An assessment of the influence of bioenergy and marketed land amenity values on land uses in the Midwestern US

There is substantial concern that bioenergy policies could swamp other considerations, such as environmental values, and lead to large-scale conversions of land from forest to crops. This study examines how bioenergy and marketed environmental rents for forestland potentially influence land use in the Midwestern US. We hypothesize that current land uses reflect market values for environmental benefits of forestland, so that the marketed component of the environmental value of land can be captured as the difference between Census land values and value of land as a timber asset. We use a multinomial logit model to estimate the land use shares of forests, crops and urban in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The results show that marketed environmental rents increase forestland relative to cropland. To examine the effects of biofuels on land use, we conduct policy analysis by altering future land rents. Our baseline scenario projects that urban development uses mostly cropland, but with higher crop rents resulting from increased demand for bioenergy, there will be significant losses of forestland to urban and cropland. On the other hand, if marketed environmental rents grow while crop rents are maintained at their baseline value, urban growth will occur, primarily at the expense of cropland.     

The SLCP-driven land use changes and farmers' responses in the loess hilly and gully region: a case study for Ansai County

Taking Ansai County, located in loess hilly and gully area as a case, this study analyzes the land use changes driven by the SLCP (Slope Land Conversion Program) and the farmers' responses by household survey and participatory rapid appraisal (PRA).It is found that the SLCP aroused various changes in land use, agricultural production, rural incomes, etc.In the period of 1999-2005, the farmland and grasslands were reduced by 26, 809 ha and 17,571 ha respectively, while forestland increased by 38,203 ha:greenhouse vegetable and orchard got a quick development, with the area enlarged by about 7 times and nearly doubled respectively.The SLCP reduced the area of crops particularly those that normally grown on slope lands, e.g.the sowing area of winter wheat dropped from 19.39% of the total cropping area in 1999 to 0.98% in 2005.Draught animals, pigs and sheep have a decline in the number because the remained land and the ban on grazing on natural grasslands can not provide sufficient feed forage.Thanks to the financial subsidy, farmers increased land inputs and thus outputs.To achieve long-term sustainable development and improve rural income, the government should continuously support farmers to improve the land management, to adopt alternative land use systems, and to increase inputs on soil conservation.Vegetable and fruit production are two promise land use systems, and should be further developed.     

Valuation of ecosystem services from rural landscapes using agricultural land prices

Agricultural lands, primarily managed for crops and livestock production, provide various ecosystem services (ES) to people. In theory, the economic value of the service flows that can be captured privately is capitalized into land prices. This study proposes an integrative framework to characterize the ecosystem services associated with agricultural lands. Using that framework, we demonstrate how hedonic analysis of agricultural land prices can be used to estimate the private values of land-based ES. The model is estimated with data from southwestern Michigan, USA. Results suggest that ES values are associated with lakes, rivers, wetlands, forests and conservation lands in rural landscapes. Ecosystem services that support direct use values, such as recreational and aesthetic services, are likely to be perceived by land owners and capitalized in land prices. Some regulating services that provide indirect use values may be partially capitalized in a land parcel's relationship to natural resources and landscapes. Other ES from the land parcel and its surroundings are unlikely to be capitalized due to lack of private incentives, unawareness, or small perceived value. The private ES values measured in this study highlight opportunities to design cost-effective public policies that factor in the value of private benefits from agricultural lands.     

