Agricultural debt restructuring,accounting, and public policy: A study of the Farmers Home Administration

Federal credit policies toward agriculture reflect the human values of maintaining the farm production sector largely as an industry characterized by small-scale, family farms. The Farmers Home Administration has implemented various credit programs designed to carry out this policy objective. As a result of the prolonged financial crisis in the farm economy, the agricultural community is becoming more aware of the controversies surrounding the mission of FmHA and its debt restructuring program. This paper discusses the debt restructuring program administered by the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA), as authorized by the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987, and amended by the recently enacted Farm Bill of 1990. It discusses the key provisions of the Agricultural Credit Act authorizing FmHA to establish a debt restructuring and debt forgiveness program aimed at achieving the public policy objective of keeping financially stressed farmers in business, whenever possible.In the course of reviewing the restructuring program, FmHA officials and congressional committees reviewed the FmHA's mission and its program implementation. This review indicated that several unintended negative consequences resulted from several abuses stemming from inadequate administrative mechanisms and controls and conflicting legislative objectives of debt forgiveness and federal tax policy. In enacting the 1990 Farm Bill, Congress sought to reorient FmHA's mission to a temporary source of credit and to eliminate various abuses associated with the implementation of FmHA's debt restructuring program. The 1990 Farm Bill reflects an effort by Congress to address some the controversies surrounding federal credit policies toward agriculture. Although Congress placed limits on debt restructuring, the overall public policy objective of maintaining a family-farm posture in the agricultural sector continues to be an important social value.     

Nobody farms here anymore: Livelihood diversification in the Amazonian community of Carvão,a historical perspective

Over the past 15 years income sources in the Amazonian community of Carvão have diversified to include government salaries, retirement and welfare benefits, and wages from an evolving informal service sector. These non-farm incomes are now more important to household incomes than the sale of agricultural products. Out of 80 households only three families were found to depend almost entirely on the sale of agricultural goods for cash income. Agriculture is still a part of most families’ livelihoods; however, production today is mainly a subsistence activity. Recent changes in Carvão are consistent with trends of livelihood diversification observed in rural societies across the globe. However, current research reveals that Carvão is different from other case studies in a number of ways. A history of livelihoods illustrates that residents in Carvão have always engaged in a range of activities, including farming, extractive activities, and wage labor. New incomes are the result of new jobs in the public sector and social policies benefiting the rural poor. In contrast to the literature on livelihood diversification, the decentralization of the federal government in Brazil has resulted in greater opportunities for rural income and employment. Consistent with recorded trends, research shows that small farmers in Carvão have down-sized agricultural production. Farmers cite low market prices (the result of vertical integration of local markets) as one cause of this decline. Residents, especially small farmers, interested in diversifying agricultural production are limited by inadequate extension services and credit, and younger residents seek public sector employment. Income diversification has increased livelihoods security; however, future livelihoods will depend on new economic growth. Given the stagnating public sector and a weak industrial sector, production geared toward growing urban markets is a viable means for further income generation in Carvão.     

关于农产品价格补贴问题的几点思考

农业保护,指的是一种维护农业经济利益的政府行为。农业保护可以分为两大类型:一类是指对农业自然资源或自然生态环境的保护,防止对农业的伤害;另一类是对农业的经济支持行为和对农民利益的保护。如实行农产品价格保护、限制外国农产品的低价进口等。这类保护一般采取行政手段来执行。提高农民收入水平是市场经济下我国农村改革的主题,市场经济体制并不完全排斥国家的宏观调控。     

