scholarly journals Pattern and Sources of Farm Investment in Agriculture of West Bengal: A Comparative Analysis Between Small and Large Farm

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnab Roy

The analysis of the farm level investment is a complex problem, being very useful in the planning as well as in policy making process. This paper is the first to attempt a systematic comparison of investment between small and large farms in West Bengal. There has been a growing interest in recent years in the pattern of the capital formation, and sources of farm investment between different categories of farmer. The paper identifies the pattern of investment on different farm assets viz., purchase of land and land improvement, livestock, machinery, farm building, irrigation equipments and perennial crops.   Data for the study was generated through a sample survey of 90 farm households from two districts in West Bengal. The rate of capital formation increased as the farm size increased. Purchase of irrigation appliances and land were the major item of capital formation in the farms of both small and large categories. Large farms invested highest on irrigation implements (` 66,467) and least on perennial crops (` 10,700). However, magnitude of investment was different across the different categories of farm. The per hectare investment on different farm capital assets found higher in case of small farms (` 2,77,559 per ha) than large farms (` 2,77,010 per ha). On aggregate, share of investment on different items was more than three times higher than investment made by small farmers in the last twelve month on their farms.

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit Saini

Investment is the expenditure incurred for real capital formation. A sample of 150 farmers was taken with 23 (15.3%), 28 (18.7%), 46 (30.7%), 43 (28.67%) and 10 (6.7%) farmers selected from marginal, small, semi-medium, medium and large farm size categories respectively in proportion to the share of respective category in total farmers in Punjab. Income, consumption, funds available post-consumption and investment level of the respondent farmers was worked out to find the factors that affect farm investment. Information related to education level, family type, cropping pattern and credit availability was also collected to see if they affect the level of investment. Income, consumption and funds available post-consumption were higher for larger farm households. The level of investment was higher on large farms but the investment per hectare was highest on marginal farms. The availability of credit was more on larger farms but per cent share of credit in investment decreased as the farm size increased as large farmers were using owned funds extensively. The regression analysis revealed that the size of the operational holdings, saving and the credit availability showed positive relation with the level of investment while the education level, family type and cropping intensity were non-significant.


2006 ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
István Fürjész

With this study, based on experience gained in the United States of America, the author intends to draw attention to the fact that farm size related questions in Hungary, which form an integrant part of farm policies all around the world, cannot and should not be discussed without taking environmental relations into account. In the United States, where the excessive use of agrochemicals poses a great threat to the environment, many researchers claim that the conventional large farm model is now getting outdated. These experts question the social and economic benefits of a large farm oriented farm structure and try to convince researchers arriving from Middle- and Eastern-European countries to reform their thought on optimum farm structure. In their opinion, it is essential to let countries in the region understand that they are not required to follow the US course of large farms, which many experts in the States also would prefer to leave. From the facts presented in this study, it can be concluded that large farms by nature can protect the environment less efficiently than small farms. It is also pointed out that the excessive use of fertilizers, which is a trait often attributed to large farms by researchers throughout the world, do not yet apply to large farms in Hungary. As regards the use of pesticides in Hungary, the unfavorable tendency portrayed in foreign literature is identified in this analysis, according to which the larger the farm involved in field cropping the larger per hectare doses they use to protect their crops.


Author(s):  
Chayanika Mitra

This article attempts to capture gender bias in education expenditure among the religious (Hindu, Muslim and others) and the social groups (SC, ST and General) in West Bengal. Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition technique is used to obtain gender bias for a specific demographic group. Further, an attempt has been made to identify the religious or social groups with the acute problem of gender bias. In this work, 71st round (January–June 2014) education expenditure data (individual level) provided by NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) is used. JEL: I24, R1, C55


2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 951-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Kucevic ◽  
S. Trivunovic ◽  
M. Radinovic ◽  
M. Plavsic ◽  
Z. Skalicki ◽  
...  

