Pilot project to identify and measure the relevant costs of production for sustainable agriculture products (original) (raw)
Sustainable Farming Systems: Demonstrating Environmental and Economic Performance
2001
We thank the farm families participating in the project for their time, cooperation, guidance and insights.We are also grateful to the Farm Business Management Program in general, and specifically to the three instructors who worked with us gathering data for the economic profiles: Ira Beckman, South Central Technical College in Montgomery; John Gintner, South Central Technical College in New Prague; and,Tim Radermacher, Ridgewater College in Montevideo. Prasanna Gowda's work on the computer modeling is greatly appreciated. The Steering Committee provided us with important insights and ideas; we are grateful for their commitment to the project and their diligent efforts to develop and promote sustainable farming systems.
Computing the cost of the agricultural products: A case study
African Journal of Agricultural Research, 2011
Agriculture constitutes a specific sector of the Romanian economy. It does not contribute significantly to the increase in the gross domestic product, however, it is expected to fulfil three important functions: economic, social and environmental. The cost computation for the agricultural products is different from other activity sectors. Most of the papers addressing managerial accounting issues refer to manufacturing companies. The ones conducted in the services entities usually refer to not for profit organizations. We consider that our work is a research paper which brings contribution to the field as there is a very small number of works in the area. When computing the performance of an economic entity we have to refer to its costs and revenues. Our target in this paper is to establish the cost of the production obtained in a farm. The farm has a complex production, dealing with crops and also with livestock. Using as a research methodology the case study, we also aim to present the documents that the persons responsible have to fulfil in the normal production process.
The achievability of sustainable reporting practices in agriculture
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2009
This research investigates the process of change in moving from a domestic accounting standard, AASB 1037, relating to self-generating and regenerating assets (SGARAs) to an international standard, AASB 141. It focuses on the achievement (or nonachievement as it may be) of sustainable reporting practices for these agricultural assets. This paper fi nds that the transition to AASB 141 has allowed fi rms the discretion to change how they value their agricultural assets in comparison to the domestic standard. Consistency may have been achieved to a limited extent with the introduction of this fi nancial accounting standard but comparability appears not to have been. Further, there is very limited understanding of the reporting of these assets from a user's perspective. It is concluded that this lack of consistency, comparability and understandability will not help achieve sustainability in the reporting practices of agricultural assets. experience with meeting the reporting requirements of AASB 1037, Fosters considered that the accounting requirements and valuation concepts of AASB 1037 when applied to the wine industry were too onerous for the average user, making it impossible for users to understand the reporting of such assets.
Journal of Applied Accounting Research, 2007
The use of management accounting in the agricultural industry has received very little attention by accounting researchers. Agriculture is currently in an era of significant change and adjustment, where change in accounting practice needs to occur in response to external pressures. The traditional use of the gross margin system of accounting has tended to underline a notion that has had a powerful influence on farm business planning that most costs are fixed and that the best way of reducing them to achieve profit maximisation is to spread them by increasing the scale of operation. This logic has been supported by an economic environment heavily influenced by agricultural policy measures that focused on artificial support for market prices and/or direct payments linked to production activities. We argue that the decoupling of support from production has combined with a number of other changes related to payments and cost structures (including those linked to the recent dramatic rise...
Impact of environmental cost on the production cost of crops: farmers' perspective
International journal of sustainable agricultural management and informatics, 2023
The aim of this study was to determine the impact of environmental factors on the production cost of paddy, corn, and potato crops in Bangladesh based on the farmers' perspective. A total of 210 cultivators of the three crops were surveyed through face-to-face interviews using an unstructured questionnaire. Environmental costs were represented by air, water, deforestation, and sound pollution costs. Multiple regression models were used to analyse the impact of environmental costs on the production cost. The results showed that air and water pollution costs have a statistically significant positive impact on the production cost of all three crops. On the other hand, sound pollution cost and deforestation cost had no significant impact on the production costs of all three crops, except for the case of deforestation cost on corn cultivation. The findings of this study can contribute to efforts to promote sustainable agriculture practices by considering intrinsic production costs that include environmental costs.
