"10 November 2004" / Bibliography: leaves 203-212. / xvi, 217 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / In this thesis, four features of China's agricultural reforms, namely the HRS, PGRS and regional comparative advantage grain marketing reform, and problems concerning farmers' incomes, are studied through an analysis of household survey data gathered in grain producing regions. The experiences of successful and unsuccessful measures adopted in China's agricultural sector are discussed, and it is shown that the agricultural reforms in China start at the bottom at local institutions and then become government policy. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Economics, 2005

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-03T11:52:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-03-20Bitstream added on 2015-03-03T12:07:20Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000809937.pdf: 1159605 bytes, checksum: 5a4beb0e3320a8eed66004206d1ac2c8 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Desde o final da década de 1980, o Brasil passou por um intenso processo de reestruturação política e produtiva, ingressando na nova divisão internacional do trabalho que resultou da crise estrutural do capital deflagrada a partir da década de 1970. Mais recentemente, com o crescimento exponencial da demanda internacional por commodities agropecuárias e produtos de baixa densidade tecnológica, o País encontrou na especialização produtiva uma “nova” via para seu “desenvolvimento”, convertendo-se, simultaneamente, em importante “plataforma de valorização financeira”. No plano político interno, a captulação e (conseqüente) ascensão do principal (e único) partido político de massas surgido no pós-ditadura civil-militar ao mais alto posto de comando do Estado – o Partido dos Trabalhadores - levou o país a experimentar um extraordinário surto de expansão capitalista - que, a partir de meados dos anos 2000, foi denominado por intelectuais progressistas de toda sorte de neodesenvolvimentismo. Neste contexto, os agronegócios, que vinham se expandindo desde as décadas anteriores, tornaramse elementos estratégicos da nova economia política brasileira do novo século. Com o PT, o setor experimentou sua belle époque, modificando, de modo decisivo, a questão agrária nacional e, ao mesmo tempo, conferindo um novo significado histórico para a (luta pela) reforma agrária. Com isto, o padrão historicamente “truncado” de acumulação capitalista brasileira evoluiu para um padrão destrutivo de desenvolvimento das forças produtivas do capital, especialmente no campo, intensificando a degradação social do trabalho e dos recursos naturais e ecológicos. Neste trabalho, analiso o padrão econômico e social de desenvolvimento dos agronegócios no Brasil nas últimas décadas e o projeto político que lhe dá forma, sobretudo a partir do impulso recebido pelo Estado, por meio do programa neodesenvolvimentista ... / Since the end of 80's decade, Brazil has been through an intensive process of political and productive restructure, beginning with a new international division of work which had the capital structure crises deflagrated as a result, starting from 70's decade. Recently, with exponential growing of international demand by agricultural commodities and low density technology's products, the country found itself in a productive specialization a new way for its development, converting simultaneously into an important financial value platform. On the political intern plan the capitulation and (consequently) rising of the principal (and the only) political party of mass arisen from civil and military post-dictatorship to the most highest level command of the State - The Worker's Party (PT) - took the country to experience an extraordinary capitalism burst of expansion - from mid 20?? century was named by progressive intellectuals for all lucky new-developmentalism. In these types of agricultures which started to expand in the last decades, turned into strategic elements of the new Brazilian economical politics for new century. With Worker's Party (PT), the sector experienced its belle époque, changing in a decisive way the agrarian national question and at the same time giving a new historical meaning to (struggle for land and for) agrarian reform. Therefore, the historical obstacles in the development structures pattern of Brazilian capitalist accumulation evolved to a destructive way of capital's productive forces's development, specially in the field, intensifying the social work and the natural and ecological resources's degradation. This essay analyzes the economic and social pattern of agricultural development in Brazil in the last decades and the political project which gives its shape, mainly from the boost got by State, by the new-developmentalism program from PT's government. At the same time I discuss the Historical present of ...

Social protection measures are poverty reduction interventions implemented to assist in reducing poverty shocks of communities. This study considered the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) that has been implemented in Malawi with the aim of reducing poverty amongst subsistence farmers by providing them with subsidized farm inputs. The study was conducted in the rural area of Lilongwe District, under Traditional Authority Kabudula. The study mainly focussed on the outcomes of implementing the FISP and it entails whether or not the poverty reduction intervention is really achieving its goals. Thus, the study greatly evaluates the effectiveness of subsidizing farm inputs in reducing poverty amongst households in rural communities characterised by subsistence farming. This study was mainly qualitative in nature and data was collected through interviews and Focus Group Discussions. Some quantitative data for specific trends of national indicators was collected through document. Mainly, content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data and descriptive statistical analysis with the aid of Microsoft Excel was engaged to analyse the quantitative data. The study found that that FISP assist in household food security only in the short term. Among the reasons cited, the package size received by households has become smaller with sharing tendencies that have been devised to help households that do not receive the inputs or qualify to receive them. This practice is compromising the agricultural productivity in terms of quantities as it lasts only in the short-term before the next harvest. When households’ food reserves are depleted, households become food insecure and poverty sets in again. The study thus reveals that FISP implementation is not operating as a sustainable programme as its intended goal is not being achieved in the long-term. The study also found that coupled with the fact that there is no clear policy guidelines on graduation and that there is continued benefitting of the same beneficiaries, FISP is nowhere close to its phasing-out stage in social protection perspective.

