Mountain holding in the 21st century ? difficulties and possibilities This study examines the difficulties and possibilities that mountain holding Farmers have today. The following questions were considered: i) Who is cultivating mountain holdings today? ii) Which is the most important reason to keep animals there? iii) What kind of subsidies are most common? iv) What kinds of animals and what breeds are the most common? v) For how long period of time are the animals kept at the mountain holdings every season? vi) How are the fundamental regulations in the animal welfare law being followed, and are there any problems/conflicts in keeping animals at the mountain holdings? vii) What meaning do the animals have for the Farmers and what are the farmer?s thoughts about the future? A survey based on these issues was sent out to 107 mountain holdings Farmers with animals on grazing land, where 59 % submitted a response. The results showed that knowledge on how to keep animals at the mountain holdings was overall good.

The problem with passive Farmers has arised as an effect of the European Union´s common agricultural policy (CAP) and the decouplement from production-based payments. Payments to passive Farmers contradict the purpose of the single payment scheme and constitute a great cost for the EU. The new contractual period after 2013 has given rise to discussions on the direction of the CAP with a purpose of increasing the efficiency of the single payment scheme, and reducing passive farming. The aim of the study is to increase the knowledge about a few factors? influence on passive Farmers? attitudes towards land use and the CAP.

Among Farmers in Sweden hedging of product prices is a relatively new way of thinking. A deregulated market and a more volatile price picture are consequences of the free market and the movements towards globalization. The effects of globalization are largely a demand- and supply driven market. These factors give the Farmers incentives to stay informed and to act on their own in order to manage their price risk exposure.The overall purpose with this study is to analyze the Farmers? attitudes and awareness of price hedging and to examine what type of decision processes that characterize hedging decisions.The study covers the period 2006 until 2008 and the crops oil seeds, barley (malt), milling wheat, feed wheat, oats and feed oats.

This Master?s thesis is one of two parts of a combined project called Sustainable development around the Lake Victoria, the purpose of which is to investigate the importance of local anchoring and active participation in the work towards sustainable development. The present study aims to investigate whether men and women are empowered by the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) process promoted in their villages by the VI Agroforestry Project Masaka/Rakai. The study is primarily based on interviews with Farmers within the project area and brings up a local perspective on the concepts sustainable development, active participation and empowerment. The study shows that to improve the Farmers? livelihood and to create a sustainable development in the community, the Farmers have to be actively involved in, and in control of, the process.

Today?s Farmers are constantly affected by the fluctuating world market prices on grain and thereby the price risk that comes with the price fluctuations. The volatile prices of grain increase the price risk within the business, which in turn affects the profitability of the business. The fluctuating prices together with the increased price risk within the farm business have opened up the market for hedging instruments. In this master thesis project, the aim is to identify the underlying end-values of 30 Swedish Farmers? related to their choice of using hedging and the product; forward contract.

Hunger is a problem in some parts of the world (www, FAO 1, 2012). The lack of food is often a result of insufficient knowledge in soil fertility management (Röing de Nowina, 2012). Ongoing hunger and malnourishment are quite prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and are often combined with poverty (www, FAO 1, 2012). Farming is the most common occupation in this area and the farms are often small-scale farms with subsistence crops and a few cattle. The Farmers who operate these small-scale farms are economically a weak group.

Farmers are constantly facing changes, and the exposure to risk requires monitoring these changes. Financial risks, institutional risks, market risks and production risks are the different risk categories that the Farmers face. Production risks stems from factors the farmer cannot affect or is beyond his control. The crop?s output is the basis for the primary income of agricultural operations, which is why it is important for farmer to manage their production risk. A tool to reduce the consequences of production risks is crop insurance.

This study examines how Farmers certified by KRAV face proposed regulations on organic soils put forward by KRAV economic association among others, and how they are affected economically. These soils are, from an environmental perspective, interesting as a target for production regulations as they cause greenhouse gas emissions through decomposition of organic material when cultivated. The regulations advocate that organic soils should be grown with pasture where soil cultivation is only allowed every fith year which implies that possible adjustments of cultivation have to be made in order to fulfill the regualtions. Collection of data have been made through a questionnaire sent out to 574 Farmers certified by KRAV. The answers have been analysed using a decision making model and statistical findings suggest that proportion of organic soils, type of production, economic conditions and Farmers? goals and values have an influence on whether the regulations and potential cultivation adjustments have been considered or not.

The thesis aims to investigate the farmer?s perception of currency hedging and interest rate bonds and to investigate the farm size of companies categorized by number of acres, has no effect on this. The work also aims to gain an insight into what active Farmers consider to be important what to consider when they choosing a bank and a personal banker. The work is based on the survey and has been supplemented by a literature review on the subject. For the survey were selected out randomly 50 Farmers with Agriculture and Rural Management education. The requirement of the Farmers was that they should be Farmers by profession, and also made sure that the Farmers of various sizes came with. We got a total of 32 responses within the set response time we said, which was better response than we expected. When the final result came we ranged the farms in a size range. We found out that all Farmers in the study diligently follow the market and are easy to assimilate new ideas, providing opportunities to profitability of their business with the different instruments that are available on both the financial level and farm level. The investigation revealed that the major in favor of having a personal banker. They think it´s good to have a special plug to turn to who has knowledge and experience of how the agriculture sector operates.

This study examined the factors influencing dairy Farmers´ decisions to invest in automated milking systems (AMS). The problem studied involves uncertainty, information and complexity for dairy Farmers in specific decision contexts. The frame of reference in the thesis combines contingency theory and decision theory and is used in a qualitative analysis of a set interview with dairy Farmers who have recently bought an AMS and salespersons from Delaval, one of the AMS suppliers.The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of the decision making processes of dairy Farmers, and in particular to identify which types of factors influence the outcome of an investment decision in the technological development of a farm.The study uses Thompsons` (1967) theory about the structure that organizations develop to handle the input of information. Thus, interest is focused on how a farm business structure handles information in the AMS decision, investigating the differences in information with Delaval?s "feed first principle" system and Lely?s "free cow traffic" system.The results of the qualitative interviews with the dairy Farmers who bought an AMS show that there are three important factors that influence the outcome: employees, suppliers and the owner.

The dairy market will change importantly in the coming years. The quota system, which has regulated the European dairy production, will disappear in 2015 and the European dairy market will then be importantly affected by the volatility characterizing the dynamic of world prices. Besides this, the global demand of dairy products is expected to increase due to the growing world population. Farmers in countries such as the U.S. and New Zealand, when compared to Swedish Farmers, show greater familiarity and experience with risk management tools.

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.

The economic situation in the Swedish agricultural industry is currently experiencing a development towards larger units. This progress occurs simultaneously as Farmers in cooperation more frequently make investments to decrease risk exposure and to improve the financial result. The purpose with this thesis is to study which advantages and problems a group of Farmers experience after a common investment in a small-scale seed production. The aim with this investment is to increase the level of vertical integration in their respective agricultural firms and the results will be analyzed from an economic point of view. At present, the Farmers are all seed producers with considerable cultivation areas.

In Kenya, many families subsist on agriculture and of the country's around 40 million residents 70% work in the agricultural sector. 50 % of the country's gross domestic production (GDP) comes from farming, and thus the country is largely dependent on income from this sector. Kenya's population has tripled in recent decades, which have led to that food availability is a growing problem. To ensure food security, it is important that the return from crops increases. The aim of this study is to evaluate what impact the use of fertilizers and improved seeds has for farmer?s economic situation and income generation.