to yield limited positive social externalities, although their role in countering the seasonal financial pressures associated with irrigated rice cultivation is shown to be significant. The conclusion of the thesis summarises key findings presented in preceding chapters, elaborates appropriate methodologies to guide future research on aquaculture development, and sets out a research and policy agenda which identifies work in a number of key areas as priorities for further attention.

Darbo tikslas: palyginti mūsų šalies ekologinių ūkių varpinių javų suformuotų agrofitocenozių segetinės floros kiekį su Belgijos ekologiškų ūkių varpinių javų suformuotų agrofitocenozių segetinės floros kiekiu ir įvertinti jų atitikimą pasėlių geros agrarinės būklės reikalavimams. Darbo uždaviniai: 1.Įvertinti Lietuvos ir Belgijos ekologinę gamybą ir jos plėtrą. 2.Įvertinti varpinių javų suformuotų agrofitocenozių segetinės floros kiekį Belgijos ekologiniuose ūkiuose. 3.Palyginti su Lietuvos ekologinių ūkių varpinių javų suformuotų agrofitocenozių segetinės floros duomenimis. 4.Pagal rengiamą „Ekologinės gamybos pasėlių geros agrarinės būklės“ vertinimo metodiką įvertinti Belgijos ir Lietuvos ekologinių ūkių atitikimą geros agrarinės būklės reikalavimams. Darbo objektas: segetinės floros apskaita ir vertinimas Lietuvos ir Belgijos ekologinės gamybos ūkiuose. Darbo rezultatai: Tyrimo metu buvo atlikta ekologinės gamybos raidos apžvalga Lietuvoje ir Belgijoje bei segetinės floros vertinimas ekologiškai ūkininkaujančių ūkių javų suformuotose agrofitocenozėse. Lietuvoje vyrauja specializuoti javų ūkiai, todėl ir ekologinės gamybos pasėlių struktūroje javai sudaro net 70%, tuo tarpu Belgijos pasėlių struktūroje net 81% sudaro pievos ir ganyklos su prioritetiniais pieno ir mėsos sektoriais. Segetinės floros vertinimas Belgijos ekologinių javų suformuotose agrofitocenozėse parodė didelius skirtumus tarp atskirų šalies ūkių: segetinės floros kiekiai agrofitocenozėse skyrėsi daugiau... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Objectives of the research: comparison of the amount of segetic flora in agrophytocenosis of cereals in the organic farms of Lithuania and Belgium with a view to evaluation of their compliance with the requirements of good agrarian condition. Results of the research: The research revealed big differences in the amount of segetic flora in cereals of the individual organic farms in Belgium: there was 6 times difference between the average amount of segetic flora in the agrophytocenosis of cereals of the investigated farms. Similar situation was observed during the field investigations in Lithuania in 2007. Evaluation of compliance with the requirements of good agrarian condition showed that agrophytocenosis of cereals of Belgian organic farms (average amount of segetic flora 135 units/ m-2) can be considered as complying with. However the agrophytocenosis of cereals in Lithuanian organic farms (in particular in the East Lithuanian natural soil condition zone) having the excessive amounts of segetic flora (in average 329 units/m-2) should be considered as problematic in respect of good agrarian condition.