Browsing by Subject "Farm management"

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Bürokratie in landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben : dargestellt am Beispiel von Milchviehbetrieben
(2013) Rothfuß, Kathrin; Doluschitz, Reiner
As in many sectors of the economy, state bureaucracy is regarded as an increasing und costly problem for individual agricultural businesses and for the agricultural sector as a whole. Coping with internal administration as well as the exchange of data as part of quality assurance programmes and based on contractual regulations are also growing in importance. It is no longer justifiable to question which administrative work is too time-consuming or unnecessary but rather how the inevitable bureaucracy can be dealt with as effectively as possible. The goal of this dissertation is therefore firstly to determine the administrative burden that exists for farmers and, secondly, to ascertain the factors that can affect the intensity of this burden or alleviate it. The bureaucratic burden will be ascertained in this dissertation on the basis of a subjective rating by farmers. A definition of the bureaucratic tasks to be evaluated by farmers was also needed in order to be able to define the bureaucratic burden. The criteria for this was that the tasks had to be relevant for dairy cattle farmers with arable farming in Baden-Württemberg. Furthermore, the analysed tasks had to be performed at least once per year and a certain level of work would be required for it. Quantitative and qualitative methods of empirical social research were combined to respond appropriately to the diversity of the aforementioned subject of this analysis. Dairy cattle farmers in Baden-Württemberg were surveyed in a multi-stage process. In the first step, 1,060 surveys were distributed to the participants of the milk recording. 487 farmers (46% return rate) responded to the standardised questions on the structure of their enterprise and their socio-democratic profile and rated the selected 45 bureaucratic tasks. 125 of these farmers agreed to a further interview. From these 125, 40 farmers were then selected for personal interviews based on defined criteria. These interviews were partially evaluated by qualitative methods and also include the questions contained in the subsequent telephone interviews. A further 82 farmers were surveyed by phone about their attitude towards bureaucracy. The factors that led to "very serious" bureaucratic mental burden were determined using a factor analysis and a subsequent binary logistic regression. The empirically recorded dairy cattle farms are above-average in size in terms of the number of dairy cattle and their total area. The burden felt is considerable. Almost half of those surveyed judge the burden caused by bureaucratic ("red tape") as being very significant and on average greater than other work-related challenges. Based on the rating of bureaucratic tasks, the "Gemeinsame Antrag" (application for subsidies) in first place and the recording of information concerning the use of veterinary drugs in second place are identified as being the bureaucracy that causes the most stress. Qualitative analysis of the personal interviews permits a description of ten general problem areas in dealing with bureaucracy to be identified. It becomes apparent, that difficulties arise in the majority of cases if, for example, the use of resources or the division of labour is not planned or the farmers cannot justify their processes. Within the ten tasks perceived as being most stressful, alongside general problem areas there are specific problem areas that generally explain well the volume of bureaucratic stress and burden. A factor analysis enabled this standardised statements about the farmer?s attitude towards bureaucracy to be combined into eight factors. Three of these factors affect the farmer's mental stress with bureaucracy. The factor of "Acceptance of external requests for information and design" reduces the bureaucratic stress felt and the "Lack of time" and "Lack of efficiency of statutory obligations regarding documentation" increase the bureaucratic stress and pressure felt. This dissertation clearly demonstrates which bureaucratic obligations the legislature should change to reduce stress. The procedure selected for this has proved itself. It also demonstrates that farmers should not remain passive when faced with the issue of bureaucracy but should take measures themselves to reduce the burden within their own business. Service providers and advisers are called upon to provide assistance by developing individual strategies. From a scientific point of view, this investigation provides insights into various processes in the organisation of agricultural businesses and the underlying attitude of the farmers themselves.
