Technical and economic criteria in agricultural production: A case for a systems approach to farm decision-making in the Pakistan Punjab

This paper defines the criteria of ‘technical’ and ‘economic’ efficiencies. The relationship between these criteria is identified, and its implications are discussed. These two sets of criteria do diverge, with ramifications both at the farm and the national levels. An illustration of their relationship at the farm level is provided by examining the nature of water allocation to crops in the Punjab of Pakistan. The divergences that exist between ‘technical’ and ‘economic’ efficiencies at both farm and national levels are highlighted by considering the process of mechanisation in the Punjab in some detail. Finally, it is pointed out how a ‘systems approach’ can accomodate both the technical and economic criteria and their interaction.     

“互联网+”农机的发展及应用

传统小农生产模式具有投入大、效率低和效益差等特点,阻碍了我国农业现代化的发展。农业生产模式虽然正在不断向机械化转换,但是简单的机械化已不能满足农忙时节农户对农机的需求,以及不断增加的农机数量给农机管理部门带来的难度,未来农业机械化的发展需要借力“互联网+”。针对上述问题,借助互联网思维,在农机装备研发制造、农机作业质量和效率提升、农机化管理与服务等方面与“互联网+”融合,从实际出发,根据耕地分布集中地的不同和收获时间的差异,合理调度管理农机,提高信息服务水平,以最大限度满足农户农忙时的需求,实现了农机作业可监管、农机资源分布易查询、生产过程智能化和管理平台资源可整合,全面提升了农机化发展水平。      

“互联网+”背景下农产品营销策略

我国粮食产量逐年上涨，依附互联网优势，可更好解决农产品销售问题。分析了我国农产品销售存在的问题，并据此提出“互联网+”背景下农产品营销创新策略。      

“一带一路”倡议下西部地区农产品营销问题与建议

利用SWOT分析法从外部环境机会与挑战、内部环境优势与劣势4个方面对“一带一路”倡议下西部地区农产品营销问题进行了分析，指出了存在的问题并提出科学合理的建议，可为西部地区农产品营销提供具有一定参考价值的理论指导。      

论我国农机监理法制化建设

我国农机安全监理法制化建设已经开始并不断深化。但在法制化的过程中,农机监理法律法规体系、农机监理机构建设和农机监理执法人员建设中出现的问题阻碍了整个法制化进程。因此,优化农机安全监理法律体系、优化农机监理机构配置、提高监理人员素质和加强农机监理法制宣传已经是促进我国农机安全监理法制化建设的重要保障。为此,论述了我国农机监理法制化建设存在的主要问题及发展建议。     

Changing systems for supporting farmers' decisions: problems,paradigms, and prospects

All correct reasoning is a grand system of tautologies, but only God can make direct use of that fact. The rest of us must painstakingly and fallibly tease out the consequences of our assumptions. (Herbert Simon in ‘The Sciences of the Artificial’, p.15)

Decision support systems (DSS), like other information systems (IS) before them, were designed to serve functions deemed by ‘management scientists’ to be potentially useful to managers. But the unwelcome fact is that the use of agricultural DSSs by managers of farms has been low. This paper probes possible reasons for this through interpretation of agricultural DSS case histories and several strands of relevant social theory. From nine cases of DSS development effort and 14 products interpreted comparatively, a number of generalisations are made that serve as reference points in the following search for explanation in theory.First, the nature of management practice of family farms is explored and differences between the internal structure governing personal action and the scientific approach to practice are contrasted. Next, the interaction between the nature of the particular action/practice and the nature of the DSS is explored. A DSS designed to provide integrated, optimal recommendations for management typifies the DSS as a proxy for a manager's decision process. Examples of elaborate expert systems that simply were not used dramatically illustrate the resistance of family farmers to have their decision processes by-passed. On the other hand, the DSS designed to serve as a tool in a modified decision process is shown to have experienced higher use, by deriving and exploiting ‘deep,’ abstract information about the system, by introducing a powerful ‘logic,’ or a combination of both.A number of the referenced case stories demonstrate the resurgence of the decision support mode whereby the simulator is in the hands of an expert intermediary as an alternative to easy-to-use software in the hands of a farmer. This is the mode of operational research/management science, which preceded the DSS.In comparison with hierarchical organizations, available options for overcoming the persistent ‘problem of implementation’ of the DSS in family farms are inherently weak. This focuses attention on the importance of the relationship between the DSS developer and the potential user. Drawing on a classic typology of possible configurations of ‘understanding’ between the scientist and the manager, four approaches to intervention are discussed. Three entail a degree of engagement that qualifies them as ‘participative.’ But one of these constitutes a departure from the DSS and broader IS traditions that places it in another paradigm. In this ‘mutual understanding’ relationship, intervention intent shifts from educating and persuading to recognition of and respect for other ways of viewing the world. This opens up the opportunities for co-creating information systems that utilise the comparative advantages of both practical and scientific knowledge. Intervention emphasis shifts from prescribing action to facilitating learning in actions.Although the DSS has fallen far short of expectations in its influence on farm management, the experience has been instructive in multiple ways to both farmers and professionals in agriculture. In many cases, farmers learned from the DSS and could then jettison it without loss. From disappointments scientists have sometimes learned what was needed to achieve a better outcome. From collated DSS experiences, important lessons for the future can be drawn.The paper concludes by conjecturing that the future of the DSS and related ISs, while more limited than once imagined, holds promise in four directions: a ‘small’ tool for aiding farmers' tactical decisions; a versatile simulator as a consultant's tool; a versatile simulator as the core of a facilitated ‘learning laboratory,’ and a formal framework that supports regulatory objectives in constraining and documenting farming practice.     