Bioenergy Crop Production in the United States: Potential Quantities, Land Use Changes, and Economic Impacts on the Agricultural Sector

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energyjointly analyzed the economic potential for,and impacts of, large-scale bioenergy cropproduction in the United States. Anagricultural sector model (POLYSYS) wasmodified to include three potential bioenergycrops (switchgrass, hybrid poplar, and willow). At farmgate prices of US $2.44/GJ, anestimated 17 million hectares of bioenergycrops, annually yielding 171 million dry Mg ofbiomass, could potentially be produced at aprofit greater than existing agricultural usesfor the land. The estimate assumes highproductivity management practices are permittedon Conservation Reserve Program lands. Traditional crops prices are estimated toincrease 9 to 14 percent above baseline pricesand farm income increases annually by US $6.0billion above baseline.At farmgate prices of US $1.83/GJ, anestimated 7.9 million hectares of bioenergycrops, annually yielding 55 million dry Mg ofbiomass, could potentially be produced at aprofit greater than existing agricultural usesfor the land. The estimate assumes managementpractices intended to achieve highenvironmental benefits on Conservation ReserveProgram lands. Traditional crops prices areestimated to increase 4 to 9 percent abovebaseline prices and farm income increasesannually by US $2.8 billion above baseline.     

Joint production,land allocation,and the effects of the production flexibility program

An empirical land allocation model is developed and fit to production data of the top five crops in the USA and to crop output prices adjusted for direct payments and subsidies. The land allocation model based on the theory of the multiproduct firm allows for jointness in production, and it is extended to handle non-allocable inputs. Specifically, the model is used to analyze whether the Food Security Act of 1985, known as the 1985 Farm Bill, increased flexibility in land allocation decisions by comparing responsiveness of land allocation among the crops, before and after the passage of the 1885 Farm Bill, to changes in total land availability and changes in crop output prices. The results confirm that a structural change in land allocation dynamics took place after the passage of the 1985 Farm Bill. We show that more crops (wheat and soybeans, in particular) become more acreage responsive to the changes in total land available for production after 1985. For example, the results indicate that competition for acreage between corn and wheat is associated with the implementation of the 1985 Farm Bill. The results provide evidence that the onset of the increased acreage allocation flexibility by farmers originated in the policies of the 1985 Farm Bill. The study also demonstrates that a policy targeting a particular crop will inadvertently affect production of other crops. This study quantifies these indirect effects on the five major crops grown in the USA.     

城市化过程中土地利用结构变化的时空动态研究--以杭州市为例

土地利用结构的变化是经济驱动力和地形结构特点综合作用的结果。文章以杭州市区为研究区,利用近10年的土地利用系列统计资料、遥感解译数据和GIS系统支持下的土地利用现状数据,采用统计分析和区位原理,经过数值计算,揭示出了杭州市区扩建过程中,土地利用动态变化的特有规律,重点讨论了耕地和农作物播种面积的波动递减过程。并应用区位商数分析了未来土地利用方式的变化趋势。结论表明：①居民工矿用地和耕地面积的变化最为明显;②农作物播种面积的递减速率高于耕地面积的递减速率,但菜篮子用地面积却在增加;③萧山区是主要的菜篮子工程发展区,西部是旅游风景保护区,城区发展园林绿地,建设用地向沿江、余杭、下沙扩展。     

Analyzing the global human appropriation of net primary production — processes, trajectories, implications. An introduction

Humanity's role in shaping patterns and processes in the terrestrial biosphere is large and growing. Most of the earth's fertile land is used more or less intensively by humans for resource extraction, production, transport, consumption and waste deposition or as living space. Biomass production on cropland, grazing areas and in managed forests dominates area requirements, but other processes such as soil degradation, human-induced fires and expansion of settlements and infrastructure play an increasingly important role as well. The growing human domination of terrestrial ecosystems contributes to biodiversity loss as well as to a reduced capability of ecosystems to deliver vital services such as buffering capacity, soil conservation or self-regulation. This special section is devoted to the presentation of recent research into the patterns, determinants and implications of the human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP), an integrated socio-ecological indicator of land use intensity. By measuring the combined effect of land conversion and biomass harvest on the availability of trophic energy (biomass) in ecosystems, HANPP explicitly links natural with socioeconomic processes and allows for integrated analyses of land systems. This introductory article explains the rationale that links current HANPP research to Ecological Economics and discusses issues of definition and methods shared by all articles included in the special section. Finally, it gives an overview of the individual papers, provides some general conclusions and presents an outlook for future research: a better understanding of long-term trajectories of HANPP, of the significance of trade patterns as well as of the future role of bioenergy are highlighted as important issues to be addressed in the coming years.     