Economic analysis on the agro-environmental impacts of management and policy measures in the North China Plain
(2011) Kühl, Yannick; Zeddies, Jürgen
The increased use of agricultural inputs like fertilizers and pesticides led to wide-spread negative environmental impacts of agriculture in the North China Plain (NCP). The context of this research is that, due to continued growth of the population and the economy, the demand for agricultural products in China is gradually rising. However resources like land and water are scarce in China. Therefore new strategies need to be developed which do not put additional strains on the environment but meet the expected demand. The NCP is regarded as China?s most important agricultural region. This work aims at describing and discussing the environmental effects of agriculture in the NCP. The extent of these environmental impacts is presented. An essential part of this work is the in-depth description and analysis of the current cropping systems and farming practices, which is based on the findings a household survey. The central hypothesis of this work is that a change of the management systems is able to meet the production goals, to achieve a higher input-output efficiency and to reduce negative environmental impacts. Embedded in the objectives of this work, the main goals are the description of current agricultural practices and related negative environmental impacts, the definition of agro-environmental management and policy measures, impact analysis of management and policy measures and the development of suggestions for further research. The second chapter aims at introducing the background of this research, i.e. the environmental impacts of agriculture. Hereby the focus lies on the introduction of relevant and characteristic farming practices and on the related institutional setting. Then the processes of data acquisition and data handling for this work are described. The descriptive analysis presents the findings from a survey in July 2008; it aims at describing the characteristics of the surveyed farm households. Chapter 5 describes the methodologies which are applied for the analysis in this work. The first part describes the methodology of Linear Programming and its selection process. The second part explains the selection process for the integrated households. The last part describes the processes of environmental assessment by means of selected indicators. In chapter 6 the model is applied to simulate and analyze the selected households in changing scenarios. Each Scenario is described individually. Then the simulation results are presented and discussed. In chapter 7 possible strategies to reduce environmental impacts of farming in the NCP ? considering the objectives of this work: sustainability and food security ? are discussed. The discussion focuses on the two main problems in the research area: fertilization and water. The analysis showed that current farming practices in the research area are not sustainable and can, thus, threaten future food security in China. The dilemma of the research area is that intensive agricultural production cannot be reduced because high yields are needed to feed the growing demand from a (economically) growing population. Simultaneously high resource consumption and pollution from farming cannot continue as that could eventually result in irreversible damage to agriculture in the NCP and also threatens livelihoods. Finally strategic policy recommendations, characteristics of improved management practices and recommendations for further research are presented. These recommendations can play an important role in decision guiding for policy makers. After reviewing other studies in the NCP, it has to be concluded that this work represents one of the most comprehensive analysis of the agricultural practices in the Hebei province. It was demonstrated that management practices for maize and wheat exist which can result in higher input-output efficiency and which are economically more profitable ? especially production options which include intercropping of other crops or demand-driven fertilization and irrigation. The hypothesis was tested to be valid. The simulation of optimization options showed that economically more profitable production options exist. These optimized production options are characterized by a more efficient factor input (mainly water and fertilization) and resulting decreased environmental impacts. The policy of a premium for reduced water use resulted in the highest simulated increases of total contribution margins with simultaneously reduced negative environmental impacts. However the simulation also revealed that, in order to ensure food security, incentives for producing wheat should be provided as it is the economically least profitable main crop, but it has important functions for own consumption. The simulation also revealed that policies aimed at increasing output prices of the main crops (in combination with optimized production options) can result in total higher contribution margins and decreased negative environmental impacts and higher resource use efficiency. It should be noted that the optimum results did not integrate production options which the surveyed farmers are currently applying ? this indicates that current practices are not efficient. Many studies state that knowledge transfer systems and extension services in the NCP are deficient. The survey showed that the majority of the households did not have contact with the extension services, and, moreover, most of the households never received agricultural training. A knowledge transfer program can be an efficient tool to reduce environmental impacts of farming in the NCP. In addition specific recommendations and systems under considerations of socio-economic approaches have to be developed to improve knowledge transfer and services to farmers in the NCP. Appropriate decision support systems for efficient land use in the research area have to be developed. This study showed that laws and regulations regarding environmental impacts exist, but they are not reliably enforced. Many studies state that the current institutional framework for water management is inadequate and that it, thus, represents one of the causes for the overexploitation of water resources. Therefore the responsibilities should be clearly defined in order to be able to create incentives for saving water and to increase efficiencies. Furthermore, farmers? water rights are not secure and transparent. Therefore plans, based on scientific estimations for water supply and demand, are needed to clearly define and enforce water use rights. Besides clearly defined and enforced water use rights, also longer, enforced and secure land-use rights might facilitate the adoption of sustainable farming practices. Also the institutional set-up complicates the implementation of policies. Therefore institutional change with coordinated efforts is needed. Decentralized and regionalized administrations might increase the effectiveness of policies. In addition the institutional framework has to be updated to the specific requirements in the NCP. One of the main reasons for problems related to water management is that it represents a mostly unregulated resource in the NCP. The survey showed that fertilizer use is strongly varying, overuse and undersupply occur in the research area. The strongly varying and inadequate fertilizer applications endanger the sustainability of the agricultural systems in the NCP. Furthermore the organic matter contents in the soils are too low. The survey also revealed that the farmers in the research area are not informed about the quality of their soils. Integrated into knowledge transfer programs, providing opportunities for soil analysis to the local farmers could result in fertilization practices which are based on the nutrient contents of the soil and, thus, are more efficient. Structural development projects in the Chinese rural areas need to be continued, especially in the research are, to avoid a rural exodus. The living conditions in the rural areas ? in terms of income, education and health services ? are still not comparable with the conditions in urban areas. Chinese policy has to focus on stopping the further decline of the ground water tables. Furthermore a conscious water use and environmental awareness for all stakeholders has to be created in order to avoid that pollution or resource scarcity and misuse will further reduce agricultural production in the NCP. The social costs of further decreased agricultural production in the NCP would be unbearable.