Global supply chains and networking: A critical perspective on learning challenges in the New Zealand dairy and sheepmeat commodity chains

Vertical and horizontal networks in food chains and rural areasinteract on rural development through a potentially global reach.This paper adopts a knowledge systems framework incorporatingnetworking dimensions to explore problems of supply chain reorganisation.In New Zealand this framework is being applied in agri-industriesthrough the input of research institutes, partly in responseto buyer-driven pressures for supply chain realignment and productionto more precise specification. The paper reports on networkinginterventions by AgResearch in the farmer-processor relationin two New Zealand export food chains (dairy and meat). Findingsfrom the Learning Challenges Project where focus groups areused to conceptualise and define aspects of the chains and toascertain knowledge networking dimensions point to the potentialof networking methodologies as policy tools.     

Can the Wrongs be Righted? Prospects for Remedy in the Philippine Oil Palm Agro‐industry

State‐based and corporate remedies are increasingly offered as solutions to intractable issues provoked by land‐based investments, such as the oil palm agro‐industry. This article critiques this shift towards procedural governance fixes, drawing on theories of the legitimizing function of corporate responsibility and mechanisms of elite capture in agrarian states. The authors contrast the ambition of remedy with local reality in one controversial oil palm project in Palawan Province, the Philippines, showing that it was operated by companies, banks, agencies and politicians who either lacked the capacity to rein in the project once it became evident that it was causing harm to farmers, or showed no interest in doing so. As one of the first detailed examinations of the growing oil palm sector in the Philippines, the study adds to understandings of the shifting nature of elite capture through transnational agro‐industry. It also shows that the remedies discourse remains rooted in colonial doctrines and neoliberal constructs and thus tends to deflect attention away from more appropriate harm prevention strategies. The authors argue that functional remedies will only arise once states and companies confront competing land and resource claims and relinquish more control over new procedures to local and indigenous communities.     

The Power of Models in Planning: The Case of DaisyGIS and Nitrate Leaching

Spatial deterministic simulation models such as DaisyGIS are increasingly being used for decision‐making in European planning. In Denmark specifically, there is an increasing interest at the regional level to use DaisyGIS as an administrative tool. There are, however, uncertainties associated with the use of these deterministic models, partly due to the spatial variation in input parametres. This study evaluates the use of DaisyGIS for nitrate leaching assessments based on nitrate leaching experiments carried out at the Marbjerg experimental site at Roskilde University. The study includes geostatistical analysis of soil and hydraulic variables and the use of remote sensing for deriving spatial information about the Leaf Area Index. It is found that the model predicts nitrate leaching well when using site‐specific input data but it is quite sensitive to the parameterization of carbon, the C/N ratio and variations in the Leaf Area Index (LAI). With the increasing use of Daisy in the counties, there is a need to find better ways of handling uncertainties in model output which can be used by decision‐makers and to study further the impact of spatial LAI assimilation on catchment scale nitrate leaching processes.