The study serves to clarify doubts on the potential of commercial microcredit as a strategic vehicle of implementing of small-scale biogas plants in Sri Lanka, as an alternative to subsidy-based process. The quantified sum of unsubsidized microloan interest born by the biogas users in a modeled situation of maximum potential of the biogas sector financed through microfinance institutions is compared with national technology savings on a macro level. The analysis concludes that an economic justification for the microfinance-fuelled implementation of small-scale biodigesters employing a market-based approach does exist. Annual savings on macroeconomic level surpass the annual cost expressed as a sum of unsubsidized interest. The study furthermore proposes a three-party credit contract, which prevents credit defaults caused by the lack of customary after-sales care by integrating the provision of service providers into a contractual agreement with both the user and the financing source, thus assuming part of credit responsibility.

Abstract. Microfinance services are essential tools of formalization of shadow economics

This study focuses on the field of citrus markets in the Lattakia region, the Syrian Arab Republic. Despite the high impact of citrus production on the livelihood of more than 40,000 families in the region, citrus farmers are not informed about expected prices and market trends. This information is crucial to making successful business decisions. The main aim of the paper is the assessment of Lattakia market price dynamics and to verify the use of regression and OLS models as tools of an Agricultural Marketing Information System (AMIS) for citrus price forecasting in the Lattakia region. To this end, five indicators were applied to the data set and two models for citrus wholesale price prediction on the Lattakia markets were tested in the paper. These indicators and models were applied to empirical data, obtained from an actual Marketing Information System in the Lattakia

AIM/BACKGROUNDOne of the major motives for dramatic decrease of cacao production is the impact of Moniliophthora roreri, a pathogenous fungus. The problem of Mexican cacao production however could be more complex than just a challenge related to chemical or biological elimination of the fungus. It is a problem of a social and demographic nature, related to cultural practices, age of producers, abandonment of the traditional production manners, which could be understood as a function of dynamics of social capital in the Mexican countryside. The study hence attempts to find a link between social capital and productivity of the producers in a cacao producing region in Central Tabasco, with the goal to illuminate possible strategies for revival of declining traditional sector of production. METHODS Data collection took place in February 2016 in municipality C-16 Gral. Emiliano Zapata, Cardenas, in Central Tabasco in South-eastern Mexico, where 101 semi-structured questionnaires with a combination of 50 principal questions entailing 230 subquestions which however include aksi monthly calendars.We compare the production of chosen variables products with four chosen Social Capital indicators, searching for a relationship using Mincer’s regression model through cross sections of data analysis with fixed effects within Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method. RESULTSThe result point at rather a surprising result of a negligent importance of social capital and productivity of the cacao plantation. The hypothesis on a significant relationship between social capital associated with a producer and rentability of annual production of cacao per hectare cannot be confirmed. In other words, producers that show low level of social connectivity not necessarily have to show lower productivity per hectar, while the productivity is rather dependent on other factors. CONCLUSION The cacao belongs to most important agricultural crops worldwide, in recent decades facing increasing demand as well as falling production capacity. The dramatically fall of production of cacao in Mexican agriculture, where it was first domesticated, is becoming a serious concern for diversity of local production, as local producers are substituting cacao plantations with more rentable crops thus giving away a rich genetic as well as agricultural legacy that could under adequate conditions provide a source of income for large region while maintaining the natural diversity. The paper comes to the conclusion that it is collective action and social capital led production set of practices that is crucial for the re-installment and prosperity of the plantations, rather than a single motive such as the recent invasion of Moniliophthora roreri fungus.

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