Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze price transmission in the Chinese pork market between 1994 and 2016 and examine any incidence and causes of asymmetric price transmission. Design/methodology/approach: The approach uses threshold autoregressive models, asymmetric error correction models and autoregressive moving average models to examine the price transmission using monthly pig and pork prices from 1994 to 2016. Findings: While a symmetric price transmission between pork and pig prices was identified for the period between June 1994 and June 2007, an asymmetric price transmission response between pork and pig prices was found for the period July 2007 to June 2016. Key factors behind the asymmetric price transmission include the chicken price and China’s provisional purchasing and stockpiling policy which is having a counter-productive impact on prices. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the literature by examining price transmission in two different periods: 1994 to 2007 where prices are lower and more stable; and 2007 to 2016 where prices are higher and volatile. The paper examines the impact of production and market policies on price transmission in the Chinese pork and pig market, with several policy implications.

Farming systems in Tibet are undergoing significant change as farm households are encouraged to shift from more subsistence-oriented staple cereals to more intensive, diverse, and integrated forage crop livestock systems reliant on engagement with external input and product markets. This is occurring at a time of rapid agrarian transition with more and more of the livelihoods, income, and expenditures of farm households dependent on off-farm sources. Modernizing an agricultural sector that can sustain the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and meet the demands of an ever more discerning customer base all within the confines of a limited resource base has proved a major R&D and policy challenge for Tibetan and Chinese officials, let alone the farmers and market actors impacted by these developments. In this paper, key drivers impacting diversity in Tibetan farm households, including agrarian transition and demographic, infrastructure, and food price developments, are outlined. The impact on household economics and on the environment of the more intensive and diverse farming systems are then discussed, along with the attitudes of farm households to the changing farming systems and to their future in farming. The paper finds significant labor and environmental challenges that farm households and policy makers must grapple with if the farming system and agrarian transition trajectories are to be sustained.

Heterogeneity among China’s pastoral households raises the prospect that efficient transfer of grassland-use rights may improve grassland management. More understanding of grassland rental is needed if policy incentives on grassland management are to be refined. Based on a survey of 252 herders in the typical steppe, desert steppe and sandy grassland areas of Inner Mongolia, a significant part of China’s overall grasslands, a multinomial logit model was used to explore factors influencing the decision to: (i) rent in grassland, (ii) rent out grassland, or (iii) neither rent in nor rent out grassland. A multiple regression model then investigated the factors influencing the price of this rented grassland, including a focus on the factors of the exchange. The findings suggest that rental has facilitated a level of specialisation whereby households with less own-grassland area, more livestock, more intensive production systems, lower perceptions of degradation, and some off-farm income (but not high levels) being more likely to rent in land. The likelihood was independent of the type of grassland, extent of grazing bans or grassland subsidies received. Similarly, households more likely to rent out land had fewer livestock and some land subject to grazing bans. The specialisation and larger land areas has enabled households renting in land to have lower stocking rates than those of households not renting grassland. However, analysis of rental prices reveals limitations in the rental market, with prices dependent on the form of contract and relationship of the participants in the exchange, as well as on area rented and type of grassland. Thus, improving land transfer may be warranted to facilitate further specialisation and improved grazing management and herder livelihoods.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact on household and farming systems of government efforts to modernise production, build scale and develop specialisation in the Tibet dairy industry. Design/methodology/approach: An overview of policy strategies and industry developments is used to frame detailed micro-level analysis of household and farming systems where impacts on households are explored from both a comparative static and dynamic perspective. Findings: Specialisation and intensification improve household returns but elicit major changes in the farming and household systems and engagement with external markets. For instance, scaling up from three to ten improved cows increases returns from farm activities by one-half but shifts households from a state of food self-sufficiency to one where they need to sell two-thirds of their dairy products and buy three-fifths of their livestock feed. Research limitations/implications: The diversity among Tibetan farm households and the dynamic changes occurring in farm productivity, product markets and agrarian systems means that the empirical results are used as illustrative rather than definitive. Originality/value: Relative to the large attention on the Chinese dairy industry with regard to food safety and industry development, the impacts of dairy specialisation on smallholders especially in western China have been overlooked. The case highlights several issues relevant to agrarian transition and development including changing labour use, risk exposure and engagement with external markets.

Recent developments in Asian dairy markets have significant implications for the Oceania (OC) dairy sector and especially whole milk powder markets. However, Asia is supplied not only by OC but also by the European Union (EU) and United States (US). Vector error correction models are used to analyse price relationships and market integration using monthly price data from January 2006 to December 2015. The results suggest that prices of whole milk powder in OC, EU and US are not independent and are instead co‐integrated in the long run. OC and EU affect each other and adjust their price deviations quickly. However, no obvious correlation exists between OC and US despite a unidirectional relationship from EU to US. As the OC dairy sector responds to changes in the Asian dairy market, particularly in China, these price interrelationships with other key suppliers need to be recognised.