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Producers
Kinds of Producers Terms modified by Producers Selected AbstractsMarketing Strategies and Challenges of Small-Scale Organic Producers in Central North CarolinaCULTURE, AGRICULTURE, FOOD & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 3 2000Assistant Professor Susan L. Andreatta First page of article [source] Market-based Price-risk Management for Coffee ProducersDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2007Sushil Mohan Coffee is characterised by high levels of price fluctuation, which exposes producers to price risk. Its wide trading in international commodity futures markets offers scope for producers to manage the risk by hedging on these markets, the mechanism for which is based on the use of put options. This article uses historical data of actual put-options contracts to estimate the costs of the mechanism, the benefits being inferred from field evidence. It emerges that the costs are relatively low and outweighed by the benefits for most producers. The article then looks at the operational feasibility of the mechanism for producers and compares it with other hedging mechanisms. [source] The global alcohol industry: an overviewADDICTION, Issue 2009David H. Jernigan ABSTRACT Aims To describe the globalized sector of the alcoholic beverage industry, including its size, principal actors and activities. Methods Market research firms and business journalism are the primary sources for information about the global alcohol industry, and are used to profile the size and membership of the three main industry sectors of beer, distilled spirits and wine. Findings Branded alcoholic beverages are approximately 38% of recorded alcohol consumption world-wide. Producers of these beverages tend to be large multi-national corporations reliant on marketing for their survival. Marketing activities include traditional advertising as well as numerous other activities, such as new product development, product placement and the creation and promotion of social responsibility programs, messages and organizations. Conclusions The global alcohol industry is highly concentrated and innovative. There is relatively little public health research evaluating the impact of its many marketing activities. [source] Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) Cultivars and Breeding Lines as Stem Biomass ProducersJOURNAL OF AGRONOMY AND CROP SCIENCE, Issue 4 2000H. S. Sankari Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) stems, which contain bast fibres, make up a considerable part of the linseed biomass, but are considered a by-product of no value. The feasibility of cultivating existing linseed cultivars and breeding lines for dual-purpose use of stem and seed was studied in 1995,97 in Jokioinen, Finland. Finnish linseed cv. Helmi was compared with 10 linseed genotypes and one flax cultivar for stem yield, ratio of stem yield to seed yield, and plant stand height and density. The stem yield of cv. Helmi averaged 1317 kg dry matter ha -1. Significantly higher stem yields were produced by breeding lines Bor 15 and Bor 18 and cvs Gold Merchant, Norlin and Martta. The cv. Helmi produced lower stem yield than seed yield while breeding lines Bor 15 and Bor 18 and cvs Gold Merchant and Martta yielded more stem than seeds. The difference in the ratio of stem yield to seed yield between them and cv. Helmi was statistically significant. The mean plant stand height was 60.3 cm and the final plant density 594 plants m -2. No relationship was found between stem yield and height or density. Within 2 days of seed threshing, stems of early maturing Finnish genotypes dried up in the field to nearly 15 % moisture content, even in the middle of September (1996). The early maturing breeding lines Bor 15 and Bor 18, with their significantly higher stem yields relative to cv. Helmi, are recommended for dual-purpose use. Zusammenfassung Der bastfasernenthaltende Stengel des Ölleins (Linum usitatissimum L.) bildet einen Grossteil der oberirdischen Biomasse von Öllein, der häufig keiner Nutzung zugeführt wird. Um das Potential bestehender Ölleinsorten und -zuchtlinien für eine Doppelnutzung von Samen und Stengelbiomasse zu überprüfen, wurden in den Jahren 1995,97 in Jokioinen (Finland) Feldversuche durchgeführt. Die finnische Ölleinsorte Helmi wurde mit zehn Ölleinzuchtstämmen und einer Faserleinsorte angebaut, und der Stengelertrag, der Stengelertrag im Verhältnis zum Samenertrag und die Bestandeshöhe und -dichte wurden ermittelt. Der Stengelertrag betrug bei Helmi durchschnittlich 1317 kg Trockenmasse ha -1. Signifikant höhere Stengelerträge wurden von den Zuchtlinien Bor 15 und Bor 18, den Sorten Gold Merchant, Norlin und Martta produziert. Helmi produzierte im Mittel einen geringeren Stengel , als Samenertrag. Die Stengelerträge der Zuchtstämme Bor 15 und Bor 18 und der Sorten Gold Merchant und Martta waren höher als die Samenerträge. Zwischen diesen Genotypen und der Sorte Helmi ist der Unterschied des Ertragsverhältnisses signifikant. Die Bestandeshöhe lag im Durchschnitt bei 60,3 cm und die Bestandesdichte betrug im Mittel 594 Pflanzen m -2. Eine Korrelation zwischen dem Stengelertrag und der Bestandeshöhe bzw. -dichte konnte nicht nachgewiesen werden. Die Stengel der frühen finnischen Genotypen trockneten nach dem Dreschen auf dem Feld (Mitte September 1996) in