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Abstract The article deals with a relevant theme regarding problems related to food supply. The losses accounted at production process and consumer food waste justify research on the subject. The purpose of this paper is to explain food waste intention using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical lens. In addition to measuring the influence of attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control on intention, additional constructs were introduced into the model. Affect, planning routines, food surplus, and environmental concerns were incorporated to fit a logistic regression model, presenting the probability of food waste occurrence as a proxy for the probability of intention to waste. An online questionnaire was developed to collect data from consumers in the Midwest of Brazil. The sample consisted of 419 responses. As a result, it was found that food waste occurred more in affluent households, fewer in number, better categorized as “waste people” by family and friends, and less adept at reusing leftovers or saving food. In general, the affective memory related to food corroborates the desire for an abundant table, making waste acceptable. This information is useful for the construction of action plans, public and private, aimed at behavioral changes related to waste.

Abstract This paper aims to assess efficiency in the public irrigation projects of Brazil. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model using a limited set of significant variables and adapted to the specific characteristics of existing public irrigation projects in the country was used. Then a Multiple Regression Analysis was performed to efficient irrigation projects to estimate other inputs that did not have been considered in the DEA model. The results indicate that 15 public projects out of the 34 studied, reached the technical efficiency score, as well as pure efficiency and scale efficiency. The work brings several new contributions to the literature on irrigation management and practical implications for decision makers. It is noteworthy that the results of the study can be useful for a better understanding of the general efficiency of public irrigation and what are its most determining factors.

Abstract: Recently, the agricultural sector has had to face several challenges related to the innovation process, the most significant of which seems to be that of its digital transformation. As a consequence, the issue of digital technology adoption is becoming of important scientific interest due to its potential impact on products, services, processes, and new business models. In general, the adoption behavior can be indirectly explained by studying factors that lead a firm to innovate; among these factors, the literature emphasizes the function of networks. The objective of the paper is to investigate the role of networks as key drivers of precision agriculture technologies adoption. To achieve this goal, qualitative research was developed by using 8 case studies recollected among that few Italian farms which can be defined as innovative for having already experienced precision agriculture. Results show that only a few farms can develop and manage innovations internally; success often requires cooperation between individual actors and organizations. Finally, the paper provides some practical advice and a set of propositions for those farms that are trying to achieve digital technological innovations.

Abstract: This paper aims to identify and analyze the factors that influence the decision of Mato Grosso’s farmers to produce soybean using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). We found evidence that decision-making of soybean production is related to rural production aspects such as climate, financing, cost of inputs, and soil quality rather than marketing and logistics. The novelty of this paper is the empirical analysis of the decision-making in agricultural production using AHP. The decision model was created and tested considering 21 farmers and 19 experts linked to the soybean production. Three different scenarios were considered: farmers' view, experts' view, and combined view. Our findings indicate that farmers and experts agree with rural aspects are predominant in the decision to plant soybean. Moreover, logistics have been used as an important flag of soybean competitiveness on international trade by soybean stakeholders in Brazil. However, our results show that logistics impact in the soybean decision-making process is low. Due to data limitation access, this study focuses only on Mato Grosso. However, this study has an exploratory character and presents empirical results that may help to understand soybean production over the country.

Abstract: This paper projects and analyzes the regional impacts of climate change on the agricultural productivity of family farming and large-scale agriculture in Brazil between 2021 and 2050, using the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios. The methodology adopted consists of a cross-sectional estimation of a production function in which agricultural productivity is determined by climatic, geographic, and productive factors. The study contributes to the literature by disaggregating agricultural production into family farming and large-scale agriculture, indicating the magnitude and direction of impacts by crops and regions in Brazil, a country with a great territorial dimension and relevant and heterogeneous agricultural production. The results indicate that the agricultural productivity of family farming is more sensitive and therefore this type of producer could be more vulnerable to the phenomenon. On average, the effects will be negative in the North/Northeast regions and for cassava, maize, beans, and soybeans, with possible impacts on deforestation and on food supply. Productivity gains are expected in the southern region and for the cultivation of sugar cane and soybeans. Deterioration of food security of the vulnerable farmers and regional disparities may increase in Brazil.

