退耕还林工程对农户劳动力供给的影响分析

文章利用林业重点工程与消除贫困项目1999～2008年2070个样本农户数据,运用Tobit计量经济模型,对农户退耕地造林面积及参与退耕还林工程时间在林业、以土地为基础和非农业的劳动力供给上的影响进行了分析。研究发现农户退耕地造林面积及参与退耕还林工程时间能显著地增加农户林业、非农业劳动力供给,而显著减少农户以土地为基础的劳动力供给;退耕还林工程对黄河流域农户的影响大于长江流域农户;退耕还林工程不仅促进了农户劳动力从土地向非农业转移,而且还促进了农户非农劳动力供给的增加。     

西部退耕还林农户农业生产效率持续变化及影响因素分析——以云南省鹤庆县为例

退耕还林工程是我国投入最大的生态修复工程,它对农村经济、社会和环境都产生了深远的影响。文章利用面板三阶段DEA模型,采用6期实地跟踪调查的农户数据,较准确地测算了样本县退耕农户农业生产效率以及可持续变化趋势,进而实证分析了影响退耕农户生产效率的因素。结果显示,退耕还林规模显著地促进农户农业生产效率的提高,同时种植面积、市场信息的可获得性、人力资本都对退耕农户农业生产效率有正向的影响,而非种植业纯收入比例对农业生产效率有显著的负向影响。最后,根据相应的结论提出政策启示。     

农户退耕意愿影响因素的贫困尺度差异分析——基于新疆阿克苏地区的调研数据

以新疆阿克苏地区为例,应用多元有序Logit模型,对比分析贫困农户与非贫困农户的退耕意愿及其影响因素,为强化新一轮退耕还林工程的精准扶贫效用提供信息支持。研究结果表明:第一,林业生产经营技能、退耕补偿满意度等是影响农户退耕意愿的重要因素,且不存在显著的贫困尺度差异;第二,亲戚中是否有乡(村)干部、同村人的退耕效果、退耕风险感知、退耕预期收入等对贫困农户与非贫困农户退耕意愿的影响存在较大差异。因此,应规范并强化乡(村)干部的引导作用,建立退耕还林的典型经验推介机制,提升退耕农户的林业生产能力与非农就业技能,以切实增强工程区贫困农户的退耕意愿,有效凸显退耕还林工程的扶贫减贫效用。     

联合生产条件下的退耕补偿弱激励性——基于农户模型的分析

退耕还林工程通过发放钱粮补助开启农业生态—经济联合生产,但补偿激励效果乃至整个工程的可持续性仍不确定。通过引入生态—经济联合生产概念,构建退耕农户模型并分析工程的补偿机制及其激励功能。研究表明:联合生产动态的互补—竞争关系条件下,刚性的补偿机制具有弱激励性,只有生态—经济生产呈互补关系时,退耕补偿才能促使农户继续参与退耕还林。     

退耕还林后期农户复耕意愿选择研究分析——以甘肃省安定区为例

退耕还林工程的直接作用对象是农户,退耕还林后期,退耕农户是否会保持已有的退耕规模,农户的参与积极性是否会改变,都将对退耕还林的可持续性产生一定影响。通过建立logistic回归模型,以安定区样本农户调查数据为基础,对退耕还林第一轮补助后期的农户复耕意愿选择进行分析。结果显示,影响农户复耕的因素主要以农户家庭收入和对退耕还林政策的满意度为主。     

