Search

Agricultural cooperatives in post-socialistic countries often fail to justify their purpose. Lack of trust and social capital are plausible reasons. The aim of this paper is to map the relationship structure of farmers in region where operational cooperative exists. The Social network analysis demonstrates low levels of social capital however, the cooperative acts as valuable information provider for its members, serving as information mediator to the rural development program’s resources, required for farmers’ investment initiatives. This is a positive evidence for small-scale farmers and a step forward in motivating changes of farmer’s attitudes towards cooperation and re-establishment of agricultural cooperatives.

This paper investigates the market potential for a new technology such as a genetically modified crop, which produces both a private and a public good. A theoretical framework is developed, based on vertically differentiated products and heterogeneous producer returns. Our setting corresponds to a system composed of a biotech firm, individual farm, consumer and the government. We claim that coordination among every single stage of the system is needed in order for the adoption process to be successful and beneficial to all those involved. Our results indicate that the market adaption of a genetically modified product depends on the magnitude effect of the new technology on the incremental savings and costs as well as consumers’ aversion and the carbon emission market price. In particular we consider the carbon emissions market as an important instrument associated with the reduction of the two negative parameters of production costs and consumers aversion..

International audience; The aim of this paper is to gain an under standing into how agricultural policies have affected structural change in the French dairy sector. A nonstationary Markov model is estimated using a Generalized Cross Entropy approach. Results show that while the price of cow’s milk encourages farm growth, direct payments and quota restriction favor small farms. The price signal is a key factor of structural change. As a result, higher milk prices may accelerate the trend toward the further growth of dairy farms. Settlement policy and technical change seem not to slow this trend.; L’objectif de cet article est de comprendre comment les politiques agricoles ont affect´e le changement structurel dans le secteur laitier en France. Un modèle de Markov non stationnaire utilisant l’approche de Cross Entropie Généralise a été estimée. Les résultats montrent qu’alors que le prix du lait encourage l’augmentation de la taille des exploitations, les paiements directs et le quota laitier sont plutôt en faveur des petites exploitations. Le signal prix est un facteur clé du changement structurel. En conséquence, des prix du lait plus élevés pourraient accélérer la tendance vers des exploitations laitières de plus grande taille. Les aides `a l’installation et le changement technique ne semblent pas freiner cette tendance.

We develop a holdup model where multiple parties in the food chain (input suppliers, farmers, and buyers of the produce) invest in co-specific assets necessary for an innovative product. Shapley value is used in a multilateral bargaining game to assign bargaining power to the players, which correspondingly determines the surplus division.The conditions under which holdup is avoided and Pareto improving exchange will obtain are demonstrated. Two market responses to the holdup problem are considered. One is partial redistribution of specific investment costs serving as a credible commitment. The other is vertical/lateral integration, which changes the distribution of bargaining power.

In this paper we analyze the factors that determine the emergence of new generation cooperatives using the formation and structure of the Danish potato starch cooperative KMC as a historical example. The transaction cost framework has been used in order to analyze how actors chose among different types of governance structures. Theoretical framework and interviews have been combined in exploring and investigating the transactions in different settings. We show in our analysis that the governance structure choice depends heavily on the level and orientation of asset specificity as well as on the downstream market structure. Different problems that occur as a result of transaction costs related to the asset specificity are compared in different settings. Furthermore we claim that the orientation of the asset specificity and the contract-based downstream market have resulted on the emergence of the new generation cooperative.