Farmers' perceptions of benefits and factors affecting the adoption of improved dual-purpose cowpea in the dry savannas of Nigeria

This study links participatory research methods, geographic information systems (GIS) techniques, village and household‐level surveys, and a tobit analysis to examine the adoption and impact issues related to a new technology, improved varieties of dual‐purpose cowpea (IDPC), developed by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and recently released in Nigeria. The article analyzes factors affecting the adoption and impact of the technology across different socioeconomic domains as defined by degree of market access and population density. The results show multiple benefits from this flexible leguminous crop, many of which relate to the fodder and soil fertility‐enhancing aspects of IDPC rather than higher grain yields per se. The intensity of adoption was affected by different village‐ and household‐level factors in each socioeconomic domain, allowing more sharply defined recommendation domain‐targeting strategies. The multiple research approaches taken also provided useful lessons at different system levels regarding the benefits of, and perceived problems with, this technology for researchers, development practitioners, and policy makers. The collaborative research approaches taken in this study are helping to close the “feedback loop” from farmers back to researchers and others attempting to disseminate the technology, and by doing so, should contribute to faster and more widespread uptake of this technology.     

Structure and Dynamics of Livestock Marketing in Rural Uganda: Constraints and Prospects for Research and Development

ABSTRACT

The projected global expansion in consumption of meat and other livestock products potentially offers sub-Saharan African small-holder farmers opportunities to escape from the poverty trap. A necessary condition for exploiting this potential is the establishment of marketing systems that provide farmers with reasonable incentives to participate in the market. In this study, the functioning of livestock markets in rural Uganda is analyzed based on a survey of 401 livestock keepers, complimented with focus group discussions with livestock traders and policy planners. The first part is dedicated to the empirical analysis of key organizational and institutional arrangements. Constraints along the marketing chain as well as potential institutional solutions are illuminated. The second part is dedicated to propositions of new areas where more work and new results are needed to improve the functioning of the livestock marketing chain. Empirical findings indicated the following institutional constraints: a poor market information system, lack of grades and standards, lack of trade finance, poor contract enforcement and dispute settlement, disorganized actors, high transaction risks, and poorly developed marketing infrastructure. The study recommends a structured approach to livestock marketing, market infrastructure development, and emphasis on arbitration systems as specific ways of improving the efficiency of livestock marketing in Uganda and other developing countries.     

Livestock and land share contracts in a Hindu society

This article examines factors related to a livestock rental market in western Nepal and assesses whether this market is associated with caste differentiation and land rental market participation. Theoretical models for asset‐rich (i.e., high‐caste) households, rich in land and livestock, and asset‐poor (i.e., low‐caste families) households are presented to provide logical explanations for the existence of a livestock rental market and the synergy between livestock and land rental markets participation. A combination of double hurdle models and bivariate‐ordered probit models were used to test the implications of the models. Consistent with the theoretical models, land‐ and livestock‐rich high‐caste households were more likely to rent out land and/or livestock, whereas land‐ and livestock‐poor and credit constrained low‐caste households were more likely to rent livestock and land from others. Participation in the two markets was positively correlated, indicating a synergistic relationship that may be due to production and transaction costs reducing benefits. Policies that can enhance the allocative efficiency of livestock and land rental markets can improve equity as well as efficiency of land use in Nepal. Provision of livestock credit to land‐poor low‐caste households is also crucially dependent on their access to more long‐term contracts for land.     

论包容性村庄规划理念：融合管控与自治的治理

研究目的：通过对中国乡村空间治理和村庄规划的历史演进与现实困境的梳理总结,提出基于多中心治理理论的包容性村庄规划综合框架,讨论如何融合顶层设计的管控和自主治理的自治以增强治理的包容性。研究方法：文献研究法、理论分析法。研究结果：乡村空间治理被赋予的多政策目标致使村庄规划缺乏包容性,出现规划失效。融合管控与自治,采取互动、沟通、平等、互嵌的民主决策过程形成共同意识和统一行动,能增强村庄规划的包容性。包容性村庄规划具有多中心的网络化治理结构,能形成共同意识和共同行动,在竞争与合作的价值融合过程中实现资源整合和重组,实现有效规划。研究结论：通过关注边缘群体,包容性反映了政府治理和决策的开放程度。政策管控将通过制度创新、培养能力、促进信任、划定边界等措施增强村庄规划的包容性。信任、平等地位和合法性共同构成了村庄自治的基础,并通过一系列有效且具备成本效益的行动提升包容性。关于管控和自治孰优孰劣的辨析并不重要,关键在于如何实现两者的有机平衡。     

