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Articles 1 - 30 of 68
Full-Text Articles in Agribusiness
The Smallholder’S Dilemma In Agroecological Transitions: The Diseconomy Of Agroecology For Small Farmers In Industrial Agriculture, Qian Forrest Zhang
The Smallholder’S Dilemma In Agroecological Transitions: The Diseconomy Of Agroecology For Small Farmers In Industrial Agriculture, Qian Forrest Zhang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
A scalar contradiction exists between agroecology's three goals: while ecological sustainability is best pursued at the landscape scale, social equity and livelihood goals often require organizing production at the small scale of family farms. In China's ‘industrial agriculture of small farmers’, ecological farming practices became economically unviable at small farmers' minuscule scales. Agroecological transitions almost always first go through a scale expansion, a process fraught with tension. The empirical analysis focuses on three ‘ecological farms’ that enjoyed favorable conditions unattainable to smallholders. Yet, lock-ins across five dimensions have either made their operations economically unsustainable or forced compromises in agroecological principles.
Modelling Nature? The Digital Twinning And Untwinning Of Urban Farms, Prerona Das, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong
Modelling Nature? The Digital Twinning And Untwinning Of Urban Farms, Prerona Das, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong
Research Collection College of Integrative Studies
Data-driven solutions and innovations have been extended to various industries, including agriculture, to increase efficiency. With the emergence of smart farming and agriculture 4.0, advanced technologies such as IoT, big data, machine learning, and cloud computing are increasingly integrated into farming. Among these, technologies such as digital models, digital twins and the metaverse are now used to control various farming activities remotely based on real-time data. However agricultural ecosystems, involving uncertain nature-based factors and complex human-nature interactions cannot always be accurately represented or predicted by digital models. Digital models aim to reduce natural environments into controllable game-like situations and undermine …
National Halo And Culture Mixing: U.S. Consumer Acceptance Of Korean Cultivated Meat Made With Seaweed Components, Mark Chong, Angela K. Y. Leung, Tricia Marjorie Fernandez
National Halo And Culture Mixing: U.S. Consumer Acceptance Of Korean Cultivated Meat Made With Seaweed Components, Mark Chong, Angela K. Y. Leung, Tricia Marjorie Fernandez
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate U.S. consumers’ perception and acceptance of a “culturally mixed” product – i.e., cultivated meat (beef) made with Korean seaweed components – a product that involves the blending of a foreign cultural element (Korean seaweed) with a local cultural element (cultivated beef) to create a mixed cultural representation. Subsequently, it aimed to assess if the product’s country of origin (i.e., South Korea) would influence consumer perception and acceptance. Online in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 U.S. consumers recruited through two market research companies. The interview transcripts were analyzed by two trained coders …
Eliciting Supplier Cooperation For Value Chain Decarbonization: A Field Experiment With Smallholder Farmers In India, Sukti Ghosh, Jasjit Singh
Eliciting Supplier Cooperation For Value Chain Decarbonization: A Field Experiment With Smallholder Farmers In India, Sukti Ghosh, Jasjit Singh
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Many firms are attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their value chain. However, this requires convincing suppliers to adopt relevant decarbonization practices, which is challenging when the suppliers perceive such practices as risky or detrimental for their economic well-being. We employ a field experiment to examine relational investments (i.e., investments intended to promote mutual benefit for the exchange partners) as a tool for overcoming this challenge. In a research collaboration with a global firm pursuing decarbonization of its agricultural supply chain in India, we investigated the effectiveness of complementing training their supplier farmers on climate-friendly agricultural practices with also …
Producer-Oriented And Consumer-Oriented Alternative Food Networks And Rural Revitalization In China: Distinct Trajectories And Variegated Impacts, Meiling Wu, Qian Forrest Zhang
Producer-Oriented And Consumer-Oriented Alternative Food Networks And Rural Revitalization In China: Distinct Trajectories And Variegated Impacts, Meiling Wu, Qian Forrest Zhang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Alternative food networks (AFNs) have been increasingly perceived as an engine for rural revitalization, yet AFNs can differ in their founding motivations, operational methods, and organizational forms, which thus produce varying economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Despite this, the complexity of AFNs in the role of rural revitalization remains surprisingly under-researched. This study, drawing a distinction between producer-oriented and consumer-oriented AFNs in China, explores the dynamics of how producer-oriented and consumer-oriented AFNs are formed and give rise to distinct trajectories of rural revitalization. When AFNs prioritize producers' pursuit of alternatives to conventional agrifood systems over merely catering to urban consumers’ …
Alternative Agrifood Systems And The Economic Sustainability Of Farmers' Cooperatives: The Chinese Experience, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang
