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Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Relaciones: Estudios de Historia y Sociedad is the property of El Colegio de Michoacan, A.C. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The institutional credit has been devised to play a crucial role in the rural development of India. The public policy on rural credit in India has been focused on institutionalization as a means of providing cheaper credit to farmers. However, the persistence of moneylenders in the rural credit market is still a major concern. This paper is based on a primary field survey and deal with the nature and extent of peasant class differentiation and the nature of access of rural households to rural finance alternatives in West Bengal. Accessibility and distribution of credit will be our major concerns of investigation. We shall try to also explore the role of institutional credit in the process of differentiation. This helps us to understand whether there exists any biased socio-economic framework to access rural finance facilities. In an attempt to study and analyse the ground situation, this study undertook a detailed analysis of all relevant variables to examine the structure of investment and production taking place in West Bengal. The other objective of this paper is to enquire whether there exists any contradiction in objective and principle, the practice of Microfinance run by Government or private or panchayat or cooperative leading to creation of obstacles in the realization of rural development goals. The sample households collected from relatively advanced and backward areas are distributed according to economic classes defined by Patnaik (1976) side by side with the standard acreage groupings. Subsequently, we explored the degree of association between the two criteria and found that the two criteria of households are associated with each other but they are not identical. The analysis in this paper would help us to know first of all, to highlight the agrarian relation and peasant class differentiation in West Bengal on a sample of diversely developed regions. Second, to what extent households are dependent on private sources of credit vis-à-vis the institutional sources, Third, whether credit absorption has something to do with the intensity of class differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Informe Gepec is the property of Informe Gepec and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Informe Gepec is the property of Informe Gepec and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• We investigated the phenomenon of firm heterogeneity among small farmers who were settlers of an agrarian reform project. • The profit-oriented small farmers have operated farms with better economic performances. • Off-farm income, access to rural credit, and access to marketing policy also affected farms' performance. • Our results are relevant to the theoretical debate on heterogeneity, as well as to the design of land reform policies. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of firm heterogeneity among entrepreneurs who started their business with a similar initial endowment. The information collected for analysis came from a unique sample of 105 small farmers, who were settlers of an agrarian reform project in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. These farmers were granted similar resources (plot of land, housing, and capital) in the 1980s. About thirty years later, they were observed to have different performances in terms of production value. This article provides a test of explanatory variables for their differing performance, under the lens of strategic orientation. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to obtain economic efficiency scores as proxies for performance. These scores were used in a second-stage Tobit regression model, in which the effects of three strategic orientations (profit orientation, social network orientation, and innovation orientation) on farms' efficiency were tested. The results revealed that efficiency scores ranged from 0.02 and to 1, with a mean of 0.646 and standard deviation of 0.29, showing that the economic performance among beneficiaries is heterogeneous. In the Tobit model, the parameter for "profit orientation" was significant to explain performance differentials, while the parameters for the other strategic orientations were not. Parameters for control variables "off-farm income", "access to rural credit", and "access to government price policy" were also significant. These results are relevant to the theoretical debate on heterogeneity, as well as to the design of land reform policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia Agraria is the property of Historia Agraria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Highlights • Analysis of two public policies for beef cattle production. • Public policies for rural credit to develop beef cattle production in southern Brazil. • Beef cattle production can foster economic and environmental sustainability. • Southern Brazilian farms are dependent from rural credit for improvement of production system. • Technical production options for greenhouse gasses mitigation. Abstract This study aims to evaluate the impact of two complementary public policies, one federal, Low Carbon Agriculture program (ABC), and one from Santa Catarina state, the cattle beef development program of Santa Catarina. By the official rural credit of the ABC program, the federal government aims the sustainability of beef cattle by production practices with potential mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG). The Santa Catarina state program subsidizes federal program interest. In order to evaluate the impact of these public policies, it was evaluated 170 beef cattle farms in Santa Catarina. The evaluation consisted of visits and application of quantitative and qualitative forms. The farms were distributed in the regions of North plateau, Itajaí Valley, Mountain range, Midwest and West Santa Catarina. The evaluation period was from January 2012 to December 2016, covering the origin of the application of the resources, zootechnical indexes and economic analysis. It was found that 45% of ABC resources were used in pasture establishment and recovery, 18% in paddock subdivisions, 32% in adaptations of management centers and the remainder resources in animal genetic improvement and technical assistance. The