Farmers’ views on the future of olive farming in Andalusia,Spain

Andalusia, located in southern Spain, is the major olive production area worldwide. Due to the relevance of this agricultural sector on the regional income, this article investigates olive farmer's perspectives regarding olive production after their retirement and potential factors affecting these including economic, social, environmental and spatial factors. We use data from a survey conducted to 431 olive farmers in Andalusia in 2010. Our findings show spatial dependence in explaining farmer's views on the future of olive farming at relatively small distances. In addition other factors such as bad economic performance, erosion or olive diseases affect farmer's perception. We make propositions on what elements should be taking into account when designing agricultural policies aiming at guaranteeing the sustainability of olive farming in future.     

Farmers’ perspectives on climate change manifestations in smallholder cocoa farms and shifts in cropping systems in the forest-savannah transitional zone of Ghana

The study was conducted to explore actual manifestations of climate change in smallholder cocoa farms to aid extension response to climate impacts, and to understand the reasons for a renewed interest in cocoa production in the forest-savanna agro ecological landscape in Ghana, in spite of unfavorable climatic conditions. Two hundred cocoa farmers were interviewed in nine cocoa farming communities. Selected farms were also visited to document on-farm manifestation of climate impacts as well as innovations and strategies farmers are employing to respond to the adverse impacts of climate change on their cocoa systems. The results revealed various manifestations of climate impacts on cocoa farms which included, increased incidence of pests and diseases, wilting of cocoa leaves, high mortality of cocoa seedlings which affected expansion and farm rehabilitation, and wilting of cherelles resulting in low yield. The farmers maintained that their response to the immediate impacts of climate on cocoa was a shift to cereals due to the unpredictable climatic patterns and the shortened duration of rainfall. However, a combination of storage and supply chain challenges and low returns from cereal production, coupled with land scarcity in the Western Region, where most of them are migrant farmers accounted for their decision to return to cocoa production lately. It was observed, among other adaptive responses, that some farmers plant about three times the plantain suckers they usually plant, to provide a dense temporary shade over cocoa seedlings, and resort to planting more cocoa seedlings randomly per unit area on new farms, contrary to recommended planting approach, as a form of insurance against seedling mortality. More importantly, a community-based fire response system was identified to be a major safeguard mechanism to the threat of fire. Clearly, the farmers are not replanting cocoa in the forest-savanna agro ecological landscape because it is more productive than cereals, but they believe that a low yielding cocoa is far better than a productive cereal cropping systems that offer low returns when compared to cocoa. The study brings out the sustainable livelihood challenges of the rural farmer within the context of a changing climate for appropriate policy response.     

Farmers’ perceptions of biodiversity: Lessons from a discourse-based deliberative valuation study

In agricultural landscapes farmers have a large impact on biodiversity through the management decisions they apply to their land. Farmers’ perceptions of biodiversity and its different values influence their willingness to apply biodiversity friendly farming practices. The results of a discourse-based, deliberative biodiversity valuation are presented in this paper. Organic and conventional farmers’ perceptions of the different values of biodiversity were analyzed across three European countries. Focus group methodology was used to explore how farmers perceive biodiversity and how they assess its values.Our results suggest that farmers’ perceptions of biodiversity are strongly embedded in their everyday lives and linked to farming practices. Besides recognizing the importance of species and habitat diversity, farmers also acknowledge wider landscape processes and attach value to the complexity of ecological systems. Organic farmers tended to have a more complex and philosophical approach to biodiversity and they were relatively homogeneous in this aspect, while conventional farmers showed larger heterogeneity. Ethical and social values were important for all farmers. Economic value was more dominant in the conventional focus groups.The discourse based deliberative valuation method is worth applying in relation to biodiversity for two reasons. First, this method is able to reflect the heterogeneity of non-scientist participants and the context in which they are embedded, which both have a great impact on the results of the valuation. Second, deliberation upon the importance of biodiversity makes possible to understand the competing perceptions of biodiversity and to include different value aspects in the valuation process. The policy oriented consequence of the research can be drawn from the observation that farmers have a strong acknowledgement of ethical and social biodiversity values. This suggests that soft policy tools could also foster biodiversity sensitive farming methods, complementary to mainstream monetary incentives.     