Integrated economic and environmental accounting for agriculture
2004
Abstract This paper presents the methodological and conceptual aspects of a framework, which extends the conventional economic accounts for agriculture with environmental issues, valued in monetary terms. This leads to Economic and Environmental Accounts for Agriculture (EEAA). The EEAA are based on the conventional agricultural accounts and on existing tools for valuing non-market goods and services.
Building Sustainable Agriculture
Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 1992
Sustainable agriculture requires the balancing of a variety of goals. This means that often no single goal can be maximized, since such optimization might totally preclude the achievement of one of the other goals of sustainability. For this reason, transdisciplinary teams containing advocates of the various goals, with ability to negotiate priorities, provide an important input into research and extension toward a sustainable agriculture. Further, farmer membership on these teams is particularly crucial, because a sustainable agriculture means that the farmer shifts from a user of technology to a producer of technology and a monitor of its impacts. A major impediment to the development of transdisciplinary approaches is the lack of good indicators of sustainability. In part this is due to the ease of use of traditional measures of production and profit. Not only do these yield single, summary measures; they have relatively short term manifestations. Indicators of die impact of agricultural practices on sustainability are more diffuse and more long terra. Systematic efforts are needed to develop such measures. Farming systems research and extension (FSR/E) has traditionally involved multidisciplinary teams, which have included farmer participation. However, both the composition and process of FSR/E must be altered to include the multidimensions of sustainable agriculture. Such adaptations are possible in all phases of FSR/E: from diagnosis, to design, to on-farm trials, to monitoring and evaluation, and finally extension.
Evidence for Generating High Margin Profit by Cost Cutting of Sustainable Agriculture Farming Input
2013
We present evidence on how the farmers were able to generate high margin profit based on natural farming method. This opportunity is available if only the farmers can adopt sustainable agriculture system. In answering the question "Does sustainable agriculture system able to contribute economically to local farmers (CBO)?". This research has employed case study methodology. The study was conducted in Sekinchan, Selangor, Malaysia. Sekinchan is located on the south west coastal plain of Sabak Bernam. This site can be considered as the first site by the CBO that implementing and popularizing this sustainable method of farming in Selangor. From the evidence, it is very clear that sustainable agriculture system has provided high margin profit to those farmers. It is very important for us to know that the ability to cut costs on farming inputs not only gives advantages to the farmers themselves but also reflect an improvement of food quality and social ties among local people. In a nutshell, sustainable agriculture system has a bright potential as a mechanism in alleviating poverty.
A COMPARISON OF STANDARD COSTS AND ACTUAL COSTS FOR SWISS CROP ENTERPRISES BASED ON FULL COSTING
This paper derives actual costs (AC) for five crop enterprises on a full costing base from the Swiss Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and compares them with standard costs (SC) from farm management literature representing target costs. For wheat, barley and oilseeds, total AC are around 10% lower than total SC whereas the cost structure is similar. The substantial differences in cost structures for sugar beet and potatoes seem to be related to changes in the production technology. The AC of land and other joint costs are generally lower than the corresponding SC. Except for sugar beet, labor input is larger in the AC than SC indicating that labor could be used more efficiently. As a core conclusion, the revealed differences between the two cost types point to the necessity of regular comparisons between AC and SC as a precondition to provide adequate SC.
Profitable Organic Systems: Current and Future Issues 27 Farm Auditing for Sustainability
2015
Policy makers have now established sustainability as the new aim for UK farming. The development of the Farm Audit for Sustainability involved identifying the objectives of sustainable farming, based on the principles of organic farming as set out by the International Federation of Organic Farming Movements (IFOAM) and establishment of indicators to assess the effectiveness of individual farms in meeting these objectives. On-farm use of the Farm Audit demonstrated that the tool was able to provide a comprehensive assessment of sustainability of the farming system and that it is an information and advisory tool which is potentially useful in benchmarking and development of the farming operation.
