The drivers of sugarcane expansion in Goiás,Brazil

Between 2003 and 2013, sugarcane area expanded six-fold, from 142,000 ha to 847,000 ha, in Goiás State and the Federal District, Brazil. And while there has been much research on land-use dynamics of sugarcane expansion in established sugarcane growing regions, little is known about the dynamics associated with its expansion in sugarcane frontiers like Goiás. Understanding these dynamics provides critical information for environmental, economic, and political decisions. Here, we investigate the agricultural land-use change dynamics associated with sugarcane production in Goiás and interrogate the relationship between biophysical, institutional, and logistical factors associated with sugarcane expansion. Our results demonstrate that pasture is seven times more likely to be converted to sugarcane than soy, and most new sugarcane area was not sourced in native Cerrado vegetation. Although there exist few biophysical limitations to sugarcane expansion, capital, infrastructure, and institutions constrain production. Lastly, we show that areas where soy is currently cultivated may be converted to sugarcane in the future given the expansion of transportation and sugarcane infrastructure. Thus, we suggest incentivizing the cultivation of sugarcane on degraded pastures and supporting increased pasture stocking rates to ensure continued protection of both natural vegetation and food production while supporting the expansion of sugarcane in the state.     

耕地保护及其必要性:不同兼业程度农户的认知与意愿——基于珠三角的调查与实证

[目的]探究不同兼业程度的农户对耕地、耕地保护、耕地保护补偿的认知差异,并通过回归方程探究不同兼业程度的农户对实行耕地保护政策必要性认知的影响因素,以期为激发农户的耕地保护积极性,优化耕地保护政策的实施绩效提供依据。[方法]运用农户调查问卷和二元Logistic回归模型,以农户认为实行耕地保护政策是否必要为因变量,以反映农户特征、耕作情况、耕地认知情况、耕地保护态度的13个变量为自变量,对农户认为是否有必要实行耕地保护政策及其影响因素进行分析。[结果]农户类型在1%的水平上显著,纯农户认为实行耕地保护政策的必要性低于两类兼业农户;性别因素在5%的水平上显著,女性农户更认为实行耕地保护政策是必要的;家庭农业年收入在1%的显著水平上呈正向影响;耕地质量和耕地保护行为认知程度这两个多分类变量均只有个别哑变量显著。[结论]加大农户层面耕地保护必要性和重要性的宣传教育;国家级耕地保护补偿统一化,各省、市可实行差异化的耕地保护补偿政策;尽可能满足农户的真实诉求,给农户选择耕地保护方式的自由;鼓励耕地流转和托管,创新和完善相关制度设计。     

The role of dairy company policies in support of farm green infrastructure in the absence of government stewardship payments

Intensive dairy farming has substantial impacts on freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Determining how to mitigate them while increasing production is driving the quest for sustainable milk production internationally. Green infrastructure (G.I.) provides private and public ecosystem services, including mitigation of farming environmental impacts. However, there are implementation barriers among farmers. New Zealand government supports farmer self-regulation as long as farmers meet environmental targets. Farmers are neither compensated for reducing environmental impacts, nor for setting aside G.I. in support of nature conservation. Dairy companies are under increasing pressure to ensure socially acceptable milk production practices among farmer suppliers. They may play a role in encouraging farmers to implement G.I. as a way of helping farmers meet regulatory compliance, and best farming practice. Using a content analysis of company policies, the role of dairy companies in encouraging G.I. among farmers is explored. Results indicate companies are concerned about the effects, and perception, of poor environmental farming practices on their profitability, and have developed some riparian G.I. policies, with government and farmer support. However, policies are farm-focused and are limited to one year, and thus lack the capacity to encourage G.I. in support of key ecosystem services, such as water cleansing and support for indigenous biodiversity that require landscape scaled networks and longer periods. Even at the farm scale, a majority of companies lack policies that encourage significant G.I. networks. Policies suggest companies, and by extension farmers, lack sufficient motivation to protect or restore them voluntarily. Under these conditions, significant G.I. is unlikely to develop under self-regulation, unless supplemented through motivating government stewardship payments.     

