Academic literature on the topic 'Small Farmers' Development Agency, Ambala'

Facing substantial sustainability challenges, sustainable transitions to circular systems are increasingly called for. The use of biomass to produce textile fibers is a niche that could contribute to a circular textile system. In this niche, farmers supplying biomass would play a crucial role. Through a literature review, we argue in this article that farmers are important actors in this context, but their agency is limited by numerous institutional factors, such as cultivation practices, labor markets, and information systems. These factors together can create an institutional void, which can hamper both the agency of farmers and their ability to participate, as well as the justness of the niche. The void’s strength depends on the institutional interface a farmer is subjected to. Before just transitions to circular systems can occur, marginalized actors’ agency and ability to participate in the niche, in a just way, must be improved, by decreasing the strength of the institutional void.

Use of enhanced Information Communication Technology is among the key targets set forth in the 7th National Development Plan. Absence of a rigorous approval process has seen an increase in the number of ghost farmers benefiting from the Farmer Input Support Programme. The lack of a single pool of farmer and marketing information for technocrats makes decision making a near impossible task. This paper proposes a system for the capturing and management of farmer information using cloud infrastructure. Having this information will bring efficiency to the activities of farmer-facing bodies such as the Farmer Input Support Programme and the Food Reserve Agency.

Poor production methods and limited market access are some of the challenges that prevent small African farmers from developing. In cattle farming, poor grazing practices and a lack of vaccination produce poor quality animals. Limited information, poor infrastructure, cultural issues and other factors, lead to low participation levels of these farmers in livestock markets. This study explored the prevalence of these challenges in two geographical locations of two African countries (South Africa and Kenya) with the intention to identify possible cross lessons for developing small rural farmers. Ethnographic and case study methods were used to collect and analyse data in two provinces (one in each country) where cattle farming by small rural farmers is predominant. From the two countries, three cases of distinguishable cattle production and marketing challenges were identified. Firstly, rural South African (SA) small farmers are generally faced with high production and marketing challenges, which prevent them from developing into successful commercial farmers. Secondly, Kenyan small rural farmers face similar production challenges as those faced by their SA counterparts, but perform better at marketing their animals, although they still face a lot of structural marketing issues, with brokers controlling the market to the disadvantage of farmers. Thirdly, the study identified a case of rural Black SA farmers who are being assisted through a research project in the Eastern Cape Province that embraces a more holistic environmental approach to rural development to overcome most production and marketing challenges. Given the successes of the holistic view, this study concludes that the environmental approach presents the best case lessons for replication across SA in developing small African farmers. It is argued that the replication of lessons across SA would require central coordination by a government agency. The national agricultural extension office (one of whose mandates is to work directly with farmers for their development) would be most appropriate for this coordination role.

The Forest Service of Pakistan has concerned itself since colonial times largely with the production, protection, and extraction of trees in the nation's state forests. The only contact that its officers had with most farmers (except large landowners, with whom they had traditional patron-client relations) was to levy punishments for violations of forest laws or gather fees for the use of forest resources. In recent years, the state forests have declined in area and importance, and the need to increase on-farm supplies of tree products and halt resource degradation has increased. As a result, the Government of Pakistan, with the assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), decided to change the basic direction of the Forest Service—away from state lands to private lands, away from commercial to subsistence or mixed subsistence/commercial production, and thus away from the rural elite to the small farmer. The vehicle chosen to accomplish this was the bilaterally funded Forestry Planning and Development Project, Pakistan's first major social forestry project.

Abstract The agri SMEs in Kosovo are facing challenges that are reducing competitiveness and preventing it from fulfilling their production potential. The main constraints in increasing productivity and improving competitiveness are the low use of modern techniques and technologies in both production and management of enterprises, lack of funds, the low use of inputs, and the limited ability to meet international standards of food safety. This paper is focused on the analysis of the impact of agricultural SMEs in the rural economy of the country and the problems related to the impact. The data used for this analysis are the data conducted for the Farm Structure Survey (FSS) which includes the farmers’ list from Agricultural Records compiled by the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) in 2014, as well as the lists of beneficiaries for both direct payments/subsidies and for grants for the period of 2014 to 2017 received by the Agency for Agriculture Development. From the research results, significant factors having an effect on the annual income of agris SMEs are the following: income from the sale of agricultural products, income from subsidies, income from non-agricultural activities, income from salaries, remittances, and income from other activities.

