The Sustainability of the Farm‐level Impact of Bt Cotton in China

The short‐run impact of Bt cotton adoption has been well documented; however, the sustainability of the impact remains unclear. In particular, pest resistance build‐up and secondary pest outbreaks have caused concern regarding the sustainability of this benefit. This paper analyses the effects and impact dynamics of Bt cotton adoption in China. Using six unique waves of panel data collected between 1999 and 2007, we show that the benefits of Bt cotton continue 10 years after it has been commercialised, albeit with evidence of a decline in the benefit since the early adoption period. Importantly, we also show that the benefit has been shared by both Bt and non‐Bt cotton adopters.     

Cotton farmers’ willingness to pay for pest management services in northern Benin

This study was carried out to assess cotton farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for pest management services in northern Benin. Targeted staggered control (TSC) has been introduced to reduce pesticide use in cotton cropping and generate an estimated benefit of FCFA48,800 (€74.40) per cotton hectare accruing from increased productivity and reduced pesticide cost. However, TSC application requires extra time for pest identification and scouting, and its adoption remains low due to the lack of funding to boost farmers’ awareness and cover training costs. An interval regression model was used to analyze responses to a double‐bounded contingent valuation survey with data collected from 300 cotton farmers. The results showed that 87.3% of cotton farmers were willing to pay for TSC services. Annual WTP per cotton hectare was estimated at FCFA16,962 (€25.80), revealing an existing demand for TSC adoption. Respondents' WTP was driven by farm and socio‐economic characteristics. Financial mechanisms managed by farmers could thus potentially foster technology adoption, and in turn, generate economic and environmental benefits.     

Cash cropping and food crop productivity: synergies or trade‐offs?

The case for promoting export‐oriented cash crops in Africa has generally been based on their direct potential contribution to agricultural productivity and small farmer incomes. A relatively neglected avenue of research concerns the synergistic effects that cash cropping can have on other household activities, including food production. The conventional view that cash crops compete with food crops for land and labour neglects the potential for cash crop schemes to make available inputs on credit, management training, and other resources that can contribute to food crop productivity, which might otherwise not be accessible to farmers if they did not participate in cash crop programs. This article builds on previous research by hypothesising key pathways by which cash crops may affect food crop activities and empirically measuring these effects using the case of cotton in Gokwe North District in Zimbabwe. Analysis is based on instrumental variable analysis of survey data on 430 rural households in 1996. Results indicate that—after controlling for household assets, education and locational differences—households engaging intensively in cotton production obtain higher grain yields than non‐cotton and marginal cotton producers. We also find evidence of regional spill‐over effects whereby commercialisation schemes induce second round investments in a particular area that provide benefits to all farmers in that region, regardless of whether they engage in that commercialisation scheme. The study suggests that the potential spill‐over benefits for food crops through participation in cash crop programs are important to consider in the development of strategies designed to intensify African food crop production.     

Bias from Farmer Self‐Selection in Genetically Modified Crop Productivity Estimates: Evidence from Indian Data

In the continuing debate over the impact of genetically modified (GM) crops on farmers of developing countries, it is important to accurately measure magnitudes such as farm‐level yield gains from GM crop adoption. Yet most farm‐level studies in the literature do not control for farmer self‐selection, a potentially important source of bias in such estimates. We use farm‐level panel data from Indian cotton farmers to investigate the yield effect of GM insect‐resistant cotton. We explicitly take into account the fact that the choice of crop variety is an endogenous variable which might lead to bias from self‐selection. A production function is estimated using a fixed‐effects model to control for selection bias. Our results show that efficient farmers adopt Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton at a higher rate than their less efficient peers. This suggests that cross‐sectional estimates of the yield effect of Bt cotton, which do not control for self‐selection effects, are likely to be biased upwards. However, after controlling for selection bias, we still find that there is a significant positive yield effect from adoption of Bt cotton that more than offsets the additional cost of Bt seed.     

乡村民俗文化在休闲农业发展中的作用及应用研究——以河南省为例

[目的]休闲农业可持续发展的核心是产业内在价值体系的完善和提升,乡村民俗文化是休闲农业价值体系构建的主要资源,探讨乡村民俗文化与休闲农业间的相互作用影响关系,强调乡村民俗文化在休闲农业中的作用与应用。[方法]文章采用文献查阅法总结河南省休闲农业与乡村民俗文化方面的内容,结合旅游数据及具体的乡村民俗文化,通过归纳总结和分析比较法乡村民俗文化在休闲农业发展中的作用。[结果]河南省乡村民俗文化是休闲农业得以发展的重要动力及前提,休闲农业中融入乡村民俗文化使其内容更加丰富、活跃,此外在建筑、艺术、饮食、节庆及历史源流等方面得以广泛应用。[结论]乡村民俗文化在休闲农业中发展重要作用,同时乡村民俗文化的恰当应用是持续健康发展休闲农业、提高河南省整体经济收入的关键,且为发展该省休闲农业、民俗旅游提供一定的理论参考与实践借鉴。     