Alternative Agrifood Systems And The Economic Sustainability Of Farmers' Cooperatives: The Chinese Experience, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Most registered farmers' cooperatives in China are de facto private enterprises; while many bring economic gains to farmers, they do not function as cooperatives. Among the small minority that started as authentic cooperatives, however, most struggled to provide economic benefits to members, unable to achieve economic sustainability. The failure of true farmers' cooperatives in China has been widely studied; the success of the few that did become economically sustainable, however, remains poorly understood. Using a sample of 70 farmers' cooperatives across the country and comparing three “extreme cases”—cooperatives that are both authentic and economically successful—with the rest, this study argues …
From Sustainable Agriculture To Sustainable Agrifood Systems: A Comparative Review Of Alternative Models, Qian Forrest Zhang
From Sustainable Agriculture To Sustainable Agrifood Systems: A Comparative Review Of Alternative Models, Qian Forrest Zhang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper reviews, compares, and critically evaluates two broad groups of sustainable agriculture models: “sustainable agriculture” and “sustainable agrifood systems”. The “sustainable agriculture” models—comprising organic farming, regenerative agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, carbon-capture agriculture, and nature-based solutions—focus primarily on improving ecological sustainability through farm-level practices. These models emphasize reducing external, industrial inputs, enhancing biodiversity, and promoting climate resilience, relying on technological and market-based solutions to address environmental concerns. On the other hand, the “sustainable agrifood systems” models—agroecology, alternative food networks, and permaculture—offer more ambitious visions of systemic transformation. These approaches not only seek to implement environmentally sound practices but also aim to …
Post-Productivism And Rural Revitalization In China: Drivers And Outcomes, Meiling Wu, Qian Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson
Post-Productivism And Rural Revitalization In China: Drivers And Outcomes, Meiling Wu, Qian Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
We propose that post-productivism offers a useful analytical framework for understanding the multi-scalar and diverse changes that are taking place in China’s rural revitalization. As a theoretical framework that emerged from the study of rural changes in the Global North, the applicability of post-productivism in the Global South has been contested. This paper offers the first comprehensive analysis of the emergence of post-productivism in rural China and uses post-productivism as a framework to conceptualize a wide range of changes in China’s rural revitalization. We conceptually clarify the driving forces that give rise to post-productivism and the outcomes these drivers produce. …
Horizontal Concentration And Vertical Concentration In Capitalist Agriculture: Re-Interpreting Marx And Chayanov, Qian Forrest Zhang
Horizontal Concentration And Vertical Concentration In Capitalist Agriculture: Re-Interpreting Marx And Chayanov, Qian Forrest Zhang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
How capitalism transforms peasant farming is a central question in agrarian studies. The two most important theoretical perspectives on this question—Marxist and Chayanovian theories—both have limitations. The former overlooked how commercial capital can transform smallholders’ production through vertical integration and extract surplus from smallholders through commodity relations; the latter neglected how labor commodification transforms smallholders’ family economic behaviors. These two theories, however, complement each other on these two fronts. Through critically re-interpreting Marxist and Chayanovian theories, this paper offers a synthesis that integrates the two perspectives into a coherent theoretical framework and proposes that capitalist agriculture expands through both “horizontal …
On-Site Sensory Experience Boosts Acceptance Of Cultivated Chicken, Mark Chong, Angela K. Y. Leung, Tricia Marjorie Fernandez
On-Site Sensory Experience Boosts Acceptance Of Cultivated Chicken, Mark Chong, Angela K. Y. Leung, Tricia Marjorie Fernandez
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
This study set out to assess if presenting cultivated chicken in the context of a familiar meal, in a familiar dining setting, would motivate repeat consumption and recommendation. A survey of 107 diners was conducted at Huber's Butchery and Bistro in Singapore – the world's first butchery to serve cultivated meat – from April to June 2023. The findings showed that eating cultivated chicken significantly boosted post-consumption acceptance levels. In addition, cultivated chicken's tastiness may be a more important factor than its integration into a familiar meal or dish in fostering repeat consumption. Implications for the cultivated meat industry, limitations, …
Why Do Farmers’ Cooperatives Fail In A Market Economy? Rediscovering Chayanov With The Chinese Experience, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson
Why Do Farmers’ Cooperatives Fail In A Market Economy? Rediscovering Chayanov With The Chinese Experience, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In The Theory of Peasant Cooperatives, Chayanov develops the theories of differential optima and vertical integration, which stress the vulnerability of peasant farming in capitalist markets, and argues that cooperatives can support smallholders only if they operate as ‘a cooperative movement’, are buttressed by a strong ‘cooperative culture’, and achieve ‘vertical integration’. Based on extensive fieldwork in China, we identify six major obstacles that explain the failure of most cooperatives. Chayanov’s arguments caution us to not only the vital importance of cooperatives to the resilience of peasant farming, but also the apparently insurmountable obstacles that cooperatives face in market economies.
