ALBERT

Description: The government of Kazakhstan is currently developing strategies and policies to stimulate milk production at an industrial production level to increase milk processing capacity. We use and expand the reasoned action approach as a framework to study the factors underlying the rural household’s motivation to participate in a governmental programme aimed at increasing rural cooperative production in Kazakhstan to increase milk production using primary data acquired from 181 randomly selected dairy households in the Akmola region of Kazakhstan. We account for the rural household’s psychological factors and socio-demographic characteristics along with the household’s risk attitudes, production structure, level of information about the government support programme and cooperatives, cultural aspects as well as the household’s proximity to the main market. A bivariate probit model is used to jointly estimate the impact of these factors on the rural household’s intention to join and create a cooperative. The results show that rural households which hold positive views towards cooperatives, have a relatively high production capacity, are aware/know of cooperatives, and do not have a dairy business as a source of household income are relatively keen to participate in collective actions. Perceived social norms and household risk attitudes also play a significant role in the rural household’s intention to participate in collective actions. Finally, gender and nationality are found to be positively associated with joining and creating a cooperative, while higher educated rural households are found to be less motivated to participate in the programme. In order to stimulate milk production at an industrial production level through a policy that encourages collective action, we recommend a policy that (a) supports rural households which have the capacity to produce and are in need; (b) is attractive to rural households which consider dairy as a source of income; and (c) is well disseminated and well explained to the targeted rural households.

Description: In an era of global warming, long-standing challenges for rural populations, including land inequality, poverty and food insecurity, risk being exacerbated by the effects of climate change. Innovative and effective approaches, such as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), are required to alleviate these environmental pressures without hampering efficiency. In countries with unequal distribution of land, where issues of access to and use of land rank high on the policy agenda, policymakers are confronted with the challenge of implementing interventions such as land reforms, whilst endeavouring to ensure that sustainable agriculture approaches be adopted by farm-households. The aim of this study is to investigate how land reforms can provide an opportunity for policymakers, particularly in lower-income countries, to enhance not only equity and efficiency but also environmental sustainability. In particular, this study builds on an extensive review of the theoretical and empirical literature and employs a conceptual framework analysis method to develop and describe a framework that explores how land reforms can be associated with the CSA approach. The resultant “Climate Smart Land Reform” (CSLR) framework contains four driving pillars, namely land redistribution, tenure reform, rural advisory services and markets and infrastructure. The framework disentangles relevant channels through which land reform, via its four pillars, can foster CSA adoption and thus contribute to the attainment of sustainable increases in agricultural productivity, climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation. The framework also includes relevant channels through which more ‘traditional’ objectives of land reformers, including economic, social and political objectives, can be achieved. In turn, the (partial) attainment of such objectives would lead to improvements in agroecological and socioeconomic conditions of rural areas and populations. These improvements are considered within the framework as the ‘ultimate’ objective of land reformers. The CSLR framework represents an innovative way of conceptualising how land reforms can generate beneficial effects not only in terms of equity and efficiency but also of environmental sustainability.

Description: Integration of crop and livestock production systems (ICLS) represents a method for enhancing the sustainability of agricultural systems. Introducing more diversified farm production plans increases profitability and resilience by minimising the negative environmental impacts of agricultural production. Examining farm businesses located in Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) of England, we investigate how conversion into more integrated systems impacts on profitability. Thus, providing knowledge that can enable structural changes on the farm level towards enhancing financial performance and the sustainable intensification of the production system. Through Linear Programming (LP), four distinct optimisation scenarios are estimated, demonstrating the different dynamics between more specialised and more integrated-diversified (intensified) production systems. Data regarding physical and financial performances of 139 farm businesses were derived from the Farm Business Survey (FBS) for the accounting year of 2013–2014. Our findings suggest that there is a lot of potential for increasing profitability of hill farms through optimisation of ICLS. Policy interventions may accommodate productivity challenges within the LFAs via the construction of networks of transferrable knowledge to enable farmers gain knowledge on benefits emerging from ICLS. Hence, promote strategies and risk mitigation practises that could allow hill farmers to develop a sustainably intensified production system that is maximising the production capacity of the available natural resources.