zwei Tagen auf einen Feuchtegehalt von 15% ab. Die frühreifen Zuchtlinien Bor 15 und Bor 18 können aufgrund ihrer signifikant höheren Stengelerträge im Vergleich zu der Sorte Helmi für eine Doppelnutzung empfohlen werden. [source] Potato demand in an increasingly organic marketplace,AGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009Ming-Feng Hsieh The authors investigate pricing and demand issues for four fresh potato categories (russet, red, white, and minor colored), organic fresh potatoes, and two processed potato categories (frozen/refrigerated and dehydrated) using a nonlinear generalized almost ideal demand system (GAIDS) that is closed under unit scaling (CUUS). The model used regionally aggregated at-home consumption data from 2000 to 2005. Estimated uncompensated own price elasticities for fresh potatoes were highly significant and ranged between ,0.5 and ,1.6. The study was designed to capture the effects of the aggregate organic market on the prices, expenditures, and demand for each potato category. Organic food market penetration elasticities suggest that specialty potatoes (organic and minor-colored) are particularly well positioned if demands for organic products continue to rise, red potatoes are not well positioned and evidence of the early warning signs of slippage in market share for white and russet potatoes may exist. Producers and promoters of conventional potato products should account for the increasingly important role of organic products in making decisions. As an auxiliary exercise, we also statistically sourced the variance of the organic potato price premium relative to the other four fresh potato prices. At the present time, the variability of the organic potato premium is not much affected by production costs or other supply-related factors: the premium variability was driven largely by demand, and demographic/seasonal factors. Producers should be cautious about shifting to organic potato production until lower cost practices emerge. [JEL Codes: D120, Q130, Q180]. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Producers' complex risk management choicesAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2008Joost M.E. Pennings Producers have a wide variety of risk management instruments available, making their choice(s) complex. The way producers deal with this complexity can vary and may influence the impact that the determinants, such as risk aversion, have on their choices. A recently developed choice bracketing framework recognizes that producers are unable to evaluate all alternatives simultaneously and that to manage a complex task, they often group or bracket individual alternatives and their consequences together in choice sets. Data on 1,105 U.S. producers show that producers do not use all available combinations of risk management tools and that the influence of the determinants of producer's risk management decisions are not necessarily the same across risk management strategies within and across bracketing levels. The findings may help resolve puzzling results on the role that well-known determinants of risk management behavior have on producers' choices, extending knowledge on producers' risk management behavior. Further, the findings have managerial implications for policy makers and agribusiness companies that provide risk management services. [EconLit citations: M000, G1000, Q130] © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] E-Commerce and Export Markets: Small Furniture Producers in South AfricaJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2003Sagren Moodley First page of article [source] Technology, genres, and value change: The case of little magazinesJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 7 2006Stephen Paling Producers in creative genres are frequently motivated by goals that put those producers in opposition to popular culture and marketplace pressures. Questions about whether those goals reflect values that belong specifically to print culture, or whether those values will continue to motivate producers in creative genres after the introduction of online technology, have not been answered empirically. Previous studies of genre change have been among those that have focused on the ability of human actors to use information technology to alter those genres as social structures. However, these studies have focused on generic artifacts rather than on the creative values that motivated the creation of those artifacts. Editors of small literary magazines (generally referred to as little magazines) make ideal subjects for this study. Creative values play an important role in their decisions, and they frequently publish poetry, fiction, and other work that stand in opposition to popular culture and literature. This study proposed and evaluated a conceptual framework for anticipating whether editors of little magazines will use online technologies to reinforce or alter the values characteristic of their genre. The study found that the values posited in the conceptual framework fit the goals expressed by little magazine editors. Not all editors held those values equally, however. These findings suggest that producers in creative genres can use online technology in ways that actually reflect an intensification of those values. The concept of intensifying use of technology (IUT) was posited to explain the differences. [source] The