Economic And Environmental Implications Of Biomass Commercialization In Agricultural Processing, Bin Li, Onur Boyabatli, Buket Avci
Economic And Environmental Implications Of Biomass Commercialization In Agricultural Processing, Bin Li, Onur Boyabatli, Buket Avci
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Motivated by the agricultural industries, this paper studies the economic and environmental implications of biomass commercialization; that is, converting organic waste into a saleable product, from the perspective of a processor that uses a commodity input to produce both a commodity output and biomass. We characterize the economic value of biomass commercialization and examine how input and output spot price uncertainties affect this value. Using a model calibration, we find that lower input spot price variability or higher output spot price variability or correlation between the two spot prices increases this value for a typical palm oil mill. To measure …
Social Acceptance Vital To Success Of Novel Food Technologies, Mark Chong, Mark Chong
Social Acceptance Vital To Success Of Novel Food Technologies, Mark Chong, Mark Chong
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
In a joint commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Communication Management (Practice) Mark Chong and Andrew Powell , CEO of Asia BioBusiness Pte Ltd, discussed how social acceptance is vital to the success of novel food technologies. They also explained how companies should be guided by the science of risk perception and behavioural science, and why a risk communication and engagement strategy is an essential component of risk management.
Building A Sustainable End-To-End Aquaculture Solution, Gibran Huzaifah
Building A Sustainable End-To-End Aquaculture Solution, Gibran Huzaifah
Asian Management Insights
Gibran Huzaifah, founder and CEO of eFishery, speaks about his entrepreneurial journey in the aquaculture space.
Agriculture And Sustainable Farming In Vietnam, Minh Hoan Le
Agriculture And Sustainable Farming In Vietnam, Minh Hoan Le
Asian Management Insights
Le Minh Hoan, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, talks about the future of sustainable agriculture in ASEAN.
A Study On The Ore Grade, Operating Costs And Investment Value Of Iron Ore Miners Amid China's "Dual Carbon" Policy, Shunyi Yao
Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)
With the growing demand for steel in significant economies, iron ore remains a vital investment in the long run. Although many iron ore miners have recently generated significant returns for investors, some have not performed well financially. The existing literature does not provide an integrated theoretical framework to explain this problem. The study examines the mechanisms determining the investment value of iron ore miners when China establishes carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals ("Dual Carbon" policy). Further, based on the findings, this study also proposes investment strategies for iron ore miners in the future, which also has a high practical …
Endogeneity Of Commodity Price In Freight Cost Models, Kian Guan Lim
Endogeneity Of Commodity Price In Freight Cost Models, Kian Guan Lim
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
In this paper, we answer a novel question on how the value of goods carried can affect the freight cost. We focus on the issue based on a more specialized freight market involving transport of seaborne iron ore from mining ports to Qingdao in China during the period 2014 to 2019. We construct simultaneous systems of demand–supply equations on both the iron ore market and the freight market. In the models, we explain how endogeneity of iron ore as a regressor can arise due to the nexus between the two markets, and that the freight demand is largely a derived …
The Resilience Of Diversified Clusters: Reconfiguring Commodity Networks In Rural China During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang
The Resilience Of Diversified Clusters: Reconfiguring Commodity Networks In Rural China During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
We conceptualize typical rural communities in China as diversified economic clusters. In normal times, economic actors in these communities rarely cooperate with each other, but are integrated into separate commodity chains. These “diversified clusters”, however, show resilience and flexibility when an external shock—the COVID-19 pandemic—disrupts the spatial connections throughout the existing commodity chains. In this study, we use primary field data collected from one typical rural community in Northern China to show how economic diversity, aided by social networks and space-shrinking technologies, allowed for the vertical commodity chains to be reconfigured temporarily into localized horizontal commodity networks to cope with …
Procurement Management In Agricultural Commodity Processing, Onur Boyabatli, Bin Li
Procurement Management In Agricultural Commodity Processing, Onur Boyabatli, Bin Li
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
