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Reduced transport costs and income growth in industrialising European countries changed the market conditions for European farmers in the late nineteenth century. Grain prices fell while dairy prices rose. It has been claimed that these price changes hit large grain farmers with vested interests in grain trade particularly hard, while owner-occupiers and smallholders fared better and with help of developing cooperative associations, came out as successful commercial agriculturalists by switching to intensive branches, foremost dairying. Recent research on the Danish case, shows, however, that change was initiated on large elite estates with long-term dairy traditions. The literature on the Swedish case indicates, that larger farms switched to intensified fodder production quicker than smaller farms did, while in the early twentieth century smaller farms played an un-proportionally large role on the dairy market. Using individual farm data from two East-central Swedish parishes in 1878/80, 1895/96 and 1910/11, it is shown, that larger farms tended to modernise crop rotations and switch towards dairy production earlier than small farms did. Smaller farms caught up, and by 1910 their land use was about as strongly adapted to commercial dairy production as larger farms' land use was. Agrarekonomisk tillväxt eller stagnation i Mälardalen: Regionala produktionsdata 1750-1920. Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser, P2017-0029:1

OCL 2010, 17 (5) : Dossier Les complémentarités oléagineux/protéagineux (agronomie, nutrition); National audience; For the last forty years oilseed and high-protein crops have undergone important changes in terms of area and localisation in France. On the Seine basin example, we show that the specialisation of the farming systems and the agricultural regions has strongly changed the cropping patterns by reducing grasslands which were replaced by a constant increase of the wheat area in a one hand and by a dramatic increase, from the eighties, of the rapeseed, field pea and sunflower areas in another hand. Then from the nineties, rapeseed has gradually replaced field pea and sunflower, the areas of which have fallen. The decrease in the number of cultivated species has led to a clear trend to the simplification and the shortening of the crop successions: short crop successions based on rapeseed (as rapeseed-wheat-barley or rapeseed-wheat-wheat) and cereal successions (as wheat-wheat-wheat, wheat-wheat-barley or wheat-barley-barley) have strongly increased on the Seine basin over the last twenty years. The crop succession shortening, that causes crop protection problems towards weeds, insects or diseases, is only possible in relation with an intensive use of pesticides: thus the increase of the rapeseed area is positively correlated with the increase of the average number of plant pest controls, especially with herbicides. These agricultural dynamics have negative impacts on environment and enhance the economical risks the farms have to cop with. As a consequence, a new crop diversification, supported by policy-making and agricultural production networks, seems to be a strong future issue

Planejamento energético e especialização agricola da fronteira sul-amazonense. — Neste momento de restruturação do setor energético brasileiro, a combinação do cálculo econômico e da abordagem geográfica resgata a influencia das politicas energéticas sobre a expansão da fronteira sul-amazonense na periferia do centro paulista. Por um lado ficou evidenciado que o papel da energia elétrica foi marginal no que diz respeito ao desenvolvimento agricola. Já no caso dos carburantes, devido a grande distãncia que sépara a região estudada dos mercados, a politica tarifaria ganhou uma dimensão estratégica : o efeito de atenuação da distância através da igualizaçào tarifaria é suficiente par orientar a especialização agricola privilegiando a soja em relação ao milho. Por outro lado, a privatização do processo de colonização excluiu os pequenos colonos dos beneffcios da transferéncia de recursos embutida nesta igualizaçào tarifaria ; estes ùltimos estào obrigados a voltar a usar formas de energia arcaica, dificultando o processo de fixação do homem no campo., Energy supply and agricultural specialisation in the settlement frontiers in Southern Amazonia. — As the Brazilian energy sector is deregulated, a combination of economic and geographical approaches points up the influence of energy policies on the expansion into the frontier south of the Amazon as a periphery of the economic centre of Sao Paulo. While the role of electricity in agricultural development remains marginal, the remoteness of markets adds a strategic dimension to the price of petroleum fuels : the mitigating effect of rate equalisation on cost-distance is sufficient if the agricultural specialisation is soya bean rather than corn. However, the privatisation of the colonisation process has deprived small-scale colonists of the benefits of the transfer of resources offered by rate equalisation : forced to regress to primitive forms of power, they are unable to establish themselves permanently., À l'heure de la dérégulation du secteur énergétique brésilien, la combinaison des approches économique et géographique éclaire l'effet des politiques énergétiques sur l'expansion de la frontière sud- amazonienne à la périphérie du centre pauliste. Le rôle de l'électricité est resté marginal vis-à-vis du développement agricole, mais l'éloignement des marchés confère un enjeu stratégique aux prix des carburants : l'effet d'atténuation de la « distance-coût » par la péréquation tarifaire est suffisant si la spécialisation agricole s'oriente vers le soja plutôt que le maïs. Par contre, la privatisation du processus de colonisation a enlevé aux petits colons des bénéfices du transfert de ressources via la péréquation; contraints de régresser vers des formes d'énergie archaïsantes, ils ne parviennent pas à se fixer durablement., de Gouvello Christophede Gouvello Christophe. Approvisionnement énergétique et spécialisation agricole des régions pionnières : l'Amazonie méridionale. In: L'Espace géographique, tome 28, n°3, 1999. pp. 257-268.