Abstract: Successive reforms in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), enlargements of the European Union (EU) and pressures in the public budget increase the need for empirical studies to assess the role of subsidies in shaping firms’ performance and, hence, to support policy-makers decisions and decision-making in the productive sector. This paper assesses whether subsidies affect the technical efficiency of 1,943 Portuguese agribusiness firms over 2007-2015. By applying stochastic frontier models and fixed-effects models, to calculate the average efficiency of these firms, the results show different effects of subsidies among agribusiness sectors. The stochastic frontier model revealed that the subsidies have a positive and significant impact on the technical efficiency of three sectors, animal production, manufacture of food, and manufacture of paper. Further, except for firms in the forestry and logging sector, Portuguese agribusiness firms had higher average efficiency levels when subsidised, which provides evidence that subsidies could be important and contribute positively to the technical efficiency of Portuguese firms.

Abstract: Sustainable agrifood global value chains depend on chain governance by the lead firm and transaction governance. However, the link between them is still unclear. We therefore investigated the scientific field on “governance in agrifood global value chain” over 15 years in the Scopus and Web of Science databases through two analyses: a descriptive bibliometric and a keywords co-occurrence analysis. Our descriptive results show that the research on the theme has increased over the years, with a concentration of the papers published in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with emphasis on Wageningen University. The network graph showed a multidisciplinary theoreticomplcal field and four axes: chain governance; transaction governance; horizontal relationships; political and structural elements. The chain and the transaction governance are indirectly linked by the concept of upgrading, compromising sustainability’s holistic view. Although the sustainability of the chain depends on both levels of governance, this bibliometric study showed that there is a gap to be filled in this topic. We propose a study in the light of both concepts, considering upgrading, vertical and horizontal relationships, as well as public policies.

Abstract: Given the relevance of corn for food and fuel industries, analysts and scholars are constantly comparing the forecasting accuracy of econometric models. These exercises test not only for the use of new approaches and methods, but also for the addition of fundamental variables linked to the corn market. This paper compares the accuracy of different usual models in financial macro-econometric literature for the period between 1995 and 2017. The main contribution lies in the use of transition regime models, which accommodate structural breaks and perform better for corn price forecasting. The results point out that the best models as those which consider not only the corn market structure, or macroeconomic and financial fundamentals, but also the non-linear trend and transition regimes, such as threshold autoregressive models.

Abstract This paper analyzed the relationship between Bolsa Família Program (BFP) and labor supply of women in rural areas from Brazil, using the Propensity Score Matching (with the nearest-neighbor, kernel, and IPW criteria), Ordinary Least Squares on the treatment (beneficiaries), and control (non-beneficiaries) groups with the robustness analysis proposed by Oster (2015). The results showed that the BFP has an opposite effect to the one pronounced in the critiques of the program, the beneficiaries did not have more or fewer work hours than the non-beneficiaries, this fact can be explained by the value of the benefit not being able to meet the expenses of the household. From these results, we can conclude that both tests reinforce the importance of continuing the investigation of the effects on female labor supply in the rural environment in the light of different guidelines.

Abstract This paper analyzes the employment and income dynamics of rural families in Brazil's North Region, the main representative of the Brazilian Amazon. We use information from the National Household Sample Survey between 2004 and 2015 to create a typology of families based on the members' occupation in agricultural and non-agricultural activities. We hypothesize that the recent increase in employment and income was strongly associated with non-agricultural activities, reproducing the dynamics observed in other developing countries and Brazil's more developed regions. The results highlight that, differently from the rural exodus observed in the other regions of the country, the number of rural households increased in the North Region, attracted by the expanding non-agricultural occupations. As a result, the importance of earnings from non-agricultural activities and non-labor (pensions, cash transfers, among others) to family income has increased considerably, especially among self-employed family farmers. The final discussion highlights the relevance of non-agricultural activities for public policies to increase income in less developed rural areas.

Abstract: The introduction of GMO technology into global market chains and the rejection by consumers in some markets have led to the reorganization of soybean trades. Brazil has adopted the technology later than other countries and specialized in supplying non-GMO soybean between 1996 and 2005. On the other hand, the United States and Argentina, which adopted the technology in 1996, exported to countries with less social aversion to the GM-technology. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relation between changes in global market chains (price, source and destination and market shares) and GMO technology adoption, focusing on evidences for price premiums for non-GM soybeans produced in Brazil, by the analysis of the trade unit values (TUV). In order to do so, we employ multivariate methods (Principal Components and Hierarchical Cluster analyses) and estimate a Random Effect model based on a bilateral trade dataset covering the years from 1986 to 2010. Results show that GM-technology adoption significantly changed trade patterns. However, premiums were paid for Brazilian soybean only in niche markets, where the market share is lower.

