Locating the adverse effects of rangeland enclosure among herders in eastern Ethiopia

This paper examines the effects of rangeland enclosure on herders’ livelihoods and property rights. The analysis is based on the household survey and focus group discussions among pastoral and agropastoral households (from three administrative districts in eastern Ethiopia) who have practiced enclosure and who have been affected by practices of others. Such an examination helps anticipate whether enclosure practice assists in attaining income security and ensuring household welfare by supporting livestock development. Results have shown that expansion of enclosure leads to the emergence of incompatible demands (conflict of interest) over the resource and unstable property rights to the grazing commons. Though private benefits from enclosure produce an incentive for households to practice it, its expansion does not generally increase the welfare of (agro-) pastoral community in the longer-term. Hence, land use policies that favor private use of the rangeland, using land enclosure as an entry point, can potentially harm pastoral livelihoods rather than supporting sustainable pastoral development.     

War Legacies,Welfare and Livelihoods in Rural Areas: The Case of Kosovo

This article examines the effects of war on livelihood choices and welfare outcomes of rural households in Kosovo using the 2000 Kosovo Living Standards Measurement Survey. We analyse the extent of the legacy of war on livelihood activities and welfare. We first identify livelihood portfolio clusters of households pursuing similar combinations of activities. These clusters are comparable to those described in more qualitative studies in the immediate post‐conflict period. We then examine the determinants of livelihood portfolio choice and the consequences of these for welfare outcomes. Our results provide evidence of a relationship between a household’s experience of war and livelihood choice. We also identify significant selection effects on welfare for three out of four livelihood clusters, highlighting the fact that selecting into a specific livelihood portfolio changes welfare relative to expected levels. Our results show that war not only affects livelihood choices but also changes the returns to these activities.     

Pasture taxes and agricultural intensification in southern Mali

This study integrates biophysical simulation data with a farm household model of intertemporal optimization, to investigate changing crop-livestock management practices in the Sudano-Guinean zone of Mali. Over a 15-yr time horizon we find that free grazing on the commons remains more attractive to the representative household than adopting more labor-and capital-intensive confinement systems, but that a relatively low level of pasture tax (around US$3 per livestock unit per year) would be sufficient to induce intensification. Because confinement raises output, the net cost of the tax to the household is only about US$1 per unit per year. Imposing pasture taxes to induce intensification could raise community welfare, if the value of commons resources liberated by reduced grazing pressure exceeds that level.     

Changes in farmers’ welfare from land requisition in the process of rapid urbanization

The marked impact of the welfare gap on total welfare within collectives has rarely, if at all, been addressed in traditional welfare theories and in Amartya Sen's theory of welfare functioning and capabilities. With this observation as our starting point, we constructed a research framework that combined welfare functioning, the welfare gap, and welfare capability to assess and analyze changes in the welfare of farmers whose land was requisitioned in Zhejiang province. The findings of our study were as follows. (1) The total welfare functioning of farmers whose land was requisitioned increased by 11.8% as a result of improvements in economic and dwelling conditions and community surroundings. However, social security and psychological conditions deteriorated. (2) Although total welfare functioning has improved, gaps are widening in the distribution of welfare functioning among farmers who underwent land requisition. This was evidenced by the increase of the weighted Gini coefficient, which rose from 0.26 to 0.32 after land requisition. (3) As a result of the improvement in welfare capability, a judgmental bias is evident when farmers assess whether they have gained or lost welfare after land requisition. We conclude that welfare studies should focus not only on the quantitative aspects of welfare distribution, but should also pay more attention to its fairness and impartiality. This can prevent social problems posed by an oversized welfare gap. Moreover, after land requisition, the government and community should provide education and training services, and the current one-time compensation model should be replaced by a lifelong compensation model. At the same time, endowment insurance should be extended in rural areas and urban medical insurance should be progressively incorporated into the social security benefits of farmers who have undergone land requisition.     