The contestable markets theory provides instrumental means ta study the dramatic increase in farm specialisation and concentration which took place over the last decades. With respect to multiproduct technologies, this approach leads to an endogenous detennination of the structure of the farm sector. The concept of specialisation economies is proposed in arder to emphasise linkages between the change in inputs prices and the competitiveness of specialised farms. The major role of the labour input price in explaining the specialisation trend of French fanns is underlined in the empirical part of our paper. This result explains why specialisation and other input intensification are linked.; L'évolution de l'agriculture française, caractérisée par la concentration et la spécialisation des exploitations, est appréhendée par la théorie des marchés contestables. L'intérêt de cette approche est de considérer la structure industrielle comme endogène et de prendre en compte le caractère multi-produits de la technologie agricole. L'accent est mis sur le rôle de l'évolution des prix relatifs des facteurs sur la compétitivité des exploitations diversifiées par rapport à celle des exploitations spécialisées, à partir de la notion d'économies de spécialisation. L'application empirique proposée souligne l'importance du prix du facteur travail dans le mouvement de spécialisation des exploitations agricoles. Cela explique pourquoi la spécialisation des exploitations s'est accompagnée de l'intensification de l'ensemble des facteurs par rapport au travail.

Se plantea un análisis en profundidad del cambio de los usos agrarios del suelo en el ámbito territorial de la actual región metropolitana de Barcelona desde principios del siglo XVIII hasta el momento actual. El artículo se basa en un estudio minucioso de cinco fuentes de datos a escala municipal, correspondientes a distintos cortes temporales. Se lleva a cabo una discusión de los métodos utilizados para obtener estos datos y para asegurar su coherencia. Los resultados del trabajado explican las variaciones temporales y espaciales de los usos agrarios del suelo y se ponen en relación con el marco teórico del artículo. Las conclusiones sistematizan las tres grandes dinámicas que han motivado el cambio estudiado: la inserción de la agricultura regional en marcos geoeconómicos amplios, la conformación en el área de estudio de una verdadera agricultura periurbana y la influencia desigual del fenómeno urbanizador. This paper will present an in-depth examination of agricultural land-use change in the area of the current day metropolitan region of Barcelona since the early 18th century. It is based on a meticulous study of five data sources at municipal scale over different time moments. The manuscript will discuss the methodologies used to obtain this data and to ensure its consistency. The results will explain the temporal and spatial differences of the agricultural land-uses and will be discussed in light of the theoretical context. The paper concludes by identifying the key triggers for change: the inclusion of regional agriculture into wider geo-economic contexts, the emergence of true peri-urban agriculture in the case study area and the uneven influence of the urban encroachment. Este artículo se inscribe en los proyectos de investigación «Las unidades básicas de paisaje agrario de España: identificación, delimitación, caracterización y valoración» (CSO2009-12225-C05-03, IP Joan Tort) y «Sistema de indicadores para el análisis de las dinámicas urbanas y metropolitanas en España a comienzos del siglo XXI» (CSO2010-16298, IP Rubén C. Lois), ambos financiados por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Gobierno de España).