A framework proposal for sustainability assessment of sugarcane in Brazil

In many countries, the biofuels sector was encouraged to expand its activities supported by public policies incentives, especially to achieve improvements in energy security and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. The Brazilian government followed these initiatives and undertook some responsibilities against the international scenario related to climate change. One of the theses commitments concerning actions to reduce the GEE emissions by some 37% by 2020. The Sugarcane Agroecology Zoning provides technical subside to policy makers to direct sugarcane expansion to permitted areas and a sustainable production in Brazil and is considered a guideline to sustainable sugarcane production in Brazil. However, although aiming at a sustainable production, the zoning only considered natural aspects of the country, as soils and climate and an approach that consider all the dimensions of the sustainability is still missing. Hence, this paper aims to propose a framework to evaluate biofuel sustainability to support public policies, especially concerning improvements in Brazilian decision-supporting tools.     

Reasons for adoption of sustainable land management practices in a changing context: A mixed approach in Thailand

A farmer’s decision to adopt sustainable land management practices often takes place in a changing context. In the Northeast Region of Thailand, rural areas face a deagrarianization process and the dominant farming system – small-scale rice farming under rainfed conditions – is losing its role as the main provider of household income. The study applies a mixed approach to investigate the reasons why farmers adopt sustainable land management practices in this region. This approach involved a quantitative assessment of factors that influence adoption and a qualitative analysis of local actors’ opinions regarding these reasons. Two major reasons were identified: the engagement in diversifying production and the willingness to reduce the amount of time household members spend farming. These two reasons relate to two strategies farmers use to adapt to ongoing changes: getting involved in changing the farm or maintaining it while limiting the effort they spend running the farm. Initiatives to enhance the uptake of sustainable land management practices in the Northeast Region of Thailand would benefit from structuring the support provided taking these two strategies into account.     

Risk pooling cooperative games in contract farming

Contract farming can be an effective measure to deal with agricultural production risks. This study provides a two‐stage stochastic programming model to analyze farmers’ cooperation in the context of contract farming under uncertainty. It provides a fair cost allocation policy for a coalition of farmers using a stochastic linear duality approach. A fair cost allocation implies that no subset of farmers has an incentive to leave the coalition. Thus, a fair allocation policy ensures the stability of a coalition. Meanwhile, the risk pooling game is shown to have population monotonicity, which means that, every time a coalition adds a new member, each farmer within the coalition will incur a smaller cost. Hence, the population monotonicity gives an incentive for coalition expansion. Our results not only provide a simple way to design fair cost allocation policies for collaboration strategies in contract farming, but also play an important role in the sustainable development of farmers’ coalitions.     

梯度养老:渐进城市化中的农民养老模式及农地角色分析——一项基于嵌入理论视角的田野研究

强调农地社保的"乡土养老话语"与强调土地流转的"社保养老话语"对农民养老与农地制度改革关系争论激烈.本文以河南省L村一组为田野案例,以动态嵌入为分析框架,审视农民养老与农地制度关系问题,考察当下养老议题中老年农民、农地制度、市场及三代家庭之间的互动机制.研究发现,在经济性增强的同时,老人种地行为更深度地嵌入"渐进城市化...     

SEA making inroads in land-use planning in Brazil: The case of the Extreme South of Bahia with forestry and biofuels

In Brazil, incorporating the environmental dimension to the planning process is a challenging process. Planning has historically been carried without considering environmental protection concerns. The country's large development projects have engendered a discussion on the feasibility of these works given the conflicts with environmental policies. The strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a tool that has the potential to integrate the sectoral, territorial and environmental perspectives to promote sustainable development, as shown by international experience. Its use has not yet been regulated in Brazil, only been voluntary initiatives, both public and private, have been implemented. This paper presents the structure and results of the SEA of the plans to expand silviculture of eucalyptus and biofuels in the Extreme South Region of Bahia state, in the Brazilian Northeast, in a context of sectoral planning dissociated from government guidelines for land use policy and environmental protection. It portrays a practical case of methodological proposal for the use of socio-environmental criteria to establish limits for land occupation by monocultures, for each of the municipalities of the study region, according to their specific climate, soil, relief and environmental preservation characteristics. Various alternatives were identified to ensure areas with greater productivity for small family farming and areas with potential for preservation. SEA helped to a better understanding of the effects of the expansion of the planting areas in each alternative, which was essential to help all stakeholders visualize the consequences of their strategies. Consequently, as results the SEA outlined a series of guidelines and restrictions for the various levels of government and the production sector. For instance, SEA suggested for Federal, State and Municipality governments that areas with better soil and climate conditions could be reserved for public policies to incentive the diversification of the uses of the territory, such as food production. SEA also suggests the adoption of incentive programs to establish multiple-use forests. The SEA recommended that the state government integrate its program for strengthening family agriculture with land-use planning criteria, based on cooperative systems The methodology employed has evidences to be replicable in other regions of Brazil and in developing countries.     

