Black land grant institutions and the title XII program: Is there room to maneuver?

In theory Black land grant (BLG) institutions offer a distinctive approach to agricultural assistance. An approach that is potentially sensitive to the smallholder environmental management and limited resource concerns faced by many Third World farmers attempting to meet food security and nutritional needs. Moreover, BLG approaches to agricultural assistance are characterized by sensitivities to the social, political, and cultural contexts in which food production and distribution take place. Yet these remain subjugated approaches within a foreign policy milieu that continues to privilege the more scientistic, technical, and managerial approaches to agricultural assistance historically taken by white land grant (WLG) institutions. This paper uses information gathered from informants in the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), BLG, and WLG institutions, as well as policy and program documents from these institutions to examine how the organization of BLG institutions within AID's Title XII program has affected their potential role in agricultural assistance in the Third World.Rosalind P. Harris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky. She is currently conducting research, sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies on research and extension programs at historically Black land grant institutions.     

Rethinking the role of U. S. development assistance in third world agriculture

International agricultural development as practiced by U. S. sponsored research groups in developing countries has emphasized technical questions of production, ignoring more fundamental social and economic issues that underline rural poverty and hunger. Rethinking the role of U. S. development assistance will require transcending the view that the only way to impact agriculture in the Third World is by increasing the intensity of land use in high potential agricultural areas. The challenge is to find ways of how to further increase agricultural productivity so that the rural poor significantly benefit, while at the same time conserving and regenerating the resource base. U. S. scientists must realize that this is only possible by improving the access of resource-poor farmers to land, water, other natural resources, as well as to equitable credit, markets, appropriate technologies, etc. Solidarious collaboration will emerge from the U. S. siding with progressive governments and/or community-based initiatives that promote political change aimed at securing farmers' control over resources and inputs, and changing the structural conditions and policies that perpetuate poverty. Miguel A. Altieri is Associate Professor at the Division of Biological Control, University of California, Berkeley. He teaches courses in agroecology and rural development, agroforestry, and biological control. His research emphasizes the development of sustainable agricultural systems both in California and in Latin America.     

美国农产品补贴新机制与展望

2014年美国实施新《农场法》,改革后的农产品补贴和作物保险政策对稳定农产品生产和农民收入具有决定性意义。预计今后美国农产品补贴制度将继续表现出稳定性、机制化、政治化的特征。同时,美国农产品补贴制度改革将继续维持补贴资金总量维持高位、补贴结构从价格支持向作物保险补贴转变、注重提高补贴效率的趋势。美国农产品补贴政策对于世界农业补贴制度与农产品价格的影响不容忽视。     

美苏农业生产比较研究

本文将美国和苏联自50年代以来的农业生产进行了初步的比较研究。总的讲来,苏联的农业落后于美国.除自然条件和某些技术外,最主要的原因是苏联的农业政策和组织管理都过于刻板,过份强调集中计划而忽略生产者的自决权.文章最后提及近年来苏联对农业进行改革已初见成效.只要坚持改革,苏联的农业前景将有所改观。     

Food production and the energy crisis

The principal raw material of modern U.S. agriculture is fossil fuel, whereas the labor input is relatively small (about 9 hours per crop acre). As agriculture is dependent upon fossil energy, crop production costs will also soar when fuel costs increase two- to fivefold. A return of 2.8 kcal of corn per 1 kcal of fuel input may then be uneconomical. Green revolution agriculture also uses high energy crop production technology, especially with respect to fertilizers and pesticides. While one may not doubt the sincerity of the U.S. effort to share its agricultural technology so that the rest of the world can live and eat as it does, one must be realistic about the resources available to accomplish this mission. In the United States we are currently using an equivalent of 80 gallons of gasoline to produce an acre of corn. With fuel shortages and high prices to come, we wonder if many developing nations will be able to afford the technology of U.S. agriculture. Problems have already occurred with green revolution crops, particularly problems related to pests (57). More critical problems are expected when there is a world energy crisis. A careful assessment should be made of the benefits, costs, and risks of high energy-demand green revolution agriculture in order to be certain that this program will not aggravate the already serious world food situation (58). To reduce energy inputs, green revolution and U.S. agriculture might employ such alternatives as rotations and green manures to reduce the high energy demand of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. U.S. agriculture might also reduce energy expenditures by substituting some manpower currently displaced by mechanization. While no one knows for certain what changes will have to be made, we can be sure that when conventional energy resources become scarce and expensive, the impact on agriculture as an industry and a way of life will be significant. This analysis is but a preliminary investigation of a significant agricultural problem that deserves careful attention and greater study before the energy situation becomes more critical.     

