Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African government continues to provide post-settlement support to emerging farmers, with the objective of improving productivity through targeted funding or conditional grants. The Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP), which came into effect in 2004, provides funding targeted at supporting emerging farmers. CASP has six pillars, of which this study focused on one, which is capacity building and training. The study investigated the assessment of the impact of training on the projects’ beneficiaries who had benefited from the CASP pillar of training and capacity building in the Limpopo Province. The methodology applied was the difference-in-difference technique. Projects that benefited from funding were regarded as the treatment group and those that did not benefit from the programme were regarded as the control group. The justification for the research was that while the government had financed CASP through fiscal allocation since 2004, because CASP is a conditional grant, there was a need to review the programme, focusing on establishing whether the budget allocation had achieved its intended objectives during this time. The objectives of the study were to measure whether there had been an improvement in the beneficiaries’ income levels. It focused on the status of the projects prior to the beneficiaries receiving training and benefiting from capacity building, and what the status was after receiving training through the programme, with the key determinant being an increase in income levels. Not all funded projects had benefited from the particular pillar investigated here. The selection of the beneficiaries to be trained was based on a skills audit which treated the groups as homogeneous, which was found to be inappropriate because of the differences in the prior skills, education levels and the specific interests of individuals. The findings were that there was variation in the increase of income levels. There was a positive relationship between training and reported increase in income levels in some projects, and a negative relationship between training and income levels for other projects. It was interesting that income levels increased for projects that had benefited from the CASP pillar of training and capacity building when the projects were analysed as a group, but when projects were analysed individually, it was revealed that there was a marginal decrease in income levels. There should be a shift in policy. The focus on training and capacity building should be a priority and should occur prior to the projects receiving infrastructure support. The 10% of the total CASP budget allocated for training and capacity building needs to be reviewed, taking into account that low skills levels continue to be the main reason why projects are not sustainable. There is also a need to review the impact of training. The type of training offered should not be generic for all projects, it should be differentiated to suit the both the people and the commodities concerned and should be more biased towards entrepreneurship, as this would enable emerging farmers to grow their business units and realise increased income levels.

Access to abstract restricted until 12/14/2014 / Access to thesis restricted until 12/14/2014 / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

The Farmers' Alliance in Wise County, from its introduction in 1880 to its demise in 1897, endeavored to improve the mental, moral, social, and financial conditions of small agrarians in the north central Texas county. This paper details the Alliance's efforts, in cooperative ventures and political activism and third-party politics, to place farmers in a better economic position. Additionally, the paper focuses on the Alliance's attempts to provide educational and social opportunities and moral guidance to the membership. Source materials include government documents and publications, contemporary accounts, the county Alliance's official newspaper, area newspapers, and the original minutes of the county Alliance from 1893 to 1897.

This paper discusses the influence of religious aspects in rural thought and how they played in the activities of agrarian movements and farm protest movements. The religious orientations of major agrarian reformers in Texas is discussed, as well as the similarities between Protestant religious institutions and agrarian institutions, specifically the Farmers' Alliance and People's Party of Texas.