Local irrigation response to ethanol expansion in the High Plains Aquifer

Global ethanol production has grown rapidly due to national renewable fuel programs. Concern has grown over impacts that land conversion and crop displacement driven by ethanol feedstock production might have on water resources. In this paper, we examine irrigation decisions of agricultural producers in the Kansas portion of the High Plains Aquifer in response to local ethanol market expansion. To identify the effects of ethanol expansion on irrigation decisions, we examine field-level data on irrigation water use, irrigated acreage, and crop decisions for the years 2003–2017 for nearly 23,000 fields in Kansas. We measure the response of three irrigation decisions, (i) irrigated acreage, (ii) irrigation per acre, and (iii) total water use to the introduction and capacity expansion of an ethanol plant. We find that ethanol market expansion did lead to increases in irrigation water use. Specifically, a 10 % increase in ethanol capacity within 50KM increases annual water use by 0.22 % per field (4.8 acre-inches/field). We predict that ethanol markets accounted for about 4% of total irrigated water use in 2017.     

从土地利用效益看农业布局和结构调整——以江苏省为例

随着国际市场对农业生产的冲击，新一轮的产业布局和结构调整势在必行。在传统衡量农产品比较优势方法受到限制的情况下，文章首先从理论上探讨了通过衡量土地利用效益的比较优势分析了农产品比较优势的可能性，然后以江苏省1999-2003年平均数据为例，计算了江苏内部各地级市土地利用效益的比较优势，来间接衡最江苏各类农产品的比较优势，从整体上看，粮食、茶类作物在苏南具有比较优势；棉花、水果在苏中地区具有比较优势；油料、麻类、蔬菜、瓜果在苏北地区具有比较优势。并在其基础上对江苏未来农业布局和产业结构调整提出相应的政策建议，为江苏新一轮农业产业布局和产业结构调整提出证据，同时为测定农产品比较优势提供一条新的思路。     

Bioenergy and global land-use change

This is the first article that econometrically estimates the global land-use change impact of bioenergy. Applying time-series analytical mechanisms to fuel, biofuel and agricultural commodity prices and production, we estimate the long-run relationship between energy prices, bioenergy production and the global land-use change. Our results suggest that rising energy prices and bioenergy production significantly contribute to the global land-use change both through the direct and indirect land-use change impact. Globally, the total agricultural area yearly increases by 35 578.1 thousand ha due to increasing oil price, and by 12 125.1 thousand ha due to increasing biofuel production, which corresponds to 0.73% and 0.25% of the total worldwide agricultural area, respectively. Soya land-use change and wheat land-use change have the highest elasticities with respect to both oil price and biofuel production. In contrast, nonbiomass crops (grassland and rice) have negative land-use change elasticities. Region-specific results suggest that South America faces the largest yearly total land-use change associated with oil price increase (+10 600.7 thousand ha), whereas Asia (+8918.6 thousand ha), South America (+4024.9 thousand ha) and North America (+1311.5 thousand ha) have the largest yearly total land-use change associated with increase in biofuel production.     

农地可持续利用的能值方法探讨

应用Odum所建立的能值理论和方法,通过能值指标评价各类用地的土地利用效率并探讨不同农作物的农地效益,寻找农地可持续利用的途径,从而为土地使用的可持续规划提供方法上的参考依据。     

Industry- and company-level factors influencing the development of the forest energy business — insights from a Delphi Study