This study aims to formulate the development strategy for sago local food agroindustry in Maluku Province. The sample was taken deliberately (purposive sampling) because respondents realize the sago development in the province. The respondents, totaling 15 people, consisted of farmers, traders, and experts from several agencies, namely the Food Security Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Industry and Commerce, the Department of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Micro Enterprises, Universities, and Non-Governmental Organizations. Data analysis utilized the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. The priority analysis results of sago agroindustry development strategy revealed technology as a top priority in the agroindustry development for being associated with very low and limited assistance and access to processing technology. The sago local food agroindustry development focuses on linkages between factors, sub-factors, actors, objectives, and policy scenarios. The recommended policy scenarios are preserving local food, improving technology, arranging marketing strategies, improving production facilities and infrastructure, and improving institutional systems.

Flower crops are an alternative for diversification in small farms, being gladiolus an option of cut flower. The objective of this study was to disseminate the gladiolus crop as an alternative for diversification and profit for small farms through an extension project where crop management practices were demonstrated during its development cycle. An extension project was carried out in partnership with a rural extension agency, EMATER/RS-ASCAR, to identify the farmers interested in diversifying their production system for growing gladiolus. The extension project was developed in four counties in the Central region of the Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil. Together with the extensionists of EMATER/RS-ASCAR, farmers were assisted during the entire production cycle and learned the management practices from planting to harvesting. Altogether, approximately 2,400 gladiolus spikes were produced, which were marketed one week before and during Mother’s Day week at local fairs. In all the counties, the demand and consumption of the flower stems were high, demonstrating acceptance of the consumers of gladiolus stems on Mother’s Day. The gladiolus production has proven to be profitable for small family properties. This system encourages the production in short-chains, contributes to the growth of local flower production and may contribute for decreasing rural exodus and sustainability for future generations