evolution of the herd showed 21% increase in the number of animals (P = 0.0016), 44% increase in the number of females (P < 0.001), and a slaughter age reduction in 12 months (P = 0.0022). The relationship between the value of the projects and the value applied in pastures was positive linear (P < 0.001). There was improvement in knowledge on pasture management and on zootechnical indexes by the farmers after the five years of the programs implementation (P < 0.001). Farmers who joined the program reported unanimity regarding improvements in technical knowledge and management of the activity. It is concluded that public policies have had a positive impact in beef cattle production. Furthermore, the investment on production practices such pasture implantation and recovery, suitable pasture management, reduction on animals slaughter age presents potential to GHG mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista NERA is the property of Revista NERA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Family farmers are important actors to sustain food security and job generation in Brazilian rural areas. The National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF) is the main public program offering microcredits to family farmers to foster sustainable production and reduce the poverty gap. While poverty and income inequality prevail in the Amazon, credits seem to target wealthier livestock farmers, and neglect smallholders engaged in crop production. This paper assesses the factors influencing the monetary amount of credit received at the regional level and argues that stable production systems and strong credit mechanisms could facilitate market access, knowledge transfer, and technology adoption. A spatial Durbin error model is utilized to analyze the factors determining the credit received while controlling for spatial correlations in livestock and agricultural systems in 103 microregions, composing the Brazilian Legal Amazon. To complement the quantitative estimations, we conducted 35 semi-structured interviews with key informants from technical assistance, scholars, and banks managers. Results suggest a geographical interdependence of PRONAF microcredit allocation, where wealthier farmers steadily access markets and credits. Microregions where commercial banks are present and with higher production values receive higher microcredits, strengthening the economic advantages of wealthier farmers located in those regions. Therefore, in order to improve credit allocation, political actions should focus on targeting poor and vulnerable farmers lacking social networks, stable markets and financial investments. • The study exams credit acquisition for family farming while controlling for spatial correlations in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. • Credits are not independently distributed, and are influenced by spatial characteristics of neighboring microregions. • Credit history and bank type are possibly a result of consolidated arrangements which support wealthier farmers. • Political efforts should target the integration of poorer and vulnerable farmers unable to acquire credits [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit rating is an assessment performed by lenders or financial institutions to determine a person’s creditworthiness based on the proposed terms of the loan. Frequently, these institutions use rating models to obtain estimates for the probabilities of default for their clients (companies, organizations, government, and individuals) and to assess the risk of credit portfolios. Numerous statistical and data mining methods are used to develop such models. In this paper, the potential of a multicriteria decision-aiding approach is studied. As a first step, the proposed methodology models the problem as a multicriteria evaluation process with multiple and in some cases, conflicting dimensions, which are integrated to derive sound recommendation for DMs. The second step of the methodology involves building a multicriteria outranking model based on ELECTRE III method. An evolutionary algorithm is used to exploit the outranking model. The methodology is applied to a small-scale financial institution operating in the agricultural sector. We compare loan applications based on their attributes and the credit profile of the customer or credit applicant. Our methodology offers the flexibility of combining heterogeneous information together with the preferences of decision makers (DMs), generating both relative and fixed rules for selecting the best loan applications among new and existing customers, which is an improvement over traditional methods The results reveal that outranking models are well suited to credit rating, providing good ranking results and suitable understanding on the relative importance of the evaluation criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The volume of literature recognizing the importance of rural credit in developing countries has grown significantly in recent years. However, previous studies have mainly assumed that credit has a homogeneous impact on recipients. This paper contributes to the literature by further examining the impacts of credit on different groups of accessed households categorized by relative poverty, loan volumes, access to agricultural extension services and ethnicity in Vietnam. This paper uses data of 1338 households collected from the Vietnam Access Resources Household Survey in 2012. To increase the reliability of estimation measures, the distribution for the impact estimator is further constructed by applying the bootstrapping approach to the Propensity Score Matching. Results show that credit access affects recipient groups heterogeneously. Although there is strong evidence of positive impacts on non-farm income, credit has no effect on farm income, even for recipients with more annual visits to agricultural extension. While credit significantly increases total income, per capita income, and nonfarm income of the Kinh majority, it has little to no impact on those income components of ethnic minorities. Credit tends to have significantly positive impacts on household income of the better-off, the richest and those receiving larger credit volumes. Results imply that households with favorable economic conditions tend to benefit from accessing rural credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Nova Economia is the property of Nova Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Polis (07176554) is the property of Polis - Revista Academica Universidad Bolivariana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the Brazilian Amazon, the long-distance river trading system known as aviamento has linked commodity producers in remote areas to markets in urban centers since the colonial period. Based on a case study from the rural municipality of Lábrea, this article explores continuities and changes in river trading from the point view of riverine residents and river traders. Geographic isolation and seasonal productive needs continued people’s dependence on river traders in 2008–2009, but they had greater choices due to increased access to information, mobility, and alternate markets. Expanded citizenship rights provided access to the vote and to education and other government services, but in a “differentiated” manner that still excluded many rural Amazonians. Given that agroindustry is currently the economic focus for Amazonian development, instead of forest product extraction, these rural producers continued to be forced to rely on informal river traders to meet their needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the question, what makes a rural household a preferred choice for formal lenders? A sample selected ordered probit model is developed to address this question. While the selection equation models the determinants of access to credit, an ordered probit model is used to determine the factors affecting the choice of credit sources in hierarchical order. Using household data from six Indian states, this study finds corroborative evidence that relatively resource-rich households, even while staying at distant locations, enjoy greater access to formal creditors. It also identifies a new factor, i.e., interlinked credit, as a significant variable influencing access to formal credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Informe Gepec is the property of Informe Gepec and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The importance of Credit to the development of agriculture cannot be over-stressed. To extricate a farmer from the quagmire of poverty and boost food production, storage and supply, agricultural credit is vital. This is the propelling engine behind various government policies and programmes. However, the implementation of Agricultural credit programmes in Nigeria is hampered by many problems. These problems and other issues surrounding the role of Agricultural Credit formed the basis of discussion in this paper. The recommendations are explicit while the conclusion centred on the prospects for agricultural credit policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of the implication of interlinkage of factor markets on the allocative efficiency level of the farm households deserves a special attention in the light of the controversy among two distinct schools of thought: the Neoclassical and the Marxist. An attempt has been made in the paper to measure allocative and cost efficiencies of the interlinked holding vis-à-vis a comparable group of non-interlinked holding in the framework of Data Envelopment Analysis. Empirical evidence establishes the Neo-classical proposition that interlinked factor markets can be considered as one of the "efficiency improving institutional change" in rural agrarian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista da Faculdade de Letras: História is the property of Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The rural credit markets in poor economies have presented many puzzling features. Traditionally, indigenous credit institutions relied primarily on the private moneylenders resulting in evolution of various indigenous credit systems. However, over past hundred and fifty years and more, rural lenders and corresponding credit institutions have been viewed suspiciously. Hence [benevolent] government intervention was considered particularly desirable for the benefit of the poor and disadvantaged. However, the few studies that did look at the question of cost of private rural credit did discover the disturbing and rather paradoxical phenomenon of rise in cost of private credit with increasing presence of institutional finance. This paper takes a close look at the rupture of indigenous institutions, often through benevolent government intervention, and its consequences for the economy and society in general and for the poor and disadvantaged in particular, through study of the particular case of rural credit. It draws upon the author's in-depth study of credit market in a village in India. The credit market is highly fragmented and "regressive" in nature. Some of traditional credit systems continue to exist with practically no change. There are implicit subjective costs as well as subjective benefits to the lending business; and mostly subjective costs arising out of act of borrowing (in addition to explicit objective costs). There is substantial perceived increase in the risk of default on private (source) loans, after great surge in institutional rural finance. There is also a political economy dimension to this phenomenon. Introduction of institutional finance, benefiting mostly the better-off and powerful sections of the village society, itself is governed by local political economy. The higher cost of institutional credit faced by the poor is not a matter simply of corruption, but also of alliances between the local elite and the functionaries of financial institutions. This nexus is not incidental. In addition, the same phenomenon further accentuates power relation between the same powerful (usually) lenders, and now residual, mostly poor borrowers. The study calls for a fresh look at the role of village lenders in the rural economy. First, it facilitates a more open approach to understanding the functioning of village lending systems in history afresh with an unprejudiced eye which can help in devising and developing better functioning rural credit institutions today; second, it calls for giving due recognition to the inherent strengths of the village lenders; third, it implies consideration of a much greater role for village lenders in the rural economy. Formal institutions and village lenders can be complementary rather than competitors as perceived till now. It is important to realize that there are substantial transactions costs involved in lending by formal institutions. Leaving actual lending mostly to the village lenders, and confining the public