An analysis of industrial–agricultural interactions: a case study in Pakistan

This paper empirically analyzes the relationship between Pakistan's industrial and agricultural sectors. Pakistan was chosen because of its status of a semi‐industrialized country with heavy dependence on the agricultural sector. The relationship between cotton production and industrial growth is also evaluated due to the prominence of this crop in Pakistani agriculture. The results indicate that these sectors are complementary, yet industry tends to benefit more from agricultural growth than vice versa. The timing of this information is critical, as Pakistan's policy makers now face major agricultural policy reforms in their quest for continued industrial development.     

棉花目标价格制度对南疆棉农生产行为影响研究——基于TPB和SEM的实证分析

[目的]为了推进农业供给侧结构性改革,实现新疆棉花产业提质增效和转型升级,研究棉花目标价格制度对新疆南疆棉农生产行为的影响。[方法]基于计划行为理论(TPB),以新疆南疆巴州、阿克苏地区、喀什地区3个主要产棉地州6个县(市)12个乡(镇)的248个农户调查数据为样本,采用结构方程模型(SEM)分析棉花目标价格制度实施以来农户植棉行为变化的影响因素。[结果](1)农户植棉的行为意愿与生产行为有显著正相关,农户改变植棉的行为意愿越强烈,对生产行为变化的影响程度就越大;(2)农户的行为态度、主观规范以及农户感知行为控制与其行为意愿亦有显著正相关,并交互影响;(3)南疆农民对棉花目标价格制度的实施总体满意程度较高。[结论]棉花目标价格制度政策引导南疆棉农植棉行为向适度规模、提质量、重效益、合作经营的方向发展。     

Problems for the plantations: Challenges for large‐scale land concessions in Laos and Cambodia

Large‐scale plantation land concessions are causing an array of serious social and environmental impacts in Southeast Asia as well as in other parts of the world. This paper, however, is focused on the many challenges and limitations that plantation developers face in southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia. These include price and market constraints, activism linked to villagers and others actors, management and financial difficulties, environmental and technical limitations, and limited government support. Investor responses to these challenges and limitations have varied. Some investors still hope that their plantations will succeed, while others have variously attempted to cut their losses and withdraw from failing investments. In particular, this paper considers how problems associated with plantation development often emerge due to fluctuating crop prices as well as poor planning that partially stems from investors adopting a “resource frontier” mindset.     

Cooperative membership and adoption of green pest control practices: Insights from rice farmers

Reducing the use of chemical pesticide while preserving crop yield is a practical strategy that makes agricultural production economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. Although the adoption of green pest control practices can help achieve such a goal, its adoption rate remains quite low. This study explores whether membership in agricultural cooperatives improves smallholder farmers' adoption of green pest control practices, utilising farm-level data surveyed from rice farmers in China. To enrich our understanding, we also investigate how the adoption of green pest control practices mediates the effects of cooperative membership on chemical pesticide expenditures. An endogenous switching probit model and a bootstrap-based mediation method are employed to achieve these goals. The empirical results show that cooperative membership significantly increases the probability of adopting physical pest control practices (e.g. pest-killing lamps or sticky plate traps) and biological pest control practices (e.g. biopesticides) by 6% and 19%, respectively. Cooperative membership significantly reduces chemical pesticide expenditures through its mediation effect on improving the probability of adopting biological pest control practices. There is also a complementary relationship between physical and biological pest control practices in pest management of rice production. The adoption of physical pest control practices significantly increases rice yield, while the adoption of biological pest control practices does not.     

目标价格改革对新疆棉农收入的影响机理及实证研究——基于南疆四地州370个样本农户的实地调查

[目的]通过探讨目标价格改革对棉农收入的影响机理,揭示影响南疆四地州棉农增收的主要因素。[方法]从棉农角度出发,基于南疆四地州370个样本农户的实地调研数据,结合当地特有的自然地理、农业生产、社会经济条件以及目标价格政策实施状况,理论分析目标价格补贴对棉农增收的作用机理,并运用多元线形回归模型实证分析目标价格补贴政策等对棉农收入的作用方向和影响程度。[结果]户主受教育程度、是否外出务工、社会关系、棉花种植面积、县域经济发展水平和棉花销售价格等对棉农人均收入均存在显著影响。[结论]基于此,要避免将补贴化为主要的收入保障措施,继续加快土地流转,扩大棉农财产性收入来源,加快新型职业农民培育,发展农民职业教育,加快县域经济发展,多管齐下,破解制约南疆民族地区棉农增收难题。     