A comparative analysis of rice–wheat systems in Indian Haryana and Pakistan Punjab

Intensive irrigated rice–wheat production systems have converted the north-west Indo-Gangetic Plains into South Asia's cereal basket. Their strategic importance is undermined by a slowdown in productivity growth linked to the degradation of soil and water resources. Findings from farm surveys are used to examine contrasts and similarities between rice and wheat farms, cultivation practices, productivity, and profitability in the rice–wheat belt of India's Haryana State and Pakistan's Punjab province. In Haryana average wheat and paddy yields are markedly higher, but the yield advantage is offset by higher total production costs, resulting in lower private returns. The diverging institutional environment including varying levels of intervention in produce and input markets contributed to the evolution of the Pakistani production model as relatively ‘medium input–medium output’ and the Indian production model as ‘high input–high output’. The study reiterates the need to reinvigorate productivity growth and to reduce production costs in these intensive cereal production systems while conserving natural resources such as water and limiting negative environmental impacts. The study however also raises questions about the future of current rice–wheat systems.     

Farmers’ risk preferences and their climate change adaptation strategies in the Yongqiao District,China

Farmers’ risk preferences play an important role in agricultural production decisions. This study characterizes risk preferences among farmers in Yongqiao and determines how these risk preferences are related to their choices regarding climate change adaptation strategies. We find that most farmers in the study area were aware of climate change. They were taking measures to protect their livelihoods against perceived changes to the local climate. The risk experiment result shows that the representative subject was risk averse, and women were more risk averse than men. The relationships between farmers’ risk preferences and different climate change adaptation choices were different. Farmers’ risk aversion was negatively and significantly related with adaptation strategies on planting new crop varieties and adopting new technology, but it had a significantly positive effect on purchasing weather index crop insurance. The results also indicate that the level of education, farming experience, farm size, household income and perception of climate change impacts influence farmers’ adaptation decisions.     

Organic farming and international exchange: participant perceptions of North–South transferability

Institutions of higher education and work–study abroad programmes have been instrumental in internationalizing sustainable agriculture education. Informal educational opportunities in the form of internships and apprenticeships have become relatively common features of the organic agriculture landscape in the USA. This research examines an international agricultural exchange programme that effectively combines these two emerging fields of study exploring how exchange participants perceive the transferability of their organic farming experience in the USA, to their home countries in Peru and Ecuador. Learning experiences and host farms vary considerably, with some participants being more optimistic than others about how well organic farming practices on their respective farms could be adopted to their home country contexts. While the cross-border/transnational nature of the exchange programme examined is not unique, the inverse flow of people in the exchange (from South to North) examined in this study allows for a new perspective on the value of agricultural exchanges and the perceived transferability of organic farming ideas and practices. Ultimately, this study suggests that the most valuable elements of international agricultural exchange reside not with the diffusion of agricultural innovations, but with how cross-cultural experiential learning promotes critical reflection on place-appropriate production.     

Contracting and Farmers’ Perception of Unfair Trading Practices in the EU Dairy Sector

It is commonly asserted that unfair trading practices (UTPs) emerge largely as a result of contract incompleteness. In line with this view it is claimed that making contracts more complete will represent an antidote to UTPs. In this paper we argue that this does not need to be the case. This is because contracts, except for their potential to increase the surplus generated in the transaction, determine how this surplus will be divided. This, in turn, makes it possible for both trading partners to use contractual terms to turn the distributional conflict to their advantage. In the presence of unequal distribution of bargaining power this may lead to a situation in which the stronger party may succeed in tilting the contract in its favour by including UTPs in the contract content. Drawing insights from data collected in 2017 through a field survey among dairy farmers in France, Germany, Poland and Spain, we find support for this argument. Our estimation results show that contract completeness increases the likelihood of farmers reporting that their contracts with processors include the practices that may be considered as UTPs. Further, and also in line with this argument, contract completeness does not seem to affect UTPs during the contract execution or its termination.     