生态退耕背景下黄河流域耕地变化与农业生产和生态环境关系研究

目的 分析生态退耕背景下黄河流域耕地的时空变化特征,探讨黄河流域不同区域耕地变化与农业生产和生态环境的相互关系,旨在为黄河流域农业绿色发展和耕地利用政策提供借鉴。方法 文章基于2000—2020年黄河流域连续土地利用数据,利用面板格兰杰因果检验和双变量空间自相关量化耕地变化与农业生产、生态环境之间的动态因果及空间交互关系。结果 （1）2000—2020年黄河流域年均减少耕地69.53万 hm²,还林还草是耕地主要减少去向,2020年和2004年是退耕还林还草高峰年,中上游是退耕还林还草重点区;（2）从格兰杰因果检验来看,下游地区退耕还林还草对农业生产和生态环境没有显著影响,上游地区长期退耕还林还草对农业产值增加有利,中游粮食产量和生态系统服务供给低的地区退耕还林还草更多,中上游生态退耕对生态环境有显著促进作用;（3）从空间自相关结果来看,下游地区退耕与农业生产和生态环境的空间分布不具有一致性,黄土高原南部和太行山附近退耕还林还草与生态环境指标呈高—高集聚,鄂尔多斯高原地区退耕与农业产值呈小范围高—高集聚。结论 退耕还林还草是黄河流域耕地变化的重要原因,退耕还林还草规模与农业生产和生态环境之间的空间关系异质性明显,且在部分区域存在因果关系,不同区域应当针对具体问题提出不同用地策略。     

退耕还林工程对西部农户收入的影响:对西安周至县南部山区乡镇农户的实证分析

研究目的:分析研究退耕还林工程对西部山区农户收入的影响和作用。研究方法:利用西安交通大学人口与发展研究所2008年4月在周至南部山区的农户生计调查数据,建立统计回归模型,分别采用多元线性和分位数回归分析方法,定量分析退耕还林工程对西部山区农户收入的影响。研究结果:参与退耕还林对农户家庭纯收入有着显著的正向影响,尤其是对于中低收入农户,但参与退耕通过户耕地面积和农业劳动时间变化对中低水平的农户收入也仍有一定的负面作用。研究结论:为巩固退耕工程成果,当地政府应提供信息,提高农户的社会资本,积极发展外出务工等非农生产活动。     

2008年退耕还林农户社会经济效益监测报告

文章以1998～2008年全国100个退耕还林县的1165户退耕农户监测数据为基础,反映了延长期退耕补助政策落实和金融危机对退耕农户外出务工等情况,深入分析了10年退耕还林政策对农户的微观影响。研究结果表明:退耕还林政策对农户生计产生深刻影响,陡坡耕种大幅度减少,退耕补助显著增加农户收入,巩固退耕还林成果、增加农户收入面临农业直补等新挑战,国家应明确退耕还林在国家生态战略中的定位,实现农户增收与生态保护的长期双赢。     

中国退耕还林工程经济可持续性分析——基于陕西省眉县的实证研究

本文基于陕西眉县237个农户的实地调研数据,对项目期末的退耕还林工程的经济可持续性进行定量评价与分析。本文首先运用二元Logit模型分析了农户地块退耕的决定因素,研究发现:地块坡度、土壤质地和离水源的距离,是决定地块是否被退耕的主要因素。其次,运用非观测效应的一阶差分模型,定量评价了退耕还林工程的收入效果。结果表明:在陕西眉县,退耕户总收入低于非退耕户总收入,其原因主要在于尽管退耕还林工程增加了农户的畜牧业收入,但由于退耕户的种植收入和非农就业收入都低于非退耕户,而且农户没能及时足够地获得退耕还林补贴,因此,总收入较低。退耕还林工程并没实现调整农户产业结构和就业结构的目标,项目期末,如果没有政府补贴,退耕户很可能因为收入来源单一而复耕,中国退耕还林工程的经济可持续性令人担忧。     

农户退耕参与意愿的生成逻辑——经济理性或生态理性

以西北S区为例,应用Order probit模型厘清农户参与退耕的行为逻辑。结果表明:获取国家退耕补助、退耕地林业经营收入与非农就业收入等经济理性变量以及维持农田生产安全等生态理性变量是影响农户退耕参与意愿的显著要素;经济理性是农户参与退耕的本能逻辑,生态理性逻辑在一定程度上诱发农户的退耕参与意愿且更符合农户参与新一轮退耕还林工程的逻辑假定;应基于生态经济理性的农户行为逻辑,合理调整农户参与新一轮退耕还林工程的激励政策,从而提升激励政策的有效性。     