农产品电子商务发展创新模式

在“后疫情”阶段，农产品销售流通领域正在发生深层次和全渠道的电商化变革，形成新的产销体系。农产品电子商务作为农民增收的重要手段，建立电商平台和农民之间的利益联结机制，为农产品上行创新路径。通过比较分析社区团购、定制领养、社群营销和网络众筹农产品电子商务发展的创新模式，提出农产品电子商务发展模式选择的建议，推动农村经济的发展。      

补贴对农业生产的影响

文章分析了机械设备购置补贴措施对农业生产的影响,总结出购置农业机械设备补贴进程中的问题,并针对这些问题提出了相关的建议,这对更好地落实国家的农机购置补贴政策,促进农民增收具有重要意义。     

Modelling farm diversity: new approaches to typology building in France

Based on an analysis of the changing social demands regarding tools to back agricultural development (advisory support to farmers and decision aids for public authorities), the author describes and compares two new methods for building farm typologies. Although designed to meet the requirements of the new agricultural context, these methods relate to a 25 year-old tradition of French typological work grounded in a systems approach of farm functioning.     

基于“互联网+”的农业供应链新模式

“互联网+农业”是互联网经济环境下农业发展新模式,是推动农业现代化实现跨越式发展的利器。因此,基于“互联网+”视域下探究农业供应链发展新模式对于农业现代化发展具有现实意义。该文基于“互联网+”视角,结合农业发展大势,从商流、物流、信息流和资金流构建农业供应链新模式,以“互联网+”带动农业创新发展。      

Assessment of the quality of farmers’ environmental management and its effects on resource use efficiency: a Dutch case study

Most research on efficiency of farm management focuses on the relationship between an array of individual management variables and technical performance. Few studies have analysed the relationship between the total complex of farm management and technical farm performance. The present study uses the concept of strategic management and applies it to nitrogen management on Dutch arable farms. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to assess farm specific efficiency scores for fertiliser use. For a sub-sample of the farms used in the DEA analysis, the strategic management concept was addressed by means of a workshop. The management elements (objectives, internal analysis of weaknesses and strengths, external analysis of opportunities and threats, and synthesis) were made operational by relating them to the introduction of the Mineral Accounting System (MINAS) by 2001 for Dutch arable farms. The external analysis was evaluated by questions about the MINAS rules; the internal analysis was evaluated by questions on the expected consequences for the farmer's N management. An interactive simulation model evaluating whether farmers were able to choose the optimal fertilisation strategy in view of MINAS assessed the ‘quality of the synthesis’. A positive significant correlation was found between the ‘quality of the synthesis’ and N efficiency.     

基于“互联网+”农业专业大学生创新教育的思考

深度结合“互联网+”，构建综合信息化教育平台是国内教育领域发展的趋势，西安外事学院的创业学院在农业创业方面借助“互联网+”新理念实现面向校内大学生群体的自主教育创新，以寻求对教育体制、教育内容的有效突破，走教育多元智能信息化发展道路。该文在“互联网+”的背景下，分析农业专业大学生创新教育存在的问题，并提出创新教育新模式。      

A bio-economic model of small-ruminant production in the semi-arid tropics of the Northeast region of Brazil: Part 2—Linear programming applications and results

Survey data covering production systems for mixed farms in the Northeast region of Brazil has been synthesized within a linear programming (LP) framework. The resulting model contains activities covering the production of cattle, sheep and goats, and a vector of alternative cropping activities. Farm resources include two categories of grazing land, planted forages, family labour, two categories of hired labour, and working capital. The major livestock activities represented in the region were included as production options.Initial results did not discriminate between categories of available grazing resources. Therefore, cattle, by virtue of their higher dressing percentages and higher price per kilogram, were the optimal livestock species. A series of adjustments was then carried out to reflect types of feed resources and patterns of animal species selectivity. Optimal farm solutions for a representative traditional-production unit found objective function levels close to those found by farm surveys, but discrepancies between model results and the actual farm situations for sheep and goat activities. Model results excluded small-ruminant breeding activities because of the low net offtake at weaning levels assumed in the model. Data that became available after these initial model runs showed a higher net offtake level, and these revised coefficients resulted in optimal LP results very close to those actually found on farms.The model was then used to simulate the response of activities and farm economic performance to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ years defined by ± half standard deviation from mean annual levels of precipitation. Model results indicated much higher variability of farm income in response to weather than that found with changes in levels of technical efficiency of sheep and goat production.     

