Aleksan Shanoyan

Ethanol and sugarcane expansion in Brazil: what is fueling the ethanol industry?

This case study describes Brazilian ethanol industry and strategic issues faced by sugarcane farmers and processors as a result of recent industry expansion into the states of Goias and Mato Grosso do Sul. It provides detailed description of the ethanol supply chain in Brazil from field to market and discusses market drivers influencing the industry. Shaped by government regulations, market liberalization, globalization, and technological change, the Brazilian ethanol industry provides a rich context for learning and applying strategic analysis tools. The case is designed to be used in a graduate or undergraduate agribusiness management or strategic management course. The specific teaching objective for this case is to refine and reinforce students’ understanding of industry analysis and the effect of market drivers on competitive forces in an industry. Students will be expected to conduct an industry analysis and provide strategy recommendations to managers of ethanol plants and farmers. The case study incorporates all of the essential information for students to understand the underlying economics of the ethanol value chain and how the external forces shape strategic growth opportunities.

Agricultural production credit clubs in Armenia: facilitating investment through market linkages, social capital, and microcredit

Armenia’s 1991 privatization and land redistribution process handed ownership and control of agricultural production to over 300,000 inexperienced, financially distressed, subsistence farmers operating extremely small fragmented plots, and the processing sector to similarly distressed managers. As seen elsewhere across Eastern Europe, the result was chaotic turmoil characterized by pervasive delayed payments, massive disinvestment, and rapid output declines. However, unlike elsewhere, Armenia could not rely upon the entry of FDI to correct channel incentives and revitalize its agricultural and rural financial markets. Instead, an alternative exogenous stimulus was required. This study analyzes the instrumental case of how a quasi-public third party, the USDA Market Assistance Program and Agricultural Production Credit Clubs, successfully imitated FDI-induced incentive structures through market linkages, social capital, and microcredit to establish economically sustainable marketing channels. The findings provide important insights into the design of market-linked microcredit programs.

Investment responses to third-party market facilitation in Armenia

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of a third-party market facilitation strategy in creating sustainable market linkages and revitalizing an important agri-food sector in a developing country setting. More specifically, this study evaluates a third-party facilitator’s ability to assist producers and processors in developing internal private enforcement mechanisms through stimulating investments in relationship-specific assets. Design/methodology/approach - – This paper uses mixed methods approach. The research is grounded by a case study of the USDA Marketing Assistance Program (MAP) in the Armenian dairy industry. Qualitative evidence from the case study is combined with data from a survey of 745 Armenian dairy farmers to examine the impact of participation in the USDA MAP-facilitated marketing channel on farm-level investments. Findings - – The main results indicate that over the four-year period of the USDA MAP facilitation of dairy supply chain, farms linked to the formal milk marketing channel have invested in approximately twice as many assets specific to milk production compared to farms in the informal channel. This finding supports the hypothesis that third-party market facilitation strategy pursued by the USDA MAP has stimulated investments in private enforcement capital between dairy producers and processors and implies that an external third-party market facilitator can play an important role in enhancing performance of supply chain linkages. Originality/value - – These findings and the lessons from the case of USDA MAP contribute to better understanding of third-party market linkage facilitation strategies and will be useful for the development community and agribusiness decision makers.

Does Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Matter for Children’s Health Status? Insights from Northern Ghana

Given that women in rural communities in developing countries are responsible for the nutrition and health-related decisions affecting children in their care, their empowerment may influence the health status of their children. The association between women’s empowerment, measured by using a recently developed Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, and children’s health status is examined for a sample of households in Northern Ghana applying a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model. The MIMIC approach is used to link multiple indicator variables with multiple independent variables through a “single underlying” latent variable. Height-for-age and weight-for-height z-scores are used as indicators of the underlying children’s health status and women’s empowerment in agriculture and control variables are used as the multiple independent variables. Our results show that neither the composite empowerment score used to capture women’s empowerment in agriculture nor its decomposed components are statistically significant in their association with the latent children’s health status. However, the associations between children’s health status and control variables such as mother’s education, child’s age, household’s hunger scale and residence locale are statistically significant. Results also confirm the existence of the ‘single underlying’ common latent variable. Of the two health status indicators, height-for-age scores and weight-for- height scores, the former exhibited a relatively stronger association with the latent health status. While promoting women’s empowerment to enhance their ability to make strategic life choices, it is important to carefully consider how the achievement of these objectives will impact the women’s well-being and the well-being of the children in their care.

The determinants of household-level well-being in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT Empirical analysis of the physical well-being at the household level was conducted for a sample of households in Northern Ghana using a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes model. Physical well-being was indicated by the number of stunted children, number of wasted children, and number of underweight women. Results suggest that well-being at the household level is indeed represented by the latent variable and can be conceptualized in much the same way as the well-being of the individuals who constitute the household. Results show that the literacy of father and the number of dependents are associated with the largest shift in the underlying household’s physical well-being. Locale and the household assets were also significantly associated with the collective underlying latent variable. The variability in household physical well-being is explained more by the number of stunted children in the household than any of the other indicators of household well-being.

Third-party facilitation of supply chain linkages: evidence from the Armenian vegetable industry

This paper presents an empirical examination of investment responses to external facilitation of supply chain linkages between agricultural producers and processors. Specifically, it analyzes the impact of participation in the USDA Marketing Assistance Program (MAP) facilitated formal marketing channel on farm-level investments in tomato production. The analysis involves mixed method approach utilizing a case of the USDA MAP in the Armenian vegetable industry and the survey data from 427 Armenian tomato growers. The main results indicate that the tomato growers linked to USDA MAP facilitated formal marketing channel (i.e. processors) invested significantly more in expanding tomato planting area compared to growers in informal channel (i.e. direct-to-consumer markets, middleman, and barter). The lessons from the USDA MAP’s supply chain facilitation strategy and the results of quantitative analysis provide insights on incentive structures and enforcement mechanisms for designing more effective supply chain ...