Pesticide‐handling practices: the case of coffee growers in Papua New Guinea

Pesticide mismanagement potentially has high risks for farmers, households living in the community and the environment. In Papua New Guinea where farming is the primary occupation, there is evidence of dangerous herbicide application methods being used by coffee growers. Using original survey data for coffee smallholders from four provinces, we assess the factors driving farmers' use of personal protective equipment when preparing and applying herbicides, and farmers' disposal of agro‐chemical containers. We control for households' demographic variables and measure the impact of farmers' training in pest and disease management. We use the special regressor method to estimate binary choice models featuring an endogenous binary regressor (training). Our results show that human capital (education) and training are important drivers of farmers' pesticide‐handling practices, with marginal effects estimated at 10 and 22 per cent, respectively.     

The conditions of collective action for local commons management: the case of irrigation in the Philippines

We examine factors affecting the success and failure of collective action toward the management of local commons. Using cross‐section survey data on the activities of irrigators' associations in the Philippines, regression analysis is conducted to identify factors underlying the success and failure in farmers' organizing collective action for the maintenance and operation of irrigation systems. We find that collective action is difficult to organize where (a) water supply is uniformly abundant; (b) water supply is greatly different between upper and lower streams in lateral; (c) the size of the association is large; (d) population density is low; (e) the share of nonfarm households is high; and (f) the history of irrigated farming is short. Our findings suggest that these difficulties can be overcome with adequate supports of state agencies to promote community‐level cooperation.     

Farmers' Preferences and Social Capital Regarding Agri‐environmental Schemes to Protect Birds

The steady decline of birds living in cereal steppe lands is a worrying situation that the European Common Agricultural Policy is attempting to remedy through the application of agri‐environmental schemes (AES). We assess farmers' preferences towards these AES, which call for a number of environmental practices to protect birds. Using a face‐to‐face survey in farming communities in Aragón (Spain), and through the estimation of an Ordered Logit model (OL), we assess the ranking of AES attributes, and obtain their economic valuation according to the farmers' preferences. We find that social factors are also important in determining farmers' decisions. In particular, the importance of social trust and expectation of compliance by other neighbours, encourage farmers to sign up to AES. These and other results may be used to design more effective AES and help to solve this important biodiversity problem.     

Community‐supported agriculture in the United States: Social,ecological, and economic benefits to farming

In the United States, there is a tremendous amount of interest in community‐supported agriculture (CSA) among farmers, consumers, activists, and policymakers. Despite the attention garnered by CSA and the resurgence of local agriculture, relatively few studies have examined the livelihood opportunities for farmers within local agriculture. This paper evaluates the livelihoods of CSA farmers from the farmers' perspective in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts. Results indicate that although CSA farmers earn more farm income than other farms across the United States on average, they still earn far below the median national income and generally fail to earn a living wage. Despite these findings, CSA farmers stressed the importance of the broader social, ecological, and economic benefits to farming. Although these non‐market benefits are a significant source of well‐being from the CSA farmers' perspective, CSA has largely failed to provide adequate livelihoods for farmers to date.     

Formal and informal contract farming in Mozambique: Socially embedded relations of agricultural intensification

This paper explores the role of contract farming arrangements in agricultural intensification in sub-Saharan Africa, combining secondary literature and original case material from Mozambique. The paper extends the scope of “contract farming” beyond the formal contracts between large companies and small-scale producers to include less formal credit agreements between farmers and traders. It argues that such informal contract arrangements are evidence of farmers' agency in “real markets.” In the studied cases, farmers use contract farming opportunities to intensify agricultural production by investing in irrigation and inputs. While informal contracts typically concern locally consumed crops, thus with more possibilities for side selling than formal contracts for export crops with company-controlled markets, informal contract compliance reflects closely knit social ties between the contracting parties. In both formal and informal contracts, purchasers tend to seek out producers who are already irrigating, thus obtaining gains from farmers' earlier investments. This also implies contract farming as a mechanism for accelerating social differentiation arising from unequal access to irrigation. The paper argues that the significance of informal contracts in the studied cases raises the possibility that informal contract farming by local traders plays a more important role in agrarian transformation in Africa than formal contract farming by large companies.     

Determinants of the Willingness of Belgian Farmers to Participate in Agri‐environmental Measures

This paper explores the willingness of Belgian farmers to participate in two voluntary agri‐environmental policies. Farmers' contingent behaviour is analysed on the basis of survey data. Derivations based on a conceptual micro‐economic model indicate that decision subject and decision maker characteristics are important for farmers' participation. The model is empirically tested through the specification and estimation of a probit model. Consistency is found between the theoretical framework and the empirical results indicating that both the expected effect on farm production and the farmers' environmental attitude, which is more positive among younger and better educated farmers, are significant determinants of the acceptance rate of agri‐environmental policies. Other variables which influence participation decisions are farm size and previous experience of farmers themselves or of neighbouring farmers with agri‐environmental measures.     

