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A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 30927

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Prof. Dr. Roberto Furesi

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Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Interests: industrial organisation; development economics; econometrics; farming; agricultural policy; farm management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Fabio A. Madau

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Guest Editor

Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy
Interests: agricultural economics; rural development; agro-environmental economics; farm management; productivity and efficiency estimation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Less-favoured areas (LFAs)” are commonly indicated as territories with different types of disadvantages (geographical, economic, social), which can be limited from the perspective of development. Generally, LFAs are characterized by the significant presence of agriculture in land use even if frequent farming shows a lower productivity and income. On the other hand, in these areas, agricultural practice produces relevant public services, allowing for the maintenance of highly valuable landscapes, in order to safeguard biodiversity, preserve rural and cultural heritage, and ensure working opportunities.

The development of LFAs is, therefore, strictly connected with the state of health of agriculture. At the same time, agricultural increase is not synonymous with the development of LFAs, and development policies should be promoted on a territorial and non-sectoral basis.

This Special Issue intends to collect papers that propose criteria for the classification of the LFAs, considering the role played by the agriculture and providing conceptual frameworks on LFAs, with additional reference to other territorial categories such as rural areas and marginal areas, analysing the socio-economic performances of agriculture in these areas; measuring the impacts provided by public environmental and social services produced; and individuating adequate models, strategies, and policies for fostering the development of the LFAs.

Contributions from a variety of disciplines, as well as multidisciplinary studies, are welcome in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Roberto Furesi
Dr. Fabio A. Madau
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

agricultural policy
territorial and local policies
agricultural systems
environmental and social services
territory classification

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

28 pages, 5359 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors in Cultivated Land and Construction Land in Yunnan Province in the Past 20 Years Based on Remote Sensing Interpretation

by Xueli Cai and Renyi Yang

Agriculture 2023, 13(5), 981; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13050981 - 29 Apr 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1548

Abstract

With the continuous development of China’s economy and the acceleration of urbanization, the phenomenon of high-quality cultivated land being converted to construction land is becoming increasingly prominent. In mountainous provinces such as Yunnan, the contradiction between cultivated land protection and blind expansion of construction land is becoming increasingly obvious. Based on the characteristic region of the mountainous province of Yunnan, this paper integrates remote sensing image interpretation of land use/land cover data in three phases (i.e., 2000, 2010, and 2020) with GIS technology and econometric methods. Through the interpretation of remote sensing images from 3 phases of Yunnan Province, a detailed calculation was conducted on the per capita cultivated land area (CULA) and per capita construction land area (COLA) and their changes in 129 counties in the province over the past 20 years (2000~2020). The spatiotemporal evolution laws and spatial pattern characteristics of CULA and COLA were analyzed, and then, the influencing factors in the quantitative characteristics of cultivated land and construction land in the province were studied further by using spatial econometric models. This study finds that the total and per capita CULA in Yunnan Province have significantly decreased over the past 20 years, which poses a threat to the national food security to a certain extent. At the same time, the total amounts of COLA and the per capita COLA have significantly increased, leading to the phenomenon of blind expansion and rough utilization of construction land. Compared with international research results, Yunnan can learn many lessons about controlling the reduction in CULA and the rapid expansion of COLA, among which the most important thing is to choose suitable urban and industrial development paths and adopt effective intensive land utilization methods. The research results of this study can provide a basic reference for mountainous provinces to formulate reasonable measures for cultivated land protection, prevent the disorderly expansion of construction land, and promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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23 pages, 3409 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Spatio-Temporal Evolution, Influencing Factors, and Spillover Effects of the Urban–Rural Income Gap in Chongqing Municipality, China

by Shiqin Yang, Zisheng Yang, Renyi Yang and Xueli Cai

Agriculture 2023, 13(4), 907; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13040907 - 20 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2034

Abstract

In addition to being necessary for the stability, coordination, and sustainable growth of the national economy, narrowing the urban–rural income gap is also an “Important national matter” for the long-term security of the nation. “Big mountain areas, big cities, big reservoir areas, big rural areas, and ethnic areas” are all present in the municipality of Chongqing. All of the poverty-stricken counties have been lifted out of poverty, despite the promotion of targeted poverty alleviation and other policies, significant urban–rural income gaps remain. In view of the current research, there has been no in-depth discussion on the correlation between urban and rural income gap and poverty levels in various regions, and there has been no in-depth discussion on the spatial correlation and spillover effects of various influencing factors. This paper employs panel data from 2010 to 2021 for 37 counties in Chongqing; based on an analysis of the characteristics of the urban–rural income gap’s spatial pattern and spatio-temporal evolution, it classifies each county (city and district) as either a non-poverty or poverty-stricken county and uses spatial econometric models to conduct an in-depth study of the influencing factors and spillover effects of the urban–rural income gap in Chongqing. The outcomes of our analysis of the influencing factors reveal that the level of fixed assets investment, the per capita spending of public funds, the proportion of rural employees, the proportion of grain sowing, the amount of agricultural fertilizer applied per unit area, the proportion of real estate development investment, and population density variables are important causes of the URIG in Chongqing. The spillover effects of these factors vary between poverty-stricken and non-poverty-stricken counties. This paper aims to provide reference to policymakers to design measures to narrow the urban–rural income gap and advance the urban–rural coordinated development strategy on the basis of a thorough examination of the spatial and temporal evolution, influencing variables, and spillover effects of the urban–rural income gap in Chongqing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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20 pages, 620 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Does Digital Inclusive Finance Development Affect the Agricultural Multifunctionality Extension? Evidence from China

