scholarly journals Financial Ratios as Indicators of Economic Sustainability: A Quantitative Analysis for Swiss Dairy Farms

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Zorn ◽  
Michele Esteves ◽  
Ivo Baur ◽  
Markus Lips
Keyword(s):  
Correlation Analysis ◽  
North American ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Financial Ratios ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Financial Indicators ◽  
Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Sustainability Assessments

In agriculture, a rising number of sustainability assessments are available that also comprise financial ratios. In a literature review of farm management textbooks, taking account of the differences between European and North American practices and considering prevalent sustainability assessment approaches, we identified frequently used financial ratios. Five ratios relate to the indicator profitability and four to the indicator liquidity. Another eight financial indicators refer to the indicators financial efficiency, stability, solvency and repayment capacity. Based on more than 14,000 accountancies of dairy farms from the Swiss Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), we carried out a Spearman correlation analysis for normalised and harmonised financial ratios. The correlation analysis revealed mostly positive correlations. To assess the implementation of a quantitative economic sustainability assessment we compare an aggregated indicator compound of all 17 ratios with two selections of financial ratios–first, a compound European and, second, a compound North American economic sustainability indicator. The correlation between the complete and the reduced sets of indicators suggest that both aggregate economic indicators can be reasonably applied to estimate the economic sustainability for Swiss dairy farms.

scholarly journals Old Wine in New Bottles: Exploiting Data from the EU’s Farm Accountancy Data Network for Pan-EU Sustainability Assessments of Agricultural Production Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10080
Author(s):  
Keith B. Matthews ◽  
Ansel Renner ◽  
Kirsty L. Blackstock ◽  
Kerry A. Waylen ◽  
Dave G. Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Data Network ◽  
Eu Policy ◽  
Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽  
Specific Implementation ◽  
Sustainability Assessments ◽  
Agricultural Production Systems

The paper presents insights from carrying out a pan-EU sustainability assessment using Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data (the old wine) with societal metabolism accounting (SMA) processes (the new bottles). The SMA was deployed as part of a transdisciplinary study with EU policy stakeholders of how EU policy may need to change to deliver sustainability commitments, particularly to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The paper outlines the concepts underlying SMA and its specific implementation using the FADN data. A key focus was on the interactions between crop and livestock systems and how this determines imported feedstuffs requirements, with environmental and other footprints beyond the EU. Examples of agricultural production systems performance are presented in terms of financial/efficiency, resource use (particularly the water footprint) and quantifies potential pressures on the environment. Benefits and limitations of the FADN dataset and the SMA outputs are discussed, highlighting the challenges of linking quantified pressures with environmental impacts. The paper concludes that the complexity of agriculture’s interactions with economy and society means there is great need for conceptual frameworks, such as SMA, that can take multiple, non-equivalent, perspectives and that can be deployed with policy stakeholders despite generating uncomfortable knowledge.

scholarly journals Economic Situation of Dairy Farms in Identified Clusters of European Union Countries

Agriculture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walenty Poczta ◽  
Joanna Średzińska ◽  
Maciej Chenczke
Keyword(s):  
Euclidean Distance ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Financial Indicators ◽  
Production Potential ◽  
European Union Countries ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽  
The Eu

The economic situation of EU dairy farms is unstable and differs strongly between member countries. Most studies addressing the EU’s agricultural sector focus on selected countries or selected groups of operators. Conversely, this paper seeks to determine the economic situation of dairy farms in EU countries grouped into types according to their production potential. The analysis relied on data collected and processed in the FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network). The farms were classified based on a hierarchical clustering routine. The agglomerative technique was used. Distances between clusters were calculated using the Ward’s method. In turn, the distance between countries was calculated as the Euclidean distance. This study enabled the identification of five different types of dairy farms in the EU. On an EU-wide basis, medium and large-sized highly specialized intensive farms play a key role in milk production. Despite their profitability being somehow restricted, they report high levels of labor productivity thanks to an advantageous production potential. In turn, an insufficient potential is among the main restrictions faced by other dairy farms in the EU; their advantageous financial indicators often fail to provide satisfactory levels of income which could drive investment and consumption opportunities.