基于韦伯二重合理性的农户生态耕种行为分析

目的 基于韦伯二重合理性理论框架,通过对传统农业大省江西省农户生态耕种行为理性的评价,分析农户生态耕种行为主要因素的影响规律,为农户生态耕种激励政策的制定提供参考。方法 文章以江西省农户为调查对象,采取分层抽样和随机抽样相结合的方式选取样本农户,针对户主或是参与农业经营决策的家庭主要成员开展访谈和问卷调查相结合的入户调查。利用获取的1 488份有效问卷数据,通过层次分析-熵值定权法确定农户生态耕种理性评价指标权重并进行评价,得出农户生态耕种行为理性的评价值。运用Order-Probit模型分析二重合理性理论框架下农户生态耕种行为的工具理性、价值理性及其交互以及其他主要因素的影响规律。结果 （1）样本农户平均采纳生态耕种行为4.735项,工具理性评价均值为0.546 8,价值理性评价均值0.354 2,丘陵区农户生态耕种行为工具理性和价值理性值比平原、山地区更高。（2）当前,工具理性在农户生态耕种行为采纳上起到消极的抑制作用,价值理性起到积极的促进作用,而二重合理性的冲突减弱了农户生态耕种采纳率。（3）家庭劳动力占比越高、耕地收入占比的提高,农户采取生态耕种行为的可能性越高,而促进小农户向新型农业现代经营主体的转变是提高农户生态耕种行为采纳的有效途径之一。（4）农户保留仅供自家消费的耕地说明其对耕地生产的安全性持有疑虑,更加愿意进行生态耕种以保持耕地和农产品健康。结论 需要积极落实生态农产品的补偿,完善有关法规制度和质量监管,实现生态耕种的产品价值,以达到农户追求效益的工具理性与耕地保护的价值理性之间的协调统一。     

劳动力禀赋、耕地破碎化与农户生态耕种决策行为

目的 为清晰识别影响农户生态耕种决策行为的影响因素，为我国农业可持续发展，加快耕地数量、质量和生态“三位一体”保护目标的实现提供参考。方法 文章利用江西省11市47县（区）共1 488份农户的调研数据，从农户劳动力禀赋结构转变和小农生产造成耕地破碎的两大社会现象切入，采用双栏模型将农户生态耕种决策行为分为采纳意愿和采纳程度两个阶段进行实证分析研究。结果 （1）以中位数为划分依据，有生态耕种采纳意愿的农户数占样本总数的67.20%，有采纳意愿的农户对10项具体生态耕种行为的平均采纳数为5.323项；（2）家庭总人口对农户生态耕种采纳意愿与采纳程度均呈负相关、劳动力人数均呈正相关，兼业程度对农户生态耕种采纳程度呈正相关，耕地破碎化对农户生态耕种采纳意愿呈负相关；（3）农户生态耕种决策行为还受到受教育程度、农业收入占比、是否加入合作社、是否享受农业补贴等因素影响。结论 政府及相关管理部门一方面应注重农户临时务工平台搭建，拓展相关信息视野以提升生态耕种采纳度；另一方面应规范和推动土地流转与土地整治，促进土地规模化经营，降低破碎度。     

Contract farming,contract design and smallholder livelihoods*

Contract farming has gained in importance in many developing countries. Previous studies analysed effects of contracts on smallholder farmers’ welfare, yet mostly without considering that different types of contractual relationships exist. Here, we examine associations between contract farming and farm household income in the oil palm sector of Ghana, explicitly differentiating between two types of contracts, namely simple marketing contracts and more comprehensive resource-providing contracts. Moreover, we look at different income sources to better understand how both contracts are linked to farmers’ livelihood strategies. We use cross-sectional survey data and regression models. Issues of endogeneity are addressed through measuring farmers' willingness-to-participate in contracts and using this indicator as an additional covariate. Farmers with both types of contracts have significantly higher household incomes than farmers without a contract, yet with notable differences in terms of the income sources. Farmers with a marketing contract allocate more household labour to off-farm activities and thus have higher off-farm income. In contrast, farmers with a resource-providing contract have larger oil palm plantations and thus higher farm incomes. The findings suggest that the two contract types are associated with different livelihood strategies and that disaggregated analysis of different income sources is important to better understand possible underlying mechanisms.     

