Bøger af Matthias Zoephel

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Economics - Case Scenarios, grade: A, University of Applied Sciences Chur, language: English, abstract: African small-scale farmers are inadequately linked to markets to sell their harvested produce. On the one hand this is mainly because farmers are unable to produce according to what is demanded by buyers and on the other hand due to intermediary constraints. This current lack of adequate market linkages prevents farmers to sell their surplus production profitably. While this problem has been widely recognized by NGOs and governmental institutions, little improvements have been made so far. Literature fails to provide an overview of this problem that includes all variables affecting farmers and their linkage to markets. Zambia in particular has received minor consideration in the current literature concerning this problem. Therefore, two NGOs, namely Henwood Foundation and NAK Karitativ, have chosen this Master Thesis to create a farmer-to-market linkage model that incorporates all variables affecting farmers from being inadequately linked to markets while focus is placed on those variables that are amendable to influence by NGOs rather than external variables. The literature review in the following section two indicates how severe the market linkage problem actually is for small-scale farmers and what possibilities there are to tackle this dilemma. Based on the literature review, the research problem, its goal and its objectives as well as the data collection methods are specified in section three. Section four will provide an introduction to Zambia as well as to Western Province, a state in Zambia, and to Mongu District, a region in Western Province which received the geographical focus of this thesis. Building on this, the farmer-to-market linkage model will receive attention. Section five and six point out preconditions that determine agricultural output, which ultimately decides how well farmers can be linked to markets. Also, actual markets and their demand structure are stated in these sections. Based on sections five and six, the final farmer-to-market linkage model is developed and subsequently discussed in section seven. The thesis concludes with some incitation to solve this dilemma in section eight and a final conclusion outlining limitations of this study and suggestions for further research in section nine.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 1,7, University of Hamburg, course: MSc Entrepreneurship, language: English, abstract: The following paper will indicate the interventions taken by the Zambian government in the Zambian maize sector. The agricultural sector in Zambia makes up 20 percent of the country¿s GDP, employs 67 percent of Zambiäs total labor force and is the main source of livelihood for poor people in Zambia (Dixon et. al. 2001). The agricultural contribution to the GDP is mainly attributed by rural small-scale farmers who make up 90 percent of all Zambian farmers and own nearly about two thirds of the agricultural land (OECD 2009). More than 70 percent of the entire agricultural area planted is under maize. Since agriculture contributes to the GDP to such a great extend and maize is by far the greatest crop planted, the performance of the maize sector is a very decisive indicator of how well Zambia is economically doing. Further, poverty is mainly existent in rural areas and as rural small-scale farmers make up almost the entire output of maize, maize is thus also an important indicator of rural poverty. The maize sector is at the same time the most deregulated sector in Zambia with a deregulation percentage of greater than 80 percent. Maize policies affect a large percentage of the population and policies can and are used to provide the government with strategic advantages for self-interest independent of whether such policies have a positive impact on the in highly poverty living rural population. This research paper will first examine in section two how maize became such a powerful crop by looking back into Zambian history. Section three will explain the deregulation policies that are currently in place in detail before section four will give an outlook into the future where the maize sector is heading to, accompanied with suggestion in how the maize sector must change in order to contribute to poverty reduction on a sustainable base. Section five will summaries and conclude this report.

Forschungsarbeit aus dem Jahr 2009 im Fachbereich BWL - Investition und Finanzierung, Note: 2.5, Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Chur, Veranstaltung: MSc Entrepreneurship, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Diese wissenschaftliche Ausarbeitung, untersucht die Erfolgs-Faktoren und die externen Einfluss-Faktoren dieser Erfolgs-Faktoren in einer außerfamiliären Unternehmensnachfolge in gewerblichen Mikro-Unternehmen mit einer Transaktionssumme von weniger als 1 Mio. CHF. Bisher wurden keine Untersuchungen der Erfolgs- und Einfluss-Faktoren mit Bezug auf Mikro-Unternehmen durchgeführt, weshalb das Ziel dieser Ausarbeitung, die Füllung dieser Research-Lücke ist. Hierbei werden drei Daten-Gewinnungsrunden durchgeführt, welche zu einem Kriterienkatalog mit den Erfolgs- und deren externen Einfluss-Faktoren führen wird. Zuerst wurde eine Literaturanalyse durchgeführt, um das Verständnis und Basis-Informationen auf dem Gebiet der außerfamiliären Nachfolgeregelung zu erlangen. Die zweite Daten-Gewinnungsrunde bestand in der Durchführung von Interviews mit gewerblichen Mikro-Unternehmern im Raum Baden-Württemberg und der Schweiz. Mit Hilfe dieser Interviews konnte die Research-Lücke, Erfolgs- und deren externen Einfluss-Faktoren mit Bezug auf Mikro-Unternehmen, geschlossen werden. Die Ergebnisse der Interviews, wurden in der dritten Daten-Gewinnungsrunde durch Experten auf dem Gebiet der Nachfolgeregelung verifiziert, teils abgeändert und auch erweitert wonach der Kriterienkatalog aufgebaut wurde. Dieser Report wird zuerst die Ausgangslage, die Problemstellung und die Zielsetzung dieser Arbeit formulieren bevor die Vorgehensweise detailliert beschrieben wird. Danach werden die Ergebnisse der drei Daten-Gewinnungsrunden vorgestellt welche in einem Kriterienkatalog am Ende dieser Arbeit dargestellt werden.