Moral Economy of TobaccoAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2009David Griffith ABSTRACT Even faced with overwhelming evidence that tobacco threatens human health, along with economic developments undermining their status as independent producers, North Carolina tobacco farmers view tobacco production in ways congruent with a moral economy. A shift from independent to contract production of tobacco and the dismantling of government price supports have challenged this moral economy, converting tobacco producers into a quasi,working class dependent on tobacco companies while leading to fewer tobacco farms and an increase in the average tobacco farm's size. These changes signal a shift away from a moral economy of tobacco, although moral-economic dimensions remain. Producers today emphasize different moral dimensions of economic behavior, such as producing quality human beings, than during earlier eras, when moral-economic actors pressed for state intervention in economic crises. Moral-economic principles are not restricted to either non-Western or historical peoples but, rather, influence economic production and ideology in advanced capitalist settings today. [source] Effects of reduced-rate methyl bromide applications under conventional and virtually impermeable plastic film in perennial crop field nurseriesPEST MANAGEMENT SCIENCE (FORMERLY: PESTICIDE SCIENCE), Issue 8 2010Bradley D Hanson Abstract BACKGROUND: Producers of perennial crop nursery stock in California use preplant soil fumigation to meet state phytosanitary requirements. Although methyl bromide (MB) has been phased out in many agricultural industries, it is still the preferred treatment in the perennial nursery industry and is used under Critical Use Exemptions and Quarantine/Preshipment provisions of the Montreal Protocol. The present research was conducted to evaluate reduced-rate MB applications sealed with conventional and low-permeability plastic films compared with the primary alternative material. RESULTS: Reduced rates (100,260 kg ha,1) of MB applied in combination with chloropicrin (Pic) and sealed with a low-permeability plastic film provided weed and nematode control similar to the industry standard rate of 392 kg ha,1 MB:Pic (98:2) sealed with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) film. However, the primary alternative chemical, 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D), tended to provide slightly lower pest control even on sites with relatively low plant parasitic nematode, soil-borne pathogen and weed pest pressure. CONCLUSION: If California regulations change to allow the use of low-permeability films in broadcast fumigant applications, the results of this research suggest that reduced rates of MB in perennial crop nurseries could serve as a bridge strategy until more technically, economically and environmentally acceptable alternatives are developed. Published 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Firm Value and Hedging: Evidence from U.S. Oil and Gas ProducersTHE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 2 2006YANBO JIN ABSTRACT This paper studies the hedging activities of 119 U.S. oil and gas producers from 1998 to 2001 and evaluates their effect on firm value. Theories of hedging based on market imperfections imply that hedging should increase the firm's market value (MV). To test this hypothesis, we collect detailed information on the extent of hedging and on the valuation of oil and gas reserves. We verify that hedging reduces the firm's stock price sensitivity to oil and gas prices. Contrary to previous studies, however, we find that hedging does not seem to affect MVs for this industry. [source] The economic advantage of learners in a spot/futures marketTHE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 2 2003Scott C. Linn This article examines the economic advantage of learners in a futures market. We develop a dynamic model of learning in which a spot market and futures market both exist for a real good. The economy is composed of producers who can engage in hedging activities, speculators who trade in the futures market, and consumers who are described by an inverse demand function for the underlying commodity. Producers and speculators are heterogeneous and are differentiated based upon the predictive equations they employ when formulating forecasts of next period's spot price. We derive the dynamic rational-expectations equilibrium of the model and show that learners enjoy an economic advantage in the futures market. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 23:151,167, 2003 [source] Producers, Processors and Unions: The Meat Producers Board and Labour Relations in the New Zealand Meat Industry, 1952,1971AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2001Bruce Curtis In New Zealand, the historical trend towards the rational-capitalistic transformation of agriculture was forestalled in part by producer boards, institutions that were intended to operate in the collective interests of farmers. Recently, there has been renewed interest both in the economic effects of the boards and in the role of farmers themselves within New Zealand's unique arbitral system of industrial relations. This paper bridges these areas of research by examining the influence of the Meat Producers Board on management,labour relations within the export