Analysing the provision of agricultural public goods: The case of irrigated olive groves in Southern Spain

Analysis of the joint production of private and public goods (PGs) by farming activities is a fertile research field. These joint production processes are typically characterised by a high level of complexity derived from the intense relationship between the production of both kinds of outputs. An integrated approach is strongly recommended for the study of the provision of agricultural PGs and the design of public intervention in this sector. Here, we propose a theoretical framework to apply an integrated approach using the analytic network process (ANP) to analyse the production of PGs by agricultural systems to support public decision-making concerning the design and implementation of agricultural policies. We introduce a novel approach in applying ANP along both directions of the influences among elements, allowing us to identify the most influenced PGs and the farmers’ most influential decisions. This methodological approach is empirically applied to a particular farming system: the irrigated olive groves (IOG) of Southern Spain. Results show that the PGs most influenced by olive growers’ decisions are soil fertility, the visual quality of agricultural landscapes and farmland biodiversity. In addition, the most influential factors affecting the provision of PGs are the structural ones, namely farm size and tree density, and, to a lesser extent, management factors dealing with fertilisation, soil and irrigation management. These results are useful for supporting agricultural policy decision-making to enhance adequate management of this farming system regarding PGs production.     

Soil conservation and governmental policies in tropical areas: Does aid worsen the incentives for arresting erosion?

This paper focuses on how farmers respond with respect to the adoption of soil conservation measures to governmental agricultural policies aiming at supporting smallholders. A simple micro-economic framework was chosen to undertake an analysis of farmer choices among three activities; farming, adoption of soil conservation measures and off-farm work. The model shows that governments have to be cautious when designing support measures if improved resource management is a policy goal. In the design of such measures, attention has to be paid both to (1) the distribution in land quality, and (2) the distribution in the net returns from adopting soil conservation measures.     

What carbon farming activities are farmers likely to adopt? A best–worst scaling survey

Transferring carbon from the atmosphere into terrestrial sinks through carbon sequestration practices (so-called ‘carbon farming’) has been proposed as an important component in Australia’s efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. We use a Best–worst scaling survey to determine which carbon sequestration practices farmers would be most and least likely to adopt, and what factors were most important in any potential adoption decision. The survey was distributed to dryland cropping and mixed crop-livestock farmers in Western Australia. Farmers ranked improved soil quality and reduced soil erosion as the most important potential co-benefits of carbon farming. Factors discouraging farmers from participating in carbon farming contracts were policy and carbon price uncertainty and the uncertain impact of carbon farming practices on productivity and profitability. Farmers had strong preferences for stubble retention and no-till cropping practices as carbon farming strategies. The practices that farmers preferred least were applying biochar and planting trees. Farm and farmer characteristics, including (lack of) awareness of carbon farming policies and opinions about climate change, influence the potential willingness to adopt different carbon farming practices. Given recent policy uncertainty and farmer preferences revealed in this study, it is important to communicate potential co-benefits (rather than opportunities to earn compensation or carbon credits) to increase farmers’ engagement in carbon sequestration activities.     

