No 3/2018, September | Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics

Effect of Real Exchange Rate Volatility on Agricultural Products Export in Nigeria

Friday Otse Alegwu Goodness C. Aye Benjamin Chijioke Asogwa DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100301
No 3/2018, September
pp. 3 - 15

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effects of real exchange rate volatility on agricultural products export in Nigeria using annual time series data from1970 to 2013. The long run, short run and causal effects of real exchange rate volatility on agricultural products export were evaluated. VECM was used to evaluate the effects of real exchange rate volatility on agricultural products export. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Philip Perron (PP) unit root tests confirm that all variables were stationary in their first difference. Further investigation based on the Johansen co-integration tests indicates that one co-integration exists between exchange rate volatility and each of the agricultural products export while controlling for other variables. Exchange rate volatility has negative long run effect on all agricultural exports studied with the effect being strongest for coffee followed by rubber. The results based on Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) show evidence of negative but insignificant short run effects of real exchange rate volatility on agricultural products export. From the Granger causality test, there exists bidirectional causality between cocoa and real exchange rate volatility. The implications of these findings are drawn.

KEYWORDS

Real exchange rate, volatility, overvaluation, undervaluation, agricultural products, export, effect.

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The Role of Culture, Language and Trade Agreements in Global Wine Trade

Jeremiás Máté Balogh Attila Jámbor DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100302
No 3/2018, September
pp. 17 - 29

ABSTRACT

In the progressively globalising world, wine trade is changing shape. In recent decades, major wine producers have suffered a remarkable drop in their domestic wine consumption, while New World wine producers have increased their production potential and induced new demand in foreign markets. These changes have been accompanied by a geographical relocation of wine consumption and trade. The aim of our paper is to analyse the effect of cultural-geographical proximity, free trade and the role of linguistic similarity on bilateral wine trade in the world major wine producer countries, employing balanced panel gravity model. Regression results suggest that larger countries export more wine, while transport costs increase in line with geographical distance, especially for landlocked trading partners. Moreover, global wine export costs are lower if trading partners are culturally similar; have the same religion or both are members of the WTO or have regional trade agreements.

KEYWORDS

Wine trade, cultural proximity, language clusters, gravity model.

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Czech Foreign Wine Trade – Comparative Advantages Distribution in Relation to the European Union

Jan Borák Tomáš Vacek DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100303
No 3/2018, September
pp. 31 - 43

ABSTRACT

The Czech agrarian foreign trade recorded significant changes since the Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004. This fact influenced also domestic and foreign wine trade of the Czech Republic. This article identifies the main changes in the product structure, and it specifies the level of Czech wine export comparative advantages ́ distribution in relation to European Union member states. The analysis takes into account not only the trade value (in USD) but also the trade volume (in tonnes) of particular commodities. Commodity structure (HS system is applied at a six-digit level for the more detailed analyses of trade) is analysed especially in relation to the unit price value and in relation to the comparative advantages ́ or disadvantages ́ distribution. The main analysis of the comparative advantages ́ distribution is based on Balassa index, Lafay index and the trade balance index. The results obtained from the individual analysis are presented by the modified “product mapping method”. The territorial structure of the Czech agrarian trade is heavily focused on the trade with the European Union member states. The Czech Republic has comparative advantages in wine trade with the European Union in the following sub-aggregations: Wine of fresh grapes to 2 litres (HS 220421) and Grape must (HS 220430). Main destinations for Czech wine export are following: Slovakia, Poland and Germany.

KEYWORDS

Comparative advantages, Czech Republic, EU, export/import, international trade, wine.

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Evaluation of Satellite Imagery to Increase Crop Yield in Irrigated Agriculture

Michael Hoffmann Yaryna Butenko Seydou Traore DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100304
No 3/2018, September
pp. 45 - 55

ABSTRACT

The main aim of this study was to work out a satellite-imagery based approach that can be used to improve agricultural crop growing on a bigger-scale and on field level. Instead of working on small experimental fields, various vast farms have been selected, which were ready to cooperate for this study. Especially for the dry south of Ukraine, vegetation and soil indices provide useful information to improve crop development and productivity. However, many index variants produce similar results or unclear structures; therefore, their information content is restricted under practical conditions. The results analysis shows that a few indices are sufficient to regularly monitor irrigated fields. Talks with farmers revealed that advice is mainly needed to secure crop growth, leading to the decision to firstly select the indices NDVI and/or EVI. To detect failures in an early stage, we additionally used DIRT, NDRE, LAI, NMDI and OSAVI. NMDI could also be used to monitor irrigation activities. This article provides examples illuminating the implemented methodology.

