Agricultural productivity growth in Latin America and the Caribbean: an analysis of climatic effects,catch‐up and convergence*

This paper investigates whether climatic adjusted total factor productivity (CATFP) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is converging, converging to different steady states or exhibit absolute convergence, that is the process does not require (government) interventions to reach its equilibrium path. We use data from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit and from the Food and Agriculture Organization for 28 LAC countries over a 54‐year period (1961–2014) to estimate random parameters stochastic production frontier models to calculate CATFP and then use cross‐sectional regressions and an error correction model to analyse CATFP convergence across countries in the region. The results show that technological progress is the main driver of CATFP growth in the region and there is no absolute convergence, that is CATFP gaps across countries will not decrease over time and least performing countries will not grow faster than better performing ones without targeted policies. However, CATFP across LAC exhibits conditional convergence towards different steady states. Technological progress plays a critical role in raising the steady state level of CATFP with an overall average of 2.22 per cent per annum.     

Payments for environmental services to promote “climate‐smart agriculture”? Potential and challenges

Payments for environmental services (PES) have gained wide popularity as approaches to promote environmentally friendly land use or agricultural production practices. Yet academics have also voiced concerns against seeing PES as a panacea. This article discusses whether PES is an appropriate and promising approach to promote so‐called “climate‐smart agriculture” (CSA) practices, which we define as agricultural production practices that contribute to CO₂ emission reductions and/or removals and provide benefits to farmers via increased productivity and profits and reduced vulnerability to climate change. PES appears most promising for the promotion of CSA practices in small‐scale farming contexts with low incomes. Effective design, however, requires solid estimates of cost and benefit flows from CSA adoption over time, accounting for differences in socioeconomic and ecological conditions, and addressing the risk of leakage. Funding for such PES will likely have to come from public sources, and seems most promising where synergies with other objectives such as agricultural development, food security, and climate adaptation or other environmental services exist. The potential of alternative approaches for CSA support such as taxation with rebates for CSA practices, CSA‐related investment support such as microcredits, and hybrid approaches such as conditional microcredit should be further investigated.     

河南省现代农业可持续发展的综合效益评价

近年来,我国农业生态环境恶化,可利用农业资源紧缺、农产品质量安全等问题日渐凸显,因此发展可持续现代农业产业已经被提上日程。河南省作为发展现代农业的试点改革省份,在发展特色农业模式,优化农业产业结构方面取得了一定成效,但同时存在着制约其进一步健全完善的因素。文章以农业可持续发展为理论基础,从经济效益、社会效益和生态效益等3个方面构建现代农业可持续发展综合效益评价指标体系,并采用主成分分析法评价现代农业可持续发展的综合效益。研究结果表明,经济发展是河南省农业可持续发展的核心;人口问题已成为制约部分城市农业可持续发展的重要因素;生态因子的贡献率最低,是阻碍河南省经济可持续发展的重要因素。据此提出调整产业结构、促进农业经济发展,控制人口增长、提高农民生活水平,保护生态环境、健全生态因子机制等具有针对性的对策建议,为提升现代农业可持续发展综合效益提供理论借鉴。     

我国区域农业生态文明及其协调度的时空分异研究——以典型省份为例

农业生态文明是我国生态文明建设的重要组成部分。由于我国区域自然生态条件、社会经济发展水平差异明显,农业生态文明的各项支撑要素也存在显著差异。文章在构建我国农业生态文明指数评价指标体系的基础上,基于离差系数原理构建区域农业生态文明协调度评价模型,选取黑龙江、河南、四川作为典型区域,运用2007~2013年统计数据,对3个省的农业生态文明指数及其协调度进行评价,并分析其各子系统支撑作用的演化特征。研究认为,我国开展生态文明建设以来,3个典型省农业生态文明指数及协调度均得到了显著提升,且均已先后进入"良好协调"阶段,但农业生态文明各子系统支撑作用演化的时空分异明显。因此,在推进农业生态文明建设过程中,应充分认识不同区域的发展水平、优势条件及薄弱环节,把握发展规律与特点,因地制宜、因区施策,提高农业产业发展与资源环境、社会经济条件的匹配度,改善和提升农业供给侧水平。     

河南省农业面源污染成因分析

近年来,农业面源污染给我国农村生态环境造成了一定的破坏,挖掘农业面源污染的成因及问题对今后农业面源污染的治理具有重要意义。文章以河南省为探讨对象,首先阐述了农业面源污染含义及主要特点。利用文献分析和统计方法对河南省农业化学品投入使用及污染情况进行分析,2007~2014年河南省化肥及农药产量和使用量均呈上涨趋势,污染面积及范围进一步扩大,面源污染的主要来源是化肥、农药、秸秆及生活垃圾。而人口快速增长、经济利益驱使、政策方面不健全是造成农业面源污染主要原因。该文认为,解决农业面源污染应从推广减量技术,积极发展有机(生态)农业;提高思想认识,树立科学农业发展理念;大力推广精准农业,减轻面源污染程度;建立健全环境法规,完善政策及管理体系等4个方面入手,以期为其他地区农业面源污染治理提供借鉴和参考。     