农地城市流转中福利变化研究进展综述

研究目的:综述国内外有关农地城市流转中福利变化研究的文献。研究方法:本文主要采用了文献回顾法、归纳法等对国际和国内有关农地城市流转中福利变化的研究进展进行了总结和分析。研究结果:国内外学者在农地城市流转福利测度指标体系、福利增值收益分配,福利补偿的制度安排,福利分割利益集团的划分等方面已取得不少研究成果,但在福利的定量研究、对非经济福利的衡量等方面研究深度不够、部分问题研究不完善。研究结论:中国学者应在研究方法和研究理论上更多地借鉴国外已有的经验和成果,把西方学者有关福利分析的理论框架和定量决策模型纳入中国农地城市流转中的福利分析,这对中国农地城市流转的福利变化研究有重要的理论价值和现实意义。     

Genetic improvements in major US crops: the size and distribution of benefits

The distribution of welfare gains of genetic improvements in major US crops is estimated using a world agricultural trade model. Multi-market welfare estimates were 75% larger than estimates based on the price-exogenous 'change in revenue' method frequently used by plant breeders. Annual benefits of these genetic improvements range from US$ 400–600 million depending on the supply shift specification. Of this, 44–60% accrues to the US, 24–34% accrues to other developed countries. Developing and transitional economies capture 16–22% of the welfare gain. The global benefits of a one-time permanent increase in US yields are US$ 8.1 billion (discounted at 10%) and US$ 15.4 billion (discounted at 5%). Gains to consumers in developing and transitional economies range from US$ 6.1 billion (10% discount rate) to US$ 11.6 billion (5% discount rate).     

Do crop purchase programs improve smallholder welfare? The case of Zambia's Food Reserve Agency

Government and parastatal crop purchase programs have regained popularity in sub-Saharan Africa, with many citing improving smallholder farmers’ welfare as a key goal. Yet there is limited empirical evidence on the topic. This paper analyzes the effects of the Zambian Food Reserve Agency's (FRA's) maize purchase activities on smallholder welfare. The FRA buys maize at a pan-territorial price that often exceeds market prices in surplus production areas. Using two household panel survey datasets spanning 15 years and exploiting variation in the scale of FRA activities over time, we employ fixed effects and control function approaches to estimate the effects of a smallholder household's maize sales to the FRA on its welfare, as well as the effects of more intense FRA maize purchase activity in a given district on the welfare of smallholder households in the district. Results suggest positive direct welfare effects on the minority of smallholders that sell to the FRA. We also find that, in the early years of the program, more intense FRA maize purchase activity in a district was associated with reductions in smallholder welfare, particularly among maize autarkic and net buying households. In later years, we find no evidence of such negative effects and some evidence of positive district-level effects on maize net buyers.     

Participation, Trip Frequency and Site Choice: A Multinomial-Poisson Hurdle Model of Recreation Demand

Data used in recreation demand modeling are characterized by the facts that trip frequencies are non-negative integers and that consumers are often faced with alternative destinations. This paper considers these features by estimating a multivariate recreation demand model that accounts for trip frequency and choice among alternative recreation sites using a mixed multinomial-Poisson hurdle distribution. The specification of the Poisson hurdle distribution at the aggregate level accounts for participation and trip frequency, and avoids the restrictive mean-variance property of the basic Poisson model. The model is estimated using data from Bighorn sheep hunters in Alberta, Canada. Simulation results suggest that changing price and quality variables cause substitution among sites. The welfare implications of changes in these variables are also examined.     

Did the Commons Make Medieval and Early Modern Rural Societies More Equitable? A Survey of Evidence from across Western Europe, 1300–1800

The view of the commons as archaic, ‘backward’ and ‘irrational’ institutions for the management of resources has now been revised in favour of a more positive one, for both past and present societies. Indeed, it is clear that the commons had multifarious ecological and economic benefits for both medieval and early modern rural societies in Western Europe. That being the case, many scholars have seen the increasing expropriation of the commons in the transition to the early modern period as a sign of increasing inequality characterizing pre‐industrial Europe, and many have lamented the loss of communal grazing privileges connected to processes such as land enclosure – pushing poor peasants into the ‘abyss’ with the removal of their final form of welfare. However, in this paper it is argued that the social distribution of the benefits to the commons were rarely, if ever, entirely equitable. In fact, in many historical contexts the benefits of the commons could also be highly restricted – crystallizing and entrenching stratifications themselves, and even serving as the ‘vehicle’ of further inequality. The expropriation of the commons did not necessarily make Western European rural societies any more unequal.     