The Impact of Industrial Investments on Land Use and Smallholder Farmers’ Livelihoods in Ethiopia

This study analyzes industrialization-induced agricultural land conversion (ALC) and its impact on land use change, food crop production, and the livelihood of smallholder farmers in peri-urban Gelan and Dukem, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. The study was carried out using a mixed method approach, i.e., qualitative and quantitative methods. Data were collected through various methods, e.g., household survey, expert interview, field observation, and focus group discussions method. Furthermore, a total of 223 interviews with farmers were conducted in Gelan and Dukem. Results show that large-scale industrial investments in the case study area led to substantial land use change, an appropriation of agricultural land, and an increase in the number of landless farmers, as well as farmers with small farmland holding sizes of less than one hectare. At the same time, the total crop production in the area decreased. The ‘development pace’ of the investments is often very slow. Only 28% and 37% of the licensed projects in Gelan and Dukem had entered their operational phases by the end of 2014, respectively. The study concludes that if the incomes of smallholder farmers are not enough to meet the needs of their families, they will need to create some income alternatives. Thus, considering the population growth and limited farmland, it is necessary to support various income-generating activities in order to improve farmers’ livelihoods rather than depending entirely on low productive methods such as traditional agricultural activities and non-mechanized production tools. It is worth mentioning that the results of this study will enhance the positive impacts of ALC and minimize the negative ones through land use planning and management tools. Furthermore, the main findings allow us to specify the gaps in access, utilization, and coverage due to wrong policy priority and institutional and technological variables.     

An institutional and policy framework to foster integrated rice–duck farming in Asian developing countries

Asia has accounted for the vast majority of the world's rice and meat-duck production. In the integrated rice–duck farming (IRDF) system, ducklings are released into rice paddies in order to maximize the use of renewable resources in a closed-cycle flow of nutrients during rice vegetation periods. Rice–duck farming used to be widely adopted in tropical and subtropical eastern Asian countries, but has remained unpopular in the wake of prevailing agricultural productivism characterized by specialization, intensification, mechanization and excessive dependence on agrochemicals. This paper sets out institutional pathways that can redevelop IRDF in Asia. These include organic food certification systems, organic farmers' cooperatives, community-wide organic farming, localized technical extension and educational services, and between-farm rice–duck integration. A comprehensive package of these institutional tools would further expedite the expansion of IRDF particularly in low-income Southeast Asia where the rice or duck farming landscape is overwhelmingly dominated by smallholders.     

Husbands’ and wives’ risk preferences and improved maize adoption in Tanzania

Research on technology adoption typically assumes that the preferences of a single individual—the household head—determine household-level decisions. This study uses experimentally derived prospect theory-based risk preferences from couples in Tanzania to test whether men's and women's risk preferences, which often diverge, influence the adoption of improved maize varieties. We find that women's risk aversion and men's loss aversion are negatively correlated with improved variety use. The tendency of men to overweight small probabilities is negatively associated with adoption, whereas the tendency of women to do so is positively associated. These findings suggest that technology adoption research should look beyond the preferences of the household head, and that technology promoters should consider targeting both men and women in their education and dissemination efforts.     

A study of farmer’s decision and incentive scheme to reduce highland maize farming in Thailand

During the past 15 years, there has been a considerable increase in highland maize farming in Nan, a province in northern Thailand. The increase in farming area causes an excessive forest encroachment and environmental problems, e.g. soil degradation, landslide, and pesticide contamination. This research explores the mechanism and factors which drive a sustainable transformation from highland maize farming to reforestation. We survey 107 farmers in Nammeed and Sopsai watersheds in where the reverses of growing trend of deforestation in Thailand have been observed. Comparative statistical analysis and regression are used to analyse factors affecting farmer’s decisions and compare differences between the two sites. We find that the fundamental mechanism driving a sustainable transformation from highland maize farming to reforestation comprises 3 pillars. These are 1) realization of adequate economic, health or environmental benefits derived from the alternatives; 2) a sense of belonging and attachment towards the forest and 3) effective enforcements of communal rules and regulations. While natural transformation in Nammeed area highlights the roles of flatland as key driver of the change, subsidy schemes can supplement the transformation during transitional period as seen in Sopsai area.     

Landowners’ conservation motives and the size of information rents in environmental bidding systems

We examine landowners’ conservation motives, conservation costs and information rents in environmental bidding systems designed for forestry with the help of Faustmann and Hartman models and data from Finnish conservation program. We show that the Faustmann landowners receive information rents, on average 55% of the rental payments. For the Hartman landowners the high conservation costs of old stands result in low information rents; they are only 13% of the rental payments. This estimate omits amenity benefits the landowners derive from their forests; accounting for these benefits would increase information rents dramatically. Despite the high information rents, landowners’ conservation motives decrease the rental payment required for participation in the conservation program. Hence, landowners’ conservation motives give governments a great opportunity to allocate conservation contracts in a more cost effective way, thereby extracting larger benefits for scarce conservation funds.     

