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How to encourage backers to increase investment and obtain more funds is an important issue for both initiators and platforms in reward-based crowdfunding. Based on the trust theory and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study explores the impact of project information disclosure on the investment intensity of backers in agri-food crowdfunding. The results show that the initiator type, trademark registration, number of certificates, number of reward types, number of project updates, and number of comments had significant positive effects on backers’ investment intensity. Meanwhile, the investment threshold and lottery had a significantly negative impact on backers’ investment intensity. The number of backers played a mediating role in the relationship between independent variables and backers’ investment intensity. Based on the research conclusions, practical implications were proposed for initiators, crowdfunding platforms, and regulators.

Most empirical studies evaluating efficiency in the agricultural sector estimate cost efficiency, assuming homogeneity across firms. However, achieving the goal of profit maximisation requires both minimising costs and maximising revenue. Unlike cost efficiency, the concept of profit efficiency considers the errors on both the input side and the output side, and thus, it is more appropriate for evaluating the overall performance of firms. This paper estimates profit efficiency and its determinants in the agricultural sector in Spain using a Bayesian stochastic frontier model with random coefficients. This methodology adequately captures the heterogeneity across firms in the industry. The results reveal, firstly, that agricultural firms in Spain are operating with an average profit inefficiency of 35.78% and, secondly, that this inefficiency is affected, albeit unevenly, by the size and age of the farm. Finally, the implications of these results for managers and public policies are discussed.

Agricultural mechanisation is rapidly increasing in China and will have an increasing impact on agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) in the future. This study uses panel data from 27 provinces in China, spanning the years 2001‒2020, to measure agricultural TFP, and estimates the effects of mechanisation on TFP, technical efficiency, and technological progress. The results reveal that the level of agricultural mechanisation can promote TFP. TFP has a cumulative effect in the previous period, which can also significantly affect TFP in the current period. The level of agricultural mechanisation improves technical efficiency and promotes technological progress, but this is not statistically significant. Regional heterogeneity exists in mechanisation’s effect on agricultural TFP, with the largest effect occurring in the group with the lowest TFP. Therefore, efforts to promote the use of agricultural machinery should increase. China’s agricultural machinery subsidy policy must be further adjusted, and agricultural machinery research investments increased, while the government must address the heterogeneity between regions and focus on developing agricultural mechanisation in the central and western regions.

We conducted a quantitative ex post analysis of the competitiveness of the Czech Republic’s agrifood exports to other European Union (EU) Member States between 2002 and 2020, using the constant market share (CMS) methodology. The application of this methodology to Czech agrifood exports is novel, as it allows for analysing the export competitiveness variation and its components. Although the findings are consistent with those of previous studies in which the investigators used alternative methodological approaches, we make three contributions to the existing literature. Firstly, the Czech Republic experienced an overall increase in its competitiveness in agrifood exports between 2002 and 2020. Secondly, the high territorial specialisation of Czech agrifood exports to other EU Member States, combined with a general slowdown in the growth of EU markets, has had a significant effect on the growth dynamics of the country’s agricultural exports. Thirdly, there is a problem with the specialisation profile of Czech agrifood exports in terms of commodity and territorial structure. The current composition does not allow the Czech Republic to reach its full potential for agrifood exports. These findings will help industrial, agricultural and trade policymakers to assess the nature of liberalisation and transformation of the Czech Republic’s agricultural sectors, with a view to improving or designing structures and instruments for the promotion of agrifood exports.

In this article, we present applied research in the field of price transmission modelling with the generalised additive model. In line with recent studies on nonlinear time series models for price transmission, we introduce a nonparametric technique of generalised additive modelling to provide evidence of nonlinear patterns in price linkages and compare the degree of nonlinearity in price transmission between feed maize and poultry product markets in the Visegrád Group countries. The results of our empirical approach contribute to knowledge about market competitiveness in the Visegrád Group countries and provide information to policymakers.