Adaptation and change in Queensland’s rangelands: Cell grazing as an emerging ideology of pastoral-ecology

Does the current global political economic framework, or more specifically, the cost–price squeeze associated with primary production, restrict the choices of Australian cattle graziers in moving to more sustainable practices? It has often been argued by primary producers and academics, alike, that current terms of trade have resulted in reduced profitability at the property level, and as such, have made it difficult for landholders to shift to practices which are environmentally sustainable. Whilst there is mounting evidence that this is case, there is also evidence that some graziers have been able to adapt to the prevailing market conditions through an ideological as well as ‘practice’ shift. Findings from qualitative research in Central Queensland, Australia, has highlighted how ‘cell grazing’ departs from the traditional or conventional aspects of grazing which can be described as productivist, to an approach closely approximating Lang and Heasman’s (2004) ‘ecologically integrated paradigm’ [Lang, T., Heasman, M., 2004. Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths Minds and Markets. Earthscan, London]. It is argued that cell grazing is, at present, a marginal activity that requires an ideological and cultural shift, as well as an investment in new infrastructure, however, current cell grazing activities may also demonstrate that beef grazing has the potential to be both economically and environmentally sustainable.     

Cereal price shocks and volatility in sub‐Saharan Africa: what really matters for farmers’ welfare?

The lack of information as well as some misperceptions about the distinction between the welfare consequences of higher versus more volatile cereal prices has limited the effectiveness of policy interventions during the recent food crises in many developing countries. This article proposes an integrated empirical strategy to investigate and compare the different effects of these two phenomena and tests it using nationally representative household survey data from four sub‐Saharan countries. Results show that the negative impacts of a cereal price increase substantially outweigh the effects of price volatility on household welfare across the entire income distribution. The amplitude and the distribution of those effects depend heavily on specific factors, such as: the weight of food consumption over total expenditure; the budget share devoted to cereals; the substitution effect among food groups; and the relative number of net sellers versus net buyers accessing the market. We also show that volatility mainly harms the poorest quintile of the population.     

SOCIAL COSTS OF REGULATION OF PRIMARY INDUSTRY: AN APPLICATION TO ANIMAL WELFARE REGULATION OF THE VICTORIAN PIG INDUSTRY*

The effects of state government regulation of primary industry are modelled. An analytical framework is presented for estimating the costs of regulation in terms of changes in economic surplus. The model permits trade between regions of the total market. An illustrative application of the framework is applied to proposed animal welfare regulation of the Victorian pig industry. Some regulations that may provide large gains with regard to the welfare of farm animals involve only small social costs compared to the gross value of production of the industry. Conversely, other regulations that potentially confer only small gains in animal welfare impose large social costs. The distribution of these costs is important. In general, consumers lose, as do some producers. Other producers gain. In some cases, producers in aggregate gain from regulation. Major beneficiaries, such as advocates of animal welfare regulations, are likely to bear little of the cost of regulation.     

Measuring producer welfare under output price uncertainty and risk non-neutrality

Procedures to measure the producer welfare effects of changes in an output price distribution under uncertainty are reviewed. Theory and numerical integration methods are combined to show how for any form of Marshallian risk-responsive supply, compensating variation of a change in higher moments of an output price distribution can be derived numerically. The numerical procedure enables measurement of producer welfare effects in the many circumstances in which risk and uncertainty are important elements. The practical ease and potential usefulness of the procedure is illustrated by measuring the producer welfare effects of USA rice policy.     

Productivity and Producer Welfare in the Presence of Production Risk

Production risk is an inherent characteristic of agriculture and changes in production risk will affect the welfare of risk‐averse producers. Using standard concepts from the literature on uncertainty, we introduce a welfare measure which comprises total factor productivity (TFP), production risk and farmer risk preferences, and which reflects the impact on producer welfare of changes in production technology. An empirical application is carried out using data from a sample of Spanish dairy farms which shows how the positive impact of increases in TFP on welfare can be offset by increases in the risk premium (‘cost of risk’) to the point where welfare may decrease.     

The Potential Impact of Tobacco Biopharming: The Case of Human Serum Albumin

Biopharming stands to significantly expand the uses of many agricultural crops. This article examines the potential size and distribution of welfare gains from biopharming transgenic tobacco as a source of human serum albumin (HSA) using an economic surplus model under imperfect competition. The results suggest that HSA from transgenic tobacco will generate annual profits for the innovating firm of between $25 million and $49 million. On the other hand, consumers are unlikely to benefit during the patent life of the product given the innovator's market power.     