A history of black farm operators in Maryland

Since the turn of the century, the number of small-scale farmers in the U.S. and farmlands they owned have declined very sharply (structural change). Although the decrease in number is generally true for both white and Black farm operators, it has been more significant for Blackfarm operators than whites. The declining trend in the number of Blackfarm operators in the country is derived from individual state experiences that resulted from a combination of various political and economic factors. Using the census of agriculture data from 1900 to 1987, this paper gives a brief historical overview of Black farm operators in Maryland. The census data for the study period shows that at their peak number in 1910, there were 6,382 Blackfarmers in the state of Maryland. However, by 1987, only 371 of that number remained, representing a loss of 94 percent since 1910. According to the 1987 census data almost all Black operated farms in Maryland were not only small-scale but also in the lower sales class, less than $20,000 a year. Their household net family income is below that of non-metropolitan median household income. This concentration of Blacks in the lower economic class of farm operators in the state, for the most part, is closely related to their resource endowments, patterns of tenure, type of farm enterprises, and government farm programs and policies. On the average, Blackfarmers in Maryland have less land, capital and management skills than their white counterparts. Government policies and programs had, and continue to have, a devastating effect on Maryland Black farmers because they were tied to productive resources rather than farm income needs. Under conditions of low income, years of neglect by federal and state programs and policies, and limited resources Blackfarmers were unable to adopt capital intensive production practices and expand their farm operations. This resulted in most of them leaving agriculture, in the past and today, at a faster rate than whites. To avert or at least lessen the unfortunate situation of Black farm operators, projections and possible solutions are offered. This includes how the 1890 Land-Grant institutions because of their tradition, expertise and experience of research, teaching and outreach can take the leadership role in shaping the future direction of these farmers and their operations.Trained in agricultural economics, Ejigou Demissie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agriculture at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. His teaching areas include agricultural policy, farm business management, and agricultural marketing. Research interests center on small-scale agriculture and rural development. His recent book published by Westview Press is titledSmall-Scale Agriculture in America: Race, Economics, and the Future.     

美国农业发展对加快我国现代农业建设的启示与借鉴

本文在回顾美国农业发展历程的基础上,对其农业生产经营特点、农村市场建设及农业发展政策支持等方面进行了系统分析,进而认为我国发展农业最有效的途径是通过发展产业集群、加快剩余劳动力转移和建立广泛的"以城带乡,以工补农"政策支持体系来提高农业的外部规模效益和农业生产者的收益水平;同时在进一步加强农业基础设施、增加科技教育投入前提下,我国农业应走提升土地生产率和农业劳动生产率并重的现代农业发展道路。     

Values and policy conflict in West German agriculture

Family farming became a major social force in the Federal Republic following World War II. Several political, economic and social factors facilitated the development of a unified political representation within the farm sector. The German Farmers Union (Deutscher Bauernverband) became the main representative of the farm sector. Its platform included the preservation of family farms and it attempted to realize this goal through the promotion of commodity price support policies. Political support for these programs was legitimized with the elaboration of a system of values espousing the positive qualities of family farms. Price support policies were opposed by free market advocates with an alternative system of values that fundamentally contradicted those of family farm advocates. Although commodity price supports promoted by partisans of family farming dominated agricultural policy formation in the 1950s and 1960s, fiscal crisis in the EEC and economic differentation within the farm sector began to undermine the position of family farming as a social force. But economic stagnation also prevented the free market position from gaining dominance. Economic differentiation within the farm sector has had an important regional dimension, and this has served as a basis for policy compromise. Economic changes over the post-WWII period have undermined the family farm as a social force. Nevertheless, values associated with family farming continue to have a place in agricultural policy. However, family farming is valued less as an end in itself, and more as a means to the realization of more practical ends such as the preservation of rural landscapes for recreational purposes.     

我国区域间农民收入差异及成因分析

改革开放30余年,我国农业和农村发展取得了显著成就,农民收入不断增长。但无论与发达国家的农业生产者相比,还是与我国的城镇居民相比,我国农民收入都显得水平较低,且城乡之间、地区之间以及农民内部收入均存在较大差距。这不仅影响我国城乡经济的协调发展,还有可能影响到整个社会的和谐发展。通过对江苏、河南、四川三省农民收入的水平、来源结构以及收入差距等方面进行比较分析,总结归纳了三省农民收入的差异性。在此基础上深入剖析了造成我国区域间农民收入差异的成因,并提出制定优惠政策促进工业化城镇化发展增加农民非农就业机会、加大对农村教育和农业科研的投资力度提高农村劳动力素质和农业科技水平、合理调整农业产业结构促进农业生产的合理布局等促进农民增收、缩小农民收入差异的政策建议。     

