This study examines the effect of a structured outgrower scheme on household resilience using data from 312 sugarcane farmers in Dwangwa, Malawi. Resilience is measured using a composite Resilience Capacity Index (RCI) grounded in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Local Adaptive Capacity framework. Propensity Score Matching, Inverse Probability Weighting, and Lewbel heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variable estimation are used to address observable selection and potential endogeneity. To identify where group differences are concentrated, the analysis also disaggregates the composite RCI into five standardized factor scores derived from the rotated factor structure. DCGL-affiliated farmers have a significantly higher mean RCI score of 62.88 than farmers in other associations, whose mean is 45.52. The factor-score analysis shows that this aggregate advantage is concentrated mainly in institutional-production access, particularly coordinated access to irrigation and farming inputs, and in crop diversification. Differences in productive assets and diversification and in social-health support are small and statistically insignificant, while the difference in human-financial capacity is only marginally significant. The findings demonstrate the value of combining the composite RCI, which provides a concise overall measure for impact estimation, with factor scores that reveal the dimensions underlying the group difference. Policy should therefore prioritize extending reliable irrigation, input facilitation, credit access, transparent contractual arrangements, and other structured support services to farmers outside established schemes.
Urban agriculture in megacities needs to sustain farm businesses amid land scarcity and changing food-supply requirements. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, this study examines how brand orientation is enacted and associated with performance across different urban agriculture businesses. Survey data from 145 Tokyo farm businesses and 162 Shanghai agri-food businesses were combined with interviews with six purposively selected operators. Focused framework analysis distinguished self-reported brand orientation, enacted branding practices, and realized performance. Two overlapping mechanisms helped build trust: relational proximity through repeated interaction with buyers, consumers, and communities, and institutional assurance through certification, traceability, and reliable delivery. Strong brand orientation could coexist with plans that had yet to be implemented or with practices that had yet to gain wider market recognition. The returns from branding depended on whether businesses could reach suitable buyers, supply them consistently, and retain control over marketing and prices. Limited farmland constrained production, and insecure leases discouraged investment. In businesses reliant on wholesale channels or tasked with maintaining urban food supplies, pricing discretion could also be limited. Sustainability practices such as circular production supported brand claims when communicated credibly to buyers. The comparison shows how land access and a farm’s role in the urban food supply system shape what it can gain from branding. Commercial returns, continued use of farmland, and continuity of urban food supply did not always align across the cases.
Abstract Geographical indications (GI) identify products whose quality and reputation are linked to a specific geographical origin and have been widely adopted worldwide. In many countries, GI production standards include explicit requirements for fertilizer use, suggesting that GI may contribute to fertilizer reduction. However, evidence remains limited on whether GI implementation affects fertilizer use intensity at the farm level. Using household-level panel data from 1,517 farmers in China’s Rural Fixed Observation Points survey from 2009 to 2021, this study applies a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) approach to examine the effect of GI implementation on fertilizer use intensity and its potential mechanisms. The results show that GI implementation significantly reduces fertilizer use intensity. Compared with farmers in non-GI areas, those located in GI areas reduce fertilizer application by an average of 124.635 kg per hectare, representing a decline of approximately 11.5%. Mechanism analysis further indicates that price incentives and collective action may serve as two potential channels underlying this reduction. We also find heterogeneity in the effects across different groups of farmers. These findings provide policy implications for promoting green agricultural production through GI implementation and offer practical insights for local governments, industry associations, cooperatives, and other stakeholders seeking to encourage environmentally sustainable farming practices.
Abstract Enhancing the effectiveness of green agricultural policies is critical to promoting agricultural green development in China, where family farms are an important force in environmentally friendly production. Using monitoring data from nearly 2,000 planting-oriented family farms, we construct a system dynamics model integrated with a coupling coordination framework to evaluate how major green policy instruments and their combinations influence the green development level (GDL) and subsystem coordination. Focusing on the period 2014–2030, we conduct policy simulations involving five policy instruments: land transfer policy, green credit policy, green subsidy policy, green technology training, and standardized management policy. The results indicate that the green subsidy policy is the most efficacious single policy in enhancing the GDL, with a relative impact of 9.58% compared to the baseline scenario, while the green credit policy and standardized management policy play a more distinguished part in improving system coordination. Simultaneously bolstering multiple policies increases the GDL of family farms, but at the cost of eroding coordination between subsystems. A phased policy strategy—deploying green subsidies in the early stage and strengthening green credit and standardized management in the later stage—raises the GDL by 8.43% relative to the baseline scenario while preserving higher subsystem coordination. These findings point to the necessity of sequencing green agricultural policies across different stages of development, rather than intensifying them concurrently across the board, with policy-relevant implications for fostering the coordinated green development of family farms in China and other developing economies.
The Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) plays a fundamental role in the territorial recognition and value of Grana Padano cheese. However, there are several factors that can influence consumer choices and consequently affect their willingness to pay for the product. Among these, ethical and sensory aspects can play a fundamental role that has yet to be thoroughly analyzed in the literature. This study has the overall objective of assessing the importance attributed by consumers to various attributes of Grana Padano cheese, including PDO certification, ethical aspects mediated by animal welfare claims, and sensory aspects, also considering the effect of consumers’ socio-demographic and psychometric characteristics. To achieve this objective, a conjoint experiment ranking was carried out using rank-ordered logistic regression as the estimation model, which made it possible to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for these attributes and in relation to various drivers. The study showed that PDO certification is the attribute of greatest interest to consumers, although ethical and sensory aspects can be positively integrated to ensure the success and differentiation of the product.
