村集体协调在抑制土地托管风险中何以失效 ——基于委托代理理论的视角

研究目的:基于委托代理视角,探究村集体协调在抑制土地托管风险中失效的原因。研究方法:构建村集体协调下土地托管风险的四方演化博弈模型,基于675份实地调查数据,仿真分析并实证检验村集体协调对土地托管风险的影响。研究结果:(1)村集体协调能够降低土地托管风险,但这一作用的发挥受委托代理关系的调节,委托代理问题的存在使村集体协调在抑制土地托管风险中失效。(2)村干部的协调态度与协调成本对村集体协调效应的发挥具有调节作用,村干部的协调态度发挥正向调节作用,协调成本发挥负向调节作用。(3)协调态度的调节效应在兼业户中最显著,其次为专业大户,在小规模纯农户中未发挥作用。协调成本的调节效应在小规模纯农户中最为明显,专业大户与兼业户次之。研究结论:强化村集体的协调作用;鼓励村干部转变协调态度,降低协调成本;因人施策防范化解土地托管风险。     

Fictitious commodification and agrarian change: Indigenous peoples and land markets in Highland Ecuador

Creating private property rights and establishing land markets were fundamental to the historical development of capitalism in the Global North and remain at the centre of capitalist development in the Global South. This article contributes to debates about these processes by analysing the relationship between land markets and indigenous peoples in Highland Ecuador. Building on Karl Polanyi's concept of fictitious commodities, it elaborates a new concept that makes an analytical distinction between the activation and development of land markets. The former refers to the occasional participation of actors in markets to secure land, whereas the latter relates to the establishment and expansion of markets that regulate the distribution and value of land through market prices. Focusing on indigenous land struggles in the late 20th century, this article shows that the activation of land markets created opportunities for indigenous peasants to secure land, whereas the development of land markets closed them down. Social and class differentiation among the highland indigenous population increased through this contradictory process. The article connects this historical analysis to recent developments in Ecuador to contribute to empirical and theoretical debates about contemporary land struggles and agrarian change elsewhere in the Global South.     

Market facilities and agricultural marketing: evidence from Tamil Nadu,India

This article analyzes the effect of facilities and infrastructure available at the marketplace on a farmer's decision to sell at the market. The econometric estimation shows that the likelihood of sales at the market increases significantly with an improvement in market facilities and a decrease in travel time from the village to the market. The results suggest that wealth reduces a farmer's cost of accessing market facilities more than it increases her/his opportunity cost of leisure. The policy simulation indicates that the marginal benefits from an improvement in market facility will favor the poorer farmers in the context of India.     

Farmer participation in a climate-smart future: Evidence from the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project

Smallholder agricultural carbon market projects have potential to achieve climate-smart agriculture (CSA), a “triple-win” for food security, climate change mitigation, and adaptation. Farmer participation is critical for achieving widespread impact, yet their adoption of sustainable land management practices is constrained by eligibility, willingness, and ability to participate. This research examines how the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project enabled smallholder participation, with results emphasizing the importance of institutional conditions and farmers’ perceptions. Findings highlight the necessity of international collaborations and high levels of synergistic coordination. Building social capital and adopting participatory learning approaches are strategies that can increase participation and create inclusive climate-smart agriculture projects.     

The Quest to Bring Land under Social and Political Control: Land Reform Struggles of the Past and Present in Ecuador

Land reform was one of the most important policies introduced in Latin America in the twentieth century and remains high on the political agenda due to sustained pressure from rural social movements. Improving our understanding of the issue therefore remains a pressing concern. This paper responds to this need by proposing a new theoretical framework to explore land reform and providing a fresh analysis of historical and contemporary land struggles in Ecuador. Drawing on the pioneering work of Karl Polanyi, the paper characterizes these struggles as the attempt to increase the social and political control of land in the face of mounting commodification. The movement started in the 1960s and remains evident in Ecuador today. Exploring land reform in Ecuador from this theoretical perspective provides new insight into land struggles in the country and contributes to debates over land reforms of the past and present elsewhere in the Global South.     

Agribusiness,Peasant Agriculture and Labour Markets: Ecuador in Comparative Perspective

The consolidation of capitalist agriculture in countries such as Ecuador has led to a recent revaluation of territories (central highlands) where cheap labour has facilitated agribusiness development linked to the world market. This process generates growth in the numbers of rural wage workers and the creation of a labour market that, in relation to others in several Latin American countries, has certain particularities: permanent jobs, gender balance, an absence of intermediaries and low levels of precariousness. Small‐scale peasant producers are marginalized in this context and play functional roles within the current dynamics of agribusiness firms. The organizational weakness of rural wage earners and the pursuit of clientelist relationships by firms do not allow rural workers and local communities to devise economic and social strategies that might improve their position in this ‘field of forces’ in the territory.     