Fertilizer subsidies and private market participation: the case of Kano State,Nigeria

This article estimates the effect of a fertilizer voucher program on farmer participation in the private fertilizer market in Nigeria. Using a double‐hurdle model (to address corner solution challenges with estimating input demand) and a control function approach (to account for the endogeneity of subsidized fertilizer acquired), the study finds evidence that receiving subsidized fertilizer in Kano, Nigeria increased both the probability and extent of participation in the private fertilizer market. Findings demonstrate that under certain circumstances, e.g., where input dealers’ links to farmer are weak; there could be significant gains from the temporary use of voucher programs to strengthen such links.     

政治影响力与制度生成——新乡贤组织的演生及其类型学

新乡贤组织并不是“千村一面”,其在制度演进过程中的“内生性”与“外引性”的分野,以及村庄精英资源禀赋的不同,催生出了不同形态的新乡贤组织。本文通过考察浙北与浙南十个村落的新乡贤组织演生过程,以成员政治影响力与制度生成为两个维度,建构了新乡贤组织的四种理想类型:互益型、辅助型、分利型、协商型。在此基础上,文章通过案例分析的方式,从个人行动、社会网络与现存制度环境三个层面论述了四类新乡贤组织的形成、演变与职能,并以十个村验证了四种类型的划分,从而进一步讨论了新乡贤组织得以产生的适用条件,以及在地精英或候鸟精英、文化精英或政经精英与新乡贤组织演生的关系。     

Less Livestock in North-western Europe? Discourses and Drivers Behind Livestock Buyout Policies

Direct intervention in the size of livestock numbers is not considered a main option in European agri-environmental policies nor in policy studies. Nevertheless, the governments of the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium) have announced livestock buyout schemes. This article contributes to the scarce literature on this policy instrument by sketching the characteristics of different types of buyout schemes. We analyse how the issue of reducing livestock numbers is being framed in four EU Member States with high livestock dense regions: the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders), Denmark and Germany. While the debate on ‘technology versus volume’ can be observed in all four countries, the ‘nitrogen crises’ in the first two has led to a reframing of concerns over livestock numbers in relation to place-based deterioration of habitats and the possibility of granting permits for new economic activities, rather than as a global issue of mitigating climate change. Pre-existing institutional frameworks influence the introduction and design of new buyout policies. In the context of high political pressure, existing policies to close down farms were reinforced and nutrient emission rights systems offered the opportunity to take production rights out of the market. Notwithstanding the policies and available budgets, the issue of direct intervention to reduce livestock numbers remains controversial.     

Implications of biofuels mandates for the global livestock industry: a computable general equilibrium analysis

The rapid growth of biofuels production, particularly in the United States, the EU, and Brazil, has had important implications for the global livestock industry—both by raising the cost of feed grains and oilseeds and by forcing onto the market a large supply of biofuel by‐products, most of which end up in livestock feed rations. This article investigates the impact of an expanding biofuels industry on the mix and location of global livestock production. Surprisingly, we find that growth in the U.S. and EU biofuels industries results in larger absolute reductions in livestock production overseas than in those regions, due to the international transmission of grains prices which is offset locally by the lower cost of by‐products. We also find that nonruminant production is cut more than ruminant livestock, because it is less able to use biofuel by‐products in its feed rations. Implementing biofuel mandates increases cropland area, a large portion of which is estimated to come from reduced grazing lands. The biofuel producing regions are expected to reduce their coarse grains exports and increase imports of oilseeds and vegetable oils, while they increase their exports of processed feed materials. In sum, biofuel mandates have important consequences for livestock as well as crops, with net effects influenced by the important role of by‐products in substituting for feedstuffs.     