How knowledge deficit interventions fail to resolve beginning farmer challenges

Beginning farmer initiatives like the USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), farm incubators, and small-scale marketing innovations offer new entrant farmers agricultural training, marketing and business assistance, and farmland loans. These programs align with alternative food movement goals to revitalize the anemic U.S. small farm sector and repopulate landscapes with socially and environmentally diversified farms. Yet even as these initiatives seek to support prospective farmers with tools for success through a knowledge dissemination model, they remain mostly individualistic and entrepreneurial measures that overlook structural barriers to productive and economic success within U.S. agriculture. Analysis of the BFRDP’s funding history and discourse reveals a “knowledge deficit” based program focused on the technical rather than the structural aspects of beginning farming. This is contrasted with qualitative analysis of beginning farmer experiences in California’s Central Coast region. The discrepancies between the farmer experiences and national structure of the BFRDP program ultimately reveal a policy mismatch between the needs of some beginning farmers and the programs intended to support them.     

Gender related issues in international development assistance for agriculture and rural life

In this paper, the author points out that although by-passed by international development assistance in many parts of the world, women have been providing skill and labor for agricultural production, as well as subsistence of food, water and firewood for their families. Some of the assumptions which have contributed to the marginal attention to women as agriculturalists in international development assistance programs are reviewed. Factors contributing to these assumptions, examples of achievements in development projects and persistent problems are discussed. Some issues which continue to challenge national policy makers in developing countries as well as donors are identified. The author notes that while various donors and organizations address bits and pieces of the issues intermittently, a systematic, organized and universally shared approach to the issues, within a nation state or on a global basis is lacking. She concludes that just as agricultural production inputs and information need to be modified to fit the unique constraints of any ecological niche, similarly, modifications must be made in development assistance programs to fit the specific needs of women in their agricultural roles and cultural settings.     

中美农业技术进步贡献率比较分析与展望

作为衡量经济增长方式的主要方法,全要素生产率对经济增长贡献大小的核算已成为学界的研究热点,与之相关的实证方法有增长核算法、随机前沿法和DEA-Malmquist生产率指数法。利用3种实证方法和FAO数据库中1980—2007年中美农业相关数据,考察了中关农业技术进步情况,通过对技术进步贡献率的比较分析,找出中关农业技术进步的差距,为中国农业发展指明方向。     

美国农业政策支持水平变化特点分析

美国是世界最大的农产品生产国和贸易国,其农业支持政策的变化对全球农业生产和农产品市场都有重要影响。文章在总结美国农业政策演变特征的基础上,分析美国农业政策支持水平的变化特点。结果显示：美国农业政策支持水平整体呈增长趋势,但生产者支持水平呈下降趋势,且对生产环节单位面积的直接补贴低于中国四项补贴的水平;美国的农业补贴主要集中在大宗产品上,且农场规模越大得到的补贴越多。     

Solar biomass energy: an overview of u.s. Potential

The U.S. annual biomass production for food, lumber, paper, and fiber, if used exclusively for energy, would provide 25 percent of current energy requirements. The collection of unharvested wood residues and cull trees for direct use as fuel for small nearby space-heating applications-especially for peak winter conditions-is an important near-term solar energy opportunity. Improved management of hundreds of millions of acres of productive forest land is an important opportunity for the long term. Harvest of cropland residues for energy values, new biomass production using intensive short-rotation silviculture, resubstitution of natural products for petroleum-based synthetics, and forest management for large-scale production of electricity and synthetic fuels are judged to be less appropriate directions for the U.S. energy system to take.     

U.s. Farm dilemma: the global bad news is wrong

World agricultural production is at an all-time high and is climbing fast, especially in the developing countries. Even Africa has ample land and technology to feed its population, given more effective national policies. Higher agricultural output has been stimulated primarily by new technology, but also by investments and improved government policies. Constraints such as cropland shortage, soil erosion, and higher oil prices have been readily surmounted. High-technology agriculture has even overcome some major "systems breaks." Thus U.S. farmers will continue to face commercial surpluses of farm products in world markets in the years ahead.     

Historical forces in world agriculture and the changing role of international development assistance

The first part of this paper discusses five sets of forces that have had a major influence on world agriculture in the post-World War II period. These include (1) high rates of population growth in the developing countries; (2) a steady increase in economic integration world-wide, driven by technological breakthroughs in the communication and transportation sectors; (3) major realignments in the values of national currencies; (4) growing distortions in economic policies in both the industrialized and developing countries; and (5) growing diffusion of new production technology from the industrialized to the developing countries. The second part reviews the changing role of international development assistance in support of agriculture in light of these historical forces. Such assistance successively stressed the development of extension services, food aid, institutional development of higher level education institutions, the development of research capacity, and rural development. A look to the future is the subject of the third part of the paper. This includes a discussion of the difficulties in sustaining U.S. foreign assistance, especially when that nation is letting its own economic house fall into such disarray.     