土地托管、劳动力分化对农户家庭收入的影响研究——基于6省1 933户农户的实证

研究目的：探讨土地托管服务对农户家庭收入的影响机理，从土地托管视角考察三大粮食区域农户的土地、劳动力资源配置对家庭整体经济福利的影响。研究方法：最小二乘法、工具变量法、分位数回归和中介效应模型。研究结果：（1）土地托管服务对农户家庭收入有显著正向影响，该收入分配效应表现出个体异质性和区域差异性；（2）劳动力分化能促进土地托管服务的发展和农户家庭经济福利的提升，是土地托管服务促进农户家庭增收的有效路径。研究结论：（1）完善土地托管服务市场和劳动力就业市场以提升农户的家庭经济福利；（2）加强政策帮扶，保障资源禀赋较弱农户的土地托管服务需求；（3）因地制宜，加强各粮食生产区域之间土地托管服务的经验交流。     

Employment Dynamics and Linkages in the Rural Economy: Insights from Senegal

Evidence on rural wage employment is thin and lacks nuance for different employment sources, insights on dynamic effects, and an understanding of the channels of effects. We assess conceptually and empirically the direct and indirect welfare effects of entry and continuation in different types of wage employment in rural Senegal. Using panel data, fixed effects and first-difference estimation, we show substantial positive welfare and linkage effects. We find that participation in wage employment increases per capita income by 143%, and reduces poverty, poverty gap and food insecurity by, respectively, 63%, 89% and 48%. While the direct effect on income is larger for non-agricultural and contractual wage employment, the indirect income effects through self-employment are more pronounced for agricultural and casual wage employment. Our results imply that job creation is important for rural development, that wage employment in agriculture can lead to considerable growth multiplier effects, and that synergies exist between large-scale and small-scale agriculture.     

Demand for Crop Insurance in Developing Countries: New Evidence from India

Determining farmers’ real demand for crop insurance is difficult, especially in developing countries, where there is a lack of formal financial sector integration and a high reliance on informal risk mitigation options. We provide some new estimates of farmers’ willingness‐to‐pay for insurance in the context of a large‐scale subsidised programme in India. We conducted a discrete choice experiment with agricultural households across four states in India, enabling us to estimate preferences for specific insurance policy attributes such as coverage period, method of loss assessment, timing of indemnity payments and the cost of insurance. Our results suggest that farmers do value crop insurance under certain conditions and some are willing to pay a premium for such coverage in excess of the subsidised rates they are currently required to pay under this programme. In particular, farmers value the assurances that they will receive timely payouts when they incur losses, and may not have a strong preference for the method with which losses are assessed. On the other hand, farmers are quite sensitive to coverage periods. Our baseline assessment shows that when optimised to farmer requirements, there can be a sizeable demand for crop insurance by developing country farmers.     

Agricultural production and children's diets: evidence from rural Ethiopia

We study the relationship between pre‐school children's food consumption and household agricultural production. Using a large household survey from rural Ethiopia, we find that increasing household production diversity leads to considerable improvements in children's dietary diversity. However, we also document how this nonseparability of consumption and production does not hold for households that have access to food markets. These findings imply that nutrition‐sensitive agricultural interventions that push for market integration are likely to be more effective in reducing under‐nutrition than those promoting production diversity.     

Induced innovation and land degradation: Results from a bioeconomic model of a village in West Africa

This paper introduces a modeling method which simulates a village's response to population and market pressure. The method combines a recursive and dynamic linear programming model with a biophysical model of soil condition and plant growth that predicts yields and land degradation for different type of land, land use and cropping patterns. The linear programming model simulates farmers' plans aggregated at the village level under constraints of risk aversion, food consumption, land area, soil fertility, soil depth, labor and cash availability. Detailed agroecological factors determine Ihe main processes of land degradation. A large number of technological alternatives, representing different degrees of labor and/or land-saving techniques available in the study areas, are introduced, taking into account their respective constraints, costs and advantages. The method has been calibrated for a village located in the sub-humid region of Burkina Faso. Several simulations are carried out to the Year 2030. The results show that population pressure leads to intensification and investment in land conservation practices out not necessarily to better farm incomes. Increasing market opportunities can play a more positive role in boosting productivity, but for the next decades the best way to increase production per farmer is to let farmers migrate from the high-population-density areas to the low-population-density areas because, under the current economic conditions of most Sahelian countries, intensification per hectare is stil more expensive than the fallow system.     