退耕还林工程与农村社会发展的实证分析——以河北省沽源县为例

中国20世纪末开展的六大林业重点工程中,退耕还林工程与农村社会发展的关系最为密切,已引起社会各界的广泛关注。在概述河北省沽源县退耕还林工程情况基础上,通过实地调查及相关文献资料,从生产力、生产关系、经济发展和人口素质4个方面实证分析工程对农村社会发展的影响。退耕还林工程在促进农村社会良性运行和协调发展的同时,也带来了一些不可忽视的负面影响,针对存在问题提出了有关政策建议。     

Does Extension Work? Impacts of a Program to Assist Limited-Resource Farmers in Virginia

In this article the economic impacts of Virginia State University's Small Farm Outreach, Training, and Technical Assistance Program are assessed. Impacts are measured in terms of program effect on incomes of limited-resource participant farmers compared with their net farm incomes had they not participated. The program appears to significantly increase net farm income, provided there is sufficient intensity of participation. A single visit by an agent had no significant effect on income, suggesting a rationale for deepening participation intensity before broadening it. Aggregate program benefits may approach $5 million per year (for a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars).     

Farm Poverty and Safety Nets

Farm families with incomes below the poverty line are far less likely than wealthier farmers to receive farm support payments. Using data from the 1989–2004 Current Population Survey, we find that poor farm families are also not participating in other assistance programs. Controlling for other factors, eligible farm families have substantially lower participation rates in the Food Stamp Program and in Medicaid than eligible nonfarm families. Removing farm safety net program payments would increase the number of farmers eligible for these programs but, in the absence of behavioral changes, would only lead to small increases in the number of recipients.     

Effects of payments for ecosystem services programs in China on rural household labor allocation and land use: Identifying complex pathways

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is increasingly used in developing countries to secure the sustainable provision of vital ecosystem services. The largest PES programs in the world are embedded in China’s new forest policies, which aim to expand forest cover for soil and water conservation and improve livelihoods of rural people. The objective of this study is to identify the complex pathways of the impacts of two PES programs , the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program (CCFP) and the Ecological Welfare Forest Program (EWFP), on household livelihood decisions, and to quantify the direct and indirect impacts along the identified pathways. We fulfill this objective by developing an integrated conceptual framework and applying a Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM), based on household survey data from Anhui, China. Labor allocation (for on-farm work, local paid work, local business, or out-migration) and land use decisions (i.e., rent in, maintain, rent out, or abandon cropland) for participating households are key to understand PES program effects on livelihoods. Results show that the PES programs have only small direct effects but significant indirect effects via the mediating factor of capital assets. Moreover, group heterogeneity analysis shows that lower-income households do not benefit more than the better-off households from the PES programs, while households with medium wealth increase dependence on agriculture. In addition, household demographics, individual attributes, and geographic settings differ in their impacts on labor allocation and land use decisions. We conclude that CCFP and EWFP would be more efficient in conserving the environment while improving the economic welfare of lower-income households if capital assets were taken into account in the design of compensation schemes.     

Poverty analysis using small area estimation: an application to conservation agriculture in Uganda

This article demonstrates the utility of small area estimation of poverty (SAEp) methods for researchers wishing to conduct a detailed welfare analysis as part of a larger survey of a small geographic area. This study applies SAEp methods as part of an impact assessment of a conservation agriculture production system in Eastern Uganda. Using SAEp, we estimate Foster–Greer–Thorbecke rural poverty indices, estimate the effects of per‐acre farm profit increases to poor households on the indices, and compare the findings to estimates of net returns from a field‐level evaluation of conservation agriculture for maize farmers. Results suggest that increasing the farm profits of the bottom 30% of households by $1.60 per‐acre per‐season would reduce rural poverty incidence by 1 percentage point. Available data on the net returns to conservation agriculture indicate that even these modest increases are achievable for few adopting households.     

