Farmers Cooperative has in recent years developed from national markets to cross-border, international, collaborations. One example is the merger between the Swedish dairy company Arla and Danish MD Foods, where the companies collectively are sought to reduce transaction costs and thus improve efficiency. The Swedish market for commodities (fertilizers and pesticides) in agriculture has for many years been dominated by a few large players, with little opportunity for grain associations and local grain companies to offer their customers a varied range of commodities with a competitive pricing.To change this state, a majority of Swedish and Danish grain associations and local grain companies have established a trans-national cooperation. Through the establishment of the organization DLA Agro, they offer their customers a good variety of products with competitive prices. This study investigates thus according to the theory of cooperative models to what extent and how the DLA Agro helps to create benefits for the Swedish member companies.

West Pokot County is located in North Western part of Kenya where the previous lifestyle was nomadic pastoralism. However, in recent years the semi-arid county has been under dramatic developments and a sedentary agro-pastoral lifestyle is now growing. This is a major change in production systems and there is a big knowledge gap especially for the livestock based agro-pastoral systems. The main objective of this study was to investigate the current situation of animal husbandry in West Pokot. Twenty farmers were interviewed in Chepareria Division, using semi-structured interviews to investigate if the use of enclosures have had any effect on animal husbandry in West Pokot and if so, how have this method affected the animal husbandry? The results of the study indicated that there is a difference in animal husbandry between farms using enclosures and farms not using enclosures.

With the farming methods of the past century the agricultural landscape has changed. This has led to the fact that many habitats and species have been significantly reduced. Sweden is committed to the preservation of biodiversity through various conventions and laws. In the EU's Common Agricultural Policy there are currently agro-environmental schemes, which were created as an instrument for reducing the negative impacts of agriculture on nature and environment. Within this system any farmer who perform environmental measures are financially compensated for this.

With the farming methods of the past century the agricultural landscape has changed. This has led to the fact that many habitats and species have been significantly reduced. Sweden is committed to the preservation of biodiversity through various conventions and laws. In the EU's Common Agricultural Policy there are currently agro-environmental schemes, which were created as an instrument for reducing the negative impacts of agriculture on nature and environment. Within this system any farmer who perform environmental measures are financially compensated for this.

Intense competition among companies and luck or unavailability of certain resources in country of company?s origin force last to cross the borders, and start to hunt for new markets and cheaper inputs. However, by investing abroad the company is not only facing and dealing with cultural differences and new regulatory framework, but also becomes dependent on decisions and actions of different and to large extend unknown government. Moreover, the majority of the investments? flows are directed to developing countries, where power and capabilities of state authorities are considered to be more extensive than in countries of developed economies.

Formulation and testing of a new type of chainsaw lubricantThe company Agro Oil has come up with the idea of developing an environmentally adapted chainsaw lubricant with a new unusual base fluid. A field test with a tree-harvester shows unsatisfactory low temperature properties and high wear. In this work the viscosity, price and pour point of different combinations of the given base fluid and three other base fluids have been investigated. Desired viscosity and price are determined for different formulations. The new lubricants tested show lower pour points than almost all products on the Swedish market.A test equipment has been developed to investigate the wear.

Kenya is a country of 35 million people and is situated in Eastern Africa. 70% of thepopulation works within the agricultural sector and for many of them food insecurity is amajor problem. Maize and beans are today the staple food for many households. Goodfarming conditions enable two harvests per year and a potential maize yield of 4-5 tons perhectare.A major problem for many farmers in this area is the increase of the weed striga. The weedcauses severe yield losses, and has a major economic impact on smallholders.

Sudan has always showed great potential in the poultry industry, but it has not been until now that this potential has blossomed and is growing quickly. As large agribusinesses1are taking over the market shares within the urban areas, smallholders2 have been put out of business. They are not able to compete with mass production and lack financial assets to improve their production techniques. Contract farming is defined as initiatives from agro industrial companies to secure access to smallholder produce and has in developing countries become a way of allowing the poor to participate in a larger market (Farrington, 1999). The aim with this study was to investigate the suitability of implementing the contract farming concept within the poultry industry in Sudan today. The study is a qualitative field study and the authors have conducted qualitative interviews with respondents involved in the poultry industry in Sudan.

The focus of the thesis is: how conditions for agriculture in the Republic of Macedonia today may form the basis for development of the agricultural sector towards conditions needed for future accession into the European Union. The method for investigating this question has been to look at newly available farm monitoring system (FMS) data from Macedonia. Also to look at the latest government policies created in the country for the agricultural sector and rural areas in relation to the requirements for EU accession. Articles and empirical studies published by other authors related to the questions which arise in this study have been reviewed and presented herein. Trade relations, trade patterns and national economic and agricultural trends are displayed to provide a background overview for the study of the agricultural sector.

In June 2013 a debate concerning the consumers? right to a label of origin on food packages was held in the Swedish parliament (www, Riksdagen, 2014). The debate was sparked by some food scandals where labelling was falsely used, claiming something that was not true ? the horse-meat scandal, frozen strawberries infected by Hepatitis A, pork sold as beef, etc. These cases were not only wrong in terms of food safety, but also fraudulent and threating consumers? right to fair origin labelling.