Securing land and property rights in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of local institutions

Central governments have neither the capacity nor the local knowledge to implement a just, large-scale national land registration system. Support to local institutions to undertake intermediate forms of land registration has been shown to be far more effective in many places—although these need careful checks on abuses by powerful local (and external) interests, measures to limit disputes (too many of which can overwhelm any institution) and measures to ensure that the needs of those with the least power – typically women, migrants, tenants and pastoralists – are given due weight. These locally grounded systems can also provide the foundation for more formal registration systems, as needs and government capacities develop. Even if there are the funds and the institutional capacity to provide formal land title registration to everyone in ways that are fair and that recognize local diversity and complexity, and could manage disputes, this may often not be needed. For the vast majority of people, cheaper, simpler, locally grounded systems of rights registration can better meet their needs for secure tenure.     

Livestock pricing policy in sub-Saharan Africa: objectives,instruments and impact in five countries

Livestock pricing policies in many developing countries are often instituted without a good appreciation of the consequences of such policies for allocative efficiency, output and trade. This paper evaluates, in a comparative cross-country context, the objectives and instruments of livestock pricing policy in five sub-Saharan African countries: Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan and Zimbabwe during the period 1970-86. It assesses the extent to which pricing policy objectives have been attained, and also estimates the effects of price interventions on output, consumption, trade and government revenues in order to draw out lessons for the future. The empirical results indicate that in comparison with real border prices, a certain degree of success was achieved in stabilising real domestic producer prices in the study countries. The results also show that since the early 1980s, there has been a gradual shift away from taxation of producers. However, consumers still appear to gain as much as producers in three of the study countries, with negative consequences for foreign exchange earnings and government revenues. The analysis reveals the importance of domestic inflation and exchange rates as key variables for livestock pricing policies and highlights the need to address the macroeconomic imbalances that cause exchange rate distortions and high domestic inflation at the same time that direct price distortions are being tackled.     

Modelling agricultural production of small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa: A case study in western Kenya

Small-scale farmers are known to produce the greater proportion of food consumed in the Third World, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The various national and international agricultural research centres located in these parts of the world have developed agricultural packages which have been proven, at experimental levels, to be highly productive. However, small-scale farmers in these areas continue to produce at levels far below the capacities of these packages as predicted from experimental results. Consequently, these farmers, despite their relatively large number, could not produce enough to feed themselves let alone the general population. To improve the quality of life of these farmers in particular, and the population of the Third World in general, there is a need to study the various factors responsible for low agricultural production at the household level. Models relating production to the various factors need to be formulated to improve our understanding of the functional relationships. This in turn could lead to relevant national and international policies with respect to small-scale farmers in the Third World. In this paper, we develop models to predict production given these factors. For simplicity, the parameters of the models are limited to land size (or herd size), environmental effect and management effect. A statistical examination of our model fitted to a set of survey data on this subject revealed that improving the farmers' management level could greatly enhance their production. Further statistical analysis of the data set showed that the various factors constituting the farmers' management level could broadly be classified into three groups: resources (labour and farm implements), personal characteristics (educational level and age) and external assistance (contact with extension agents/assistance) in that order of importance. We discuss the importance of these findings in the formulation of policies concerning small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Measuring the sustainability and economic viability of tropical farming systems: a model from sub-Saharan Africa

New technologies must be developed in sub-Saharan Africa which are sustainable and economically viable. This paper discusses a methodology for measuring the agricultural sustainability and economic viability of tropical farming systems for new technology evaluation. The approach is based on the concept of interspatial and intertemporal total factor productivity, paying particular attention to valuation of natural resource stock and flows. Agriculture is a sector which utilizes natural resources (e.g. soil nutrients) and the stock and flows of these resources affect the production environment. However, in many cases, the stock of these resources is beyond the control of the farmer and must be accounted for in an agricultural sustainability and economic viability measurement. For example, soil nutrients are removed by crops, erosion or leaching beyond the crop root-zone, or other processes such as volatilization of nitrogen. Agricultural production can also contribute to the stock of some nutrients by leguminous plants such as agroforestry systems. Using a data set available at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, we compute the intertemporal and interspatial total factor productivity indices for four cropping systems in southwestern Nigeria using stock of major soil nutrients as the natural resource stock. Results show that the sustainability and economic viability measures are sensitive to changes in the stock and flow of soil nutrients as well as the material inputs and outputs. Where the contribution of natural resource stock and flows are important (such as in the case of alley cropping), the measures provide markedly different results from conventional TFP approaches. The advantage of this approach is that interspatial and intertemporal total factor productivity measures are computed using only price and quantity data, thus eliminating the need for econometric estimation.     

