The Economic Value of Antimicrobial Use in Livestock Production.

(1) Introduction: Antimicrobial agents have played an important role in improving the productivity of worldwide livestock production by reducing the impact of livestock diseases. However, a major drawback of antimicrobial use is the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens in food-producing animals. To reduce the use of antimicrobials, it is important to know the economic value of the use of antimicrobials and factors that determine that economic value. (2) Results: A theoretical framework was developed to assess the economic value of antimicrobial use. Three situations were distinguished: firstly, a baseline model for a farm with a conventional production system; secondly, an extension of the baseline model that includes the impact of production system improvements; and thirdly, an extension of the baseline model that includes the impacts of risk and risk attitude. This framework shows that the economic value of antimicrobial use is negatively affected by the price of productive inputs and damage-abatement inputs, and positively affected by the output price, the input-output combination, the damage abatement effect, risk aversion and variance in profit. (3) Conclusions: The theoretical framework presented in this study shows that there are several factors that (can) affect the economic value of antimicrobial use. The knowledge about the effect of these factors can be utilized to affect the economic value of antimicrobials and, consequently, affect antimicrobial use.

Can differences in innovativeness between European cross-border regions be explained by factors impeding cross-border business interaction?

Business interaction is important for innovation performance but may be challenging in cross-border regions. The objective of this research was to investigate the relation between factors that define cross-border business interaction and innovativeness. From the cross-border regional innovation systems literature, we operationalized thirty-five factors which potentially influence cross-border business interaction; these factors concern availability of science and knowledge bases, socio-cultural proximity, accessibility, institutional set-up, and governance. We conducted a survey focusing on these factors and analyzed the data using Cronbach's alpha and linear regression. The cross-border interaction factors identified in the survey results served as independent variables and the differences in innovativeness levels in different European cross-border regions served as our dependent variable. This study confirmed that differences in innovativeness levels between countries can be related to factors hindering cross-border business interaction.

Incentives to Stimulate European Wheat Farmers to Adapt Their Fusarium Species Mycotoxin Management.

Fusarium species infection in wheat can lead to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and contamination with mycotoxins. To fully exploit more recent insights into FHB and mycotoxin management, farmers might need to adapt their agronomic management, which can be stimulated through incentives. This study aimed to identify incentives to stimulate European farmers to adapt their agronomic management to reduce FHB and related mycotoxins in wheat. A questionnaire was distributed among 224 wheat farmers from Italy, the Netherlands, Serbia, and the United Kingdom. Using the respondents' data, Bayesian Network modelling was applied to estimate the probability that farmers would adapt their current agronomic management under eight different incentives given the conditions set by their farm and farmer characteristics. Results show that most farmers would adapt their current agronomic management under the incentives "paid extra when wheat contains low levels of mycotoxins" and "wheat is tested for the presence of mycotoxins for free". The most effective incentive depended on farm and farmer characteristics, such as country, crop type, size of arable land, soil type, education, and mycotoxin knowledge. Insights into the farmer characteristics related to incentives can help stakeholders in the wheat supply chain, such as farmer cooperatives and the government, to design tailor-made incentive plans.

Response to a selection index including environmental costs and risk preferences of producers.

Genetic improvement of animals plays an important role in improving the economic and environmental sustainability of livestock production systems. This paper proposes a method to incorporate mitigation of environmental impacts and risk preferences of producers into a breeding objective via economic values (EVs). The paper assesses the effects of using these alternative EVs of breeding goal traits on discounted economic response to selection and on environmental impacts at commercial farm level. The application focuses on a Brazilian pig production system. Separate dam- and sire-line breeding programs that supply parents in a 3-tier production system for producing crossbreds (fattening pigs) at commercial level were assumed. Using EVs that are derived from utility functions by incorporating risk aversion increases the cumulative discounted economic response to selection in sire-line selection (6%) while reducing response in dam-line selection (12%) compared with the use of traditional EVs. The use of EVs that include environmental costs increases the cumulative discounted social response to selection in both dam-line (5%) and sire-line (10%) selections. Emission of greenhouse gases, and excretion of nitrogen and phosphorus can be reduced more with genetic improvements of production traits than reproduction traits for the typical Brazilian farrow-to-finish pig farm. Reductions in environmental impacts do not, however, depend on the use of the different EVs (i.e., with and without taking into account environmental costs and risk). Both environmental costs and risk preferences of producers need to be considered in sire-line selection, and only environmental costs in dam-line selection to improve, at the same time, the economic and environmental sustainability of the Brazilian pig production system.

Access to finance from different finance provider types: Farmer knowledge of the requirements.