scholarly journals Developing a Methodology for Aggregated Assessment of the Economic Sustainability of Pig Farms

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1760
Author(s):  
Agata Malak-Rawlikowska ◽  
Monika Gębska ◽  
Robert Hoste ◽  
Christine Leeb ◽  
Claudio Montanari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Closed Cycle ◽  
Aggregation Method ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Pig Farms ◽  
Weighting Procedures ◽  
Sustainability Assessments

The economic sustainability of agricultural production is a crucial concern for most farmers, especially for pig producers who face dynamic changes in the market. Approaches for economic sustainability assessment found in the literature are mainly focused on the short-term economic viability of the farm and rarely take a long-term perspective. In this paper, we propose and test a new, innovative assessment and aggregation method, which brings about a broader view on more long-term aspects of economic sustainability. This wider view on economic sustainability, in addition to classical concepts such as technical efficiency, labor productivity, and farm profitability, incorporates the assessment of the levels of entrepreneurship, risk management, and the resilience of the invested resources. All indicators were scaled and aggregated using scaling and weighting procedures proposed by experts into subthemes and themes. The methodology was tested on a sample of 131 pig farms located in 6 EU countries: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, and Austria. We hypothesized that closed-cycle farms might be economically more sustainable than those farms that are specialized in pig breeding or finishing. The results showed that closed-cycle farms do indeed have advantages in terms of raising healthy animals and having slightly better overall resilience of resources, however specialized breeding and finishing farms appeared to be more sustainable in the areas of profitability, risk management, and reproductive efficiency. Our approach supports evidence-based economic sustainability assessments of pig farms and provides a tool that can be used for economic sustainability improvement strategies for farms.

scholarly journals THE LIKELIHOOD OF FARMS BANKRUPTCY: THE CASE OF LITHUANIAN FAMILY FARMS

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-205
Author(s):  
Andrej Jedik ◽  
Aldona Stalgienė
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Financial Indicators ◽  
High Likelihood ◽  
Family Farms ◽  
Agriculture Policy ◽  
Scientific Problem ◽  
Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽  
On Farm ◽  
Economic Size

In developing the measures of agriculture policy and purposeful usage of EU funds, also for financial organisations, farmers, advisors and scientists it is important to predict farm bankruptcy. This makes it possible to formulate the scientific problem: what is the likelihood of bankruptcy of different kinds of family farms? The aim of the investigation is to present the likelihood of the Lithuanian family farms bankruptcy based on the economic size and type of farming by analysing financial indicators of farms. Farm-level panel data for the year 2014–2016 from Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) was used. The estimated distribution of farm groups based on farm economic size demonstrated that about 40–60% of small farms were in the low likelihood of bankruptcy area. The share of cereals, oilseeds and protein crop farms in the high likelihood of bankruptcy area fluctuated from 13% till 30% during the year 2014–2016. The farm distribution by economic size and type of farming showed that more than 40% of small dairy farms had the high likelihood of bankruptcy in the year 2015–2016, as well as 30% of medium and large cereals, oilseeds and protein crops farms in 2016.

scholarly journals Embedding animal welfare in sustainability assessment: an indicator approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Brennan ◽  
T. Hennessy ◽  
E. Dillon
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Herd Size ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Farm Level ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽  
The Impact

In line with growing consumer interest in sustainable food production, a number of farm-level sustainability indicator studies have been published in recent years. Despite the importance of animal welfare, many such frameworks fail to adequately take account of it, mostly due to difficulties in accessing suitable data. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to develop indicators of animal welfare that can be embedded within a wider sustainability framework using a representative farm-level dataset such as the European Union (EU) Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) for Ireland, the Teagasc National Farm Survey. The paper presents a set of sustainability indicators for dairy farms in Ireland for the 2014–2017 period and examines the impact of policy reform on sustainability performance. Headline results show that welfare standards on dairy farms in Ireland have remained stable over the period despite the considerable intensification of the dairy sector following EU milk quota removal. Furthermore, dairy farms that have expanded herd size significantly have improved welfare standards more than farms that have not increased production. An analysis of synergies and trade-offs between the various aspects of sustainability reveals that positive correlations exist between welfare standards and economic and environmental performance. The analysis facilitates the identification of win-win farm-level strategies that can be adopted to improve economic, environmental and animal welfare outcomes. The framework developed here presents opportunities for evaluating policy impacts at the farm level on various aspects of sustainability. The use of the FADN demonstrates the capacity to extend such an approach across the EU.

scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment of Public Transport, Part I—A Multi-Criteria Assessment Method to Compare Different Bus Technologies

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 825
Author(s):  
Jonas Ammenberg ◽  
Sofia Dahlgren
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
County Level ◽  
Participatory Process ◽  
Problem Context ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Sustainability Assessments

This article departs from the perspective of Swedish regional transport authorities and focuses on the public procurement of bus transports. Many of these public organizations on the county level have the ambition to contribute to a transition involving the continued marginalization of fossil fuels and improved sustainability performance. However, there are several renewable bus technologies to choose between and it can be difficult to know what alternative (or combination) is preferable. Prior research and the authors’ experiences indicate a need for improved knowledge and supportive methods on how sustainability assessments can support public procurement processes. The purpose of this article is to develop a multi-criteria assessment (MCA) method to support assessments of public bus technologies’ sustainability. The method, which was established in an iterative and participatory process, consists of four key areas and 12 indicators. The article introduces the problem context and reviews selected prior research of relevance dealing with green or sustainable public procurement and sustainability assessments. Further on, the process and MCA method are presented and discussed based on advice for effective and efficient sustainability assessments. In the companion article (Part II), the MCA method is applied to assess several bus technologies involving biodiesel, biomethane, diesel, electricity, ethanol and natural gas.

scholarly journals The trends in efficiency of Lithuanian dairy farms: a semiparametric approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Baležentis ◽  
Tianxiang Li ◽  
Alvydas Baležentis
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Stochastic Frontier Analysis ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Random Coefficients ◽  
Family Farms ◽  
Frontier Analysis ◽  
Semiparametric Approach ◽  
Farm Accountancy Data Network ◽  
Development Paths

This study aims at analysing the trends in efficiency of Lithuanian dairy farms and thus identifying the prospective development paths. The semiparametric approach based on nonparametric regression and Stochastic Frontier Analysis is applied for the analysis. The research relies on Farm Accountancy Data Network and covers family farms. The period of 2004–2011 is considered. In order to identify the underlying trends in dairy farming, we focus on such features as technical efficiency, partial elasticities, and elasticity of scale. The semiparametric approach yielded rather high efficiencies. Specifically, the average technical efficiency of 89% was observed. A decline in technical efficiency during 2004–2011 is present for both point estimates and associated bounds of the confidence interval. Analysis of the elasticity of scale implies that most of the farms could still increase their scale of operation. The obtained results were confirmed by a parametric random coefficients model.

scholarly journals Study of student’s self-isolation adaptation strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 01001
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Sivrikova ◽  
Elena Chernikova ◽  
Elena Kharlanova ◽  
Tatyana Ptashko ◽  
Artem Perebejnos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Correlation Analysis ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
The Self ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Average Strength ◽  
The Social ◽  
Behavior Strategies ◽  
Positive Correlations

The COVID-19 epidemic, which turned into a pandemic, has led to the introduction of lockdown in many countries as a measure to prevent the spread of the virus. Significant changes have occurred in the lives of Russian students. The research objective is to study students’ strategies of adaptation to the self-isolation caused by the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19. To achieve this purpose, an online survey of students was conducted, followed by a correlation analysis of the data. The survey involved 269 students aged 17-21. In self-isolating conditions, students prefer to use strategies aimed at self-change. Two groups of strategies are distinguished in the structure of students’ adaptive behavior, between which there are positive correlations of average strength. The first group includes students’ preferable behavior strategies (accommodating, self-change, and self-immersion). The second group consists of strategies that are not popular among students (environment changing, waiting, avoidance, and passive self-representation). Male students are more active in solving problems than female students. The research results expand the existing understanding of students’ reactions to changes related to self-isolation. They can be useful to teachers, psychologists involved in assessing the social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on students.

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