Moral hazard and adverse selection effects of cost‐of‐production crop insurance: evidence from the Philippines

This article examines the moral hazard and adverse selection effects of cost‐of‐production (COP) crop insurance products. Building on existing crop insurance models of moral hazard, as well as a survey‐based data set that allows us to separately identify moral hazard from adverse selection, we find evidence that farmers insured under COP contracts spend more on chemical fertilizers and pesticides (i.e. those inputs whose costs determine the indemnity payments). However, since these same COP insured farmers are still likely to use less inputs (like effort) whose costs do not enter the indemnity payment formula, and yield depends on both types of inputs (i.e. the determinants and non‐determinants of the indemnity payments), the final moral hazard effect of COP insurance on yields is ambiguous. Our analysis also suggests that farmers who tend to spend less on chemical fertilizers and pesticides are the ones with private information on soil conditions and pest incidence. These are the types of farmers who adversely select into COP contracts that only cover weather related losses.     

From our perspective: developing printed extension materials with cocoa farmers in Ghana

Farmers' lack of access to technical information constitutes a major obstacle to improving cocoa productivity in West and Central Africa. Recent debates on cocoa extension pay little attention to the potentially important role of printed extension materials for promoting cocoa integrated crop and pest management (ICPM) and encouraging farmer experimentation. A key issue concerns how to design such materials to meet farmers' needs. Typically, printed agricultural extension materials are developed by technical experts with little input from farmers, the end users. Materials developed in this way are often incomprehensible or confusing to farmers as they tend to contain too much information and use culturally inappropriate symbols and complex language. This paper describes a process involving Ghanaian cocoa farmers, communications and extension specialists to develop an illustrated booklet on cocoa integrated crop and pest management. The case study shows that farmers can make significant contributions to designing printed extension materials by bringing their own perspectives to the sequencing and design of the materials, highlighting details and showing illustrators the most effective ways to convey messages in a non-written way (using body language, colour etc.). As a result of farmers' involvement, the illustrations in the booklet are presented in a story context and sequence, and use a cause and effect approach to communicating ideas. Farmers' input also ensured that the illustrations provide a holistic presentation of cocoa farming by highlighting the linkage between application of technologies and improved household welfare. The paper concludes by offering guidelines on best practices for involving farmers in extension material development.     

Agrarian social movements: The absurdly difficult but not impossible agenda of defeating right‐wing populism and exploring a socialist future

Parallels, resemblances, and interconnections between contemporary right‐wing populism and the populism of agrarian movements are examined in this essay. The two are partly linked through their social base in the countryside. This paper explores an agenda for political conversation and research on possible contributions to the twin efforts of splitting the ranks of right‐wing populists while expanding the united front of democratic challengers. The challenge is how to transform the identified interconnections into a left‐wing political project that can erode right‐wing populism. This requires a reclaiming of populism. In exploring this agenda, the paper revisits the ideas and practices of right‐wing populism and agrarian populism and the awkward overlaps and fundamental differences between them. It concludes with a discussion on the challenge of forging a reformulated class‐conscious left‐wing populism as a countercurrent to right‐wing populism, and as a possible political force against capitalism and towards a socialist future.     

新疆棉农连作行为分析 —基于棉花替代作物可选择空间的思考

40多年来,新疆农业结构的调整的是从以小麦为主导地位的作物结构向棉花占主导地位的作物结构的转变过程。但是在植棉比重越来越高的过程中,棉花连作现象也日渐突出,该文通过相关数据资料说明了连作的危害,并从棉花的替代作物可选择性空间角度分析了棉农连作行为。     

Farms,farmworkers and new forms of livelihoods in southern Africa

This review essay looks at three recent books on farms, farm labour, and rural livelihoods in southern Africa. The books—Farm labor struggles in Zimbabwe: The ground of politics, by Blair Rutherford; Ordered estates: Welfare, power and maternalism on Zimbabwe's (once white) Highveld, by Andrew M. C. Hartnack; and Zimbabwe's migrants and South Africa's border farms: The roots of impermanence, by Maxim Bolt—offer a range of insights into labour politics and management, new forms of livelihoods on farms and former farms, and how those living on farms interact with informal economies. Usefully, the books cover events over the past two decades, as well as providing regional insights into important contemporary issues. While the books converge in a number of ways, this essay will focus on two key themes: (i) how they address issues of farm management and labour control; and (ii) they ways in which they explore farmworker agency in times of change and in areas of informality and precarity.     