Using photography to elicit grazier values and management practices relating to tree survival and recruitment

Integrating conservation and agricultural production is a major challenge globally. The upper Lachlan catchment of Australia is dominated by livestock grazing, and is threatened because most native woodland vegetation has been cleared. A third of all remaining tree cover occurs as scattered trees in grazing pastures. These scattered trees are dying from old age and are not regenerating due to grazing pressure. Previous work has revealed management strategies that are more likely to maintain tree cover, such as low-input rotational grazing. We asked graziers to photograph significant features on their properties, and used the images as prompts in later interviews. This elicited graziers’ landscape values and other drivers of their management practices related to tree cover. The targets that our 25 case landholders chose to photograph, and the ways they discussed them in later interviews, reflected the focus of past education and incentive programs, suggesting that well-designed policies, educational messages and incentives do seem to reach landholders and result in improved practices. For example, many landholders reported management activities related to the protection of large woodland patches or the maintenance of coarse woody debris. The maintenance of scattered tree cover has not been a focus of policy initiatives in the past. Despite this, the narratives elicited by photos of isolated and scattered trees showed graziers valued them and were aware of and concerned about their decline, yet lacked knowledge about how to protect and regenerate them. Graziers urgently need unambiguous advice and practical assistance to help them adapt their practices to maintain scattered trees in the long term.     

Economic benefits of public investment in weed management: the case of vulpia in south-eastern Australia's temperate pasture areas

The present paper reports an economic evaluation of the long-term benefits to Australia of research by the Cooperative Research Centre for Weed Management Systems (CRC) into the improved management of vulpia , the major annual grass weed of temperate pastures in New South Wales and Victoria. Vulpia reduces livestock production by competition with more desirable pasture species, by the production of low quality feed at critical times of the grazing cycle, and by injury to animals. A 20-year stochastic benefit-cost analysis indicated that reducing the impacts of vulpia in these pastures produced a mean net present value of $A58.3 million and a mean benefit-cost ratio of 33:1. Temperate pasture zone wool producers would capture the largest shares of these benefits, Australian consumers would gain, but wool producers in the rest of Australia would suffer welfare losses from vulpia reductions in the temperate pasture zones.     

Balancing economic revenue and grazing pressure of livestock grazing on the Qinghai–Tibetan–Plateau

Treating grazing pressure as an undesirable output of livestock grazing in a directional distance function improves understanding of how economic behaviour affects the environment. Field survey data from 193 livestock grazing households combined with remotely sensed net primary productivity (NPP) data on the Qinghai–Tibetan–Plateau was used to develop a directional output‐orientation distance function. The average efficiency of livestock grazing households is 0.817 when incorporating grazing pressure as an undesirable output, which means that households can achieve 18.3% more output and decrease proportional grazing pressure holding all inputs fixed. The relative shadow price of undesirable grazing pressure to good output grazing revenue is estimated to be between 1.795 and 3.986. According to the Morishima elasticity of substitution between inputs, there is a significant complementary relationship between grassland, labour and capital.     

Farm Income and Economic Welfare Considerations

We present four decision rules for ranking income distributions based on specific restrictions on the form of the welfare function. These rules reflect different emphases on presumed preferences for both higher incomes and a more equitable distribution of income, ceteris paribus. Particular attention is paid to the occurrence of negative incomes, and we show how these can directly affect the ordinal rankings. The four decision rules are employed in a comparative analysis of farming incomes in England over the period 1983/84–1993/94. The outcome is a more complete ranking of income distributions than is possible using conventional measures. There is some evidence of an improvement in the welfare of the farming community over the period.     

Investing in irrigation development in North West Queensland,Australia

This study uses a dynamic multi‐regional Computable General Equilibrium model of the Australian economy to examine the impacts of developing irrigated agriculture in remote North West Queensland. A potential investment and operational scenario is implemented using three alternative forecast baselines. In the first run using a business‐as‐usual baseline, there is a welfare loss from irrigation development, even with an optimistic shift in farm productivity and factor endowments in North West Queensland. In the second run, baseline demand for Australia's exports is assumed to grow at a faster rate and there is a small welfare gain. Simulating climate change impacts on crop yields, the forecast baseline of the third run includes a gradual reduction in farmland productivity in southern Australia. The simulations show the impacts of both supply and demand shifts on the welfare outcome, but on balance, clear welfare gains do not arise from the potential irrigation development.