四川省休闲农业资源开发与规划研究

休闲农业是农业与旅游业相融合的新型产业,对优化农业产业结构、促进农业战略转型、推进我国社会主义新农村建设意义重大。作为我国农业开发最早的地区之一,四川是我国粮食与经济作物的重要产地,有着丰厚的农业自然资源,发展休闲农业的市场空间巨大,当前休闲农业已经成为四川农民就业增收的一条重要渠道。对休闲农业资源的开发与规划进行研究,能够充分发挥四川省的农业资源优势,为休闲农业的良性发展提供有力的保障。文章首先介绍了休闲农业资源开发的意义与作用,如优化产业结构,加快农业产业化进程、拓宽就业渠道,转移剩余劳动、加快城镇化进程,推进新农村建设等;进而对四川省休闲农业资源开发现状与存在的问题进行了分析;并提出构建四川省休闲农业产业化经营模式与组织化经营模式,探讨了四川省休闲农业资源开发的规划原则。     

Product price and performance level in one market or two separated markets under various cost structures and functions

Market characteristics, including intrinsic demand and customer sensitivity on price and product performance level, are distinct at different markets. Comparisons of various product development strategies in one market or two geographically separated markets are conducted for three classes of products: development intensive products (DIPs) with constant unit cost, marginal cost-intensive products (MIPs) with constant fixed cost, and marginal and development intensive products (MDIPs) with non-constant unit cost and fixed cost. Results show that larger demand size, less customer sensitivity on price and/or more sensitivity on performance level lead to more profit, a higher sale price and a not-lower product performance. The customer reservation or the saturation performance level should be generally adopted though the optimal performance level does exist occasionally. Unit cost and/or fixed cost must increase in performance at an increasing rate for the existence of one optimal performance level. Due to the impact of demand size, one high-end (low-end) MDIP or DIP could be introduced into one low-end (high-end) market at a different price if the demand size is significantly large in the low-end market. For DIPs, offering one niche high-end product is not worse than offering the low-end product into two markets. For MIPs with negligible fixed cost, the product line strategy is not worse than the standard product development strategy. Additionally, the product cost reduction approach adopted in one product line has significant effects on the best product development strategy and sequence.     

我国农村产业融合发展研究

[目的]农村产业融合发展是打造新农业农村经济增长极的重要载体,是构建蓝绿交织、清新明亮、产业共融的田园综合体的有效途径,对于促进农民增收、农业增效、农村增绿具有重要意义。[方法]文章根据统计数据,通过定性分析的方法,对我国农村产业融合发展意义、现状、机遇及制约因素进行了深入研究。[结果]当前我国农村产业融合发展初见成效,发展模式日益多样化、经营主体逐步多元化、利益联结机制不断健全。新形势下,我国农村产业融合发展的制度环境更加优越、物质基础更加雄厚、市场空间更加广阔、内生动力更加强劲。但是,我国农村产业融合还处于起步阶段,农村产业融合层次浅、新型农业经营主体带动能力弱、利益联结机制松散、要素瓶颈制约尚未打破、基础设施建设滞后等问题比较突出。[结论]提出应从加强顶层设计、完善产业融合模式、强化新型农业经营主体的带动能力、健全利益联结机制、激发多种要素、加强基础设施建设等方面搭建农村产业融合发展平台,促进农村产业融合发展驶入"时代高铁"。     

Alternative farming and collective goals: Towards a powerful relationships for future food policies

Based on the significant amount of literature on the concept of spatial, ecological, and social embeddedness in the Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) research, this study describes the main dynamics related to the involvement of non-conventional farmers in their collective ideas and actions.With a comparison between two European regions: Sardinia and the Community of Madrid, the paper identifies different styles of behaviour among organic producers, whether or not supervised by a control body, and highlights the differences and similarities regarding their ideas about how alternative agriculture has an impact on the environment as well as society. Eco-economies and ecopreneurship are also considered. The aim is to see if, and to what extent, these ideas have a collective character, going beyond the limits of the single farm to reach a regional scale and, thus, if there is a basis for the development of future food-related planning policies. Through the information provided by semi-structured interviews, farmers have been divided into categories according to their degree of embeddedness, described through the main themes that emerged during the interviews. Every farmer has been included in only one category according to his or her main preference, which does not imply the ab-sence of a positive attitude towards other categories.The study aims to contribute to the understanding of how AFN values and methods can boost the improvement of biodiversity and landscape conservation through collective actions which have the power to boost and develop rural initiative at a regional scale.     

Governing the Palm-Oil Sector through Finance: The Changing Roles of the Indonesian State

By analysing the different roles of the Indonesian state in arranging finance schemes for palm-oil development since 1945, this article aims to answer two questions: What are these roles? And to what extent have they prioritised or balanced economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection? We conclude that the state has never been absent from the palm-oil industry but has had different and changing financing roles that are historically contingent and shaped by the evolving economic and political landscape. Furthermore, these roles reflect Indonesia’s priorities of achieving economic growth through palm-oil development, furthering social equity, and, recently, promoting environmental sustainability.