Analysing farmer knowledge of the requirements of finance providers can provide valuable insights to policy makers about ways to improve farmers' access to finance. This study compares farmer knowledge of the requirements to obtain finance with the actual requirements set by different finance provider types, and investigates the relation between demographic and socioeconomic factors and farmer knowledge of finance requirements. We use a structured questionnaire to collect data from a sample of finance providers and farmers in Java Island, Indonesia. We find that the most important requirements to acquire finance vary among different finance provider types. We also find that farmers generally have little knowledge of the requirements, which are important to each type of finance provider. Awareness campaigns are needed to increase farmer knowledge of the diversity of requirements among the finance provider types.

Beyond upgrading typologies - In search of a better deal for honey value chains in Brazil.

Selection of value chain strategies by development practitioners and value chain participants themselves has been restricted to preset types of upgrading. This paper argues for an extension of the range of strategy solutions to value chains. An empirical application identifies successful strategies for honey value chains in Brazil for 2015-2020. Strategy and performance indicators were selected using the value chain Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) framework. Experts' opinion was elicited in a Delphi for business scenarios, and adaptive conjoint analysis was used to identify strategies for increasing production growth and local value-added. This study identifies important strategies beyond upgrading typologies, and finds that important strategies differ by performance goal and scenario. The value chain SCP allows searching for promising strategies towards performance-the "better deal"-in an integrated way.

Downscaling Pest Risk Analyses: Identifying Current and Future Potentially Suitable Habitats for Parthenium hysterophorus with Particular Reference to Europe and North Africa.

Pest Risk Assessments (PRAs) routinely employ climatic niche models to identify endangered areas. Typically, these models consider only climatic factors, ignoring the 'Swiss Cheese' nature of species ranges due to the interplay of climatic and habitat factors. As part of a PRA conducted for the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization, we developed a climatic niche model for Parthenium hysterophorus, explicitly including the effects of irrigation where it was known to be practiced. We then downscaled the climatic risk model using two different methods to identify the suitable habitat types: expert opinion (following the EPPO PRA guidelines) and inferred from the global spatial distribution. The PRA revealed a substantial risk to the EPPO region and Central and Western Africa, highlighting the desirability of avoiding an invasion by P. hysterophorus. We also consider the effects of climate change on the modelled risks. The climate change scenario indicated the risk of substantial further spread of P. hysterophorus in temperate northern hemisphere regions (North America, Europe and the northern Middle East), and also high elevation equatorial regions (Western Brazil, Central Africa, and South East Asia) if minimum temperatures increase substantially. Downscaling the climate model using habitat factors resulted in substantial (approximately 22-53%) reductions in the areas estimated to be endangered. Applying expert assessments as to suitable habitat classes resulted in the greatest reduction in the estimated endangered area, whereas inferring suitable habitats factors from distribution data identified more land use classes and a larger endangered area. Despite some scaling issues with using a globally conformal Land Use Systems dataset, the inferential downscaling method shows promise as a routine addition to the PRA toolkit, as either a direct model component, or simply as a means of better informing an expert assessment of the suitable habitat types.

Factors influencing adoption of manure separation technology in The Netherlands.

Manure separation technologies are essential for sustainable livestock operations in areas with high livestock density as these technologies result in better utilization of manure and reduced environmental impact. Technologies for manure separation have been well researched and are ready for use. Their use, however, has been limited to the Netherlands. This paper investigates the role of farm and farmer characteristics and farmers' attitudes toward technology-specific attributes in influencing the likelihood of the adoption of mechanical manure separation technology. The analysis used survey data collected from 111 Dutch dairy farmers in 2009. The results showed that the age and education level of the farmer and farm size are important variables explaining the likelihood of adoption. In addition to farm and farmer characteristics, farmers' attitudes toward the different attributes of manure separation technology significantly affect the likelihood of adoption. The study generates useful information for policy makers, technology developers and distributors in identifying the factors that impact decision-making behaviors of farmers.

A model for an economically optimal replacement of a breeder flock.

A deterministic model is developed to support the tactical and operational replacement decisions at broiler breeder farms. The marginal net revenue approach is applied to determine the optimal replacement age of a flock. The objective function of the model maximizes the annual gross margin over the flock's production cycle. To calculate the gross margin, future egg production, fertility, or hatchability of the eggs, revenues and variable costs of a flock were estimated. For tactical decisions, the optimal laying length is the age at which the average gross margin of an average flock is maximal. For operational decisions, a flock should be replaced when the marginal gross margin of a replaceable flock is less than the average gross margin of an average flock. To demonstrate the model, a broiler breeder flock from a Dutch breeder farm was used. A sensitivity analysis showed that the optimal replacement decision, for both tactical and operational management, is sensitive to the decrease in the weekly egg production after the peak and the prices of feed and hatching eggs. The effect of the decrease in weekly fertility after the peak on the replacement decision is related to the payment system for hatching eggs.