KEYWORDS

Remote sensing (RS), NDVI, vegetation index, irregular crop growth, satellite imagery, irrigation.

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Drivers for Smart Servitization in Manufacturing Companies

Lucie Kaňovská Eva Tomášková DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100305
No 3/2018, September
pp. 57 - 68

ABSTRACT

Wireless communication technologies associated with the Internet of things (IoT) have started to be used also in manufacturing. Developing data-driven services by IoT also known as “smart services” in manufacturing business has become one of the current trends. Sensors enable IoT systems to provide intelligent and smart services during the shift towards smart production. Smart technologies have begun to be used also in agriculture by means of agricultural and farming applications. The aim of the paper is to determine why manufacturing companies have started to provide smart services with their products. A literature review presents the background of smart services in manufacturing companies as well in agriculture. For the empirical part, a qualitative multi-case study was conducted among seven Czech electrotechnical manufacturers and one Czech agricultural tractor manufacturer. All case companies have already begun with their smart service development. The findings indicate that manufactures usually decide by themselves to start with smart servitization, but the main categories of smart servitization drivers are connected to competitive advantage. The study is unique in highlighting the problems of smart services in SMEs in the Czech Republic, where the industrial sector is still dominant in comparison to other European countries.

KEYWORDS

Smart servitization, smart services, electrotechnical and agricultural manufacturers, smart (precision) agriculture (farming), Czech Republic.

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Novel Approach for Creation, Storage and Presentation of Online Information Content

Jan Masner Jan Jarolímek Eva Kánská DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100306
No 3/2018, September
pp. 69 - 77

ABSTRACT

The paper provides an overview of a methodology for creation, storage and presentation of online information content (in World Wide Web environment). It is primarily intended to be utilized by open source content management systems and applications for publication of articles, news, papers etc. Open source software and, in particular, content management systems are broadly used in areas such as agriculture, rural development, public and non-profit sector. The methodology covers processes of content creation and updating in general, storage structure and presentation with consideration for sharing and exchanging possibilities. Authors can benefit from easier content creation process as well as consistent output visibility in real time. Structured and standardized storage structure can simplify development of modules, extensions or application libraries. Moreover, the process of CMS (or application) upgrade or transition to a different one which utilizes the methodology and its standards can be simplified and accelerated as well. Finally, the methodology can bring economic benefits by acceleration of CMS development and publication process.

KEYWORDS

WWW, information content, CMS, HTML, WYSIWYG.

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Agrarian and Land Reforms in Rwanda: Situation and Perspectives

Mireille Mizero Antoine Karangwa Philippe Burny Baudouin Michel Philippe Lebailly DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100307
No 3/2018, September
pp. 79 - 92

ABSTRACT

Rwanda is a landlocked country of Eastern Africa with 26,338 km2. The total arable land in Rwanda is more or less than 1.8 million ha and Rwanda has the highest population density in Africa. A series of policy reforms and agrarian strategic plan have been elaborated to transform the economy now oriented towards subsistence agriculture into a knowledge-based service and market-oriented economy. The research question is who has the right to land ownership for its rational use? The purpose of this article is to contribute to land sharing prospects between agricultural operators and investors in Rwanda for the optimisation of land access in the rural areas. This work is the result of deep literature review related to the situation of land issue prevailing from pre-colonial period to the recent 2004 land policy reforms in Rwanda. Crucial challenges before the beginning of the effective agrarian evolution are widely discussed. Agrarian perspectives show that the foreignization of agrarian reforms put Rwandan peasants in uncomfortable position. The changes in land use and tenure in Rwanda have been stimulated by both outside influence and inside adversary forces. The real land reform policy consists in specialization and exploitation of large-scale farms subsequent to land consolidation of small plots registered by individuals whose property certificates are preserved. Meanwhile, the required registration of land holdings does not entitle the land to definitive appropriation but it only provides the rights of use if rational exploitation is guaranteed. Such a rational system may result in expropriation for the inefficient producers.This article emphasize that in the case of Rwanda were population growth rate is high, the redistribution of land has its limits. The land consolidation should not be a rule either. Any agrarian reform must find a point of balance. This equilibrium consists in reducing the pressure on the property assets and promoting rural entrepreneurship. Agriculture program may improve and diversify the mode of land access and improved input acquisition to feed a growing population whereas non-agriculture population is gradually increasing. It has been found that farmers operating in co-operatives are more secure and have advantage for land access than individual farmers.