The efficiency of poultry production plays a crucial role in ensuring food security and maintaining human health sustainability. Although extensive research has been done on the largest poultry-producing countries, the European Union’s contribution has not been thoroughly investigated, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the technical efficiency of poultry farms in Hungary and Poland. We use the stochastic metafrontier approach to Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data from 2010 to 2015. The results suggest that both countries have technical inefficiencies. The meta technical efficiency (MTE) was higher in Poland than in Hungary, driven by both a higher technology gap ratio (TGR) and higher (country-specific) technical efficiency (TE) in Poland. In both countries, returns to scale were increasing, which suggests that policies that increase scale of operation could increase efficiency. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of technological gaps for several farms both in Poland and Hungary; therefore, policies should also focus on supporting investments in technology adoption and innovation. This could involve providing subsidies or grants for the adoption of advanced farming technologies, such as automated feeding systems or data analytics for optimizing production processes.

Farms generally produce products with low differentiation. To reach an increase in the profit and sales, product differentiation is one of the potential strategies that could be successfully applied. This paper identifies "Intermediate Consumption/Total Output" as a simple and user-friendly indicator for farm product differentiation performance and comparison assessment in the Czech Republic, based on a two-step cluster analysis performed on 1 225 farms with different operating conditions and reproduction process characteristics in the Czech Republic. The data are sourced from Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN CZ). Four farm clusters based on product differentiation levels are identified and described from the point of view of the production process and conditions. The resulting cluster profiles, in general, indicate the production conditions and process affecting the resulting product differentiation. Nevertheless, farms deliver extraordinary product differentiation values in fields with less favourable conditions and production processes. Those have the potential to be an inspiration for farms with lower product differentiation values. The result of this paper provides hope, less favourable conditions are not a limit for formidable performance. This paper result can be practically applied by anyone aiming to easily identify, evaluate, and compare farm product differentiation levels.

Galicia is one of Spain's leading regions regarding agricultural and livestock production. In the light of the COVID-19 crisis, the permeability to the economic shocks of these sectors led to an unprecedented recession, given the heterogeneity of their characteristics, resulting in widespread losses. The main objective of this article is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 in the agricultural and livestock sectors in Galicia and, at the same time, identify the degree of affectation in each of these sectors, determine the impact of the pandemic in each province and study the institutional responses to the COVID-19 crisis. For this purpose, financial analysis of these sectors will be carried out through a sample of 998 companies. The results show a variation in operating income of -16.41% in the agricultural sector and -9.15% in the livestock sector in Galicia, although they are mixed across the different provinces of the region. Despite the articulation of a network of public aids and the adoption of new commercialization strategies, there are sub-sectors with high losses, such as the ornamental plant industry and the subsector dedicated to the production of beef.

Technology has made it possible to achieve the very efficient use of water resources in agriculture. However, there are a set of practices that could increase both the availability and quality of the water resources, but which are not yet widely used. In view of the scarcity situation mainly produced by the consequences of climate change, the objective of this work is to analyse the adoption of sustainable irrigation management practices in agriculture. To this end, the aim is to identify and evaluate the variables involved in adopting sustainable practices in agriculture through the use of different qualitative research tools in successive phases (literature review, in-depth interviews, Delphi method and workshop). The results indicate that the sustainable practices to be adopted to improve water management in the study area are rainwater harvesting (RWH) and pond covering (PC). The main barriers are the costs, some farm characteristics and lack of research, while the facilitators include easy access to technology and the existence of farmer-to-farmer networks. Furthermore, the most influential stakeholders for these practices are the farmers, policymakers and researchers. Proposals for the adoption of sustainable water use practices have also been made consensually with all the involved agents.