Since 2008 Portugal began to be influenced by a financial crisis, public budget troubles and an economic crisis. In line with the new economic paradigm within the EU, is publicly acknowledged that the overcoming of this crisis should be based on the production of transactional goods, where the agricultural sector deserves a special attention. The objective of this paper is to analyze the economic role of the Portuguese agricultural marketing cooperatives, including an overview of the Portuguese agricultural sector, the typology of Portuguese cooperatives and position in the agro food chain, the institutional environment, internal governance and performance of the agricultural cooperatives.

Although Portugal registers a large number of protected brand names, its economic turnover is very low when compared to the other southern EU-Member States. To identify and analyze the main reasons of this weak economic significance of the Portuguese quality traditional agrifood products are the main goals of this paper. The main conclusions from the data gathered in step one of the research, which main goal was to understand the main reasons why agricultural firms do not adhere to the PDO/PGI food systems, are related with several issues, namely: the economic and transactions costs of certification, the heavy bureaucracy related to the certification process, the small difference in prices between PDO/PGI products and standard products, within the same reference market, and the preferences of Portuguese consumers. According to the respondents, Portuguese consumers do not know nor socially valorize PDO/PGI products, and privilege (i) traditional/local standard products, instead of PDO/PGI products, and (ii) proximity marketed relationships. These latter findings contribute to highlight, not only why the interviewed firms do not adhere to the PDO/PGI systems, but also why the Portuguese PDO/PGI domestic market is narrow when compared with the ones of southern EU-Member States.

The unfavoured Portuguese regions have a level of life and economic growth rates lower than favoured regions, and the mean of European Union and hence have less entrepreneurial activities. The adoption of strategies of sustainable development driven by entrepreneurship phenomena could be a viable solution. Thus, the likely relationships between entrepreneurship and regional features were described, and sources of entrepreneurship opportunities for strategies based on the own regional resources and competitive advantages were identified. The paper concludes that, for the Alentejo region, some habitat variables should be reinforced for promoting entrepreneurship and sustainable development, and the main opportunities are related to the economic activities that belong to the regional productive profile of specialization.

This paper aims to analyze the cooperation and learning processes in the local system of vitiviniculture production of Serra Gaúcha's region (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), in order to characterize the dynamics of innovation of the firms located there. In methodological terms, a non-probabilistic exploratory study has been conducted. Field research in 20 wineries as well as interviews with related organizations were carried out in order to understand which learning mechanisms support innovative strategies adopted by enterprises. Since learning processes are also the result of local interactions, it was necessary to understand whether these interactions produced cooperative links. The results showed that innovations made by the firms were basically incremental. To do so, they use their intrinsic learning processes as well as external agents. These agents can be located in the region or elsewhere. The geographical proximity becomes more relevant for smaller firms. It was still possible to perceive the existence of cooperation in both vertical and horizontal level. Most frequent actions of vertical cooperation occur especially between firms and their suppliers. When horizontal cooperation occurs between enterprises, it takes place particularly in international trading.

This paper aims to analyze the cooperation and learning processes in the local system of vitiviniculture production of Serra Gaúcha's region (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), in order to characterize the dynamics of innovation of the firms located there. In methodological terms, a non-probabilistic exploratory study has been conducted. Field research in 20 wineries as well as interviews with related organizations were carried out in order to understand which learning mechanisms support innovative strategies adopted by enterprises. Since learning processes are also the result of local interactions, it was necessary to understand whether these interactions produced cooperative links. The results showed that innovations made by the firms were basically incremental. To do so, they use their intrinsic learning processes as well as external agents. These agents can be located in the region or elsewhere. The geographical proximity becomes more relevant for smaller firms. It was still possible to perceive the existence of cooperation in both vertical and horizontal level. Most frequent actions of vertical cooperation occur especially between firms and their suppliers. When horizontal cooperation occurs between enterprises, it takes place particularly in international trading.