KEYWORDS

Land access, agrarian perspectives, land reforms, foreignization, Rwanda.

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Questionnaire vs. Social Media Analysis - Case Study of Organic Food

Ladislav Pilař Lucie Kvasničková Stanislavská George Gresham Jana Poláková Stanislav Rojík Rosen Petkov DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100308
No 3/2018, September
pp. 93 - 101

ABSTRACT

The amount of European farm acreage devoted to organic foods has been increasing each year over the past three decades, as farmers strive to meet consumer demand for these products. To understand what factors drive this demand, researchers have focused on the end customers' perception of organic food and their motivations to purchase it. The standard research methods are questionnaires and literature review; however, these tend to be expensive, time consuming, or involve work with secondary data. This paper compares 14 studies carried out using standard research methods with the results of a social network analysis based on 344,231 posts by 73,380 Instagram users. The result of the comparison shows that in the case of organic food, the characteristic of "healthy" is the most important one to customers, both based on questionnaire surveys and the social network analysis. Moreover, based on these two analyses, 4 key areas can be identified as factors that are important to customers buying organic food: (1) health consciousness, (2) ecological motives, (3) tasty and (4) hedonism. As the results indicate, social network analysis can be considered a method with a high potential for gaining a greater insight into customers' perceptions.

KEYWORDS

Organic food, questionnaire, social media analysis, hashtag, healthy.

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Czech Agrarian Foreign Trade According to the Degree of Processing

Karina Pohlová Luboš Smutka Adriana Laputková Miroslav Svatoš DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100309
No 3/2018, September
pp. 103 - 118

ABSTRACT

Added value of Czech agrarian trade is a frequently discussed topic. The goal of the New Strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture with the outlook until 2030 and of the Export Strategy of the Czech Republic for 2012-2020 is to improve the commodity structure of Czech agrarian exports and to increase the proportion of exported processed products and food with high added value. One of the key aspects to understanding the current state of the development of agrarian trade added value is methodology used for trade performance analysis. In fact, there are several methodologies related to attempts to estimate the real state of added value distribution in relation to foreign trade performance. None of the methods seems flawless, each is suitable for a different purpose in understanding the commodity structure specifics. Czech authorities apply methodology originally proposed by Regmi (2005) which, however, does not truly reflect the real state of the current commodity structure. The Research Institute of Agricultural Economics and Informatics is interested in developing its own method suitable for better understanding of the Czech agrarian foreign trade specifics. The objective of this paper is to specify the basic idea of the proposed methodology, to compare it with the already applied methodology and to present basic differences between the old and the new approaches. Presumably, the new classification can serve as a suitable tool for Czech agrarian trade analysis and provides a more precise overview of the degree of processing of traded commodities than other types of categorisation. Its advantages prevail over the disadvantages, which are less important. The new classification of unprocessed and processed products requires regular inspection and more frequent updates, as the 8-digit codes of the customs nomenclature continually change. At the end of the paper the agricultural trade performance is calculated according to the currently applied methodology and also according to the new proposed methodology. The results between both applied approaches are significant especially in mutual relation between processed and unprocessed items share in total trade. There are significant differences both in relation to EU countries and also non-EU countries.

KEYWORDS

Agrarian foreign trade, degree of processing, unprocessed commodities, processed products.

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Business Process Management in Linking Enterprise Information Technology in Companies of Agricultural Sector

Peter Polakovič Edita Šilerová Klára Hennyeyová Ivana Slováková DOI: 10.7160/aol.2018.100310
No 3/2018, September
pp. 119 - 126

ABSTRACT

Business Process Management is one of the most important components of a process-driven organization that we perceive as a sum of processes that are more or less follow-up. By adjusting and managing these processes, we can greatly influence the organization's performance, efficiency, flexibility and competitiveness. Business Process Management is important to support the technical infrastructure of modern information systems and communication technologies. These systems are part of the overall enterprise information system. The following article focuses on information and communication technologies for the proper and efficient functioning of process management in agro sectoral companies. This article presents a summary of theoretical knowledge and practical recommendations for creating and maintaining a process management system in enterprises with the support of information and communication technologies. For a more detailed analysis of this issue, statistical research, the partial results of which are subjected to statistical testing, are presented in the following article.

KEYWORDS

Business process management, enterprise information systems, business infrastructure, process management.

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