Objective of this study was to analyze the effect of the dairy farm on milk traits of cows in Vojvodina. The research was carried out on small farms with 10 to 20 cows, medium farms with 20 to 50 cows, and large farms with over 50 dairy cows. The study included registered animals of Simmental (SM) and Holstein-Friesian breed (HF; including Red Holstein) in the first lactation for traits of milk yield and yield and content of milk fat. Total of 1323 first lactations were analyzed. The average milk yield (both breeds) in the first lactation of 305 days was 6295 kg of milk with 234,3 kg of milk fat and average milk fat content of 3,74%. Milk performance of cows varied significantly (CV=22,9% and SD=1447,8), as well as milk fat yield (CV=21,6% and SD=50,8). Large farms produced in average 6534 kg of milk, medium farms 6347kg and small farms 4717kg. Size of the farm exhibited significantly high effect on all observed traits, and the tendency was that farms with higher number of animals realize also higher average of production. Farm management and various breeding-zootechnical conditions present on farms had significant effect on milk performance of cows.


Author(s):  
Judith Pallot ◽  
Tat'yana Nefedova

Household production varies according to the range of resources available to it; different environments give rise to different types of production, setting limits upon what can be produced. But as we saw in the previous chapter, in order to gain access to the environmental resources they need, households are at the mercy of a variety of gatekeepers that include local authorities, large farm managements, other private landowners, and the community at large. Among the other actors with which rural households have to interact, by far the most important in most regions are the large farms or ‘agricultural enterprises’. In this respect, there is continuity with the Soviet period when the managements of collective and state farms determined the social, cultural, and political character of rural places and the economic welfare of the rural population. Collective and state farms were like ‘company towns’, but with their authority extending over large territories and embracing a number of populated places. Figure 5.1 shows the territorial arrangement typical of a collective farm during the Soviet period. Since 1991, many of their former areas of authority, both formal and informal, have been withdrawn from large farms; they have lost control of land under rural settlements and they have reduced influence over a range of local services where their interventions used to be decisive. To advocates of market reforms, the retreat of large farms from these areas is a welcome rationalization of the agrarian economy and part of the process of redirecting farm activities towards producing agricultural products by the most efficient means possible. But this retreat has often left a gap that cashstrapped local authorities and private enterprise have not yet been able to plug, so that rural people’s experience of the market transition is of the loss of formal employment and a reduction in the level of services they previously enjoyed. In this situation, it is not surprising that rural Russia has been the scene of a muted, but real, contestation of market reform on the part of people intent on defending their access to resources and services to which they still believe they are entitled.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 756-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarissa M. Hammond ◽  
Edward C. Luschei ◽  
Chris M. Boerboom ◽  
Pete J. Nowak

Agronomic research and extension personnel generally recognize the benefits of integrated pest management (IPM) but IPM practices have not been rapidly adopted by farmers. In order for applied research and extension programs to be as influential as possible, strategies and tactics must be evaluated in the context of the real-world constraints experienced by farmers. We investigated the linkage between farmers' pest management behaviors, attitudes, and constraints by analyzing an extensive corn pest management survey distributed throughout Wisconsin in 2002. Our objectives were to (1) create a benchmark against which future changes in pest management practices could be detected and (2) explore potential associations between practices and farm characteristics, e.g., farm size or commodity produced. A total of 213 farmers responded with descriptions of their operations; weed, insect, and disease pest management practices; crop consultant usage; interactions with their local agrichemical dealer; and attitudes regarding pest management decision-making. We compared the relative responses of cash-grain and dairy farmers as well as managers of large and small farms. Larger farm size and percentage of operation in cash-grain production were associated with an increased frequency of rotating crops, rotating herbicide families, and use of a broadcast herbicide application. Managers of large farms and/or cash-grain crops also more frequently indicated considering the level of pest control, price, carryover potential, weed resistance management, environmental safety, and risk to the applicator than did dairy or small-sized operations. Cash-grain farmers had significantly higher scores on a calculated IPM index than did dairy farmers (P < 0.0001). We also found a significant positive relationship between farm size and IPM score (P < 0.0001). Our results provide a benchmark for future comparisons of IPM adoption rates in Wisconsin and highlight the association between IPM research/extension and farmers' management behavior.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo González-Quintero ◽  
María Solange Sánchez-Pinzón ◽  
Diana María Bolívar-Vergara ◽  
Ngonidzashe Chirinda ◽  
Jacobo Arango ◽  
...  

