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Abstract: The analytical framework “heritage and patrimony of the peasantry” and its recommended implementation theoretically provide an enhancement over previous methodologies to examine rural development. The current paper measures rural development indicators in six Mexican rural territories, and analyses their interaction in the heritages and patrimonies of the peasantry. The principal indicators that affect the patrimonies in these regions were recognised as Pluriactivity, Social Acknowledgment, Biodiversity and Recycling. Based on these outcomes, the indicators that belong to the Human Patrimony define it as the lowest of all the heritages of the Mexican peasantry. The analysis of the results remarks on the fact that the emphasis of public policies on productive concerns has left out complicated social problems such as the loss of identity, diversity and culture. These matters are becoming the strongest threat affecting the Mexican peasantry to improve their quality of life while respecting their human rights.

Abstract: The labor market in the Brazilian Northeastern agriculture is characterized by many forms of occupation, ranging from the salaried work to the various forms of family work. In a heterogeneous and diverse agriculture, there is a complex labor market, with changes in recent times. Therefore, it is necessary to keep a watchful eye on important structural features. As a result, this paper aims to analyze the main aspects related to work and employment relations in the Brazilian Northeastern agriculture in the 2004-2014 period. The sources of information are special tabulations from the National Survey by Household Sample (PNAD), conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The results pointed to a continuing decline in Northeastern PEA (Economically Active Population) occupied in agriculture, partially offset by the growth of Northeastern rural residents occupied in non-agricultural activities, in addition to the people occupied in self-consumption production. Women and young people were the ones who mostly left the agricultural activities, reinforcing the “ageing” process of the occupied PEA. The crops with the largest reduction in the occupied in agricultural PEA were: cassava, rice, coffee, banana, sugarcane, cocoa, vegetables and fruits. On the other hand, the number of occupied people increased in: corn and grape cultivation, services for agriculture, swine and poultry farming and integrated agricultural and livestock production systems. An increase in schooling of the occupied PEA was registered, though it is still below the national average.

Abstract: This study explores different procedures to estimate price risk in commodity markets. Focusing on Brazilian agricultural markets, the paper proposes to assess both dispersion and downside risk measures using five different approaches (volatility, coefficient of variation, lower partial moments, value at risk and conditional value at risk). Results suggest that some commodities have large price variability but small downside risk, while other commodities show small price variability and large downside risk. Thus, there is no single answer to the question of which commodity exhibits more price risk, but rather distinct answers depending on how risk is perceived by different individuals. These findings are relevant for agents in the agricultural industry as they affect marketing and risk management decisions and for policy makers involved in support programs to agriculture.

Abstract: In the last three decades, the developing countries have sharply increased its contribution to global warming. From 2005 to 2012, Brazil has reduced its total emissions in 12% due to deforestation control. In the same period, the total GHG emissions excluding land-use change and forestry have increased 18% (WRI, 2014), while per capita GPD has raised 17%. The Brazilian climate policy must go beyond the deforestation control to avoid an unsustainable pattern of development. Since the mitigation effort bears heavily on primary activities, one must ask: how important are those sectors for Brazilian economy? And how their emissions are connected to other sectors along the productive chain? Specifically, this paper aims to calculate the GHG emissions multipliers of the Brazilian economy in 2009 and associate these results with the employment and income multipliers, particularly of the Agriculture sector. The ‘field of influence’ method (SONIS and HEWINGS, 1992) is applied to calculate the intersectorial relations in terms of input linkages and GHG emissions.

Abstract: The competitive agribusiness environment has been pressing organizational actors of dairy cooperatives to implement new structures. In this sense, many scholars advocate the existence of isomorphic practices that are not suitable for cooperative enterprises. This theoretical paper assumes that there are strategic actions related to the institutional demands, implemented by cooperative decision makers in relation to environmental pressures. Thus, we aimed to analyze how can be structured such strategic actions in relation to the institutional pressures of two organizational subfields related to cooperative business, in order to maintain the legitimacy of the business. For this, we drafted the projection of five analytical frameworks. As conclusions, it is inferred that a cooperative business restructuring not always tends to express an atomism of decision makers in relation to institutional demands of the organizational field, given that the demands are ambivalent and need to be met in order to obtain minimum level of legitimacy necessary for the organization survival.