meat industry. Whereas the Board is generally regarded as having empowered family-labour farmers, we argue that its interventions also empowered meatworkers and simultaneously weakened meat-processing companies as employers. The power resources indirectly supplied to meatworkers by the Board were an important external source of union power in the industry. By examining these resources, we identify the neglected effects of a key institution that shaped New Zealand's path of development by preventing the subsumption of ,independent' farming. [source] Low-Price Low-Capacity Traps and Government Intervention in the Québec Hog MarketCANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2004Bruno Larue This paper investigates the marketing of a primary commodity produced by competitive producers that sell to a single downstream processor. There is a significant lag between production and marketing decisions made by producers. If a credible price commitment cannot be made before producers make their output decision, it is a dominant strategy for the processor to buy producers' output at the world price adjusted for transportation costs. Producers fully anticipate this partial holdup ex ante and adjust production accordingly. When the processor's capacity is binding ex post, the equilibrium is described as a low-price, low-capacity trap. Under a specific condition, the processor finds it advantageous to credibly commit to a price increment before producers make their output decision. The ensuing equilibrium is Pareto-superior to the no-commitment equilibrium. We argue that the Québec hog/pork industry has experienced such a situation in the past few years. Government intervention is justified even if the processor has committed to a price increment. The modeling of strategic interactions between the government and the processor reveals that their price increments are strategic substitutes. However, given that the processor's (government's) payoff is increasing with the government's (processor's) price increment, the first-mover advantage entails committing early to a low-price increment to force one's rival to offer a high-price increment. Cet article analyse la mise en marché d'un produit primaire vendu par des producteurs preneurs de prix à un seul et unique transformateur. Les décisions de production et de mise en marché sont séparées dans le temps. Si le transformateur ne peut pas s'engager à payer un certain prix avant que les producteurs prennent leur décision de production, alors la stratégie dominante du transformateur est d'offrir aux producteurs le prix mondial diminué par les coûts de transport. Les producteurs anticipant ce hold-up partiel et réduisent leur production en conséquence. Lorsque le transformateur est confrontéà une contrainte de capacité ex post, les producteurs et le transformateur sont piégés dans un équilibre de « petit prix et petit volume ». Si une condition est respectée, il peut être avantageux pour le transformateur d'offrir un supplément aux producteurs avant leur décision de production. L'équilibre qui s'en suit constitue alors une amélioration au sens de Pareto. Nous soumettons que l'industrie porcine québécoise a vécu pareille expérience durant les dernières années. L'intervention du gouvernement demeure justifiée même si le transformateur s'est commis à payer un supplément. En fait, les interventions du transformateur et du gouvernement sont des substituts stratégiques. Puisque le gain du transformateur (gouvernement) croit avec le supplément offert par le gouvernement (transformateur), il y a un avantage àêtre le premier à se commettre à payer un faible supplément, tant pour le transformateur que pour le gouvernement, pour ainsi forcer l'autre partie à offrir un supplément plus généreux. [source] Developing Hedging Strategies for Québec Hog Producers under Revenue InsuranceCANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2004Jean-Philippe Gervais The paper investigates the optimal hedging strategies of Québec hog producers when they participate in a publicly funded revenue insurance program known as ASRA (Régime d'assurance-stabilisation des revenus agricoles). A forecast model of local cash and futures prices is built and Monte Carlo methods are used to derive the optimal futures and option positions of Québec hog producers. The positive correlation between forecasts of futures and cash spot prices induces positive sales of futures and put options to hedge price risk. ASRA provides put options to hog producers at actuarially advantageous terms. Producers can increase the expected utility of profits by selling back a portion of these put options using financial markets. Options are attractive to manage price risk given the nonlinearity in the profit function induced by the revenue insurance scheme. Speculative incentives to use futures and options are also discussed in the context of ASRA. Les auteurs ont examiné les meilleures stratégies de régulation pour les producteurs de porc québécois adhérant au programme d'assurance-revenu financeé par l'administration publique (ASRA). Ils ont bâti un modéle de prévision pour les prix au comptant et les prix à terme locaux puis appliquéé les méthodes de Monte Carlo pour voir comment les éleveurs de porcs québécois peuvent obtenir les prix d'option etles prix â terme optimaux. La corrélation positive entre les prix é terme et les prix