2000年我国水产品进出口增势强劲

2000年,我国水产品出口量153.4万t,同比增加18.6万t、增长13.8%,出口额38.3亿美元、增加6.9亿美元、增长22%,出口创汇额在农产品中首次居首位,出口增幅仅次于粮食产品,其中深加工品、软件类、甲壳类、冻鱼、冰鲜鱼和干盐制品出口额分别为10.9亿美元、4.4亿美元、4.1亿美元、4.1亿美元、1.2亿美元和1.1亿美元,分别比上年增长7%、8%、31%、11%、2%和31%。鳗鲡仍是我国水产品出创汇第一大品种,出口额7.66亿美元,占总额的20%;其中烤鳗出口最近7万t、出口额7.5亿美元,活鳗出口0.27万t、1520万美元;冻鱼片出口量最大,达31.4万t、增长31%,出口额6.1亿美元、增长28%,对虾出口走出低谷,出口量、额双增长,其中鲜、冻对虾 出口0.363万t、4200万美元,同比增长1.9培和2.4倍;冻虾仁出口量、额5万t、2.3亿美元,同比增长34%和43%。2000年出口额下降的水产品有两类,一是活鱼类,二是海藻类。     

大豆进口存在的风险及防范对策

近年来,我国大豆进口已占大豆消费的80%以上,这对我国大豆生产和粮食安全构成了一定的风险。因此,振兴大豆产业十分必要。本文分析了大豆进口对我国大豆生产、豆农收入、油脂加工、饲料工业和粮食安全等方面的负面影响,并提出了振兴我国大豆产业的对策。     

Supermarkets and Consumers in Africa

Abstract

Supermarkets in urban Kenya have risen from a tiny niche a half decade ago to a fifth of food retail, spreading well beyond the richer consumers to derive more than a third of their sales and half of their customers from low income and poor consumers. This paper explores the patterns and determinants of purchases of the overall food category versus fresh fruits and vegetables, over Nairobi consumer income strata, for purchases from supermarkets versus traditional retailers. Implications are drawn for development programs to help farmers be strategically positioned for change in the food markets facing them.     

城镇化发展与耕地保护关系研究

城镇的发展必定要占用一部分土地。城镇化建设与耕地保护之间存在一定的矛盾,问题的关键在于如何处理城镇发展与耕地保护之间的关系,找到城镇化发展与耕地变动的规律,提出城镇化过程中耕地保护的相应措施,坚持在保护中发展、以发展促保护,进而实现城镇化发展与耕地保护双赢。     

Impacts of official development assistance on agricultural growth,savings and agricultural imports

This paper explores the links between development assistance, agricultural output growth and imports in 56 developing economies over the period 1974–1990. The empirical model treats agricultural growth and imports, savings and aid as endogenous. The analysis also accounts for differences in macroeconomic policies. The results show that aid had a positive impact on agricultural growth. A robust relationship exits between aid and agricultural imports consistent with the argument that aid helps industrialized countries through market expansion and strengthened trade ties.     