Market-based grazing land transfers and customary institutions in the management of rangelands: Two case studies on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Beginning in the early 1990’s, grazing lands once held in common were contracted to individual households in the rangeland regions of China. The resulting fragmentation of rangelands has led to ecological and social problems. As China seeks to address intractable poverty and rangeland degradation, attention has turned to rental, or transfer, of contracted grazing land as a market-based approach to re-aggregating grazing land into larger units that support economies of scale. However, given that many pastoral regions still maintain community customary institutions, what the relationship between market mechanisms and local customary institutions should be in rangeland management needs further analysis. This paper applies comparative case studies of two types of relationships between market mechanisms and customary institutions: (1) market mechanisms that replace customary institutions in the case of Axi village, and (2) market mechanisms that are embedded within customary institutions in Xiareer village. This allows contrast of the impacts of differing approaches on livelihoods, livestock production, and wealth differentiation among pastoral households. We found that there is a higher level of livestock mortality, lower livestock productivity, and higher livestock production cost in Axi Village compared to Xiareer Village. In addition, household asset levels are higher and there is less income differentiation in Xiareer Village. It is concluded that embedding market mechanisms within customary institutions has had notable benefits for the herders of Xiareer Village, because it is a better fit to the coupled pastoral social-ecological system. Based on these findings, we argue that in pastoral communities where the rangeland transfer system for contracted grazing land has not yet been implemented, it is critical to reconsider China’s current policy approach to pay greater attention to the innovative management systems being developed in local regions. Instead of considering market-based approaches as oppositional to traditional institutions, options that derive from the interaction of market-based and customary institutions should be considered.     

Location and uptake: integrated household and GIS analysis of technology adoption and land use, with application to smallholder dairy farms in Kenya

CIS‐derived measures of location and space have increasingly been used in models of land use and ecology. However, they have made few inroads into the literature on technology adoption in developing countries, which continues to rely mainly on survey‐derived information. Location, with all its dimensions of market access, demographics and agro‐climate, nevertheless remains key to understanding potential for technology use. The measures of location typically used in the adoption literature, such as locational dummy variables that proxy a range of locational factors, now appear relatively crude given the increased availability of more explicit GIs‐derived measures. This paper attempts to demonstrate the usefulness of integrating CIS‐measures into analysis of technology uptake, for better differentiating and understanding locational effects. A set of GIs‐derived measures of market access and agro‐climate are included in a standard household model of technology uptake, applied to smallholder dairy farms in Kenya, using a sample of 3330 geo‐referenced farm households. The three technologies examined are keeping of dairy cattle, planting of specialised fodder, and use of concentrate feed. Logit estimations are conducted that significantly differentiate effects of individual household characteristics from those related to location. The predicted values of the locational variables are then used to make spatial predictions of technology potential. Comparisons are made with estimations based only on survey data, which demonstrate that while overall explanatory power may not improve with CIS‐derived variables, the latter yield more practical interpretations, which is further demonstrated through predictions of technology uptake change with a shift in infrastructure policy. Although requiring large geo‐referenced data sets and high resolution GIS layers, the methodology demonstrates the potential to better unravel the multiple effects of location on farmer decisions on technology and land use.     

2018年土地科学研究重点进展评述及2019年展望 ——土地经济分报告

研究目的：梳理并比较2018年国内外土地经济领域研究进展和研究重点，展望未来研究方向。研究方法：文献法。研究结果：2018年，土地价格、土地市场化、土地产权安排、土地征收和土地改革等是国内外共同的研究焦点。国外研究关注城市土地价格的变化趋势、土地市场不完善的原因、产权稳定性与生产效率的关系、土地改革的成效等，而国内研究重点关注农地流转的意愿和价格、失地农民的福利、产权稳定性与农业投资的关系、土地制度演化变迁过程以及集体土地“三权分置”等问题。研究结论：2018年，土地经济领域研究在土地制度变迁过程、土地流转市场新体系、土地供给、土地细碎化、征地影响因素等方面有所进展。2019年将重点关注实现乡村振兴的土地政策、宅基地“三权分置”改革、农村土地制度改革试点跟踪评估、土地经营权流转和融资担保制度等。     

On farmland prices and rents in Japan

Historically, the Japanese farmland market has been strongly regulated, although fundamental changes in policy were introduced in 1967 and 1980. This article examines the relationship between farmland prices and rents in Japan for 1955–2000 using the cointegration procedure of Johansen et al. (2000) , which admits structural breaks. Results show the presence of a cointegrating relationship with a significant break in 1980. There is Granger‐causality from prices to rents, which suggests that rents are determined within an institutional setting according to farmland prices. The rent–price elasticity is unity, which supports the notion of efficiency in the farmland market.     