The global business environment of today requires industries to be increasingly agile in order to create added value. There is a particularly urgent need to innovate and redefine business models in the mature pulp and paper industry, which is continually announcing mill closures and reporting persistent profitability problems. This paper focuses on the emerging forest energy business, which appears to offer many novel opportunities for both the forest and the energy industry. We conducted a qualitative dissensus-based online Delphi study and carried out themed expert interviews in order to identify the main industry- and company-level factors that are most likely to influence the bioenergy sector, its value-creation potential and forest and energy companies' future roles in it. The Delphi technique proved to be a valuable research tool with which we were able to obtain comprehensive information on a subject that lacks historical and financial data, and yet requires input from many quarters. The results suggest that the complementary resources held by forest and energy companies make collaboration in the bioenergy business favorable. Moreover, the procurement and logistics of forest raw material appear to be key success factors in terms of yielding the most synergetic gains. Uncertainty about policy interventions nevertheless causes concern given their relatively rapid effect on the prospects of the bioenergy business.     

深圳市龙岗区土地利用时空变化特征研究

以深圳市龙岗区为研究区,通过空间分析、土地利用转移矩阵、Moran’s I指数来研究土地利用的时空变化特征,应用马尔科夫模型预测未来用地结构的变化,并探讨土地利用变化的影响因素。研究表明:农用地除园地保持增长外均逐渐减少,面积最大的林地是各类新增用地尤其是园地的主要土地来源;建设用地持续扩张,除林地外未利用土地是其主要来源,而在2000年后建设用地扩张大量侵占园地与耕地;各类用地均呈分散趋势;建设用地将成为主导用地类型,其余类型用地均显著减少;城市化和工业化进程推动了建设用地扩张过程,在规划影响下工矿仓储用地与居住用地间存在着相互转换;园地在占有林地空间的同时被建设用地侵蚀,而短期呈现难以持续的增长势头。     

温州市土地利用空间格局研究

本文运用多种数学模型对温州市及县（市,区）的土地利用的空间格局进行定量分析,找出了各地区的土地利用存在的差异,这种差异与其所处的地理位置,地形地貌,经济水平及历史文化等密切相关,因此,在土地利用方面,对经济发达的平原地区,应防止农业用地的流失,对经济欠发达的山区,应努力提高林业的多种效益。     

Security of property rights and transition in land use

Price and yield uncertainty are traditional considerations in agricultural markets and their impact on development. Agricultural producers in transition economies face an additional risk factor – changes in the institutional protection of property rights. This paper illustrates how institutional uncertainty may affect investment, land use, and crop mix patterns. In particular, in the Ukrainian example, the rights of tenants are viewed as uncertain in anticipation of establishment of an open market for sale of agricultural land. Establishment of the land market in Ukraine has been postponed several times over the last 15 years and a significant number of lease contracts are not formalized. A large panel of farm-level data was used to show that a higher share of rented land is associated with a lower share of land used for investment intensive perennial crops controlling for prices and other factors. The difference in response to uncertainty is found to be significant among three crop types: perennials, grains and oil crops. The implication is that the lower level of protection of use rights and uncertainty regarding the future regulation of land sales market lead to under-investments in more capital intensive crops. As a result, tenants deviate from the optimal crop mix, reducing the productivity of tenant farms. Farms under 200 ha are affected most negatively as they are less likely to be able to access the level of legal and political protection enjoyed by large farms.     

江苏粮食生产地域分化的耕地因素分解

以粮食产量计算模型为基础,将粮食生产分解成耕地利用的数量、结构、强度、广度4个因子.以江苏省为例,从省域-分区域-地市等不同空间尺度,分析粮食生产的耕地因子过程,比较各地粮食生产变化的差异及其耕地利用变化的成因.结果显示:1990年代中期以来,江苏粮食生产区域分化显著,南部耕地大幅减少、有限耕地的生产功能减退,导致粮食生产全面萎缩;中北部耕地利用集约度提升,粮食生产功能总体趋于强化.影响各地市粮食生产变化的主导因子各有不同:粮食单产是连云港、盐城、宿迁、扬州、泰州5市粮食增产的主导因子,结构调整是南京、徐州、南通粮食减产、淮安粮食增产的主导因素;复种指数调减是苏州、无锡粮食生产衰退的首要因子.     