从城镇化到城市化：农村城镇化模式的转换

本文从地方化经济效应和城市化经济效应这两种聚集经济效应的内在关系出发，探讨了中国农村城镇化模式转换的方向、条件和路径。本项研究发现，中国农村城镇化过程中存在的聚集效应主要来源于同一产业或企业在地域上的集中所带来的地方化经济效应，而由产业空间集中产生的地方化经济效应不一定必然地导致城市化经济效应的结果，二者需要有一个转换过程。     

环鄱阳湖城市群人口城市化与土地城市化协调度评价

将环鄱阳湖城市群作为研究对象,着力于构建城市化协调评价指标体系,分析人口城市化与土地城市化时空特征,借助均方差权值法和协调度模型研判两者的协调发展水平及特征。研究发现:(1)环鄱阳湖城市群人口城市化与土地城市化水平均呈现递增的时序演变特征,土地城市化的演进速度更快;市域人口城市化差距逐渐扩大,离散程度逐渐缩小;土地城市化的空间分异和两极分化现象相当明显。(2)人口城市化与土地城市化水平的差距逐渐缩小,两者的耦合度呈现逐渐提高的趋势;协调发展水平呈现由低级向高级、由磨合阶段向协调阶段递进式时序演变的规律;空间格局上表现出市域协调发展等级极化现象明显和城市化发展类型以土地城市化滞后型为主的特征。(3)人口城市化与土地城市化之间,及两者与协调度之间,分别具有显著的正相关关系,人口城市化与协调度之间的联系更为密切。针对区域内各城市所处的城市化协调发展阶段和状态,因地制宜地制定城市发展战略十分必要。     

南京市城市化与耕地保护

随着我国城市化进程的加快，客观上需要转用一定数量的耕地用作建设用地，但从我国人多地少，人均耕地更少的具体国情出发，必须实行从严的耕地转用制度，以保障我国的粮食安全。本文以南京市为例，通过分析南京市的城市化与耕地保护现状、存在的问题以及原因，提出了相应的措施与对策。     

Relationship between agricultural growth and farm imports in LDCs: a Sims' causality test based on 35 countries

Previous empirical studies on the relationship between agricultural growth and farm imports in the LDCs suffer from serious methodological defects, which to some extent may invalidate their results and interpretations. This study used Sims' causality test to examine interactions between agricultural output and agricultural imports for 35 LDCs individually. It was found that there was no causality from agricultural output to agricultural imports for a majority of countries under study. For countries where agricultural growth did have a causal effect on agricultural imports, the effect was positive in some countries and negative in others.     

城市化进程中的土地集约利用

我国正处于城市化快速发展时期，城市急剧膨胀，土地的集约利用是个重要的课题。通过对我国城市化现状及土地利用现状的分析，研究了城市土地集约利用与城市化的关系，指出合理编制土地利用规划，合理地制定城市发展战略。利用土地市场进行土地资源的配置是实现城市土地集约利用的有效途径。     

湖南省人口城市化和土地城市化的协调关系评价

经济发展新常态下,湖南省城市化进程加速推进,在此过程中,人口城市化和土地城市化呈现出不协调的发展。因此本文以湖南省的14个市(州)为研究对象,运用离差系数法,通过划分协调度等级,制作分层设色专题地图,分析各市人口城市化和土地城市化协调关系的时空特征及其成因,得出以下结论:在时间维度上,人口城市化和土地城市化的协调度波动变化,处在中度失调阶段;人口城市化与土地城市化的协调度水平呈现上升趋势。在空间格局上,人口城市化和土地城市化协调关系呈现出明显的空间分异特征;人口城市化和土地城市化协调度热点区呈现出南移趋势。     

湖南人口与土地城镇化协调发展影响因素及作用机制分析

人地城镇化协调发展是新型城镇化建设的重要保障。本文对湖南省人口和土地城镇化现状进行了分析,构建了评价其协调发展的指标体系,并据此评价了湖南省人口与土地城镇化协调发展情况,进而对其影响因素及作用机理进行了分析。结果表明,湖南省城镇化总体发展不协调,主要来源于外部因素与内部因素。其中外部因素包括二元土地制度和二元户籍制度分别对土地城镇化和人口城镇化的影响、宏观发展战略导向对各城镇用地指标分配的影响;内部因素主要为政绩观念因素和投资驱动因素对其的影响。     

中国城镇化进程与发展模式

在论述我国成立以来城镇化所走过的道路,分析发达地区三种典型的城镇化模式的基础上,对西部欠发达地区城镇化模式提出了设想,指出当前城镇化存在的若干问题,对今后推进城镇化过程中的道路选择指明了方向。