可行能力视角下农户参与农地整理规划的意愿与影响检验——基于安徽寿县4个典型镇的实证分析

[目的]提升农户参与的意愿与探寻有效参与机制。[方法]文章以安徽省寿县4个典型镇的147户农户与4个项目为调查对象,从农户的可行能力视角出发,运用Logistic模型研究农户参与农地整理规划意愿的驱动因素,运用ArcGIS10.0的空间分析功能检验农户参与对规划的影响。[结果]非农业收入比例、农地整理政策了解度、排灌沟渠布局、田间道路密度及公众参与机制等5类因素有显著推动作用;对规划的影响表现在较大程度优化了规划方案,提高了农地生产率等,但耕作田块扩大效应不显著、排灌沟渠存在空间集聚现象、偏好生产路建设及轻视田间林网工程建设等弊端制约了农业规模化经营、忽视规划全局性与环境效应等。[结论]可通过强化农地整理政策宣传力度、完善引导农户式的公众参与机制及基于农户可行能力视角构建农地整理规划效果的衡量尺度以提升农户参与的意愿与探寻有效参与机制。     

农户生态耕种行为及其影响因素研究*——以江西省为例

[目的]为清晰识别影响农户生态耕种行为的主要因素,以期为加强耕地生态保护、保障农作物质量安全、提升农户耕种收益、实现农业现代化目标提供参考。[方法]基于江西省11市47县(区)1488份农户微观调查数据,在分析农户生态耕种特征基础上,运用二元Logistic和Probit模型对农户生态耕种行为影响因素开展实证研究。[结果]农户生态耕种10种具体行为的采纳情况差异明显,其中施用有机肥采纳程度最高,生态农业模式采纳程度最低。农户采纳生态耕种整体水平不高,但仍具备进一步推广的潜力。家庭劳动力比重、生态耕种成本认知、新型农业经营主体、法律法规认知、生态耕种收益认知、生计分化和生态环境认知等解释变量是影响农户生态耕种行为的主要内部因素,政府补贴、农田基础设施、生产交流程度、耕地质量变化和生态耕种信息获取难度等则是主要的外部影响因素。[结论]政府及基层管理部门应在推动农户非农就业生计、大力培育新型农业经营主体、加强生态耕种宣传与推广、完善政策扶持与管控机制等方面制定针对性的政策措施。     

Farmers in a deregulated dairy regime: Insights from Ireland's New Entrants Scheme

While the impending review of the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is set to have an impact on all farming sectors across Europe, particularly transformative change is sought by policies relating to dairy farmers. EU milk quota abolition in 2015 will fundamentally revise the terms of dairy production, transitioning from policies of subsidy and protection to a scenario where farmers will produce milk on the open market. Dairy quota abolition essentially represents an economic but also socio-cultural disruption for a sizeable cohort of farmers, requiring adaptation to more market-driven production strategies. Agricultural policy-makers in EU member states are demonstrably preparing for this imminent change and dairy farmers are considering and strategising their responses at farm-level. Our focus in this paper is the interplay between quota abolition and farm-level decision-making in the pre-abolition period. Drawing from a broader mixed-methodological and multi-disciplinary research project, this paper uses qualitative narrative analysis to identify the key determinants arising in dairy farmers’ decision-making processes. How are farmers currently strategising their responses to dairy quota deregulation? Using the qualitative Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM), we examine the range of factors determining how a particular group of dairy farmers are strategising their positions on the impending open dairy market. Our analysis highlights how, in the advent of a deregulated dairy production regime, dairy farmers are carefully deliberating their responses at farm level, drawing from policy and market related information, their own personal speculations, and conventional wisdom shared with other members of the farming community. We find that the dairy farmers are influenced not only by motivations to increase productivity and scale but by a tenacious approach to farm sustainability and resilience that is informed by past experiences of farming and seeks to preserve and promote socio-cultural farming values. The paper is of particular interest to policy makers and academics interested in the interchange between policy and farmer behaviour, particularly in the context of current CAP reform.     

The novelty of simple and known technologies and the rhythm of farmer-centred innovation in family dairy farming in Brazil

Family dairy farming is under threat from the expansion of the sugarcane economy in south-eastern Brazil. This paper analyses an intervention programme which aimed to intensify dairy production and make family dairy farming sustainable in this competitive context. The case study of the ‘Balde Cheio’ Programme (Full Bucket) can be seen as an alternative method of knowledge generation to that of the dominant research approach which prioritizes cutting-edge technologies. This paper characterizes this farmer-oriented innovation programme for dairy farming systems, in which research, development and extension are seen as a long-term learning process. It analyses how the programme has been adapted to fit the diversity of situations found amongst farmers and to heterogeneous production conditions. The study relates the circulation of knowledge, the search for innovation by recombining apparently simple and known technologies, the use of experiments on the farm and the adaptation of the rhythm of innovation to the specific situation of the farm as the critical issues to achieve sustainable production systems.     