au comptant favorise les ventes â terme et les options de vente pour une meilleure régulation des risques associés aux prix. L'ASRA permet aux producteurs de prendre des options â des termes avantageux sur le plan actuariel. Les éleveurs peuvent accroître la valeur prévue de leurs bénéfices en cédant une partie de ces options sur les marchés financiers. Les options sont intéressantes pour gérer les risques liés aux prix â cause de la non-linéarité que le programme d'assurance-revenu induit dans la fonction «bénéfices ». Les auteurs abordent aussi le probléme de la spéculation sur le marchéâ terme et le marché des options dans le contexte de l'ASRA. [source] A flexible content repository to enable a peer-to-peer-based wikiCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 7 2010Udo Bartlang Abstract Wikis,being major applications of the Web 2.0,are used for a large number of purposes, such as encyclopedias, project documentation, and coordination, both in open communities and in enterprises. At the application level, users are targeted as both consumers and producers of dynamic content. Yet, this kind of peer-to-peer (P2P) principle is not used at the technical level being still dominated by traditional client,server architectures. What lacks is a generic platform that combines the scalability of the P2P approach with, for example, a wiki's requirements for consistent content management in a highly concurrent environment. This paper presents a flexible content repository system that is intended to close the gap by using a hybrid P2P overlay to support scalable, fault-tolerant, consistent, and efficient data operations for the dynamic content of wikis. On the one hand, this paper introduces the generic, overall architecture of the content repository. On the other hand, it describes the major building blocks to enable P2P data management at the system's persistent storage layer, and how these may be used to implement a P2P-based wiki application: (i) a P2P back-end administrates a wiki's actual content resources. (ii) On top, P2P service groups act as indexing groups to implement a wiki's search index. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Plug-and-play remote portlet publishingCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 12 2007X. D. Wang Abstract Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) is gaining attention among portal developers and vendors to enable easy development, increased richness in functionality, pluggability, and flexibility of deployment. Whilst currently not supporting all WSRP functionalities, open-source portal frameworks could in future use WSRP Consumers to access remote portlets found from a WSRP Producer registry service. This implies that we need a central registry for the remote portlets and a more expressive WSRP Consumer interface to implement the remote portlet functions. This paper reports on an investigation into a new system architecture, which includes a Web Services repository, registry, and client interface. The Web Services repository holds portlets as remote resource producers. A new data structure for expressing remote portlets is found and published by populating a Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry. A remote portlet publish and search engine for UDDI has also been developed. Finally, a remote portlet client interface was developed as a Web application. The client interface supports remote portlet features, as well as window status and mode functions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] REMEDIATION AND LOCAL GLOBALIZATIONS: How Taiwan's "Digital Video Knights-Errant Puppetry" Writes the History of the New Media in ChineseCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2007TERI SILVIO This article analyzes the Pili International Multimedia Company's "digital video knights-errant puppetry" serials, a popular culture genre unique to Taiwan, to answer two questions. First, how do digital technologies, originally developed to meet the needs of the American military and entertainment industries, become embedded in a different cultural context? Second, how does this embedding allow media technologies to become something through which distinctly local models of globalization itself may be imagined? Analyzing both the style of the serials and the discourse of producers and fans, I argue that new media technologies, despite their foreign origins, may not only be adapted or resisted, but may also come to be imagined as emerging from local aesthetics and local needs. Through the specific ways they utilize both digital and traditional technologies, the Pili producers and fans construct a utopian vision of what globalization might look like if Taiwan were at the center. [source] Fluid Labor and Blood Money: The Economy of HIV/AIDS in Rural Central ChinaCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 4 2006SHAO Jing This ethnographically grounded "epidemiology" implicates China's liberalized economy in the HIV epidemic among commercial plasma donors in rural central China. It uncovers the pathological confluence of spheres of economic circulations that have created the conditions for value to be extracted not through labor but from human plasma harvested from agricultural producers. This critique has emerged out of, and in turn informed, efforts to forestall the secondary epidemic of AIDS among donors already