The potential impact of markets for irrigation water in Italy and Spain: a comparison of two study areas*

The viability of irrigated systems in Southern Europe is closely linked to efficient institutional settings and water‐allocation mechanisms. A significant, although not widely used, mechanism for water allocation is an intra‐sectorial water market. The objective of this paper is to evaluate to what extent water markets may contribute to the improvement of the efficiency of water allocation and to the profitability of irrigated agriculture. The related issues of water allocation among farm types and farm specialisation are also addressed. The analysis is based on a basin‐level linear programming model, comparing the situation with and without a market. It includes both fixed and variable transaction costs and estimates their combined effects on market performances. The model is applied in two areas in Southern Italy and Spain, and simulates the behaviour of different farm types, derived from cluster analysis on a sample of farms in each area. The paper confirms that water markets could potentially improve the economic efficiency of water use, in terms of higher profit per hectare, given limited water availability. The potential improvements are associated with a more intense specialisation of farms and are strongly differentiated among farmers, particularly where significant restrictions to water availability occur. This corroborates the expectations of institutional difficulties in implementing water markets. However, the exchanges, and consequently the potential effects of water markets, are heavily affected by the actual level of water availability, as well as the size and the structure (fixed vs. proportional) of transaction costs. The paper calls for a more in‐depth analysis of the connections between market performances and institutional settings, as related to the issue of water‐agriculture policy design and coordination.     

畜禽养殖废弃物市场化困境及破解对策*——基于四川邛崃的实践

[目的]畜禽养殖废弃物已成为我国农村环境的首要污染源,但其本身是一项较好的农业资源,环境污染与资源浪费并存,政府和学者们皆提出"市场运作"思想,而当前畜禽养殖废弃物市场化利用水平低、市场化进程慢。通过选取我国畜禽养殖废弃物市场化作为研究对象,探究畜禽养殖废弃物市场化困境,结合四川邛崃的成功实践,提出推进畜禽养殖废弃物市场化的政策建议,实现资源化利用,减少农业面源污染。[方法]文章主要采用规范与实证相结合的方法,以市场经济学理论内容为研究框架,剖析当前畜禽养殖废弃物市场化困境,结合四川邛崃的实证分析提供经验借鉴,并提出政策建议。[结果]畜禽养殖废弃物市场运作面临较大困境:市场主体缺位;相关产品的市场价值低、供求脱节、价格扭曲、市场制度匮乏等,严重制约畜禽养殖废弃物的市场化利用。[结论]面对环境污染与资源浪费的矛盾,畜禽养殖废弃物的市场化是行之有效的途径,但目前其市场化还处于萌芽、摸索阶段,应加强政府引导,科学界定相关环境产权,明确责权利;培育多元化市场参与主体,建立与完善畜禽养殖废弃物市场体系;积极探索多种市场运作模式等,实现畜禽废弃物资源化利用,加快推进面源污染的防治。     

Extent and possible causes of intrayear agricultural commodity price volatility

Wheat, corn, rice, soybeans, and cotton experienced higher volatility in the second half of the 2000s. For the sample at hand, the unit root tests only validate a new period of high volatility for wheat and cotton. If in the next couple of years however, corn, rice and soybeans maintain their higher volatility, a new period of high volatility may also be validated statistically. Regarding the factors driving the intrayear volatility GMM estimates show that “commodity market fundamentals” i.e., the stock‐to‐use ratio and to a lesser extent the degree of internationalization, are the most systematically statistically significant coefficients among commodities. Over time, consecutive low stock‐to‐use ratios and a thin international market provoke typically high volatility. Speculative activity and liquidity in the agricultural derivative market have a stabilizing effect on the spot price, if any. Finally, “common macro” factors significantly impact volatility, especially the volatility of petrol and of exchange rates; their dispersion importance over the sample is quite sizeable. However, it is difficult to establish a link between, on the one hand, loose monetary policy, business cycle and inflation, and, on the other hand, commodity price volatility, as the sign of the estimated coefficient changes depending on the commodity and the estimated elasticities are quite low.     