The characterisation of agricultural activity depends on what firms produce. In this article, we introduce the importance of the vegetative cycle in the prediction of bankruptcy of agricultural firms, analysing the financial ratios proposed by the classical models of Altman (1983), Ohlson (1980) and Zmijewski (1984). We consider a total of 2 228 Portuguese firms, with 83 failing between 2015 and 2019. The findings confirm that the differences between healthy and bankrupt firms depend on their vegetative cycle. Although predictors based on liquidity are helpful only in predicting the bankruptcy of non-perennial crop firms, activity predictors are better in identifying healthy perennial crop firms. In addition, we show substantial statistical differences in terms of liquidity and profitability, but only in healthy firms. The results encourage the topic of the vegetative cycle to be more present in the construction of more accurate bankruptcy prediction models.

The war in Ukraine has shown that the worldwide food security can be easily shaken. This article focuses on an evaluation of European Union (EU) wheat producers on the world market. Would EU producers maintain their competitive position without direct payments? What changes need to be introduced to improve the position of EU producers on the world market? To answer these questions, a data envelopment analysis has been applied. It is indicated that the competitive position of EU wheat producers is still strongly dependent on direct payments and that mechanisation costs are a key area for improved efficiency in wheat production in Europe.

Competitiveness is one of the key concepts in economic sciences, andit is defined as the ability of businesses to compete in the market. The aim of this study was to assess the competitiveness of dairy products in Poland. The competitiveness was evaluated in a macroeconomic approach by analysing the exports, imports, and the trade balance. The results were processed and presented with the use of tabular, graphic, and descriptive methods. After Poland joined the European Union (EU) in 2004, one of the key goals was to improve the quality, storage, and applicability of dairy products, and to promote trade in milk and dairy products. The Polish dairy industry reported a positive balance in the foreign trade of milk and dairy products, which contributed to positive values in the competitiveness indicators of dairy products. The values of the export specialisation index (SI), export revealed comparative advantage (XRCA), relative import penetration index (MRCA), foreign trade coverage ratio (CRK), and the Grubel-Lloyd intra-industry trade index (IITk) were positive, which attests to the competitiveness of Polish dairy products. We proved that the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the competitiveness of dairy enterprises in Poland.

In a contemporary globalised world, assuring food security in the conditions of developing a food self-sufficient economic structure represents not only a challenge in terms of the changing agricultural paradigm, but also an important instrument in assuring, in a long-term manner, societal resilience. However, while achieving self-sufficiency in food, China still faces challenges in terms of establishing sustainable food security and transitioning to a zero hunger state. Rapid economic growth and urbanisation have resulted in shifting food consumption patterns from crops towards more nutritious meat and dairy products and higher-qualitative imported foods. In this study, the current state of food security and production and trade in food and agricultural products in China during 2000-2020 have been analysed and an overview of the strategic directions of the domestic sustainable development, food security, and zero hunger policies are highlighted. The main aim of the study is dedicated to identifying the critical shortcomings and gaps in combating hunger and food insecurity in China and proposing policy recommendations regarding improving the stability of the food supply in the country and deigning new possible strategies to achieve it. The results highlight the major trends and shifts of the food security paradigm in the process of developing a food self-sufficient economy.

Globalisation and reduced trade barriers have created a competitive business environment, requiring agri-food firms to adopt a new innovative perspective. This research study examines a network-based business model of a new venture offering services to avocado farmers and its potential impact on customer performance. A theoretical framework of a network-based business model in the agri-food sector was developed and implemented in the production of avocados. The Israeli agri-food firm, Green Fingers, was selected as the case study to analyse the value drivers of the network-based business model. The proposed business model can serve as a benchmark in evaluating other business models and developing practical strategies in the agri-food sector. The model is flexible, adaptable in meeting the evolving needs of customers and farmers, and applicable to other sectors. The model's building blocks emphasise the importance of networking and diffusing knowledge among key stakeholders, adapting to changing environments, maintaining environmental sustainability, collaborating with policymakers, and supporting farmers. The extended business model canvas may enhance the currently limited research on network-based business models in the agri-food sector from theoretical and empirical perspectives.