Agriculture, like the entire Ukrainian economy, is experiencing a difficult period. Although such a downturn in production, which had been at the time of restructuring, did not take place, but the results of the activity are rather uneven over the years and tend to decrease over the past few years. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the financial condition of farmers depends on the macroeconomic situation, which is confirmed by foreign studies, namely, on a specific policy of state support. More than 11% of agricultural and farm enterprises are concentrated in Vinnytsia region. ¼ part of the farms has a land ownership of up to 500 hectares, and an essential criterion begins with 50 hectares. A significant (20%) share of farms has a land bank of 1-2 thousand hectares. The share of small agricultural enterprises for 2010-2017 has increased from 22.7% to 35.7%, and the share of micro-enterprises in them remains constant - 10%. In the special fund of the state budget, according to the program 2801460 "Granting loans to farms", allocations for 2016 - UAH 15.8 million were determined; 2017 - UAH 65.0 million, in 2018 - UAH 43.1 million. According to the regional state administration, according to the results of the implementation of budget support programs for agrarians in 2018, Vinnytsia region was second only to the number of financial support provided to farmers by the Mykolaiv region. Yes, it was used by 411 farms with 2,350 registered (17.5%). It is supposed that all key areas of state support for 2019 will be maintained. In the region there is a Program for the development of private, farm enterprises for 2016-2020 (modern edition in the Regulation of the State Aviation Administration dated 02.11.2016, number 40). For 2014-2016, UAH 4.96 million has been allocated to this direction from the region budget. Favorable loans were received by 24 farmers and 7 private farms, 5 agricultural cooperatives. In 2017, the program allocated 1.0 million UAH, the trend was also in 2018 The most successful program is to reduce the cost of technology. According to the Ministry of Agropolicy, it has already used 1830 farms in Ukraine and purchased 2,900 units of equipment. The amount of compensation amounted to 211 million hryvnias. Moreover, the most interested persons were Vinnytsia - 163 agricultural enterprises. Agrarians of Vinnytsia region received almost 16 million UAH. reimbursement. About 7.7 mln UAH got gardeners of Vinnytsia region as a partial compensation for purchased landing material. Taking into account the data of 2017, it was discovered that the financial crisis has hit most of the small businesses, due to the fact that it is harder for them to attract external financing, including tight credit requirements. It is for this reason that, when analyzing the financial support of farmers abroad, there are compromises between profitability, ecosystem services and other social factors, which is a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable development of agriculture. A holistic approach to assessing the productivity of farms in the production, social, financial and environmental dimensions is being developed. In this context, the ministry's intention is to draw the attention of heads of specialized departments to the between rural councils and agribusiness, as well as the level of salaries that would indicate a socially oriented agrarian business. For Vinnytsia region issues of attraction of new agricultural producers for cooperation in the project with the Euro region "Dniester" and the special support of this direction are considered by the branch of the Ukrainian State Fund for support of farms, the Institute of forage and agriculture Podillya of the NAAS of Ukraine and the Vinnytsia regional branch of the State Agricultural Protection Agency "State Soil Protection". In order to use budget funds efficiently, to achieve a balance in funding support programs and sustainable socio-economic development of the village, to increase the competitiveness of agricultural producers, to expand the commodity structure of exports and to establish Ukraine on the world food markets, the Ministry of Agropolicy has drafted a bill "On Amendments to the Law" On State support of agriculture of Ukraine ". It provides the basic principles for the creation and functioning of the State Paying Agency and the State Agrarian Register. It is worth taking into account the example of EU countries that build a database of agricultural producers by introducing a free identification procedure in a single register. An individual entrepreneur or legal entity creates a personal electronic cabinet and automatically receives information on all types of state aid, eligibility criteria, and the ability to apply online. Analysis of foreign experience shows that in their attempts to increase the viability of family farms, agricultural governments have chosen a number of approaches that can be extended to developing countries. To improve the organizational and financial structure of farms, it is necessary to improve communication processes within farms and between farmers' organizations, enterprises, and social funds in order to establish common priorities for agrarian development in identifying and / or developing, adapting and expanding innovations. Consequently, prospects for further exploration in this area lie in the field of elaboration of a methodology for determining the financial condition of farms based on farm and simplified financial statements.

AbstractThis article makes a case for Vietnam as a distinctive example of late- and post-socialist marketization, a painful experience that has brought widespread immiseration to rural societies within and beyond Asia. Building on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in a northern Vietnamese village, I explore a hitherto under-researched aspect of Vietnam's massive social and economic transformation in the 30 years since the onset of market transition or Renovation (Đổi mới): the surprising ways in which rural households have negotiated both the risks and opportunities of the state's push to de-cooperativize and marketize village livelihoods. The state expects that a minority of rich farmers will rapidly move into large-scale, mechanized farming, while the majority will abandon small-scale subsistence farming to specialize in trade or participate in industrial waged employment. Surprisingly, all village households insist on being đa gi năng, that is, on retaining multiple livelihood options instead of following the official modernization scripts. Their refusal to follow state plans is not market-averse ‘resistance’, but something rarely documented in the literature on peasant life in marketizing contexts: a local sense of agency and taking personal responsibility for the security and long-term welfare of their families, in the face of highly unpredictable state policies.