This study examines the impact of capital on the small peasant economy of Sri Lanka which has been dominated by paddy cultivation, the consequent processes of agrarian change in the peasant society and the impact of these changes on the lives of the peasantry. The persistence of peasant agriculture throughout the developing world has posed a challenge to classical theories of the development of capitalism in agriculture which considered peasant production or Simple Commodity Production as a transitional phenomenon doomed to disappear. Recent interpretations of theories on Simple Commodity Production however, argue that peasant forms of production can and likely will survive within capitalist social formations, and therefore the analysis of the dynamics of agrarian change has to focus on historically specific situations. Pursuing the latter view, this study identifies the role of the State, class structure, and the role of agro-ecological imperatives as key factors influencing agrarian change in Sri Lanka. While existing agrarian relations in the peasant sector have not become a barrier to the growth of productive forces in the peasant economy, this growth has not necessarily led to the disintegration of the peasantry, despite a certain amount of differentiation among them. While the dynamism manifested in the emergence of a small stratum of rich peasants and rural entrepreneurs may indicate the possibility of capitalist development in the peasant sector in some areas of the country, the overall situation within the peasant economy indicates the possibility of paddy agriculture reaching its advanced stages within the form of peasant production itself. In the event of such a possibility, it is the problem of underemployed labour in the peasant sector which will become the agrarian question of Sri Lanka. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This study examines post-war social change in a Japanese farming community. Social change is defined as changes in the three sets of rules for social behaviour in a social system. Three sets of factors affected social change in rural Japan: (1) changes in the policies and programmes of the central government, (2) changes in the national economy, and (3) the adoption by farmers of new farm techniques. The central government has aimed at the industrialization of Japanese agriculture. Through its policies and programmes the government removed or modified obstacles to economic growth and provided conditions favourable to the growth of the farm economy. The Japanese economy has grown at a rapid rate. National economic growth together with governmental policies and the farmers' incentive to increase farm output has resulted in significant changes in rural Japan. For example, these factors have increased farmers' access to economic resources, absorbed rural young people into industrial centres, motivated farmers to mechanize farm practices thereby raising production costs, and made necessary an increase in household income. Farmers have adopted new farm techniques. Despite the exodus of youth from the rural areas, as farmers mechanize their practices they developed a surplus of labour. Farmers have diversified production activities by investing the surplus labour into non-farm operations, or into farm operations when competent change-agents existed. Their adoption of new farm techniques modified the old sets of rules for social behaviour, and social change took place in rural Japan. If the present trends continue, Japanese farming communities will look very different in the future. First, present suburban communities will disappear as "farming" communities. Second, the majority of present farming households will leave farming, and only a small number of larger farmers will remain in those communities in which the residents make no deliberate efforts to differentiate their farm operations. Third, a large number of farming households will remain farming in those communities in which the residents will differentiate farm operations; these communities will be small in number, but the community I studied will be one of them. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent that birthplace influences the socio-economic characteristics or the usage of sources of information in samples of farmers from two areas of British Columbia. Two areas of divergent farm types namely the Peace River and South Okanagan areas were chosen for analysis from the sixteen areas surveyed by the ARDA Canada Land Inventory Project in British Columbia. Interview schedules completed in 1967 and 1968 surveys of these areas were used as the source of data. Excluded were all those respondents who sold less than $250 worth of agricultural goods produced on the land they occupied. The Peace River sample consisted of 112 farmers of whom 27.7 percent were foreign born while the South Okanagan sample consisted of 61 farmers of whom 50.8 percent were not born in Canada. The majority of the statistically significant differences in distribution of the socio-economic characteristics and use of information sources among the groups by birthplace of the Peace River were attributable to the age differences between the groups, due to the areas settlement history. There were very few statistically significant differences in distribution noted among the groups of farmers of the South Okanagan. Further there were few differences among the groups by birthplace between the areas studies that could not be attributed to geographic differences between the areas. The results of this study would suggest that place of birth does not strongly influence the socio-economic characteristics or usage of information sources in the two areas studied. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

This dissertation proposes a model oriented towards integrating farm households' production and consumption decisions into a unified theoretical and econometric framework. It is argued that some commodities such as household's labour and, in some circumstances, outputs produced by the farm are traded within the household-farm unit. The implication of this is that, in contrast with other forms of economic organization, farm households' utility and profit maximization decisions are not likely to be independent. Thus, the general objectives of the thesis are to develop a model appropriate to estimate farm households' supply and demand responses which explicitly considers the interdependence of utility and profit maximization decisions as well as to formally test the hypothesis of independence using Canadian farm census data. A model which considers two labour supply equations, i.e., on-farm and off-farm labour supply, and five net output supply equations including one aggregated output and four inputs (land and structures, hired labour, animal inputs, and farm capital) has been jointly estimated using Canadian farm data. The main hypotheses tested are independence of utility and profit maximizing decisions and homotheticity of households' preferences. This investigation suggests that utility and profit maximizing decisions are not independent and, moreover, that there are significant gains in explanatory power and efficiency by estimating the consumption (i.e., the labour supply equations) and the production equations jointly. Another finding of the study is that farm households' preferences are not homothetic. Estimates regarding the quantitative effects of changes in cost of living index, output price, wage rates, and other farm input prices on households' on-farm labour supply, off-farm labour supply, and net output supply are provided. Additionally, the effects of farm operators' educational level on their labour supply, output supply, and input demand decisions are also measured. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

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