Modeling skewness with the linear stochastic plateau model to determine optimal nitrogen rates

Accurate modeling of skewness is needed to increase the actuarial fairness of crop insurance. We test Day's conjecture that crop yield skewness becomes negative as nitrogen rates increase and determine how well a linear response stochastic plateau (LRSP) production function matches the pattern of observed skewness using four long‐term nitrogen experiments. Stillwater wheat is consistent with Day's conjecture, but the skewness for Lahoma and Altus wheat yields as well as Altus cotton yields are not. The LRSP assumes normal random effects and can explain only a small part of observed skewness, so a new LRSP with skew‐normal random effects is introduced, which comes closer to explaining the observed skewness and should increase the accuracy of nitrogen rate recommendations. Negative skewness reduced optimal nitrogen rates and positive skewness increased optimal nitrogen rates.     

基于最小距离法的RADARSAT-2遥感数据旱地作物识别

利用雷达遥感技术进行作物识别是当前作物遥感监测的研究热点之一,但利用雷达遥感技术进行旱地作物识别的相关研究较少,该文以RADARSAT 2雷达遥感数据对两种旱地作物玉米和棉花进行识别。以河北省枣强县为研究区,对其区域内的玉米和棉花进行识别。首先分析了与卫星过顶时刻同步采集的作物参数与后向散射系数之间的相关性发现,在植株高度、生物量、作物含水量、叶面积指数这四个作物参数中,植株高度与后向散射系数的相关性最大,其次是作物含水量;同时,通过最小距离法应用多时相、多极化雷达遥感数据进行作物识别,其精度可达到85%,通过与资源三号光学遥感数据结合,其作物识别精度提高到了93%。研究结果表明,雷达遥感数据应用于旱地作物识别是可行的,雷达遥感数据与光学遥感数据的结合能提高旱地作物识别的精度。该研究为应用雷达遥感数据进行旱地作物识别提供了参考。     

四川省乡村民俗旅游资源开发利用及良性互动机制研究

[目的]分析四川省乡村旅游的民俗文化特征,试图找到民俗文化与乡村旅游衔接及良性互动的实现途径。[方法]文章采用文献综述法、综合分析法对四川省旅游资源发展现状进行梳理,在此基础上分析乡村民俗文化与乡村旅游良性互动机制。[结论](1)四川省乡村有着丰富的民俗旅游资源,并孕育着独特的民俗风格;(2)四川省民俗文化与旅游产业发展仍然处于起步阶段,二者互动机制有待深入;(3)四川省乡村旅游产业的灵魂在于民俗文化,创新基于民俗文化的旅游产品是乡村旅游的根本出路。[结果]四川省乡村旅游主要以生态农业与农业体验为主,且该省生态农业、农业体验与我国经济较发达地区相比仍有较大差距,尤其是该省民俗旅游特点没有得到很好体现。     

保定市主要作物需水量和缺水量特征分析

[目的]对作物需水量及缺水量的研究是了解和合理配置农业灌溉用水的基础,对提高农业用水效率有重大意义。[方法]选取河北省保定市为研究区域,利用Penman-Monteith公式和分段单值平均作物系数法对冬小麦、夏玉米和棉花的作物需水量和缺水量等指标进行计算,通过Mann-Kendall检验法对保定市近60年来的作物需水量和缺水量等的变化趋势进行分析。[结果]3种主要作物的需水量、有效降雨量和缺水量的最大值均出现在作物发育中期;其中除冬小麦的有效降雨量以0.208mm/10年的速率呈不显著性增长趋势外,其他作物的各指标变化则均呈减少趋势;从突变现象来看,夏玉米和棉花的各指标发生明显变化的时期相近,需水量出现明显拐点的时刻在2008年以后,有效降水量在1968年以前和2014年两个时期,缺水量分别在2011年和2012年。[结论]该研究结果为保定市乃至河北省的农作物灌溉效率的提高及水资源规划与管理的完善提供了理论依据,具有一定的现实意义。     

How crop insurance influences agrochemical input use: Evidence from cotton farmers in China

Crop insurance is critical in risk management in global agricultural production (e.g. by helping stabilise farmers' incomes in the long term and reducing risk-bearing costs). In this paper, using field survey data on cotton farmers in Xinjiang, China, we examine the influence of crop insurance on farmers' behaviours regarding agrochemical inputs and aim to investigate the synergy between crop insurance and reductions in fertiliser and pesticide usage. We find evidence that crop insurance significantly negatively affects farmers' use of fertilisers and pesticides, as well as significantly positively affects their adoption of green agricultural technologies (GAT) that can replace or complement traditional fertilisers and pesticides. Moreover, our results reveal that compared with small-scale farmers, crop insurance has a stronger effect on large-scale farmers' use of agrochemicals. Finally, when the insured amount is higher or the relative deductible is lower, farmers are more likely to reduce fertiliser and pesticide usage and adopt GAT. Overall, this paper scientifically identifies crop insurance can improve farmers' agrochemical input behaviour, by reducing farmers' use of traditional agrochemical inputs and increasing their adoption of GAT, which is of great significance for ensuring the safety of the agricultural ecological environment.