Mining the soil: Agricultural production system on peatland

Soil is usually considered as a renewable resource for dynamic crop and production management decision problems. For peatland, however, soil should be regarded as an exhaustible resource. This paper determines the optimal utilization of peatland for agricultural production within a dynamic context and it also presents an empirical study where the quasirent function is convex in the input and not concave as assumed in many economic studies. As a result of this convexity a corner solution is obtained. Moreover, the study demonstrates that there is only a slight difference between short- and farsighted behavior, and that both lead ultimately to an accelerated exhaustion of the resource. Private optimization leads to intensive use of the peat in the production of high value crops, which depletes the peat in a relatively short period of time. However, peatland also possesses a value as an environmental asset. The study provides a benchmark for the decision as to whether to convert peatland into productive agricultural land or to conserve it.The financial support of the Department of Environment, Forest and Landscape of Switzerland is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are also grateful to Michael Caputo for helpful suggestions.     

Ethanol Production, Food and Forests

This paper investigates the direct and indirect impacts of ethanol production on land use, deforestation and food production. A partial equilibrium model of a national economy with two sectors and two regions, one of which includes a forest, is developed. It analyses how an exogenous increase in the ethanol price affects input allocation (land and labor) between sectors (energy crop and food). The total effect of ethanol prices on food production and deforestation is decomposed into three partial effects. First, the well-documented effect of direct land competition between rival uses arises; it increases deforestation and decreases food production. Second, an indirect displacement of food production across regions, possibly provoked by the reaction of international food prices, increases deforestation and reduces the food sector’s output. Finally, labor mobility between sectors and regions tends to decrease food production but also deforestation. The total impact of ethanol production on food production is negative while there is an ambiguous impact on deforestation.     

Economic Benefits Resulting From Irrigation Water Use: Theory and an Application to Groundwater Use

Traditional economic analysis using a crop production function approachhas assumed that all variable factors, including irrigation water, arefully employed in the crop production process. However, this paper firstdemonstrates that economic benefits of irrigation water areoverestimated when the crop production function, and therefore theirrigation water demand function, is expressed in terms of irrigationwater supplied, rather than consumptive irrigation water use. Second,the paper demonstrates that the magnitude of the estimation bias isproportional to the rate of irrigation water losses through leaching,runoff and evaporation. Consequently, the model misspecification problemwould lead to increased irrigation water use and reduce incentives forfarmers to adopt improved irrigation technologies.     

城乡结合部区域农户土地利用行为差异及其政策启示——以沈阳市苏家屯区238户农户调查为例

城乡结合部是中国工业化、城市化进程中形成的独特区域,该区域土地利用问题敏感、复杂且意义重大。从农户土地利用行为角度出发,通过构建工业化、城市化进程中农户土地利用行为差异形成机理分析框架,采用方差分析、统计分析的方法,以辽宁省沈阳市苏家屯区238户农户的调查问卷为基础,对城乡结合部农户土地利用行为变化规律进行研究。结果表明：该区域农户土地利用行为在空间分布上呈现＂反图能圈＂式的种植业布局模式,具有明显的＂非农化＂与＂非粮化＂的特征。其中近郊区农户以＂粮食需求＂为主,主要种植玉米,土地利用程度低,土地投入强度小。远郊区农户以＂粮食需求和利润需求协调＂为主,兼种大田作物和陆地蔬菜,农户土地利用程度较高,土地投入强度较大。纯农村农户以＂利润需求＂为主,主要种植大棚蔬菜和陆地蔬菜,土地利用程度最高,土地投入强度最大。在结论的基础上,提出应该从完善农村社会保障体系、健全农地流转机制、加大农业科技投入力度、优化农业产业的合理布局等方面引导农户合理利用土地资源,实现土地利用效率的提高和土地资源的可持续利用。