This chapter provides insights on the optimal procurement decisions of a commodity processing firm that sources a primary input from a quantity flexibility contract (which is characterized by a unit reservation price and a unit exercise price), to produce two outputs in fixed proportions. The firm faces uncertainties in input spot price and output demands. Our objective is twofold. First, in a single-contract setting, we investigate the role of demand correlation in the presence of fixed proportions technology and show that the firm benefits from a higher demand correlation. Second, we investigate the firm’s optimal contract selection strategy between the …
Producing Industrial Pigs In Southwestern China: The Rise Of Contract Farming As A Coevolutionary Process, Forrest Qian Zhang, Hongping Zeng
Producing Industrial Pigs In Southwestern China: The Rise Of Contract Farming As A Coevolutionary Process, Forrest Qian Zhang, Hongping Zeng
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The literature on contract farming (CF) has to date focused on how outside capital uses CF to vertically integrate non-capitalist producers into agro-industrial value chains. We argue that in places where multiple dynamics of capitalist growth co-exist, CF relationships can also emerge between different types of capitalist producers that are already in capitalist production using other organizational forms. In this situation, the well-studied drivers that fuel the spread of CF become less consequential; the emergence of CF is instead more contingent on the complex interactions between producers and the specific conditions and events in the local environment. We conceptualize the …
Capacity Management In Agricultural Commodity Processing, Onur Boyabatli, Jason (Quang) Dang Nguyen
Capacity Management In Agricultural Commodity Processing, Onur Boyabatli, Jason (Quang) Dang Nguyen
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
This chapter examines the capacity investment decisions of an agricultural processing firm that produces a commodity output and a byproduct using a commodity input. We model the firm’s problem as a finite-horizon stochastic dynamic program where the firm makes one-time input processing capacity and output storage capacity investment decisions—in addition to periodic processing and inventory decisions—when facing uncertainty in both input and output spot prices as well as output yield. We characterize the optimal capacity investment portfolio in closed form. Using a model calibration based on the palm industry, we compare the performance of the optimal investment policy against capacity …
Dynamic Crop Allocation In The Presence Of Two-Season Crop Rotation Benefits, Onur Boyabatli, Javad Nasiry, Yangfang Zhou
Dynamic Crop Allocation In The Presence Of Two-Season Crop Rotation Benefits, Onur Boyabatli, Javad Nasiry, Yangfang Zhou
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
The objective of this chapter is twofold. First, to study how a farmer should dynamically allocate farmland between two crops when the crops have rotation benefits across growing seasons, i.e., when it is more profitable to grow a crop on rotated farmland (where the other crop was grown) than on non-rotated farmland (where the same crop was grown). Second, to develop a practically implementable heuristic allocation policy and examine its performance in comparison with other heuristic policies commonly suggested in the literature. While the chapter is based on our companion paper (Boyabatlı et al (Management Sci 65(5):2060–2076, 2019)), we characterize …
Farmers In Singapore? Collective Action Under Adverse Circumstances, Yu Fong Ho, John A. Donaldson
Farmers In Singapore? Collective Action Under Adverse Circumstances, Yu Fong Ho, John A. Donaldson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
How can individuals with contrasting interests in a declining industry, at odds with the country’s identity, and facing an illiberal and sceptical government, band together to promote collective goals? This article addresses this question by examining Singapore’s Kranji Countryside Association, one of Singapore’s few civil society organisations to focus on community organising. To Association members, the material and time costs of organising were high, the odds of success were low and the material rewards of success were modest. The article evaluates two views that purport to explain collective action: the rational choice approach that focuses on selective incentives and the …
Becoming Citizens: Policy Feedback And The Transformation Of The Thai Rice Farmer, Jacob Ricks, Thanapan Laiprakobsub
Becoming Citizens: Policy Feedback And The Transformation Of The Thai Rice Farmer, Jacob Ricks, Thanapan Laiprakobsub
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Over the past twenty years, Thailand’s rice farmers have become one of the country’s most important and active political constituencies, a sharp contrast from the previous decades wherein they were treated with neglect or even derision by the Thai political elite. These “political peasants” now actively advocate for and successfully receive extensive subsidies from both authoritarian and democratic governments. What has driven this change? In this essay, we draw on theories of the policy feedback loop wherein policies yield both material and cognitive benefits, which change the political behavior of populations. We argue that the Thaksin Shinawatra government’s (2001-2006) paddy …
The Spatial And Temporal Impact Of Agricultural Crop Residual Burning On Local Land Surface Temperature In Three Provinces Across China From 2015 To 2017, Wenting Zhang, Mengmeng Yu, Qingqing He, Tianwei Wang, Lu Lin, Kai Cao, Wei Huang, Peihong Fu, Jiaxin Chen