institutions to basically a refinance function will help in all round cost reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with socio-economic modernization, rural credit cooperatives become more and more important in our lives. There are fatal defects in the corporate profit theory, non-profit legal persons theory and middle legal persons theory. Therefore, China's legal property of cooperatives should not pursue a single purpose, but fix on the private interest in public legal persons, carry out a dual purpose theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Fermentum: Revista Venezolana de Sociologia y Antropologia is the property of Universidad de Los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The long-term neglect of agriculture as reflected in the falling real investment, rising input costs and inadequately remunerative prices lead to fall in agricultural production vis-à-vis requirements. Despite spectacular expansion of bank branch network since 1969, a substantial proportion of rural households still remain outside the coverage of the formal banking system. Cumulatively, the sharply declining farm income is leading to suicides by farmers. Amidst the crisis, what remained as eternal is farming community's desperate search for fresh credit for the ensuing season. The current agrarian crisis thus, calls for radical policy alternatives. Against this backdrop, this article examines the need for effective delivery of credit at an affordable cost to the vast sections of disadvantaged and low-income groups who tend to be excluded from the formal banking channel and argues for constituting a new pan India bank for rural credit by transferring the existing rural branches of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) to it to serve the needs of rural population with a totally new culture. For, such State intervention in the form of 'capitalist guided market economy' alone can ensure 'inclusive growth'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a historical account of Brazilian public policy on fisheries subsidies, and a discussion of problems and limitations resulting from such policy. From the 1960s to the mid-1980s, public policies led to a great increase in fisheries catch without appropriate consideration for the long-term sustainability of the resources, resulting in declining catches over the years. The goals of current Brazilian public policy on fisheries will not help in reducing overexploitation. This is because these policies are too optimistic about the abundance of fish in Brazil''s EEZ, and are not accompanied by a fisheries management plan that is likely to work. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents information on the Maharashtra Rural Credit Programme (MRCP), which was implemented to attain sustainable improvement in the delivery of credit services to the rural poor in India. The Government of Maharashtra, India, and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development have been implementing the MRCP since 1994. It is stated that the ultimate goal of MRCP is to alleviate poverty by providing improved financial services to the rural poor. The project involves development of financial services to assist commercial banks for providing credit to the poor, and to create funds for lending through savings mobilization.

The article focuses on rural finance in the U.S. The author says that from the point of view of return on capital, landowning is no longer a business proposition, and but for the compensations of sport and a country life, the investment would not be made. Unfortunately these two compensations have to a large extent come to be regarded as the dominating interest of landowning. The depression of agriculture in the eighties also led to a farming policy based on minimum expenditure of capital-hence the extension of grass land over arable. The consequence is that the average landowner receives a certain rent and other advantages and devotes a minimum of attention to the business of agriculture (such attention being given mainly through agents); the average farmer expends on the land the minimum in manures, in wages and in resource, and generally seeks to extract a maximum in return for this minimum expenditure of capital and trouble; the laborer is badly paid and worse housed, having neither the opportunity nor the means of bettering his position unless by abandoning the land, since the very nature of the system has tended to the employment of the minimum. This attitude towards the capitalization of agriculture is reflected in the attitude of banks, which quite properly fear to lock up money in land, and can hardly be expected to have more confidence in placing capital in the business of agriculture than those who are carrying it on.

• Relationship between rural credit policy and diffusion of ICLS was investigated. • A Simultaneous Equation System was adopted to deal with reverse causality. • Access to rural credit policy increases the adoption of ICLS. • The adoption of ICLS increases the demand of rural credit. • Public policy is encouraging the diffusion of sustainable systems in Brazil. This study analyzes the effectiveness of rural credit policy to increase the adoption of ICLS. Analyzes are based on a survey with 175 farmers in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Our estimates suggest that rural credit has positive and relevant impacts on the adoption of ICLS. In turn, the adoption of these systems may also involve investments in fixed capital and increases in operational costs, which create additional demand for rural credit. Other factors, such as access to extension policy, production scale, ex-ante perceptions, and market infrastructure also explain ICLS adoption. The access to rural credit policy is also determined by dependence on farm income, farmer's perception of transaction costs, and supply of credit in the municipality. The study finally discusses important implications for the devising of rural credit policies and the diffusion of sustainable production systems in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work intends to start a debate both in historical and actual perspective related to different forms of rural credit in Romania. The evolution of the rural credit in Romania, the arrangements for granting and guarantee rural credits and the types of products used for accessing the European funds were presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]