The paper aims to identify the changes and intensity of the factors influencing consumers’ purchasing decision-making process in the food market. The research offers a unique comparison of the situation between the years 2007 and 2022 and reveals the emerging factors affecting consumer decisions. The authors conducted a representative questionnaire survey (N = 686) to determine the influence of individual factors. The data were processed using factor analysis, which allowed for the reduction of the number of factors (20) to four determinants covering 61% of the total variability in the dataset. The determinants of consumer purchasing decisions include traditional promotional elements, product parameters, newly formed factors based on sustainability and health awareness trends, and price discounts. Consumer behaviour appears to be influenced by a wide range of short- and long-term factors, and it is necessary to look at it comprehensively over a longer time horizon, taking current trends into account.

This study aims to estimate eco-efficiency scores and identify determinants of Norwegian dairy farms using a parametric approach that accounts for methane emissions. The study incorporates an environmental output measure and draws on 30 years of panel data from 692 specialist dairy farms (1991–2020). The findings indicate that Norwegian dairy farms are inefficient, with room for improvement in the dairy production system and the environment. According to the average eco-efficiency score, conventional dairy farms could cut input use and CH₄ emissions by 5% while maintaining output. Furthermore, the study found that land tenure, experience, and government subsidies all positively impact eco-efficiency. Policymakers should encourage the best-performing dairy farms to share information on increasing productivity while considering environmental concerns to achieve better social and agricultural development. It should be noted that the study only looks at livestock methane emissions; future research may investigate other environmental factors.

Phosphate fertilisers rank among limited conventional production aids, requiring eco-unfriendly mining methods. On the other hand, wheat is an indispensable agricultural commodity essential in the food industry. For this reason, it is appropriate to monitor the potential bivariate relationship between these commodities and to follow their future development closely. The article aims to identify a correlation (Kendall’s tau) and causal (Granger causality test) between the price of Moroccan phosphate and wheat, applying vector autoregression (VAR). The results show a medium-to-strong correlation between phosphate and wheat, while causal analysis suggests a reciprocal relationship. The final prediction indicates the price stability of Moroccan phosphate and a fall in wheat prices, showing steady trends of the Moroccan phosphate and wheat market affected by the alarming situation in Ukraine. The article’s drawbacks are a narrow market specialisation, which ignores other agricultural commodities. Our findings contribute to national officeholders and professional public, private and non-profit agrarian organisations. Investors may benefit from exploring turbulent exogenous variables like a critical geopolitical deadlock in Ukraine. The main contribution highlights the fact that the conventional fertiliser and wheat market situation appears to be stable and free from elements of uncertainty.

Expansion of the wolf in the Czech Republic results in an increasing conflict between nature conservationists and other landscape users. In March 2020, the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic issued the "Wolf Management Programme". The document provoked negative reactions from organisations of farmers, breeders, and hunters. The article deals with the key issues triggered by the conflict and the attitudes of actors involved. We want to clarify to what extent the solutions designed by individual parties help to mitigate the conflict and how the financial demands related to this issue have been evolving. The problem may seem marginal in the Czech Republic, but the wolf population density in some regions may already be close to its bearable maximum. Key problems are the identification of specific target numbers of wolves, the absence of zoning as a future option, and clear rules for dealing with direct encounters of wolves with humans. The benefit of wolf management is primarily the sum of preventive measures it aims to address, but the relationship with other main actors and the area of education and promotion is debatable as it represents a further increase in the absorption of public funds without guarantees of effectiveness.

