Suchergebnisse

Das Forschungsparadigma der Agrarökonomie ist menschliches Rationalverhalten in einer von Ressourcenknappheit geprägten Welt. Die Forschungspraxis stellt quantitative Modellierungen von Optimierungsverhalten in den Mittelpunkt. Beratung von Handlungsträgern bei der Lösung praktischer Probleme ist hiermit jedoch kaum möglich. Hingegen leisten qualitative Forschungsansätze insbesondere in der Entwicklungsländerforschung interessante Beiträge. Fallstudien werden erst seit einigen Jahren häufiger verwendet und derzeit stärker diskutiert, partizipative Aktionsforschung bereits seit den 70er Jahren. Andere qualitative Ansätze sind im Bereich der Agrarökonomik wenig bekannt. Beispielhafte Dissertationen aus der Veröffentlichungsreihe "Forschungsberichte zur Ökonomie im Gartenbau" zeigen aber, daß qualitative Forschungsmethoden auch in der deutschen Agrarforschung erfolgreich eingesetzt werden

This article addresses regional features of the food sector in Russia's subnational territories. The diverse geographic and climatic characteristics as well as policy measures during the socialist era have resulted in specialised patterns of agricultural production. Under central planning regional demand and supply of food products was balanced by public intervention. With the beginning of the transition period the federal Russian government lost power and lacked financial means to continue this balancing mechanism. The regionalisation of policy-making increased the sovereignty of the subnational units in Russia. Today many of the regions pursue strategies of autarky and self-sufficiency and have implemented corresponding agricultural and food policies. Against the background, the evolving patterns of the food economy in Russia's regions are analysed quantitatively. We use a set of socio-economic indicators as well as food supply and demand variables to identify regional classes. Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis are applied to test the significance of the chosen variables for the group composition. The resulting classification focuses on relationships between agricultural sector performance and the welfare situation of households. It highlights that policy increasingly matters for regional diversity: first, different agricultural and food policies at the oblast level change the relative position of the regions in terms of food sector performance; second, the administrative status of a region (oblast versus autonomous region or republic) has an impact on the performance of the food sector in the region. We conclude, that the transition period has increased the disintegration of food markets and therefore the regional heterogeneity of the food sector in Russia.

The rice landscapes of the Marismas, the marshlands at the lower Guadalquivir river in Southern Spain, reflect the dynamic development of the rice sector since the initial colonization of the area by private companies. The excellent natural conditions for rice and the young socioeconomic structure favored farming at a large scale and a progressing introduction of agricultural and organizational innovations. This paper deals with recent structural changes caused by mechanization, rationalization and capitalization that also mark fields and settlements. The dynamic industrialization process of rice growing at the Southern periphery of Europe leads to the development of a joint production system including the integration of rice farmers, suppliers, the service sector and rice factories. The complex economical, social and ecological consequences of this process indicate also problems and risks of industrial rice growing, especially referring to agropolitical changes, high capitalization, the dualism of large rice farms and underemployed peasants, the increasing dependence from a great industrial company, the competition for increasingly scarcer water resources, the environmental risks of agrochemical products and the spatial neighborhood with natural parks.