Incorporating environmental impacts into value added from organic and conventional farming
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2005
We aim to improve the policy relevance of the aggregate welfare indicators regarding the economic and environmental features of farming practices. First, an analytical framework for measurement of environmentally adjusted net national product for agricultural sector is provided. Second, shadow pricing of direct disutility of environmental deterioration is illustrated with implications of the Finnish water protection policy measures restricting the use of manure on conventional and organic livestock farms during the period 1994-2002. Our simulated shadow prices per cubic meter manure are quite considerable reflecting the potentially high opportunity costs in terms of value added forgone if the only option to comply with regulation is to cut output. In practice, the organic farms seem to comply well with current regulation, and the environmentally harmful contribution of conventional farms to welfare is relatively small.
Aspectos para promover la producción agrícola en términos de costo
2019
This study aims to argue for the application of product cost calculation by the “direct-costing” model which can serve can improvement in the management accounting system in agricultural enterprises. It categorizes the costs of agricultural production. The methodology of transfer pricing has also been developed, as a tool for assessing the effectiveness and determining the final result (profit and loss) of each responsibility center. A gradual construction of cost accounting, output and financial results has been suggested. Therefore, in order to implement the accounting system proposed in the article and to increase its controlling functions, the authors developed an analytical accounting register or a production report form, where financial results should be identified at the production stage and at the level of the organizational units. The article is not only scientific, but also practice-oriented, thus the outcomes will be useful not only for students, graduate students and tea...
Applying and Extending the Sustainable Value Method related to Agriculture–an Overview
2008
Abstract—Sustainable Value is a method to measure the contribution of an economic entity, such as a farm or the entire agricultural sector, towards the sustainability (sustainable development) of a region, a country or on a global scale. A positive sustainable value is created once resources are used more efficiently than by a benchmark. It shows the excess return that is created or lost by the use of economic, environmental and social resources by an economic entity relative to a benchmark.
Operational Result Through Variable Costing: Agricultural and Poultry Production
2014
The objective of this work is to apply the variable costing method in an agricultural (maize production) and poultry (chicken farming) property, in order to assess the contribution margin of each activity, with the aid of cost accounting and agribusiness techniques. With regard to methodological procedures, the study was design as: field study, descriptive-exploratory, case study and applied research. The property that was the object of this study, located in the state of Paraná, Brazil, develops temporary maize crops and also undertakes poultry farming. The result, obtained under a comparative unit analysis of the contribution margin, in which chicken farming was done per unit and the maize crop was evaluated in bushels, detected that the latter has greater representativeness; however, when the analysis was carried out according to area, poultry farming reversed this representativeness. Lastly, it was concluded that even with these differences, both showed a positive margin in cove...
Farm auditing for sustainability
2004
Policy makers have now established sustainability as the new aim for UK farming. The development of the Farm Audit for Sustainability involved identifying the objectives of sustainable farming, based on the Principles of organic farming as set out by the International Federation of Organic Farming Movements (IFOAM) and establishment of indicators to assess the effectiveness of individual farms in meeting these objectives. Onfarm use of the Farm Audit demonstrated that the tool was able to provide a comprehensive assessment of sustainability of the farming system and that it is an information and advisory tool which is potentially useful in benchmarking and development of the farming operation.
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 1993
Rhetorical definitions of agricultural sustainability abound. However, definitions that can be put to operational use in economic analysis have not been adequately developed. An economic definition of sustainability using natural resource accounting techniques is put forward. Two case studies are examined and physical and economic measures of natural resource impacts are developed. Five policy scenarios are tested to determine the public and private gains possible from different approaches to agricultural support and economic incentives.
2011
Abstract: Reading the Farm is a 2-to 3-day professional development program that brings together agricultural service providers from a range of agencies, with various expertise and levels of experience, to explore whole-farm systems and sustainability through in-depth study of two case-study farms. Over 90% of past participants reported that the program has helped them be more effective service providers.
Measuring the sustainability of agriculture
Working …, 2007
Downloadable! This policy paper reviews the sustainability literature, with a view to furthering research in the area of the sustainability of Irish agriculture. This is the first component of a larger project currently being undertaken by the authors to assess the effect of policy reform on ...