by Yafei Wang, Jing Liu, Huanhuan Huang, Zhixiong Tan and Lichen Zhang

Agriculture 2023, 13(4), 804; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13040804 - 31 Mar 2023

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2520

Abstract

This paper constructs a comprehensive index system for agricultural multifunctionality extension to measure the agricultural multifunctionality development level in 30 sample provinces in China from 2011 to 2019, builds a model to explain theoretically and test empirically the impact of digital inclusive finance on agricultural multifunctionality extension using Peking University Digital Inclusive Finance Index, and discusses the moderating role of rural human capital in the above process. The main findings include: (1) The rapid increase in the development level of agricultural multifunctionality presents typical regional differences in several regions of China, showing the gradient characteristics of the eastern part higher than the central part and the central part higher than the western part. (2) Digital inclusive finance can significantly promote the agricultural multifunctionality extension, and significantly contribute to the growth of agricultural product supply, economic development and social security functions, while having a particular inhibitory effect on ecological environment function. (3) The width of coverage and depth of use of digital inclusive finance can affect agricultural multifunctionality extension. The digitalization degree inhibits agricultural multifunctionality extension. (4) Rural migratory human, educational human and healthy human capitals are significant positive moderators of the impact of digital inclusive finance on agricultural multifunctionality extension. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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23 pages, 4371 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on Spatiotemporal Changes of Rural Vulnerability in China’s Southwest Mountainous Provinces from 2000 to 2020 Based on Remote Sensing Image Interpretation: A Case in Yunnan Province

by Shiqin Yang, Zisheng Yang and Renyi Yang

Agriculture 2023, 13(3), 682; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13030682 - 14 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1817

Abstract

The three dimensions of ecological, economic, and social vulnerability in the mountainous countryside are caused by the fragility of the natural ecosystems of the mountains, which overlap with the geographical location of the countryside and are associated with farm production and low productivity. This study conducts a vulnerability evaluation of mountainous rural areas based on the fundamentals of ecological vulnerability in mountainous regions by combining “RS and GIS + multistage land use/land cover change (LUCC) + rural vulnerability evaluation theory and quantitative and practical techniques”. The goal of this project is to establish a comprehensive evaluation system that takes into account the various vulnerability levels in rural areas. It is based on the results of the three phases (2000, 2010, and 2020) of land use/land cover remote sensing images of Yunnan Province. The Delphi approach was used to determine the indicator weights. In order to quantitatively assess the rural vulnerability of 129 counties in Yunnan Province in 2000, 2010, and 2020, as well as to reveal the spatiotemporal characteristics of the rural vulnerability of the entire province in each county from 2000 to 2020, the qualitative comprehensive analysis method and the quantitative multi-index comprehensive evaluation method were organically combined. This paper’s objective is to offer a basis for the strategic planning and management of sustainable rural development and revitalization in mountainous provinces. The findings demonstrate that the ecological, economic, and social vulnerability levels all dramatically decreased over the previous two decades in rural Yunnan Province and its counties. The overall vulnerability of rural areas has been somewhat diminished, with an average annual decline of 1.17% over the past 20 years in the whole province. This demonstrates how the construction and development of rural areas over the past two decades have significantly decreased the overall vulnerability of rural areas. There are, nevertheless, substantial geographical variations. At present, the levels of ecological, economic, social, and overall vulnerability in rural areas of Yunnan Province are high. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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14 pages, 1100 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of a “National Green Export Review” on Competitiveness: Empirical Evidence for Ecuador’s Fish Exports

by Md Ali Emam, Markus Leibrecht and Tinggui Chen

Agriculture 2023, 13(1), 62; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13010062 - 25 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3289