农机跨区作业——加速我国农机化进程的战略选择

近几年，我国农业机械化进程突飞猛进，农机跨区作业功不可没。为此，在针对后者对前者影响的基础上进行定量分析，提出建议—推动农机跨区作业，加速我国农业机械化进程。达对实现我国农业机械化跨跃式超常规发展具有重要的理论和实践意义。     

临潼石榴农产品品牌营销策略研究

自从党在十九大正式提出实施乡村振兴战略以来,三农问题愈发受到广泛关注与重视,各地政府更是把三农问题作为推进实施乡村振兴战略的重中之重去解决。农产品作为三农问题中农村产业的重要组成部分,是振兴农村产业的重要基础,而农产品的健康持续发展与农产品品牌营销策略有着重要关系,农产品品牌营销是助力农产品产业发展的关键。文章通过对我国陕西省临潼区石榴农产品品牌营销的重要性进行阐述,对临潼石榴农产品品牌营销存在的问题进行细致分析,最后有针对性的提出对策建议,以期为优化临潼石榴农产品品牌营销策略提供参考。     

基于用户画像的农产品电商精准营销关键技术研究与应用

农产品电商发展迅速进一步激发了农产品线上消费的多样化与个性化需求。然而,大数据时代背景下,传统农产品电商营销缺乏用户数据挖掘与分析,对目标用户的定位不够精准。本文在对用户画像概念与应用分析基础上,对用户画像构建的关键流程与技术进行梳理与阐述,构建农产品用户画像精准营销机制与逻辑框架,并利用某特色农产品电商消费数据进行应用实例论证与分析。该研究有效地完成了某电商平台用户数据采集、数据分析、用户画像构建,实现针对农产品的精准营销、个性化推荐、消费预测分析等,为乡村振兴背景下的农产品电商行业发展提供实施性建议。     

云南省农业机械的选型分析

根据云南山坝交错的情况以及各地的自然条件、耕作制度与经营项目,选择适宜本地区的农业机械装备,优化主机与农具的配套,充分发挥机械性能,提高农机利用率,尤其重要。为此,以云南省的地理条件和作为农业省的实际情况,就选择适合云南农业地理环境的农业机械、普及和促进农业机械发展进行了论述,有针对性地分析了目前国内的主流农业机械品种。     

Systems approaches for the design of sustainable agro-ecosystems

The complexity of agricultural systems and the need to fulfil multiple objectives in sustainable agro-ecosystems call for interdisciplinary analyzes and input from a wide variety of disciplines in order to better understand the complete agronomic production system. Systems approaches have been developed to support these interdisciplinary studies; their development and use have increased strongly in the past decades. Agronomic systems have pronounced spatial and temporal dimensions. Spatial aspects can be distinguished at crop, field, farm, regional and higher levels while processes at each spatial level have characteristic temporal components. Systems analysis in agronomic systems implies the use of various types of knowledge, such as expert knowledge including stakeholder expertise and knowledge derived from scientific measurements and model-simulations. The latter two can be derived from different types of studies: simple, rapid and cheap procedures, which are often relatively unreliable, at one end of the scale and complex, cumbersome and expensive data-intensive procedures at the other end. Selection of proper procedures for specific issues, both in terms of measurements and in applying simulation models, needs attention. Each problem requires its own research approach. Based on the output requirements and data availability, the proper systems approach has to be selected. Examples of these different procedures are given in this paper. Considering the type of problems to be studied in agronomic systems, different procedures can be followed to address the issues raised at a specific scale. These procedures start with a proper analysis of the system followed by studies that are projectory, exploratory, predictive, or are focused on decision support. Examples will be provided. Increasingly, systems approaches include stakeholders to fine-tune problem definition, the research itself, and the implementation of results. Stakeholders are farmers and citizens on farm and community levels and policy makers and planners at higher levels of aggregation. A comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of agricultural production systems is seen as a necessary condition for the development of innovative, sustainable systems for the future. Systems for improving crop production systems are presented in this paper as well as applications of systems approaches at the farm and regional levels with emphasis on selecting the right approach.     

我国农机安全监理工作存在的问题与对策探究

近年来,我国农业机械的使用迅猛发展,为我国的现代化农业带来了新的发展动力,可是与此同时,农机使用的安全状况却令人堪忧,农机使用人员安全素质普遍偏低、安全事故频发,给农业农村的安全生产带来了隐患,农机监理工作显得任重而道远。农机监理亟待从多个方面进行完善和提高,以保障农业农机的安全生产。     

The economics of systems research

There are three broad aspects of Systems Research worthy of particular consideration by professional personnel earning their keep within or about the agricultural research system. I will discuss these three aspects seriatim. The first is the conjecture that the systems approach constitutes a technological change in our mode of thinking about the world of such magnitude as to imply that we are now moving from one sociotechnical age to another. The second aspect, a corollary of the first, is the use of the systems approach as a framework for the selection of research programmes. The third, which also follows from the first, is the efficiency of conducting research on a systems basis. Many would think of this last aspect of efficiency as constituting ‘the economics of systems research’, but I believe the systems approach, via the first two aspects I have mentioned, has far wider implications of economic import for agricultural research.