infected by HIV. The specific history of the production and consumption of blood products in China shows how biotechnology broadly defined can be powerfully refracted by local configurations of economy, technology, and social relations. The ideologically sustained second-order "reality" of benevolent economic imperatives needs to be brought into the critical focus of cultural anthropology. [source] Local Food, Local Engagement: Community-Supported Agriculture in Eastern IowaCULTURE, AGRICULTURE, FOOD & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 1 2010Brandi Janssen Abstract This paper examines some of the daily realities of operating a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in eastern Iowa and addresses the concept of community among growers. Popular depictions of local foods systems often emphasize the close relationships that develop between producers and consumers. This picture, however, may gloss over the necessary complexities of a healthy local food system. CSA has been promoted as a direct marketing strategy for small-scale growers and touted as a way of developing positive relationships between producers and consumers. Nevertheless, it is also important to understand that successful CSA initiatives are often reliant on a broad network of support that includes more than just growers and eaters. Ethnographic descriptions of CSA farms presented here show how involvement by media and other organizations contribute to successful CSAs as well as an overall concept of "civic agriculture." These descriptions also show that access to affordable, reliable labor tends to be among the greatest challenges for CSA growers. [source] The Distribution of Subsidized Agricultural Credit in Brazil: Do Interest Groups Matter?DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2001Steven M. Helfand This article examines the unequal distribution of credit and credit subsidies in the Brazilian agricultural sector from 1969 to 1990. Total credit subsidies exceeded US$ 40 billion in this period. The distribution across crops is studied econometrically. After controlling for area, the crops that benefited most had superior access to credit institutions, were tradeable, had high prices, and were not perennials. Proxies for collective action by crop were an unimportant determinant of credit policy, while a bias in favour of large producers was evident. Alternative explanations for this bias are discussed, including collective action by farm size and transaction costs in lending. [source] Integrating Poverty and Environmental Concerns into Value-Chain Analysis: A Strategic Framework and Practical GuideDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Lone Riisgaard This article aims to guide the design and implementation of action-research projects in value-chain analysis by presenting a strategic framework focused on small producers and trading and processing firms in developing countries. Its stepwise approach , building on the conceptual framework set out in a companion article , covers in detail what to do, questions to be asked and issues to be considered, and integrates poverty, gender, labour and environmental concerns.,Upgrading' strategies potentially available for improving value-chain participation for small producers are identified, with the ultimate purpose of increasing the rewards and/or reducing the risks. [source] Innovations to Make Markets More Inclusive for the PoorDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2008Ronald U. Mendoza Market failures, government failures and some of the characteristics of both the poor and business actors as well as their environment can act as barriers preventing the poor from participating more actively in markets, both as consumers and as producers. Private actors - including for-profit and not-for-profit entities, often in partnership with the public sector - have been able to mitigate some of these constraints through innovations that have helped to make markets more inclusive for the poor, enabling them not just to gain access, but also to participate in ways that enhance their economic empowerment and human development. This article identifies the strategies and innovations used and devises a possible typology for them. [source] Market-based Price-risk Management for Coffee ProducersDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2007Sushil Mohan Coffee is characterised by high levels of price fluctuation, which exposes producers to price risk. Its wide trading in international commodity futures markets offers scope for producers to manage the risk by hedging on these markets, the mechanism for which is based on the use of put options. This article uses historical data of actual put-options contracts to estimate the costs of the mechanism, the benefits being inferred from field evidence. It emerges that the costs are relatively low and outweighed by the benefits for most producers. The article then looks at the operational feasibility of the mechanism for producers and compares it with other hedging mechanisms. [source] The Macroeconomics of Doubling Aid to Africa and the Centrality of the Supply SideDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2007Tony Killick The proposed doubling of aid to Africa by 2010 is a less simple proposition, from a recipient point of view, than is commonly supposed. This article argues that it is