One village,one product: Agro‐industrial village corporatism in contemporary China

This paper investigates the implementation of “one village, one product” (OVOP) in four peri‐urban villages in China's Yangtze River Delta. China's agricultural transformation, including the introduction of new corporate actors and the growing pressure of market discipline, has challenged the relevance of villages in the organization of agricultural production. In response, village cadres in thousands of Chinese villages have used OVOP to transform their villages into agro‐industrial firms and re‐exert their control over the agricultural surplus, echoing earlier examples of village corporatism. Rooted in agricultural specialization, OVOP encompasses a diversity of strategies for the production of locality‐based value. I disaggregate these strategies into four sociospatial dimensions that comprise locality—place, network, territory, and scale. Place‐based branding is the dominant strategy, but village cadres also pursue complementary sociospatial strategies to ensure their control over the realization of the brand's value and reconstitute their redistributive and administrative powers.     

Redefining property rights over collective land in the urban redevelopment of Shenzhen,China

Urban development in China is based on two types of land ownership, namely, state land owned by states and collective land owned by village collectives. Legally speaking, urban development must be based on state land. In practice, informal development based on collective land has played important roles in the rapid urbanization process over the past decades. Nonetheless, the vague property rights over collective land have led to inferior and suboptimal development outcomes in expansive urban areas. The redevelopment of collective land has become an important means to sustain urban development in an ongoing urbanization process. By adopting theoretical perspectives from New Institutional Economics, this study presents an integrated conceptual framework on the institutional arrangements of land property rights and transaction costs to understand the changes in land policies and their institutional implications for the redevelopment of collective land in Shenzhen, China. The findings reveal that the new policies have redefined the relationship among the government, village collectives, and real estate developers as well as their property rights over collective land. The change of institutional arrangements in land property rights has significantly reduced the transaction costs in the redevelopment process and effectively promoted land redevelopment activities.     

组织场域视角下水利水电工程BIM技术扩散的影响因素 ——基于TOE框架的分析

在梳理国内外BIM采纳与扩散相关研究的基础上，从新制度主义理论出发，提出了水利水电工程组织场域并分析了其特征；进而运用技术-组织-环境(TOE)框架和匹配理论，分别讨论了水利水电工程组织场域BIM扩散的主要影响因素，形成一个整体的理论分析框架。分析表明，水利水电工程组织场域BIM扩散的影响因素主要包括:相对优势、兼容性和复杂性等技术因素，组织沟通、资源就绪度和高层领导支持等组织因素，以及制度环境、市场环境等环境因素。     

Cross country maize market linkages in Africa: integration and price transmission across local and global markets

In order to study short‐run price shock propagation, we model twenty seven Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) domestic maize markets within a Global Vector Autoregression framework. The main purpose is to fully embed multilateral trade flows as a way to better structure local price transmission dynamics and interdependencies, and get a more comprehensive picture of food price shocks propagation. We found significant between‐country market contagion and prompt regional price shock propagation when trade connection exists. Yet, the integration of SSA domestic maize markets within the continent and with global markets remains generally weak. Furthermore, under regular market conditions, most local price series appear to be more responsive to regional neighbors than to global shocks.     

Time to completion in the Lagos commercial real estate market: an examination of institutional effects

This study explores how institutions affect the process of investment and the time it takes to buy and sell commercial property in Lagos, Nigeria. We isolate institutional factors that impact transaction efficiency and provide a snapshot of the process with average transaction times for the largest commercial real estate market in the most populous country in Africa. This study adopts a qualitative approach and relies on information collected from semi-structured interviews with 36 senior level individuals active in the Lagos commercial real estate market. Among our findings, we note the commercial real estate transaction process is divided into seven distinct stages and the average time to complete an acquisition across all stages (all property types) is 306 days. Title registration/perfection stage takes the longest time (around 132 days) and represents a significant risk to investors. We argue this is a consequence of imperfections in the formal institutions of title registration.