The goal of this paper is to test the hypothesis of positive correlation between the innovative work behavior (IWB) support on the part of agricultural managers and the production performance of agricultural companies, mediated through information sharing in the companies. The research was performed on a sample of 175 companies of primary agricultural production in Slovakia. All data was analysed using the SPSS version 22.0 software package. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess the internal consistency of scales reliability. The Baron and Kenny mediator model was also used. The hypothesis was confirmed by the research. Complete mediation was identified where up to 91.6% of the overall effect is mediated through the sharing of the information variable. The practical implications of the research point out that the transparency of communication and support of innovations introduce positive effects in relation to the performance of agricultural companies. The IWB support is a predictor of production performance of agricultural companies. However, it does not have a clear effect; the effects of other factors are important. The IWB support positively affects the production performance of companies through the sharing of information between the managers and the employees, which becomes an important tool of innovative management. Agricultural cooperatives and joint stock companies can profit less significantly from the IWB support through the sharing of information than limited liability companies. The effect of IWB support on the production performance of cooperatives in natural expression shows statistically less significant impact.

This research analyzes the dynamic effects of corporate governance, research and development (R&D) innovation, and financial policy on firm business performance under different internationalization threshold structures in Taiwan's food industry during the 2008-2019 period. The results illustrate R&D innovation's negative impact on business performance and the collateralization ratio by directors also has a negative influence. Conversely, the findings reveal that by considering the internationalization threshold effect, at a level of high internationalization, firms have positive influences on R&D innovation, and financial policy has a positive influence on business performance.

The post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy targets at supporting small and medium-sized farms. Capping and redistribution of direct payments would have a direct impact on the economic viability of farms. Calculation of economic income is a reasonable way how to calculate the economic viability of firms. However, accounting profit has been preferred for its estimation so far. The article aims to compare the income from accounting and economic point of view and reveal how much the results differ across the EU. The literature review, an empirical analysis based on Farm Accountancy Data Network (2016-2018), and a clustered heat map were applied. The results provide clear evidence of high variability of opportunity costs when calculating the economic viability in the EU, especially between countries with small intensive farms and some post-communist countries where larger farms dominate.

Can digital media advertising strategies benefit agribusiness farms? This study addresses this issue by investigating the extent to which digital and traditional media advertising strategies affect agribusiness performance and the underlying factors associated with agribusiness farms' adoption decisions. We estimate a non-linear simultaneous equation system and use a population-based survey data of agricultural processing farms in Japan. We find that female and younger farm operators', as well as incorporated agribusiness farms, are more likely to adopt digital media advertising. The sales value of digital media advertising users is higher by 51% than that of non-users. Moreover, the effect of digital advertising is not equally distributed among farms. Family farms and farms located in rural areas benefit more from the adoption of digital media advertising.

This paper tries to find out which precious metal futures are the best hedging tools for corn spot commodity, taking into account three different risk measures - variance (Var), value at risk (VaR), and conditional value at risk (CVaR). For computation purposes, we use an optimal dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) specification for every considered pair. Our findings indicate that portfolio with gold outperforms the other three precious metals (silver, platinum, and palladium) with respect to all three risk metrics. The reason for such findings is two-fold. First, gold has the lowest average dynamic correlation with corn (below 11%), and gold also has the lowest average risk of all precious metals. The second-best combination is corn-platinum, whereas the corn-silver pair gives the worst hedging results. This happens because silver has the highest average dynamic correlation with corn (14.5%), but more importantly, silver is the riskiest commodity, which makes this asset unsuitable for combining with corn. According to the results, the ratio between corn and gold in a two-asset portfolio should be about 27 : 73.

Origin labelling is one of the most prominent approaches in the Green Morocco Plan with which the Moroccan government aims to support the marketing of domestically produced food and then improve the income of smallholder farmers. We analyse the preferences and attitudes of Moroccan consumers towards the recently established Protected Geographical Indication label "Majhoul dates of Tafilalet". The analysis is based on a survey of 303 Moroccan consumers and focuses on the influence of the label as extrinsic attribute on consumer choice. We use cluster analysis to segment the market and the Analytical Hierarchy Process to shed light on preferences of consumers under this labelling strategy. Results indicate two consumer types. The largest group seeks authenticity, origin, and quality. The label of origin in general and the origin from the oasis of Tafilalet in particular are the most important attributes affecting the purchasing decisions which fit with the goal of the labelling strategy implanted as part of the policy. The acceptance of the labelling by Moroccan consumers implies that the neighbouring countries might pursue similar approaches to support rural livelihoods in arid areas.