Mudanças em modos de vida têm sido observadas junto aos agricultores quilombolas e não quilombolas no Vale do Ribeira, trazendo reflexos diretos à alimentação das famílias, bem como ao modo de uso da terra para fins alimentares. A agricultura em pequena escala é uma prática comum nas unidades de conservação no bioma Mata Atlântica, configurando diferentes realidades quanto à segurança alimentar das populações residentes nessas áreas de conservação ambiental. Nesta pesquisa objetivou-se explorar a relação entre modos de vida e segurança alimentar em duas comunidades agrícolas em duas unidades de conservação de uso sustentável, a Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Quilombos da Barra do Turvo e da Área de Proteção Ambiental Planalto do Turvo, que fazem parte do Mosaico de Unidades de Conservação do Jacupiranga, Vale do Ribeira, SP. Os métodos usados para a coleta de dados incluíram questionário estruturado, recordatório 24 horas, sendo visitadas 48 unidades familiares, 24 em cada unidade de conservação. Dados secundários referentes ao cadastramento oficial do ITESP e da gestão de ambas UCs também foram consultados e sistematizados. Foram identificadas as atividades de subsistência que geram recursos alimentares e financeiros, os ambientes de obtenção das mesmas; os hábitos alimentares e verificados contrastes quanto ao consumo de alimentos. Atividades geradoras de alimentos contribuem para a segurança alimentar especialmente na RDS Quilombos, comunidade com maior grau de envolvimento com as práticas agroalimentares quando comparada a APA Planalto do Turvo. Diferenças significativas quanto à composição da dieta entre os grupos pesquisados não foram constatadas nesta pesquisa, indicando que não existem períodos de insegurança alimentar. Os resultados deste estudo reforçam a importância da agricultura contribuindo para a segurança alimentar, concluindo que a prática de produção agroalimentar na RDS e na APA não contradiz a premissa dessas unidades de conservação e contribui para a manutenção da segurança e a soberania alimentar. Embora esse equilíbrio seja frágil, podendo se desestabilizar devido a fatores como diminuição da mão de obra e baixa produtividade, pode-se considerar que a segurança e soberania alimentar foram confirmadas, uma vez que observou-se não haver insegurança alimentar junto aos grupos investigados. / Changes in lifestyle have been observed in the quilombolas and no quilombolas families in Vale do Ribeira-SP, bringing direct reflections in their feed habit, as well as the use of land in order to food purpose.Small-scale agriculture is a common practice in protected areas of the Atlantic Forest biome, configuring different realities on the food security of people in these areas of environmental conservation. This study aimed to explore the relationship between lifestyle and food security in two agricultural communities in two protected areas of sustainable use, the Sustainable Development Reserve Quilombo Barra do Turvo and Environmental Protection Area Plateau Nublado, part of the Mosaic Jacupiranga of Conservation Units, Vale do Ribeira, SP. The methods used for data collection included structured questionnaire and visit to 48 families, 24 in each protected area. Secondary data relating to official registration and management of ITESP and UC were consulted and systematized. Subsistence activities were identified that generate food and financial resources, as well as their production environment and the eating habits. Also was verified contrast in food consumption. Food generating activities contribute to food security especially in RDS Quilombos community which is the most expressive in the agricultural food practices when compared to APA Planalto do Turvo. Significant differences in diet composition between the groups surveyed were not found in this study, indicating that there are no periods of food insecurity. The results of this study reinforce the importance of agriculture contributing to food security. Concluding, the agricultural food production practice in the RDS and in the APA does not contradict the premise of these protected areas and contributes to the maintenance of security and food sovereignty. Although, this balance is fragile and may become unstable due to factors such as reduced labor and low productivity. Beside this, it can be considered that it was confirmed, since there was no food insecurity along the investigated groups.

家族、移民和革命，是考察中國的僑鄉社會，尤其是民國時期的僑鄉社會所不可或缺的三大元素。傳統的華人華僑研究，多把華僑與國民黨的革命活動聯繫起來，以突出華僑對國民黨革命的重要性。然而，這些研究往往忽略了華僑跟共產黨領導的革命的繫連。在當代的潮汕地區，爲了吸引華僑投資家鄉與促進僑鄉的文化旅遊發展，部分僑鄉重構鄉村參與共產黨革命的歷史，建立起「紅色僑鄉」。 / 「紅色僑鄉」這個文化標籤的建立，成爲僑鄉、僑居地與國家之間的文化、政治關係的象徵符號。本文主要以廣東澄海後溝村為個案研究，由此討論僑鄉社會如何塑造自身的歷史與文化。本文嘗試指出，第一次國共合作破裂之後，共產黨在鄉村中秘密動員、組織農民階級對抗「地主階級」，鄉民參加革命能夠起到協調地域社區權力結構中力量的不平衡的作用。自20年代中后期在僑鄉社會中形成的關係網絡延續至抗日戰爭及解放戰爭，與海外移民網絡共同影響著鄉村的宗族和地域社會。當代僑鄉的紅色革命形象，是國家自上而下的意識形態工程所塑造的，也是地方家族、移民在追尋自身利益與政治認同的結果。 / Lineage, migration and revolution are three major elements to study emigrant communities in China, especially in the Republican period. Traditional studies on overseas Chinese focus on the relationship between overseas Chinese and KuoMinTang’s revolutionary activities and highlight the importance of overseas Chinese to KMT revolution. However, these studies often ignore the relationship between overseas Chinese and revolutionary activities led by Chinese Communist Party. In the Chaoshan region, some of the emigrant communities, in order to attract overseas Chinese investment and develop cultural tourism, attempt to establish a "Red Emigrant Community" status through reconstructing the history of village’s participating in CCP’s revolution. / "Red Emigrant Community", or Hongse qiaoxiang, is a cultural label linking emigrant communities and the State. This thesis, using Hougou village as an example explores how emigrant communities shape their own "red" history and culture. After the first cooperation of KMT and CCP, CCP secretly began to mobilize and organize peasants against landlords in villages. Villager’s participation in revolutionary activities could be seen as a balance of power in the local community. Together with their overseas networks, emigrant communities’ revolutionary networks, which were formed in the 1920s and continued through the WWII and the Liberation, influenced villages’ lineage and regional structures. Red Emigrant Community is not only a top-down National projects. It is a result of pursuing interests and seeking political identity by local lineage and overseas Chinese. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 王惠. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (M.Phil.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-187). / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Wang Hui.