Pro‐Poor Tourism as a Strategy to Fight Rural Poverty: A Critique

Pro‐poor tourism (PPT) is a development methodology that aims to use tourism as a tool for poverty reduction. PPT has been adopted by multilateral institutions, official development agencies and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). PPT assumes an absolute definition of poverty that is based on net income. This definition allows the consideration of a tourism initiative as ‘pro‐poor’ even though the income earned by the poor population may be marginal. This paper analyses whether PPT's concept of poverty adequately addresses the issues in rural poverty. We analyse one case of unequal distribution of income generated from tourism in the 1990s (Amantaní Island, Perú). The paper concludes that PPT's concept of poverty circumvents the fact that an unequal distribution of income could imply a loss in the quality of life for the majority of a rural population: the high‐income social sector tends to increase its economic and political power to the detriment of other social sectors.     

政府主导型农地经营权抵押贷款对农户收入效应的影响基于成都温江与崇州市对比分析

目的 由于成都市温江区和崇州市农地经营权抵押贷款类型均属自上而下的政府主导型,可将两地进行合并讨论政府主导型农地经营权抵押贷款对农户收入效应的影响,同时相较崇州市,成都市温江区在担保和抵押物处置环节引入第三方参与而更趋于市场化运作,因此将两地进行对比分析以进一步探讨第三方参与是否会使农户信贷约束和收入效应产生显著差异。方法 文章将成都温江和崇州市作为研究区域,通过实地调研共获取249个样本,采用倾向得分匹配—双重差分法（PSM-DID）探讨政府主导型农地经营权抵押贷款对缓解农户信贷约束、增加收入的影响。结果 政府主导型农地经营权抵押贷款能缓解农户信贷约束、增加农户户均总收入、户均农业收入和户均非农收入,且引入第三方参与的温江区相较崇州市在信贷约束缓解程度、农户收入提升方面表现更优。结论 应大力推广政府主导型农地经营权抵押贷款和积极引入第三方参与,以扩大农地经营权抵押贷款规模,促进农户增收和释放土地红利。     

Heterogeneity of commercialization gains in the rural economy

Farmers in low‐income rural economies often fail to switch to cash crops from staple production despite the positive income effects of commercialization expected by policy makers. The literature suggests that market failures prevent households from cash crop adoption but remains inconclusive regarding farmers' motives and the effects of commercialization. This article contributes to the debate by offering an original approach to the analysis of commercialization outcomes and farmers' decisions. It consists of applying a model with essential heterogeneity and a semiparametric estimation technique to analyzing harvest value returns to cash cropping. Using Malawian data, we show considerable heterogeneity in harvest value returns to cash cropping both within and between groups of farmers choosing different crop portfolios. Importantly, the results imply rational choices based on comparative advantage considerations of farming households: farmers self‐select into the activity where they expect higher gains and adopt cash crops when facing weaker market barriers.     

Experiments in farmers' collectives in Eastern India and Nepal: Process,benefits, and challenges

Do farmers' collectives, which pool land, labour, capital, and skills to create medium‐sized production units, offer a more viable model of farming for resource‐constrained smallholders than individual family farms? A participatory action research project in Eastern India and Nepal provides notable answers. Groups of marginal and tenant farmers, catalysed by the project, evolved into four different collective models with varying levels of cooperation, gender composition, and land ownership/tenancy status. Based on 3 years of action research, this paper examines how the models evolved and their differential outcomes. All groups have gained from cultivating contiguous plots in their efficiency of labour and machine use for land preparation and irrigation, and from economies in input purchase. Several collectives of tenant farmers have also enhanced their bargaining power vis‐a‐vis an entrenched landlord class and thus been able to negotiate lower rents and refuse long‐standing feudal obligations. However, the models differ in their extent of economic gain and their ability to handle gender inequalities and conflicts over labour sharing. The paper explores the historical, regional, and cultural factors that could explain such differences across the models. It thus offers unique insights into the processes, benefits, and challenges of farmers' collectives and provides pointers for replication and further research.     

Time‐varying Hedge Ratios: A Principal‐agent Approach

We use the classic agency model to derive a time‐varying optimal hedge ratio for low‐frequency time‐series data: the type of data used by crop farmers when deciding about production and about their hedging strategy. Rooted in the classic agency framework, the proposed hedge ratio reflects the context of both the crop farmer's decision and the crop farmer's contractual relationships in the marketing channel. An empirical illustration of the Dutch ware potato sector and its futures market in Amsterdam over the period 1971–2003 reveals that the time‐varying optimal hedge ratio decreased from 0.34 in 1971 to 0.24 in 2003. The hedging effectiveness, according to this ratio, is 39%. These estimates conform better with farmers’ interest in using futures contracts for hedging purposes than the much higher estimates obtained when price risk minimisation is the only objective considered.     