In Colombia, cattle-fattening farms account for 20.7% of the Colombian cattle herd and play an important role in terms of economic and social benefits for rural communities. However, few characterization studies have been conducted on these production systems, which limit our understanding of their production dynamics and environmental impacts. This study aimed to characterize very small, small, medium, and large cattle-fattening farms from technical and environmental perspectives. The data analyzed were obtained from the Ganadería Colombiana Sostenible and the LivestockPlus projects, which gathered information from a total of 2618 farms, classified according to their cattle production orientation. From those, 275 cattle-fattening farms were classified as being either very small (1–30 bovines), small (31–50 bovines), medium (51–250 bovines), or large farms (more than 251 bovines). Numerical and categorical variables were distributed into five components: (1) general farm information, (2) composition and management of the herd, (3) pasture management, (4) production information, and (5) environmental information. Each component was analyzed using the factorial analysis of mixed data (FAMD) method. According to FAMD, for the components general farm information, herd composition and management, pasture management, and production information, distribution of variables led to a spatial separation of the centroid from each category of producers. For the component environmental information, there was no separation of the centroid. Better infrastructure, machinery and equipment, better pasture management, and better productive parameters and practices were observed in larger farms. This suggests that those public policies aimed at improving productive and environmental performance of the livestock sector should give priority to small- and medium-sized livestock producers considering their farm characteristics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1a) ◽  
pp. 330
Author(s):  
Manjeet Kaur ◽  
Sukhpal Singh ◽  
V.K. Sharma ◽  
H.S. Kingra ◽  
Rakhi Arora
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-57
Author(s):  
Jolanta Kluba ◽  
Barbara Szczepańska

The paper offers an assessment of ownership changes on a large farm from the point of view of the employees. Such farms, some of them operating as companies, are important workplaces for the rural population today. The paper presents the results of a qualitative research (ten free-form interviews) involving people who managed such a farm located in this case in the village of Pągów (Opolskie province, Namysłów county), as well as the farm’s employees. The aim of the study was: 1) to reconstruct the employees’ work biographies, 2) to evaluate the extent to which they were active participants of the changes or objects of those changes when ownership transformations were carried out without their knowledge, despite affecting them directly, 3) to determine what impact the ownership changes had on the employees’ work situation and how they were treated by the owners and managerial staff.


1995 ◽  
Vol 34 (4III) ◽  
pp. 913-924
Author(s):  
Himayat Ullah

The concept of technical efficiency of farms has sufficiently been detailed in the literature on agricultural economic development since Farrell (1957) and has now widely been studied by, among others, Bardhan (1973); Kalirajan and Flinn (1983); Fare, Grosskopf and Lovell (1985); Battese, Coelli and Colbi (1989); Kalirajan (1990); Battese and Coelli (1992); Himayatullah, et al. (1994); and Bashir and Himayatullah (1994). The interest in relative economic efficiency emerged from the observation that labour intensity and yield are inversely related to farm size. Economists interpreted this result as an indication that either small and large farms faced different configurations of input and output prices, or small and large farms differed with respect to economic efficiency. Economic efficiency of a group of farms can be conceptualised as comprising two main components; technical efficiency and allocative efficiency. A group of farms may be considered technically more efficient than another group of farms if it can produce a given output with less of some or all inputs, and a group of farms may be considered allocatively more efficient than another group of farms if it is more successful in equating marginal revenue product with the marginal cost of inputs. More simply, technical efficiency involves the farm’s ability to obtain the maximum possible output from a given set of resources, and allocative efficiency concerns its ability to maximise profits by equating the marginal revenue product with the marginal cost of inputs. Specifically, a group of farms that uses the best combination of inputs achieves the maximum possible output and is superior to another group of farms which does not do the same, given a similar bundle of inputs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document