Leadership in agricultural machinery circles: experimental evidence from Tajikistan

Leadership is critical for the viability of rural groups. The way in which leadership is legitimised can mediate leader and group member behaviour in the face of social dilemmas. Yet there has been scant research on leader‐follower dynamics in naturally occurring groups. Highlighting the case of agricultural machinery circles in Tajikistan, the effect of leading by example on investments to a collective good is studied in a framed field experiment. To increase realism, and contrary to standard economic experiments, this investment is a voucher allowing the group to make a real‐world machinery purchase at reduced costs. Two treatments manipulate leaders’ legitimisation. Elected leaders achieve 30 per cent higher contributions to the collective investment against a baseline version without a leader. Contributions remain, on average, relatively stable over the course of the game. The results are discussed with reference to the debate on external intervention in agricultural producer organisations.     

Agricultural extension,trust, and learning: results from economic experiments in Ecuador

Using an artefactual economic experiment and a randomized training intervention in Ecuador we test if trust conditions a farmer’s decision to learn during an agricultural training. We present a simple model of farmer behavior during the agricultural training in order to link play in the laboratory to behavior in the field. We find evidence that farmers who trust agricultural technicians relatively more than community farmers in the trust game learn more during training. The results provide insight into the design of agricultural extension services in Ecuador.     

Modelling CAP Decoupling in the EU: A Comparison of Selected Simulation Models and Results

This article reviews ways of representing the effects of decoupling in the European Union (EU) on land allocation and production in eight selected simulation models (AGLINK, AG‐MEMOD, CAPRI, CAPSIM, ESIM, FAPRI, GOAL and GTAP). It then compares the simulated effects of decoupling and traces them back to the model specifications and parameter assumptions. In particular, roughage is not included in most models, so that changes in ruminant production are not necessarily consistent with the changes in fodder area. Models also differ in the extent to which they reflect the substitution possibilities in ruminant feeds. Notwithstanding the considerable differences in model types and specifications, all the studies considered here predict that as a result of decoupling, areas allocated to cereals (and silage maize) and beef and sheep production in the EU‐15 will decline, while fodder area will increase. Differences in the projections about pasture, oilseed and set‐aside areas can be attributed to different model or scenario specifications. The most important factor affecting the results is the extent to which the models assume that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2003 Reform (regarding Single Farm Payments) involves a substantial decoupling of support compared with the baseline (Agenda 2000) policy.     

Insurance for Technology Adoption: An Experimental Evaluation of Schemes and Subsidies with Maize Farmers in Mexico

For farmers in developing countries, the combination of both risk aversion and the lack of insurance is often a major impediment to adoption of productivity‐enhancing technologies, such as higher yielding hybrid seed. In a framed field experiment with Mexican maize farmers, we investigate whether bundling hybrid seed with an insurance scheme can increase its adoption, while also controlling for risk aversion. We test insurance schemes with different levels of risk coverage and premium subsidies and find that (1) all schemes significantly increase the degree of adoption of the higher yielding seed, (2) partial insurance schemes perform worse than full insurance, (3) weather index insurance with geographical basis risk performs no worse than indemnity insurance, and (4) premium subsidies significantly increase the adoption effect of indemnity insurance, but not that of index insurance.     

农业生态保护政策目标的农民偏好及其生态保护参与行为——基于重庆十区县的农户选择实验分析

农业生态保护的政策目标是否符合农民偏好,进而是否能够提高其效用水平,是农民生态保护参与行为的关键。本文基于重庆十区县345户农户的调查数据,采用选择实验法和随机参数Logit模型分析了农民对不同农业生态保护政策目标的偏好及其生态保护参与行为差异。研究结果表明,农业生态保护的各项主要政策目标纳入保护方案后均能显著提高农民的生态保护参与效用,进而促进农民选择参与保护方案,农民具有社会理性和生态理性;农民的生态保护参与行为还显著受到其对传统农业生产方式的环境风险感知、风险偏好程度、耕种规模、人均年收入、非农劳动力比例、是否参加合作社和离最近乡镇距离等个人和家庭特征因素的影响;农民对不同政策目标的偏好程度差异较大,偏好程度最高的是改善水体质量,其次是提高农产品质量安全性和改善土壤肥力,偏好程度较低的是改善空气质量、减少水土流失和增加生物多样性;农民对改善水体质量和提高农产品质量安全性具有异质性偏好。     

