One of the main aims of the EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) is to promote the development of rural areas. Although there is a rich abundance of academic literature on the impacts of the CAP on ...rural areas, there has yet to be a comprehensive overview on the effects. The paper aims to fill this gap by providing a systematic literature review on the impacts of the CAP on the socioeconomic situation in EU's rural areas. A two-stage search procedure to identify the relevant literature is employed. Only 59 publications that estimated the socioeconomic impacts of the CAP were found. The main findings are the following: the reviewed studies have found CAP to have no significant impacts on rural development as an abstract concept and the rural population; positive but negligible effects on economic output, the generational change in farming and gender equality; a positive effect on employment; and limited or inconclusive evidence about the impact on economic diversification, regional cohesion and civil participation.
•Employment is by far the most researched and persistent socioeconomic topic.•Policy changes have had no evident impacts on the investigated topics.•All topics tend to be evaluated in the context of certain political instruments.•Impact is positive for economy and employment but not for rural development.•Effects and effectiveness of the policy are dependent on local conditions.
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the determinants of investment decisions of Estonian farms after the transition to market economy and accession to the European Union (EU), in the ...period 2006–2019.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs Estonian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) individual farm-level data from the period 2006–2019, and standard and augmented accelerator investment models. Generalised methods of moments (GMM) and bias-corrected least-squares dummy variables (LSDVC) regressions were used to estimate parameters of these models.FindingsIn the considered period, farm investments were positively affected by sales growth, investment subsidies and the cash flow. Decomposition of cash flow into volatile, market income related part, and more stable, farm subsidies related part indicated that investments do not depend on market income part of cash flow. Instead, the stable part of the cash flow (farm subsidies) had a significant and positive effect on investments. This suggests that credit rationing could be present in the EU agriculture, and it depends on the farm subsidies not market income of farms.Originality/valueDespite the wealth of literature on the investment behaviour of farmers, this article is the first attempt to decompose farm cash flow into stable (farm subsidies) and volatile (market income) parts to explain the role of subsidies as a part of cash flow in credit rationing.
The most appropriate type of entrepreneurship to achieve the goals of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is social entrepreneurship (SE). However, the NGOs face many barriers in their SE that ...should be studied. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to assess the barriers to development of SE in NGOs of Kermanshah province in Western Iran using a qualitative paradigm along with the method of grounded theory. Using purposeful and theoretical sampling, 12 cases were selected. The techniques used for data collection were open questionnaires (unstructured), individual depth interviews, and taking notes. The findings showed that the most important barriers to the development of SE in NGOs of Kermanshah province include cultural-social, economic, educational, infrastructure, communication-information, management, psychological, legal-policy, and supportive barriers. These barriers have resulted in the phenomenon of SE underdevelopment among NGOs of Kermanshah province. Moreover, these barriers have played a major role in the failure of the process of solving the social problems of the province of Kermanshah, which eventually has led to the underdevelopment of its status. These barriers should be controlled, adjusted, or even eliminated. Finally, based on the findings and in order to overcome these barriers, some recommendations were presented.
Agricultural land conversion (ALC) and agricultural land abandonment (ALA) have a direct relationship with different economic, social, and environmental issues. The change in land management and land ...use, in addition to economic and social effects, has a major impact on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil, quantity and quality of water resources, and air quality. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the drivers of abandoning agricultural lands in Sanandaj county in Iran using a structural equation modeling method. A systematic random sampling method was followed by a proportionate strategy for the selection of 351 samples from a total of 4500 farmers. Data were collected through a questionnaire developed during a comprehensive literature review. The results showed that the causes of ALA can be categorized into five drivers: economic, social, political, agro-technical, and managerial-legal ones. These drivers have a two-way relationship, both direct and indirect, with each other. According to the farmers' views, the most effective cause of ALA was managerial-legal with a factor loaded value of 0.79. The most important issues in the legal-managerial factor were lack of a strong and efficient land use management for lands around cities, inhibition of land fragmentation Act during the legacy after the culmination of Iran's revolution in 1978, purchasing agricultural lands around the city for housing construction purposes, the problem of segmented farms, and not paying enough attention to establish and enforce agricultural cooperatives. Therefore, better support of legal management issues about agricultural lands leads to better control of land use change (LUC).
•This study aimed to identify the reasons and causes for the abandonment of agricultural lands (ALA).•The legal-managerial item was the most important factor in ALA.•Economic causes are the second most important factor in the causes of ALA.•Segmented farms and lack of agricultural cooperatives are the most important issues in the legal-managerial factor.•A combination of policies and strategies should be used to prevent agricultural land use change.
Managers can determine the function of ecosystem services in decision-making processes through valuation. Ecological functions and processes that benefit people lead to ecosystem services. Valuing ...ecosystem services mean finding values for the benefits of ecosystem services. For the concepts related to ecosystem services and their valuation, categories in different articles have been presented. One of the most important issues is providing a suitable grouping for different methods and concepts of valuing ecosystem services. In this study, the most recent topics related to ecosystem service valuation methods were compiled and categorized by using the system theory. The aim of this study was to introduce some of the most important classical and modern methods and concepts of valuing ecosystem services. For this aim, a review of articles related to ecosystem service valuation methods, content analysis, and categorization of their contents was used to provide definitions, concepts, and categorization of different methods. To summarize, valuation methods are classified into two types: classical and modern methods. Classical approaches include the avoided cost method, the replacement cost method, the factor income method, the travel cost method, hedonic pricing, and contingent value. Modern methods include the basic value transfer method, deliberative ecosystem service valuation, valuation of climate change risks, and other cases that evolve every day in the world of science. Findings of the paper have the potential to be beneficial in comprehending the definitions and ideas of ecosystem services in ecosystem management, particularly in protected areas, participatory management, and pollutant research. This research can add to the worldwide literature on the valuing of ecosystem services while also determining the most pressing issues and difficulties of today, such as climate change, pollution, ecosystem management, and participatory management.