美国玉米产业发展现状及对我国的启示

通过对美国玉米生产各环节的实地考察和调研,介绍了美国玉米产业发展现状与特点,总结了美国高产玉米的生产管理技术、机械化水平、品种研发能力,以及美国农业技术推广体系、农业生产资料供给特点、产销服务体系等,对比分析了中关玉米投入产出效益,提出了对我国玉米生产的借鉴和思考。     

我国、美国和巴西玉米生产成本比较及启示(英文)

分析了中国、美国和巴西1997-2014年的玉米生产成本,研究表明(1)中国玉米生产成本明显高于美国和巴西;(2)人工成本和土地成本上涨是中国玉米生产成本高涨的主要原因;(3)中国农业机械化水平逐步提高,与美国和巴西的差距正在缩小;(4)不同于美国和巴西,中国目前属于"高投入低产出"的农业生产模式。根据研究结果,笔者提出了相应的降低玉米生产成本的政策建议。     

美国农产品贸易的发展趋势及特点

近20年来,美国农产品贸易规模不断扩大,贸易总额由1991年的817．4亿美元增加到2011年的2756．1亿美元,成为全球最大的农产品进出口国。美国农产品贸易的产品结构特征突出,出口以谷物、食用油籽和棉花等资源密集型产品为主,而进口则以饮品、水产品、蔬菜和水果等劳动密集型产品为主。美国农产品贸易的市场架构具有非常强的地缘性,出口市场靠“北关自由贸易区”和中、日、韩东亚三国两个轮子驱动,而进口来源地则较为牢固。总之,近20年来,美国在主要农产品进出口方面仍占主导地位,但其在国际市场上的份额和统治力均有所下降。预计2013年和2014年美国农产品出口额将会继续保持20％左右的增速,进口额增速将保持在10％左右。     

APEC农业应对气候变化合作进展分析

全球气候变化正在对全球农业生产产生各种影响,对世界粮食安全造成威胁。本文全面分析了气候变化与农业生产之间的交互作用,评价了其影响程度,探索了农业适应和减缓气候变化可行方案对实现世界粮食安全具有重要意义。本文还结合APEC的最佳实践,提出了农业生产适应和减缓气候变化的具体措施及建议,并对未来发展进行了展望。     

关于加快推进玉米生产机械化的认识与思考

玉米是中国第二大粮食作物,中国是全球第二大玉米生产国和消费国,中国玉米粮经饲兼用。近年玉米消费呈刚性增长,种植面积与产量逐年递增。加快推进玉米生产机械化对确保国粮安全、促进农牧业发展、提速粮食加工业进程,实现农业增效、农民增收迫在眉睫。发展思路;因地制宜,分类指导,重点突破。农机农艺互动,社会化服务促动,梯度推进带动,多项技术联动。主要措施：加大收获机械购机补贴力度,深入种植制度改革,创造机械化生产优质条件,实施项目带动战略,强化示范推广,积极培育玉米机械化作业市场,加强技术创新,提升玉米装备技术水平。     

科技进步对山西食品工业支撑作用研究

食品工业已成为世界第一大产业,销售额居各行业之首。而食品工业与农业、自然联系密切。随着人们对食品要求的提高,科学技术在食品工业中的应用越来越广泛。从科技支撑食品工业发展的角度,陈述当前山西省食品企业的现状,分析了食品工业发展中存在的主要问题,提出强化科技对企业支撑作用的政策建议。     

玉米产量提升的农艺技术措施研究

玉米在当今世界是非常重要的粮食产物,玉米的产量甚至能够影响到全球的粮食安全。因 此,农业工作者一直以来都在大面积种植玉米。而我国的玉米生产优势较为明显,生产的总量很多, 且品种也非常优质,在某省甚至已经成为了第一大作物。鉴于此,本文主要讨论了玉米产量提高的农 艺技术策略。     

推进中国现代农业的建设与农业技术的选择

本文分析了农业技术选择与建立现代农业产业技术体系、粮食生产适用技术体系、农产品生产基地的技术体系、专业农户为基础的专业化生产体系的关系;在此基础上,提出选择适应的农业技术,使科技进步真正发挥推动作用,把中国现代农业建设推进到较高水平.