Farms in the European Union come in a wide variety of sizes and the effect of farm size on profitability (return on assets - ROA) has not been sufficiently investigated. The principal goal of this paper, therefore, is to study the determinants of farm profitability using the panels of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) on farms of different economic size between 2007 and 2018. We use a profitability function based on ratios that show the production and financial management strategies used by the farms. We also analyse the impact of subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). To deal with endogeneity, we run dynamic panel models using the system generalised method of moments (sys-GMM) estimators. We highlight the important role of the high level of equity turnover. An increase in production relative to the farm's equity plays a crucial role in the growth of profitability for all groups of farms, but it is especially important for smaller entities. In addition, farm managers should control the level of debt since the debt-to-asset ratio is a highly significant negative determinant of farm profitability in most of the groups. The increase in subsidy rate generally translates into higher ROA, but this variable has a negative impact across the largest holdings.

Food price inflation has been a significant subject of debate in Turkey since food prices soared in 2018. The study examines the linkage between agricultural input prices and food prices in Turkey by using quantitative method approaches with the monthly data spanning from 2015-M01 to 2020-M01. A co-integration analysis is performed using the autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test approach and Maki co-integration test with structural breaks. Additionally, the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and canonical co-integrating regression (CCR) are applied to verify the results of the ARDL approach. The analysis demonstrates a significant, long-running relationship between agricultural input prices and food prices in Turkey. The long-run agricultural input price elasticities are found to be in the range of 1.30-1.36.

Milk and dairy products help meet the nutritional needs of the population. The main goal of this research was to analyse price volatility of milk and dairy products in Poland after accession to the European Union (EU). Price is the main economic influencer. We used 161 monthly observations from 01. 2007 to 05. 2020 to analyse the price changes. To measure the volatility, we have used Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF test), Autoregressive-Moving-Average model (ARMA model), and Granger test. Our research confirmed high volatility of milk and dairy products prices. The ARMA model confirmed that the dairy product prices are stationary. Milk, butter and Gouda cheese are also useful for forecasting.

One of objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy is to ensure an appropriate living standard for agricultural households. The paper uses EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data to assess the income situation and living conditions of agricultural households. The agricultural household income does not reach the average household income in any of the EU countries. Multidimensional cluster analysis is applied to classify EU countries according to the income situation of agricultural households. The cluster analysis revealed five segments and the fact that living conditions at a satisfactory level can be achieved irrespective of the economic status of the agricultural household, although it depends on an appropriate setting of agricultural policy. The index of living conditions is constructed and used for the comparison. Based on the analysis results, the variables included in the assessment of the living standard of agricultural households should be taken into account when fulfilling the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy, especially the part that relates to improving the living conditions of agricultural households. The current EU-SILC database is appropriate for the evaluation of the household income situation. However, it does not reflect the specifics of agricultural households, so additional measurement is needed.

Southern Europe is becoming a hotspot for climate change. Appropriate mechanisation is necessary for reducing soil compacting in such contexts. The olive tree distribution - a typical Mediterranean crop - showed a well-defined latitude gradient with progressive decline moving towards the north. Climate change, however, has supposed to cause a significant shift towards the north in the geographical range of olive trees. Our study analyses the spatial distribution of the olive tree area in Italy, a region within the species' ecological range apart from the Northern region, which is now becoming progressively specialised in this crop because of local warming. Results indicate that olive cultivated area increased in Northern Italy, especially in flat districts and upland areas, while decreasing (more or less rapidly) in central and southern Italy because of land abandonment.