Abstract

Fish products comprise more than 20% of total Ecuadorian exports. Ecuador introduced the “National Green Export Review” (NGER) in 2015, which aims at making Ecuador’s fishing industry more sustainable to improve the international market access to Ecuador’s fish products. Has this policy achieved its goal? In order to answer this question, this article applies the local projection approach to explore the dynamic impact of the NGER on Ecuador’s share of fish exports in the world fish market. Contrary to expectations, the results are consistent with the view that the NGER does not enhance Ecuador’s competitiveness. The NGER is also not able to compensate for the fall in Ecuador’s share in the world fish market, which has been induced by a change in consumer preferences for tuna and shrimp, Ecuador’s main fish products. The concluding section of the paper provides policy advice on how to make the NGER more effective in achieving its goal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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26 pages, 1596 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Can the Sorghum Planting Industry in Less-Favoured Areas Promote the Income Increase of Farmers? An Empirical Study of Survey Data from 901 Samples in Luquan County

by Renyi Yang and Zisheng Yang

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2107; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122107 - 8 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1507

Abstract

Poverty alleviation is the basic requirement of human social development. However, there is still a lack of quantitative research on the poverty alleviation effect of regional, characteristic industries. Few studies have focused on the increase of micro individual income and used more advanced policy evaluation tools for comparative analysis based on a quasi-experimental perspective. In addition, the existing research ignores the critical question: can characteristic industries really achieve sustainable development goals while bringing poverty alleviation results? We studied regional, characteristic industries from a new perspective, taking into account the poverty alleviation effect and regional sustainable development. Based on the survey data of 901 households of representative village committees of Tanglang and Dache in Luquan Yi and Miao Autonomous County, this study quantitatively analyzed the poverty alleviation effect of the sorghum planting industry by using the Propensity Score Matching Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) model. The adoption of the industrial alleviation policy has significantly increased the per capita net income of rural households in Tanglang and Dache village committees, by 2171.64 CNY and 1945.06 CNY, respectively. The estimation results of the whole sample show that the effect of the policy to the per capita net income of households is 1726.87 CNY. The development of the sorghum planting poverty alleviation industry in Luquan County has promoted income increase of households significantly, creating economic, social and ecological sustainability, and can provide a reference for less-favoured areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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23 pages, 2531 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Land Suitability Evaluation of Sorghum Planting in Luquan County of Jinsha River Dry and Hot Valley Based on the Perspective of Sustainable Development of Characteristic Poverty Alleviation Industry

by Renyi Yang and Changbiao Zhong

Agriculture 2022, 12(11), 1852; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12111852 - 4 Nov 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2126

Abstract

Land suitability evaluation is the basis for optimizing and adjusting regional land use structure and layout, making scientific decisions, and planning, according to local conditions. It is also the basis for developing local characteristic poverty alleviation industries, and achieving sustainable development according to local conditions. However, existing research on the evaluation of land suitability rarely results in scientifically selecting the land resource area of a single crop, based on the principle of “suitable planting in the right place” and “suitable growth in the right place”; additionally, it does not conduct the land suitability evaluation of a single crop from the perspective of the sustainable development of the characteristic poverty alleviation industry. As the evaluation scope, this paper takes the dry and hot valley area of the Jinsha River, in Luquan County, Yunnan Province, as an example, selects eight evaluation factors, and organically combines the “limit condition method” and the “suitability index method”, determining 27,877.59 hectares of irrigated land, dry land, and other grasslands, below 1800 m above sea level in Luquan County in the Jinsha River basin. According to the principles of “suitable planting in the right place” and “suitable growth in the right place”, the suitability of sorghum planting land was evaluated. The evaluation results show that: the land area suitable for planting sorghum is 24,227.61 hectares, accounting for 86.91%. The area of land unsuitable for planting is 3649.98 hectares, and the area with a gradient over 25°, and obvious water and soil loss, accounts for 51.68% of the area of land being unsuitable for planting. The area of land unsuitable for planting is 48.32%, due to the restriction of soil thickness, soil texture, and bare rock, etc. The land that is not suitable for planting sorghum needs to be included in the scope of ecological protection. Compared with the 1200 hectares that have been developed and planted at present, there are still sufficient land resources suitable for planting sorghum. However, the area and proportion of land suitable for planting sorghum in different townships are quite different, so it is necessary to make a reasonable layout of the land suitable for planting sorghum according to local conditions. Among the land suitable for sorghum planting in the county, the proportion of the first, second, and third grade land suitable for sorghum planting is about 14:35:51. This shows that the area of first-class land suitable for planting is relatively small. This is because the terrain of the Jinsha River basin is characterized by: high mountains, steep slopes, deep valleys, little flat land, mainly mountains, shallow soil layers on slopes, and has poor texture. Therefore, there are many third-class suitable lands for planting with poor quality, and many reconstruction measures need to be taken to improve the quality of land suitable for planting. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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16 pages, 8213 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of the Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (GECP) in Qinghai, China

by Fuyu Yang, Jingjing Xu, Xin Zhao, Xuekai Wang and Yi Xiong

Agriculture 2022, 12(9), 1479; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12091479 - 15 Sep 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2233