A study of economic efficiency of Iranian farmers in Ramjerd district: an application of stochastic programming

An extension of utility-efficient programming to the non-linear discrete stochastic programming method was developed and used in the analysis of the economic efficiency of a sample of farmers in Iran. The results indicate that it would be feasible to increase substantially farmers' total net revenue by increasing their economic efficiency in terms of technical and allocative efficiencies. The study further suggested that risk aversion plays an important role in farmers' behaviour. The sample farmers are risk averse and hence are likely to trade higher expected profits for lower risk. Understanding this characteristic is important for interventions intended to raise farm productivity and efficiency.     

Quantifying the Economic Return to Participatory Extension Programmes in Ireland: an Endogenous Switching Regression Analysis

This article examines the effectiveness of a government funded extension programme. Farm‐level data are used to assess the economic impact of dairy discussion groups, a common participatory extension method. The evaluation focuses on whether discussion group participants have improved farm profits, which is estimated with an endogenous switching regression model. This method controls for self‐selection bias due to unobserved characteristics, such as the farmer’s ability, that may affect both participation and farm profitability. After controlling for this potential bias, we find that the economic returns to discussion group membership are positive, thus supporting government targets to enrol more farmers in discussion groups.     

Information Sharing and Oligopoly in Agricultural Markets: The Role of the Cooperative Bargaining Association

We study incentives for information sharing among agricultural intermediaries in imperfectly competitive markets for farm output. Information sharing always increases expected grower and total surplus, but may reduce expected intermediary profits. Even when expected profits increase with information sharing, intermediary firms face a prisoner's dilemma where it is privately rational to withhold information, given that other firms report truthfully. This equilibrium can be avoided if firms' information reports are verifiable, and if firms commit to an ex ante contract that enforces participation in information sharing. We show how agricultural bargaining legislation can implement such a contract with the bargained farm price representing a sufficient statistic of all information held by intermediary firms.     

Public Policy in the 21st Century: Is Prairie Agriculture Becoming Like Any Other Industry? Does it Matter?

The question addressed in this paper is whether Prairie agriculture has become "like any other industry". The implication is that a positive response would lead to the conclusion that it should therefore be treated "like any other industry" rather than being accorded the special status that it has enjoyed for more than a century
We show that, as net farm incomes have declined over the past 35 years, Prairie farmers have responded by seeking other (non-farm) sources of income. At the time of the 1996 census, net farm income accounted for only 31 percent of farm family income (down from 75 percent in 1967). By 1999, the contribution of net farm income was even lower than in 1996
In spite of the dwindling contribution of net farm income to farm family income, average farm family income in Saskatchewan has exceeded average provincial household income for all but two years between 1971 and 1998, Under these circumstances, it is necessary to ask why it is in the public interest to subsidize an activity which, in recent good times, produced 31 percent of the income of a subset of the population whose household incomes were 10–15 percent above the provincial average
Based on income levels, it is probably no longer necessary to accord farm families special status in the public policy arena. However, other policy considerations (immobility of resources, the role of agriculture in the rural economy, environmental considerations, food safety and security, for example) remain, differentiating agriculture from other industries     

The impact of water conservation and intensification technologies: empirical evidence for rice farmers in Ghana

This study employs the propensity score matching model to examine the impact of the adoption of water conservation and intensification technologies on farm output and income among small-scale lowland rice farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana. The matching was conducted based on the Mahalanobis distance combined with the propensity score. Balancing tests by checking the mean standardized absolute bias in the matched sample were conducted as well as a sensitivity analysis was conducted to check for hidden bias due to unobservable selection. The empirical results show a positive and significant impact of the adoption of bunds technology on input demand as well as a positive but insignificant impact on output supply and net returns. Adopters of the dibbling technology were found to have higher output supply, whereas no statistically significant difference was found between the incomes of adopters and nonadopters of dibbling seed method. The results, however, reveal a positive and significant effect on output and net returns when the dibbling method is combined with intensified weeding. The estimates were found to be relatively insensitive to hidden bias.