Determinants of off‐farm work and its effects on farm performance: the case of Norwegian grain farmers

Limited attention has been given in the literature to the impact of off‐farm work on farm performance. More knowledge about the determinants of part‐time farming and its effects on farm performance could help policymakers to introduce better targeted rural development policies. The aim in this article is to fill part of the above‐mentioned gaps by analyzing factors that influence the choices of off‐farm work by either the farmer alone or jointly by both the farmer and partner; and simultaneously examining how off‐farm work influences farm performance. These analyses were based on an unbalanced panel data set from Norwegian grain farms during 1991 to 2005. Among the determinants of off‐farm work hours, we found that, in addition to demographic, time trend, and some regional effects, there was a significant negative effect of farm output on farmers' off‐farm work hours. The production function results revealed that off‐farm work had a positive effect on farm output, at first increasing but then decreasing with increase in hours spent in off‐farm work. Furthermore, our analysis revealed no systematic effect of off‐farm work on farm technical efficiency.     

Home‐grown food and the benefits of sharing: The “intergenerational pact” in postsocialist Moldova

The policy literature on postsocialist Europe tends to frame smallholders' practices of food self‐provisioning and sharing as driven by necessity and proposes land consolidation to increase productivity and efficiency. However, these practices generate nonfinancial benefits, which need to be accounted for. In this paper, I test the socio‐economic relevance of these practices in the Republic of Moldova, the country with the highest density of farming households in Europe and whose government has embraced the rural modernization agenda to integrate into the EU economic space. I carry out quantitative estimates using the household budget survey and complement the results with qualitative insights from an original smallholder survey. I find that food self‐provisioning and sharing are positively related to subjective well‐being and that there is an “intergenerational pact,” with home‐grown food flowing from late‐adulthood smallholders to urban‐based young families and the vulnerable elderly. A counterfactual analysis shows that poverty and inequality would be higher in the absence of donated food, especially in urban areas. The preservation of smallholder farming through widespread access to land could thus help fight poverty and provide social benefits vis‐à‐vis land consolidation.     

Changing Policies,Shifting Livelihoods: The Fate of Agriculture in Guinea‐Bissau

How do African agricultural livelihoods change under stressful conditions? How do market and agricultural policies and development interventions impact on both agricultural and social change, and consequently on food self‐sufficiency? Which long‐term factors can contribute to ‘depeasantization’? Is the ‘New Green Revolution’ the best and only solution for African food insecurity? These are the main questions this paper sets out to address, using southern Guinea‐Bissau as a case study. On the basis of long‐term ethnographic fieldwork, we look at farmers' responses to external and internal pressures, and analyse how ‘depeasantization’ progresses and livelihoods have been losing their resilience. Chances to reverse this trend, although difficult to implement, may still be feasible.     

An institutional and policy framework to foster integrated rice–duck farming in Asian developing countries

Asia has accounted for the vast majority of the world's rice and meat-duck production. In the integrated rice–duck farming (IRDF) system, ducklings are released into rice paddies in order to maximize the use of renewable resources in a closed-cycle flow of nutrients during rice vegetation periods. Rice–duck farming used to be widely adopted in tropical and subtropical eastern Asian countries, but has remained unpopular in the wake of prevailing agricultural productivism characterized by specialization, intensification, mechanization and excessive dependence on agrochemicals. This paper sets out institutional pathways that can redevelop IRDF in Asia. These include organic food certification systems, organic farmers' cooperatives, community-wide organic farming, localized technical extension and educational services, and between-farm rice–duck integration. A comprehensive package of these institutional tools would further expedite the expansion of IRDF particularly in low-income Southeast Asia where the rice or duck farming landscape is overwhelmingly dominated by smallholders.     

Moral Hazard and Risk Management in Agri‐environmental Policy

This paper develops the key finding of Ozanne, Hogan and Colman (2001) that risk aversion among farmers ameliorates the moral hazard problem in relation to agrienvironmental policy compliance. It is shown that risk averse farmers who face uncertainty in their production income are more likely to comply with such a policy as a means of risk management. In addition, it is shown that a principal who has control over both the level of monitoring and the size of penalty, if detected, can reduce non‐compliance by adjustments to these instruments which increase the variance of farmers' income but leave the expected penalty unchanged. It is concluded that risk management by both principals and agents has the potential to diminish the moral hazard problem, especially given proposed developments in agri‐environmental policy in the European Union.