Mapping historical and contemporary agrarian transformations and capitalist infiltration in a complex upland environment: A case from eastern Nepal

The relationship that mountain communities have with global capitalism are complex, being mediated by a diverse topography and ecology, both of which provide opportunities for capital accumulation, while also isolating older, “pre‐capitalist” modes of production. This paper takes a case study valley from Nepal's eastern hills, tracing over two centuries of agrarian change and evolving interactions between “adivasi” and “semi‐feudal” economic formations with capitalism. In recent years, the expansion of markets, rising demand for cash, and climate stress have solidified migrant labour as a core component of livelihoods, and the primary mechanism of surplus appropriation from the hill peasantry. Through a focus on three altitudinal zones, however, it is demonstrated how the trajectory of this transformation, including the interactions with persisting pre‐capitalist formations, is mediated by both political–economic processes and the local agro‐ecological context.     

Efficiency and equity of rural land markets and the impact on income: Evidence in Kenya and Uganda from 2003 to 2015

This study examines the evolution of land sales and rental markets and their impact on agricultural efficiency in rural Kenya and Uganda using panel data spanning over 10 years. Both countries show that land markets induce efficiency by transferring land to households with higher farming ability. In both countries, land markets enhance equity by transferring land from land-abundant to land-constrained households. Although renting in land increases crop income in Kenya, we find no evidence that it enables households to escape from poverty. In contrast, increase in owned land helped decrease poverty in Uganda. Parcel-level analysis reveals that rented-in land and owned land differ in productivity levels and crop choice. These findings point to the potential weaknesses in the land markets in Kenya and Uganda that impede their ability to contribute to poverty alleviation.     

Population pressure and soil quality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Panel evidence from Kenya

Population pressure on farmlands can have two opposing effects on soil quality. It can negatively affect soil quality due to more frequent and intensive use of farmlands, but also can induce transition of farming methods towards more intensive farming in which more fertilizer and improved seeds are used in order to make smaller farmlands more productive. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the net effect is likely to be negative given the region’s current low fertilizer use. Recent studies, however, show evidence of agricultural intensification in regions with high population pressure. It is important to analyze the extent and speed of soil degradation and its relationship with population pressure. Nonetheless, empirical studies on this topic are almost non-existent, partly because soil quality is shaped over a long time horizon, and quality panel data on this issue are rare. We use unique panel data for rural households containing soil quality information from Kenya to elucidate the effect of population pressure on soil quality. We find that population pressure reduces soil quality and also induces agricultural intensification. This suggests that although farmers are trying to mitigate the negative effect of population pressure on soil quality, the rate of soil degradation is outpacing that of intensification.     

Adoption and diffusion of improved technologies and production practices in agriculture: Insights from a donor-led intervention in Nepal

Adoptions of improved technologies and production practices are important drivers of agricultural development in low-income countries like Nepal. Adopting a broad class of such technologies and practices is often critical for meeting the multifaceted goals of efficiency, profitability, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience. This study aims to address the knowledge gaps that still exist concerning what determines the adoption of improved technologies and production practices, the factors affecting their diffusion, the impact of interventions on productivity and crops grown, and the variability of impact within a particular country context. In this paper we address these questions using data collected as part of the USAID-led Knowledge-Based Integrated Sustainable Agriculture in Nepal (KISAN) project. We adopted a multistage sampling technique and surveyed 988 beneficiary households and 997 non-beneficiary households in KISAN intervention districts and non-intervention districts. Our findings suggest that, in Nepal, adoption of improved technologies and practices is significantly increased by improved access to markets, private sector involvement in selling improved seeds and disseminating information, membership in progressive farmers groups and cooperative societies, participation in agricultural training and farm visits, provision of subsidies for seeds, and access to credit. We also found the probability of the adoption of improved practices to be affected by farmers’ sources of information; for instance, the adoption of improved practices was increased when farmers obtained information from informal sources, cooperatives/farmers organizations, and public and private extension programs. The effects of KISAN projects vary significantly across the different crops grown, based on the evaluation models that address self-selection of both project participation and crop choices. These implications may also apply to other parts of the world facing similar challenges as Nepal, where limited market access, insufficient knowledge and resource capacity of farmers constrain their adoption of improved technologies and practices in agriculture.