Agricultural Policy in West Germany

Abstract

Much of the area which at present constitutes the German Federal Republic was, in the past, agriculturally backward. Since 1949, West German agriculture has made considerable technical progress, but still suffers from severe structural problems. These problems of small farm size and fragmentation have their origin in the 18th century, when farmers obtained control of the land without the enclosure movement experienced in Britain, and no serious programme of structural reform was undertaken before 1939. In recent years, West German agriculture has increased production very greatly and at the same time reduced its labour force at an unprecedented rate. Moreover, a substantial programme of structural reform was initiated in the 1950's. As a result, farmers' incomes have risen at roughly the same rate as other incomes. In the last few years, West German agriculture has come under increasing pressure as a result of economic developments and the competition of other Common Market countries. It is clear that a more radical programme of structural reform is needed.

Unravelling the bidirectional impact of Chinese agricultural subsidy policy on agricultural efficiency and farmers' income through panel data analysis

“…Theoretical support and research hypotheses. The theoretical underpinning of this paper is grounded in agricultural policy theory (Hallett 1968), general X-efficiency theory (Hallett 1968), and income distribution theory (Bronfenbrenner 2017). Agricultural policy theory elucidates governmental interventions in the agricultural sector aimed at diverse objectives, including food security, environmental protection, and rural development.…”