The dissertation consists of three studies that seek to identify school caterer and women farmer constraints that have hindered the buy-local policy mandate of the Ghana School Lunch program, and to explore gendered agricultural technology adoption and contract participation strategies that could facilitate the policy mandate. The first study documents the constraints that have minimized caterer purchases of school food items from local farmers. The study presents an overview of the Ghana School Lunch Program and the buy-local policy mandate issued to school caterers. Survey data and descriptive analysis are employed to document and discuss the constraints that prevent school caters from purchasing from local farmers as well as the constraints faced by smallholder women farmers in supplying to school caters. The study subsequently discusses school caterers’ compensating variation of a hypothetical policy that requires them to firstly provide recommended portions of vegetables and protein, and secondly include fruits in the lunch of the schoolchildren. The second study analyses the factors underlying the probability that women smallholder farmers - compared to male farmers - adopt less a) improved seeds, b) fertilizer, c) herbicides and d) pesticides. The study further examines the sensitivity of gender differences in technology adoption to crop choice, particularly maize and legume, as well as the possible heterogeneity of technology adoption differences within rural and peri-urban communities. The adoption of these improved technologies is modeled using multivariate probit regressions. A gender gap is observed among legume farmers for improved seed and pesticide adoption. Moreover, the findings indicate that female maize farmers who have input into all cash crop production decisions are more likely to adopt improved seeds and pesticides. Among legume farmers, the results indicate that female farmers who are educated and have access to credit are more likely to adopt fertilizer, while female legume farmers who have a say in what the use of income generated from cash crop farming are more likely to adopt pesticides. These results imply that policy-makers and development practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa should consider strategies to target and increase educational, financial and productive assets of female farmers in order to close the gender technology gap and increase multiple technology adoption. The third study examines the use of farm-to-school contracts as a means to provide access to credit for women farmers in rural and peri-urban areas and facilitate the buy-local policy mandate. In particular, the study examines the factors influencing male and female smallholder farmers’ minimum willingness to accept (WTA) farm-to-school-lunch contracts for maize and cowpea beans. The minimum WTA simultaneously measures the decision to participate as well as the minimum price at which the smallholder farmer accepts the contract. Using sex-disaggregated data from a field experiment, a Tobit model is applied to explain the underlying factors influencing male and female smallholder farmer’s minimum WTA for a set of hypothetical maize and cowpea beans contracts. The results for the pooled sample indicate that the delivery at harvest option increases farmers’ minimum willingness to accept both the maize and beans contracts. The study further examines heterogeneity in the minimum WTA among smallholder farmers. The results in the female specification indicate that, the advance pay option lowers the minimum WTA for maize contracts. Additionally, women farmers who own non-farm business, compared to a male with a non-farm business, have a lower minimum WTA for the maize and beans contracts. The results suggest that if the government considers contractual arrangements between school caterers and local farmers to facilitate the buy-local policy mandate, an advance pay option to women farmers may yield lower premiums for contracted food items.