PurposeThis paper aimed to investigate the determinants of loans and advances from commercial banks in the case of Ethiopian private commercial banks.Design/methodology/approachThe study randomly ...selected seven commercial banks to represent the population stratified on their asset, deposit and paid-up capital amounts. The study utilized an unbalanced panel data model as each bank started operation at a different period of time and considered the period 1995–2016 for secondary details.FindingsThe findings showed that the deposit size, credit risk, portfolio investment, average lending rate, real gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation rate had significant and optimistic effects on the lending and advancement of private commercial banks. On the contrary, liquidity ratio had significant and negative effects on private commercial bank loans and advances. Finally, the study forwarded a feasible recommendation for concerned organs to focus on deposit size, credit risk, portfolio investment, average lending rate, real GDP, inflation rate and liquidity ratio. The results of this study will help banking industry policymakers and planners understand how to minimize inflation and unemployment by improving development and sustainable economic growth.Originality/valueThe findings of this study can also affect the general attitudes of a society by increasing knowledge and improve the quality of life for the general public.
The effects of the guaranteed and purchasing price policy on agronomic crop cultivation patterns were investigated under three scenarios in the Qazvin plain of Iran. In all scenarios, the surface ...under cultivation of water-saving products, especially wheat, decreased and on the contrary, the surface under cultivation of water-taking products, such as alfalfa and tomato, increased. The average income of farmers in the region increases under all scenarios; the lowest increase is related to the second scenario in which farmers' income rises by 7.5-7.7%, and the highest increase is related to the third scenario in which farmers' income rises by 8.5%.
Greenhouse gases (GHG) have extensive environmental effects by trapping heat and causing climate change and air pollution. Land plays a key role in the global cycles of GHG (i.e., carbon dioxide ...(CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrogen oxide (N2O)), and land use change (LUC) can lead to the release of such gases into the atmosphere or the removal of them from the atmosphere. One of the most common forms of LUC is agricultural land conversion (ALC) where agricultural lands are converted for other uses. This study aimed to review 51 original papers from 1990 to 2020 that investigate the contribution of ALC to GHG emissions from a spatiotemporal perspective using a meta-analysis method. The results of spatiotemporal effects on GHG emissions showed that the effects were significant. The emissions were affected by different continent regions representing the spatial effects. The most significant spatial effect was relevant to African and Asian countries. In addition, the quadratic relationship between ALC and GHG emissions had the highest significant coefficients, showing an upward concave curve. Therefore, increasing ALC to more than 8 % of available land led to increasing GHG emissions during the economic development process. The implications of the current study are important for policymakers from two perspectives. First, to achieve sustainable economic development, policymaking should prevent the conversion of more than 90 % of agricultural land to other uses based on the turning point of the second model. Second, policies to control global GHG emissions should take into account spatial effects (e.g., continental Africa and Asia), which show the highest contribution to GHG emissions.
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•This study reviewed the contribution of agricultural land conversion (ALC) to CO2 emissions in the spatiotemporal perspective.•The results of spatiotemporal effects on CO2 emissions showed that only spatial effects were significant.•Among the GHG with the lowest global warming potential, CO2 contributes more to the ongoing warming.•Land use change has a significant influence to increasing GHG emissions.•The ability of GHG mitigation depend on the rates of carbon sequestration and land markets.
Even with significant breakthroughs in the production and delivery of meteorological information, most farmers are not able to utilize such information properly and pertinently. Up to the present ...time, a standardized scale has not been developed to examine farmers’ sustainability barriers to meteorological information use (BMIU). Furthermore, there is no doubt that identifying indicators and dimensions of sustainability barriers to meteorological information and weather forecasts’ usage by farmers can play a major role in their adaptation and resilience to the risks of climate change. Therefore, the present study aimed to generate and validate a scale for BMIU by farmers through an eight-step approach. Accordingly, the statistical population included 9006 Iranian farmers, 368 of whom were selected as study samples. The principal component factor analysis (PCFA) and second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were further practiced to develop the scale for meteorological information and weather forecasts’ use. Factor analysis also led to the emergence of five latent factors including “educational–communicative barriers (ECBs)”, “normative barriers (NBs)”, “informational barriers (IBs)”, “infrastructural–political barriers (IPBs)”, and “professional–economic barriers (PEBs)”. The second-order CFA correspondingly confirmed these five factors and their 25 related indicators. Given the challenges facing academic scholars, decision makers, and authorities in the application and facilitation of meteorological information, the developed multidimensional scale in this study along with its implementation steps can be effective in examining the limitations of utilizing such information and measuring its impacts in different agricultural communities.
In this study, a procedure for selecting the optimal heat-accumulating material based on phase transitions for the economical maintenance of poultry farms by applying ANOVA to complex solid bodies’ ...thermodynamic parameters is described. The relevance of the topic is due to its importance for the development of an energy-saving technology based on the release or absorption of significant heat during the crystallization or melting of materials. The applicability of one-way ANOVA for the selection of the optimal material with a specific functional purpose was demonstrated. As result, the best composition for maintaining a normal temperature regime in poultry farms that could meet all the requirements imposed on heat-storage materials was determined. It was found that magnesium sulphate heptahydrate is such a material.
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