我国农业发展方式对农民收入影响分析——基于DEA-Tobit模型

随着工业化、城镇化步伐的加快,我国农业发展受到资源、环境以及生态的约束日益增强。粗放型的农业发展方式已难以支撑我国农业的持续、稳定、健康发展,也威胁着2020年我国农民收入倍增和全面建成小康社会目标的实现。利用DEA-Tobit二阶段回归模型对我国农业发展方式对农民收入的影响进行了实证分析,结果表明:我国农业发展方式对农民收入影响的综合效率较低,相对于技术效率,规模效率偏低可能是主要原因;另外,农业科技投入、城镇化率、第一产业就业人员的数量以及农户家庭经营规模是影响我国农业发展方式效率的重要因素。其政策含义在于,我国应在稳定家庭联产承包责任制下创新农业生产经营主体,加快农业劳动力结构性转移,加强对农业科技和农村教育等方面的财政投入力度,以此来提高我国农业发展方式效率,增加农民收入。     

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.     

中国农业补贴政策及其实施效果分析

近几年,中央根据粮食产销形势的新变化,先后出台了良种补贴、粮食直补、农机具购置补贴等一系列农业补贴政策,初步形成了农业补贴政策框架。这些措施极大地调动了广大农民种粮积极性,有力地推动了粮食生产的恢复发展,基本实现了粮食增产和农民增收的政策目标。但由于中国农业补贴政策体系仍处于初创阶段,在实施过程中仍存在许多问题。首先对中国农业补贴政策的实施现状进行了分析。然后,基于对江西省的实地调查数据,运用Cobb-Douglas生产函数对中国农业补贴效果进行了定量研究。最后,提出完善中国农业补贴政策的对策建议。研究的主要结论是,中国农业补贴政策在实施过程中仍存在许多问题,如补贴政策目标的短视化、补贴方式不科学、补贴结构不合理、补贴机制不健全等,应针对以上具体问题调整农业补贴政策的具体实施方式。     

都昌县冬季农业开发利用调研报告*

冬季农业资源合理综合开发利用问题一直备受社会各界关注,如何增加农民收入,实现“三农”的和谐、可持续性发展则是焦点。通过随机入户方式,与农业科技推广人员及种粮大户面对面交流,并结合问卷调查,发现都昌县冬季农业种植积极性低下。冬闲田面积年均高达45.61%,除特殊年份外,冬季农业种植面积的环比波动较为平稳,年均-0.24%,但冬季作物的环比产量有较大的递增幅度,增幅达到年均3.79%,这主要受益于农资、农业、农技等要素投入水平的提高。调查还发现影响冬季农业开发的主要因素有4 方面：（1）农业经济效益差,农民冬种积极性低下;（2）农村缺乏劳动力、农业生产能力不足;（3）地理、地势优势不突出,缺乏大型机械化生产;（4）种植结构单一,产业间协调度不高。最后从出台相关政策,调动农户积极性;统一规划,分步实施;加大投资力度,发展规模种植;延伸农业产业链,实现农业全产业链一体化发展4个方面,提出了冬闲田综合合理开发利用和农民增收的具体途径和对策。     

新时期解决农民收入问题三步曲

近几年,"三农"问题、农业税、农民增收问题引起了政府和社会的高度关注,国务院连续2年将三农问题及相关政策作为国务院的1号文件下发,显示出了党和政府对改善农村、农业及农民问题的决心。新时期为解决中国农民负担重、收入少、增收难的问题,党中央、国务院和各级党委政府做了大量卓有成效的探索与实践,先后出台与实施了一系列支农、惠农、强农的好政策,深得广大人民群众的拥护与支持。先是减免农业税、加大补贴力度,然后积极为农民增收创造条件,可以说,免、补和增的"三步曲",是新时期解决中国农民收入问题的必由之路。     

甘肃省农村金融发展与农村经济增长关系的研究

基于灰色关联分析法,对甘肃省1996-2004年农村金融发展与农村经济增长的关系做了实证研究.结果表明:农村金融发展与农村经济增长和农民收入具有显著相关性,而与乡镇企业发展相关性不显著,其中农村金融贷款规模是影响农村经济增长的主要因素,农业贷款对农民收入的支持力度比较大.     