Tyrimo objektas – ekologinio ūkininkavimo vystymasis Lietuvoje. Darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti ekologinio ūkininkavimo vystymąsi Lietuvoje ir identifikuoti ekologinį ūkininkavimą skatinančius veiksnius. Darbo tikslas suponavo šiuos uždavinius: 1) identifikuoti ekologinio ūkininkavimo vietą darnaus žemės ūkio vystymosi kontekste; 2) nustatyti ekologinio ūkininkavimo atsiradimo prielaidas, vystymosi motyvus; 3) išanalizuoti ekologinio ūkininkavimo mastą ir jo pokyčius Lietuvoje; 4) identifikuoti ir įvertinti ekologinį ūkininkavimą skatinančius veiksnius šalyje. Tyrimo metodai: • analizuojant ekologinio ūkininkavimo vystymosi Lietuvoje teorinius pagrindus, naudoti bendramoksliniai tyrimo metodai – loginė mokslinės literatūros ir teisinių dokumentų analizė ir sintezė; • įvertinant ekologinės gamybos ūkių skaičiaus, jų ploto bei specializacijos pokyčius, naudoti statistinių duomenų rinkimo, analizės bei sintezės metodai; • įvertinant veiksnius, turinčius įtakos ekologiškai ūkininkaujančių ūkininkų pajamoms bei ekologinio ūkininkavimo vystymuisi Lietuvoje, naudotas statistinis – matematinis duomenų analizės metodas; • statistinei informacijai apdoroti ir sisteminti panaudoti grupavimo, palyginimo ir grafinio vaizdavimo būdai. Tyrimo rezultatai: • pirmoje darbo dalyje išnagrinėtos ekologinio ūkininkavimo atsiradimo prielaidos, motyvai. Apibendrinama mokslininkų nuomonė apie ekologinio ūkininkavimo vystymosi veiksnius ir problemas; • antroje darbo dalyje išanalizuoti ekologinės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Research object: the development of organic farming in Lithuania. Research aim: to analyze the development of organic farming in Lithuania and to identify the factors stimulating organic farming. The research object supposes those objectives: 1) to identify the positive territory for organic farming; 2) to determine the rise (origin) presumptions of organic farming, the motives of the development; 3) to analyses the extent of organic farming and its changes in Lithuania; 4) to analyses and evaluate the factors stimulating the organic farming in the country. Research methods: • common scientific methods such as analysis and synthesis of the scientific references and juristically documents were used while analyzing the theoretical reasons of the organic farming’s development; • to evaluate the number of organic farms, their territory and problem - oriented changes, the methods of search for statistical data, analysis and synthesis were practiced; • statistical – mathematical ways of analysis were used to evaluate the factors influencing the income and development of the organic farms • the ways of blocking, comparisons and graphic representations were taken to process and structure statistical information. Research results: • In the first part of the work coming (origin) presumptions and motives are presented as well as generalized scientific opinion about the developing factors and problems of organic industrial farming. • The second part analyses the number of organic... [to full text]

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The main objective of the study was to investigate the causes underlining small-farmers default on bank loan repayments in the North West Province. One hundred and sixty farmers were randomly selected to be part of the sample. Questionnaires were issued to both farmers and bank officials. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression models were used to analyse the data. The overall results indicate that most of the small farmers are in the old age category (58 years on average) with very low educational level. This scenario poses a challenge to the stakeholders in agriculture specifically the succession plan to these elderly people when they leave agriculture due to retirement. It was revealed by the study that the farmers do not keep either financial or production records. The analysis shows that the small farmers lack skills in financial management therefore, they are unable to execute the prerequisite to modern farming which are literacy and numeracy as indicated by Woohall et. al.,( 1985). Most of the respondents have outstanding debt from Agribank yet they received loans from Landbank. Because of their low production and other many responsibilities, they are unable to repay loan instalments thus leading to loan default to their current financial supplier, which is Landbank. Lack of monitoring of loan funds was identified as one of the causes of the farmers Joan default. The analysis also indicates that the small farmers have access to finance but the major problem is lack of financial management skills, more involvement in household responsibilities, and lack of technical assistance from relevant stakeholders like extension officers and project managers from the bank or from the Department of Agriculture. Since the Land bank have no field officers to assist the farmers, it is recommended that the bank should have field officers to assist farmers in their business, especially with production, marketing, financial management and farm management Skills. The inability of the farmers to access good value markets for their products was identified as one of the problems, which led to loan default because the farmers are unable to market their products at the right time for good value in excess of their cost. It is recommended that financial institutions should assist their clients to access better markets for their products for better price which will in turn give them better income in order to repay their loans. / M.Sc. (Agric. Economics) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005