Do farmers really like farming? Indian farmers in transition

Few studies of agrarian transition examine what farmers themselves feel about farming. Are they cultivating out of choice or a lack of options? What distinguishes farmers who like farming from those who do not: their personal/household characteristics and endowments? The local ecology and regional economy? Or a mix of these and other factors? Understanding farmer satisfaction is important not only for assessing citizen wellbeing but also for agricultural productivity, since occupational satisfaction can affect a farmer’s incentive to invest and reveal production constraints. Using a unique all-India data-set which asked farmers, ‘Do you like farming?’ this paper provides answers and policy pointers, contributing a little-studied dimension to debates on the smallholder’s future and subjective wellbeing.     

Modelling the impacts of policy on entry into organic farming: Evidence from Danish–UK comparisons, 1989–2007

This paper analyses organic farming entry decisions using a piece-wise linear depiction of policy. Our goal is to ascertain, from the available but limited information, whether Danish and UK policy measures toward organic agriculture have affected participation. Despite considerable interest in the growth of organic farming there has been little systematic analysis of it, although it is commonly believed that enhanced income levels have played a part. Whilst analyses of organic farming policy have provided extensive reviews of instruments applied, generally speaking, the spirit of those enquiries takes as datum that organic policies have had the desired impacts. Yet such conjectures remain mostly untested. Hence, there is a need to examine systematically if there exist relationships between the introduction of organic farming policies and the growth of organic farming, and whether particular policy measures are more effective than others. Here, we take a first step in this endeavor by undertaking an econometric analysis of the relationship between 14 organic farming policy measures and participation rates in Denmark and the UK during 1989–2007. Using two response variables – the numbers of farmers converted to organic production and the total land area under organic practice – we implement a simple, Bayesian methodology and evaluate the stepwise-linear impacts of policy. Extensions for future work are discussed. Six policy measures in the two study countries were found to be significant influences on participation, five of them direct supply-side instruments. For the UK, all of the policies are annual subsidies for organic farmers once conversion was complete. For Denmark, the policies are the introduction of organic subsidies for non-dairy farms, the extension of subsidies beyond 1997 and support for the costs of marketing services.     

Retirement farming or sustainable growth – land transfer choices for farmers without a successor

Ireland’s agriculture is characterised by an ageing farmer population and small average farm sizes. These structural issues are shared by a number of European countries and have been identified as barriers to sustainable growth in the sector. While farms with an identified successor usually enter a path of expansion and growth, farms without a successor at some point follow a route of winding down and extensification. Such retirement farming could potentially become an issue for food security and sustainable land use. Understanding the retirement decisions of farmers without a successor is key to address this issue. To this end a survey was conducted with Irish farmers including questions surrounding succession and retirement. About half of the surveyed farmers did not have a successor and two thirds of those did not intend to fully retire from active farming in the future. A logistic regression analysis of the collected data showed that placing a high value on family tradition in farming and only receiving a state pension had a negative effect on the intention to retire, while being aware of changing pension ages had a positive effect. A follow up qualitative study explored the perceptions of farmers without a successor regarding various land transfer options. The participants mainly anticipated negative consequences arising from selling the farm and full retirement such as the loss of land and the end of the farming activity. Other options such as the long-term leasing of part of the land or entering into a partnership with a younger farmer were regarded as having more positive consequences. These included a lowering of the workload, allowing a continuing involvement in farm work, and the ability to be able to stay on the farm.     

Protecting farm land near cities : Trade-offs with affordable housing in Hawaii

In protecting farm land near cities, policy makers must balance the interests of farmers against affordable housing demands of the urban population. This article examines land use competition between agriculture and housing on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Land suitability ratings for farming and urban development are compared, and future urban expansion onto agricultural land is simulated under different land use policies. Results indicate severe tradeoffs for affordable housing if all high quality farm lands are strictly preserved. Achieving farmland protection goals will require further policy support to transform the local farm structure from plantation to diversified agriculture.