The Spatial And Temporal Impact Of Agricultural Crop Residual Burning On Local Land Surface Temperature In Three Provinces Across China From 2015 To 2017, Wenting Zhang, Mengmeng Yu, Qingqing He, Tianwei Wang, Lu Lin, Kai Cao, Wei Huang, Peihong Fu, Jiaxin Chen
Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems
China has suffered from severe crop residue burning (CRB) for a long time. As a type of biomass burning, CRB leads to a huge alteration in climate due to the emission of greenhouse gases and particulates in the atmosphere and damages to surface characteristics on land. At present, a growing body of research focuses on the impact of biomass burning (BB) (e.g., forest fire, grass fire, and CRB) on climate change from the aspect of atmospheric process. Meanwhile, a small number of research studies have started to pay attention on the damage caused by BB (e.g. forest fire) on land …
Pinduoduo: Empowering Farmers With An E-Commerce Platform, Hao Liang, Sin Mei Cheah
Pinduoduo: Empowering Farmers With An E-Commerce Platform, Hao Liang, Sin Mei Cheah
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
A case study on how Pinduoduo's dedicated portal has helped farmers during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Oil At Risk: Political Violence And Accelerated Carbon Extraction In The Middle East And North Africa, Ryan Knowles Merrill, Anthony W. Orlando
Oil At Risk: Political Violence And Accelerated Carbon Extraction In The Middle East And North Africa, Ryan Knowles Merrill, Anthony W. Orlando
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
What effect does the threat of expropriation have on resource extraction? Much of the economic literature suggests that uncertainty reduces investment, but the theory of risk-induced extraction suggests the opposite. In this paper, we test this theory in the context of political violence, which poses a real threat of state destabilization and violent expropriation of property rights. Facing this uncertainty, we find that oil producers in the Middle East and North Africa increase oil production in response to political violence. This finding has important negative consequences for the world in terms of climate change and demonstrates a previously untested mechanism …
Predictive Insights For Improving The Resilience Of Global Food Security Using Artificial Intelligence, Meng Leong How, Yong Jiet Chan, Sin Mei Cheah
Predictive Insights For Improving The Resilience Of Global Food Security Using Artificial Intelligence, Meng Leong How, Yong Jiet Chan, Sin Mei Cheah
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Unabated pressures on food systems affect food security on a global scale. A human-centric artificial intelligence-based probabilistic approach is used in this paper to perform a unified analysis of data from the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). The significance of this intuitive probabilistic reasoning approach for predictive forecasting lies in its simplicity and user-friendliness to people who may not be trained in classical computer science or in software programming. In this approach, predictive modeling using a counterfactual probabilistic reasoning analysis of the GFSI dataset can be utilized to reveal the interplay and tensions between the variables that underlie food affordability, …
Economic And Environmental Implications Of Biomass Commercialization In Agricultural Processing, Bin Li, Onur Boyabatli, Buket Avci
Economic And Environmental Implications Of Biomass Commercialization In Agricultural Processing, Bin Li, Onur Boyabatli, Buket Avci
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business
Motivated by the agricultural industries, this paper studies the economic and environmental implications of biomass commercialization; that is, converting organic waste into a saleable product, from the perspective of a processor that uses a commodity input to produce both a commodity output and biomass. We characterize the economic value of biomass commercializa- tion and examine how input and output spot price uncertainties affect this value. Using a model calibration, we find that lower input spot price variability or higher output spot price variabil- ity or correlation between the two spot prices increases this value for a typical palm oil mill. …
Obstacles To Accessing Pro-Poor Microcredit Programs In China: Evidence From Penggan Village, Guizhou, Deborah Shu Yi Tan, Track Tze Tuan Tan, Shao Tong Ling, John A. Donaldson
Obstacles To Accessing Pro-Poor Microcredit Programs In China: Evidence From Penggan Village, Guizhou, Deborah Shu Yi Tan, Track Tze Tuan Tan, Shao Tong Ling, John A. Donaldson
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Why do poor farmers not take up microcredit loans, even when the terms are designed to be pro-poor? Fieldwork in a village in China’s Guizhou province revealed a puzzle: although the county government had designed a loan program that was intended to be unusually pro-poor, only three of the 349 eligible households had successfully applied. This article analyzes three potential hypotheses: farmer failure (risk aversion or financial illiteracy), market failure (lack of viable or stable market opportunities), and institutional failure (structural or institutional barriers precluding taking up loans). Based on evidence from intensive interviews, we reject the first hypothesis, and …