difficult to manage large and rapidly increasing aid inflows in ways which do not disadvantage producers of tradeable goods, and the private sector generally. This difficulty can be averted if conscious efforts are made to offset it and to stimulate positive responses from the supply side. Whether such responses prevail over the shorter-term management difficulties depends on the efficacy of state actions , and of aid , to bolster the supply side. The outcome is likely to be mixed, depending on country circumstances. [source] Community Ventures and Access to Markets: The Role of Intermediaries in Marketing Rural Tourism ProductsDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5 2004Kathrin Forstner Many community-based tourism ventures face marketing problems similar to those of other rural producers. They depend on intermediaries, such as private companies, membership organisations, public sector institutions and non-governmental organisations, to facilitate market access. The article analyses the strengths and weaknesses of each type of intermediary, based on different levels of marketing support. Reflecting discussions about marketing assistance in other rural sectors, it argues that intermediary institutions have different areas of expertise and experience different constraints in terms of capacity-building, marketing know-how, financial resources and overall livelihood impacts. Instead of pursuing individual support strategies, it is therefore necessary to develop combined approaches of marketing assistance, depending on location, tourism resources and existing organisational structures. [source] Food Industrialisation and Food Power: Implications for Food GovernanceDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5-6 2003Tim Lang Food supply chains of developed countries industrialised in the second half of the twentieth century, with significant implications for developing countries over policy priorities, the ensuing external costs and the accompanying concentration of market power. Very powerful corporations dominate many sectors. Primary producers are locked into tight specifications and contracts. Consumers may benefit from cheaper food but there are quality implications and health externalities. As consumer confidence has been shaken, new quality agencies have been created. Tensions have emerged about the state's role as facilitator of industrial efficiencies. Food policy is thus torn between the pursuit of productivity and reduced prices and the demand for higher quality, with implications for both producers and consumers in the developing world. [source] The Rise of Supermarkets in Africa: Implications for Agrifood Systems and the Rural PoorDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2003Dave D. Weatherspoon The rise of supermarkets in Africa since the mid-1990s is transforming the food retail sector. Supermarkets have spread fast in Southern and Eastern Africa, already proliferating beyond middle-class big-city markets into smaller towns and poorer areas. Supplying supermarkets presents both potentially large opportunities and big challenges for producers. Supermarkets' procurement systems involve purchase consolidation, a shift to specialised wholesalers, and tough quality and safety standards. To meet these requirements, producers have to make investments and adopt new practices. This is hardest for small producers, who risk exclusion from dynamic urban markets increasingly dominated by supermarkets. There is thus an urgent need for development programmes and policies to assist them in adopting the new practices that these procurement systems demand. [source] Impact of Supermarkets and Fast,Food Chains on Horticulture Supply Chains in ArgentinaDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2002Graciela Ghezán In the 1990s, the supermarket and fast,food sectors grew rapidly in Argentina. Both were dominated by multinational firms, and their growth drove profound change in food market systems and farming. This article analyses the impact of this development on fruit and vegetables supply chains, in particular the way the advent of McDonald's affected the supply chain for frozen French fried potatoes. It shows that there is a tendency for such changes to favour medium and large producers, with evidence of the exclusion of small farmers. [source] How Special Are Rural Areas?DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2001The Economic Implications of Location for Rural Development Despite on-going change, rural areas remain characterised by relative abundance of natural capital, and by distance and the relatively high cost of movement. They are also home to most of the world's poor. Compared with urban areas which enjoy proximity to customers and producers, rural areas may have comparative advantage only in primary activities based on immobile natural resources and closely related activities. There are differences, however, between ,peri-urban', ,middle countryside' and ,remote' areas. In some areas, economic growth, urban expansion, and improved transport and communications create new urban-oriented opportunities for rural services and labour. Remote areas will continue to present special difficulties, however; and, in general, the potential for non-agricultural diversification is less than is sometimes argued. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||