Abstract

The grassland condition in Qinghai Province has changed dramatically after implementation of the Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (GECP). The changes in grassland Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and those in grassland area and grassland Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RESI) reveal that the policy has indeed played a crucial role in grassland ecological recovery. Although in the first round of policy implementation from 2011–2015, the quality of grassland has not improved significantly, and degradation even occurred in some areas, the second round of the policy implementation reversed this trend. As the world’s only ecological subsidy policy for grassland ecosystems, it should continue to be implemented and monitored for better recovery of grassland ecology and production activities of herders that are concerned. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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12 pages, 1510 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Economic Evaluation of Improved Rice Production Technology in Telangana State, India

by Nirmala Bandumula, Santosha Rathod, Gabrijel Ondrasek, Muthuraman Pitchiah Pillai and Raman Meenakshi Sundaram

Agriculture 2022, 12(9), 1387; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12091387 - 4 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4279

Abstract

The demonstrations on improved rice production technology were organized in the Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, and Rangareddy districts of Telangana state of India. These demonstrations were organized under the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan of the Indian Institute of Rice Research during the wet season of 2021. The biofortified varieties assume great significance to achieve nutrition security. Hence, the zinc biofortified rice variety, DRR Dhan 48 was demonstrated on the 142 farmer fields and the economic impact of these demonstrations was assessed with the ‘difference in difference’ approach. The results revealed that the production of rice under demonstration plots was more profitable with a higher benefit-to-cost ratio (B:C; 1.9) compared to that of the control plots (1.4). The independent two-sample t-test revealed that the productivity at the control plots was not statistically different from that of the demonstrations plots (p = 0.112) before the project was implemented, however, with the intervention in the form of the demonstration of improved rice production technology, the productivity differed significantly (p = 0.000) for the control and the demonstration plots for the intervention year. The results of the difference in differences estimator revealed that there was a positive impact of demonstrations on the yield of the beneficiaries. The mean productivity of demonstration plots and control plots were 5.52 t/ha and 4.5 t/ha, respectively. The farmers had an additional yield advantage of 22.6% over the control plots. The results indicated that the adoption of an improved package of practices would enable harnessing higher productivity levels and bridging the yield gaps in similar agroecosystems. Also, the results suggest the practical significance of the popularization of biofortified rice varieties for food and nutritional security. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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26 pages, 4414 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Rural Agrotourism Development Strategies in Less Favored Areas: The Case of Hacienda Guachinango de Trinidad

by Norberto Pelegrín Entenza, Antonio Vázquez Pérez and Analién Pelegrín Naranjo

Agriculture 2022, 12(7), 1047; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12071047 - 18 Jul 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3609

Abstract

The objective of the work was to assess and identify potential perspectives for the development of agrotourism activity in the Hacienda Guachinango del Valle de los Ingenios in the Trinidad municipality, so that the methodology applied and the results achieved can serve as a reference for application in other similar contexts in the country and in the Central American area. For this, the analysis and synthesis of spatial elements, discussion groups, the interpretation of descriptive statistics, and the study of the natural and social environment were applied. The diagnosis of resources was carried out in this work to determine the degree of competitiveness and attraction of the agrotourism product, and it was possible to establish the most convenient strategies to follow, considering the real possibilities of prospective development of the place studied. It was concluded that the proposal to develop agrotourism in Hacienda Guachinango constitutes a viable option to design and introduce a strategy for growth and socioeconomic reactivation based on the use of the natural, historical, cultural, and social potentialities of the small families dedicated to agricultural work. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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26 pages, 402 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Tourist Attractiveness of Rural Areas as a Determinant of the Implementation of Social Tourism of Disadvantaged Groups: Evidence from Poland and the Czech Republic

by Michał Roman, Josef Abrham, Arkadiusz Niedziółka, Ewa Szczucka, Lubos Smutka and Piotr Prus

Agriculture 2022, 12(5), 731; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12050731 - 22 May 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3827

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the tourist attractiveness of rural areas as a factor of social tourism in Poland and the Czech Republic. The systematic literature review (SLR) research method was used to verify the aim. An extensive review of the literature has been made which has made it possible to present the importance of tourist attractiveness in the implementation of social tourism on the examples of Poland and the Czech Republic. This article presents a literature review and systematizes the terminology of social tourism. In addition, it shows the expectations and behavior of different groups of customers in the types and forms of social tourism. In the final part of the article the authors presented the opportunities and barriers to the development of social tourism in Poland and the Czech Republic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Development Strategies for Less-Favoured Areas)

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