During the Cold War years following World War II, the U.S. government and international agencies such as the World Bank and FAO strongly advocated and pushed for land reform (distribution) in countries under U.S. influence. Examples of American-sponsored land reforms included the land-distribution programs in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, South Vietnam, Iran, the Philippines, and El Salvador. Land reform in practice consisted of giving the ownership of land to the cultivating tenants and sharecroppers. By giving land to the tenants, it was believed that a communist revolution or takeover could be avoided. The modern theoretical basis for land reform can be found in the writings of such Marxist scholars as Alain de Janvry, the non-Marxist writers Albert Berry and William Cline, and the World Bank economists Hans Binswanger and Miranda Elgins.1 Marxist writers had stressed the political aspects of “anti-feudal” reforms. Such reforms were said to promote political stability as well as strengthen capitalism. How the abrogation of private-property rights was supposed to “strengthen” capitalism was not really explained. Non-Marxist writers concentrated on increased efficiency and increased output that was expected from land redistribution. Berry and Cline showed that in labor-surplus underdeveloped dual economies with a bi-modal farm structure (where large commercial and small subsistence farms existed side by side), a land reform that redistributed land from large farms to small farms increased agricultural production and rural welfare, and brought about economic growth and development. In addition, land reform was seen to result in greater social equity (taking land from wealthy landowners and giving it to poor farmers). It was an article of faith among the proponents of land reform that “the hated class of absentee landlords” did not fulfill any useful socio-economic function, at least none that could not be performed equally well by some government agency. They also believed that sharecropping and tenancy did not fulfill any useful social and economic functions. It was implicitly assumed in the theoretical writings that the rights of a small number of individuals were to be sacrificed for the benefit of the many. In none of the theoretical literature was the possibility of expropriating a large number of individuals advocated or even considered.

The trente glorieuses, “thirty glorious years” of rapid postwar modernization, transformed France into an efficient agricultural powerhouse between 1950 and 1980. Deep structural changes benefitted those able to become modern farmers and precipitated the economic collapse of small peasant farms. Poor, remote regions emptied as young people left for jobs and a higher standard of living in cities. The modernization of agriculture was part of a state-led program of targeted regional development and planning carried out under the auspices of the DATAR, France’s national agency for “territorial balancing.” Ultimately urban development, the decentralization of industry, and the building of a modern infrastructure for communication, transportation, and energy production took precedence over the needs of agriculture. New demands placed on rural space for residential use, tourism and recreation, and protected natural sites created a multiuse landscape. Not only were farmers no longer peasants, the countryside was no longer just farmland.

Rangelands in Africa (i.e., grasslands, savannas, and woodlands, which contain both grasses and woody plants) cover approximately 2.1 × 109 ha. Africa’s livestock population of about 184 million cattle, 3.72 million small ruminants (sheep and goats), and 17 million camels extract about 80% of their nutrition from these vast rangelands (IPCC, 1996). Rangelands have a long history of human use and are noted for great variability in climate and frequent drought events. The combination of climatic variability, low ecological resilience, and human land use make rangeland ecosystems more susceptible to rapid degeneration of ecosystems. From a land-use perspective, there are differences between West Africa and East Africa in rangelands use. In arid and semiarid areas of West Africa (rainfall 5–600 mm), millet (or another crop) is planted over a unimodal (one peak in rainfall per year) rainy season (three to four months); then fields remain fallow during the dry season, ranging from eight to nine months. Livestock eat crop residues. Land use is dominated by cultivation, with livestock playing a subsidiary role in the village economy. In East Africa, by contrast, areas with higher rainfall (up to 600 mm) are inhabited by pastoralists rather than farmers. In dry parts, cultivation occurs mainly where irrigation is possible or where water can otherwise be sequestered and stored for cropping. Rainfall is bimodal (two peaks in rainfall per year) in most rangelands, resulting in two growing seasons. As much as 85% of the population live and depend on rangelands in a number of countries in Africa. With emerging problems associated with the increasing population, the changes in key production areas, and the prevalence of episodic droughts and insecurity due to climatic change and ecological degradation and expansion of grazing territories, the traditional coping strategies of farmers, ranchers, and pastoralists have become inappropriate. More uncertainties require new innovations in characterizing, monitoring, analyzing, and communicating the emergence of drought to allow pastoral communities to cope with a rapidly changing environment. To this end, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the Texas A&M University System an assessment grant to develop a Livestock Early Warning System (LEWS) as part of the Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program.