淮安市农民增收现状分析及对策

"三农"问题是社会普遍关注的焦点问题,其核心是农民增收问题。概述了淮安市农民收入的现状,探讨了制约淮安市农民增收的因素,并提出了相应的对策和建议,以提高淮安市农民家庭经营收入,促进农民增收,为政府制定相关政策提供参考。     

黑龙江垦区农业结构调整与农民农业收入增长问题的研究

基于线性函数模型,构建了1978-2008年黑龙江垦区农业结构变动与农民农业收入增长的模型,实证分析黑龙江垦区农业内部结构的变动与农民农业收人增长的关系,以及农、林、牧、渔产值与农民农业收入增长的关系.分析结果表明:农业结构调整是农民收人增长的重要原因,但反向因果关系不成立;畜牧业对农民农业人均收入的贡献率比较大,增大...     

黑龙江省农机购置补贴政策效果实证分析

黑龙江省是全国重要的商品粮生产基地,黑龙江省粮食生产直接关系国家粮食储备及战略安全。农机购置补贴政策可以推进黑龙江省农业机械化、现代化,进而有效地增加粮食生产、农民收入。为研究黑龙江农机购置补贴政策的实施效果,基于面板数据,借助Eviews 7.0计量软件,对农机购置补贴政策拉动黑龙江省农业经济发展的影响程度进行了定量分析。结果表明:农机购置补贴政策对黑龙江省农户购机投入、粮食产量、农民收入均具有积极的正向影响,从而带动了全省农机总动力的提升、促进了农村劳动力的有效转移、刺激了农业生产消费。     

河北省不同收入水平农户收入状况分析

在介绍河北省农民收入现状的基础上,通过从农户家庭纯收入构成、农户平均受教育年限、农户资源占有状况和农户农业生产技术应用情况4个方面分析了影响农户收入差距扩大的因素,提出应鼓励中低收入户大力发展二、三产业,采取多方面的政策扶持中低收入户,提高中低收入户农民素质和完善农村的收入再分配政策,以缩小农户的收入差距。     

广西兼业农户增收对策研究

一兼农户收入以农业收入为主,提高农户农业生产技术、推进农业产业化经营、加大对农业的投资、发展特色与生态农业、加强农产品市场体系和农产品质量标准体系与农产品信息网络的建设是增加一兼农户收入的有效对策;二兼农户收入以工资性收入为主,加强对劳动力教育与培训来提高二兼农户农民非农就业能力、实现二兼农户劳动力向非农产业转移是二兼农户增收的主要途径。     

珙县政策性农业保险运行问题分析及对策探讨

开展政策性农业保险,是落实国家扶持农业生产发展各项支农惠农政策的重要措施。政策性农业保险有利于有效化解农业生产中所面临的自然风险,促进农业的健康发展和农民持续增收,促进农村保险业的发展。通过对四川珙县政策性农业保险试点模式进行分析,指出其存在农产品参保种类少,保险理赔涉及部门及程序多,政策保险抗风险保障能力弱,保险收支不匹配影响农户等问题,而分别从农户、保险公司、政府3方面提出了相应的政策建议。     

加强农村水利基础设施建设 破解“三农”五大难题

近年来国家强农惠农政策力度不断加大,三农投入逐年增加,但诸如农业增产难、农民增收难、惠农政策执行难、农业资金投入难、农村安全饮水难等关键问题,仍然没有得到根本解决,严重阻碍三农可持续发展。完善农村水利基础设施是解决这五大难题的有效突破口,应加大公共财政对水利,特别是中小型水利工程的投入力度,同时创新投资模式与管理制度,加强资金监管,进一步完善农村水利基础设施投资的体制与机制。