Is the abandonment of traditional livestock farming systems the main driver of mountain landscape change in Alpine areas?

Agricultural land abandonment and the consequent natural forest regrowth in areas once cultivated has significantly transformed Alpine ecosystems and landscapes. In this paper, we estimated the loss of agricultural areas due to reafforestation in the Belluno Province (Eastern Italian Alps) and integrated socioeconomic indicators with topographical features to evaluate the drivers of this change. Land use mapping, obtained from photo-interpretation of aerial photographs and technical maps, was used to quantify changes in forest and agricultural areas (crops, meadows and pastures) during the period of 1980–2000. On average, the forest surface expanded by 21%, while the agricultural areas decreased by 40%. This loss increased in areas with steeper slope, which confirms that the areas that would be first abandoned are those that are less productive and more difficult to manage. The reafforestation rate was particularly strong in the north of the province, where the livestock sector experienced a dramatic decline. In light of this situation and using multiple regression models with a large set of socioeconomic and agricultural indicators, we found that the loss of agricultural areas in 69 municipalities was primarily counterbalanced by the maintenance of livestock farming. The loss of steeper agricultural areas was counteracted by traditional extensive systems; however, it was not counteracted by modern intensive systems, which has important implications because steeper areas have higher landscape and biodiversity values. In addition, tourism development had a positive, although smaller, effect on the maintenance of agricultural areas, while industry development had a negative effect. The results of this study suggest that efforts are needed to maintain a territorial network of traditional extensive farms to avoid further landscape deterioration in Alpine areas. Likewise, certain choices toward the economic development of local communities might have an impact on land conservation.     

Farmers’ attitude towards the policy of remediation during fallow in soil fertility declining and heavy metal polluted area of China

Numerous countries and regions face soil fertility decline and heavy metal pollution, and China implements a policy of remediation during fallow (PRF) to deal with such challenges. In this study, we examine the evolution of PRF and surveys of farmers’ attitudes in China. We present suggestions which can be used as reference for other countries and regions. The Chinese government implemented the policy of remediation during production (PRP) to control the heavy metal pollution of land in 2014. The effect was unsatisfactory due to the lack of cooperation amongst farmers. Therefore, the Chinese government implemented PRF in 2016. Our investigation of 247 farmers shows that farmers’ comprehensive assessment of PRF is positively influenced by the cognition of government implementation, the cognition of policy function and the evaluation of value perception, and the PRF still faces several problems, such as low cognitive level of policy function, incomplete regulations of supervision and poor supporting system. Hence, we suggest that government should educate and train farmers, improve the supervision and set up the supporting system of PRF.     

Farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change under various property rights: A case study of maize farming in northern Benin (West Africa)

Making the assumption that property rights might determine whether farmers adopt particular strategies, this study aims at modelling farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change by focusing on their property rights – declined as institutional arrangements on land and rights on land – as well as their socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The case study took place in northern Benin (West Africa). In this zone, 308 farmers producing maize and adapting to climate change were randomly sampled. The study was conducted by a survey method on respondents using structured interviews based on a questionnaire. A simultaneous modelling using a Multivariate Probit (MVP) model highlighted that socio-economic and demographic characteristics, institutional arrangements on land, and rights on land determine the farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change. The land ownership has a positive effect on the decision to adopt any adaptation strategy. Subsequently, securing farmers’ property rights would help to enhance their capacity to adapt to climate change.     

Fishermen’s competitiveness and labour market performance: Evidence from shrimpers in Bangladesh

We conduct an experiment to determine competitiveness among shrimpers who engage in collecting shrimp seeds in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. We then examine how competitiveness affects the labour supply decisions and labour market performance of these shrimpers. Our results show that shrimpers who prefer competition are more productive than shrimpers who do not prefer competition. Competitive shrimpers secure better prices and earn higher incomes selling their catches. We estimate that their wage elasticity of participation ranges from 0.4 to 0.5, which is consistent with preferences under neoclassical assumptions. Competitive shrimpers have a slightly greater wage elasticity than non-competitive shrimpers, suggesting that they might be more responsive to expected earnings. Our results have important policy implications for the efficient management of common pool resources.     

Economic impacts of conservation farming in a marginal environment: the case of ‘Landcare’ in the Philippines

In the marginal, upland regions of the Philippines, soil erosion and poverty are significant problems. The Landcare Programme has sought to address these twin problems. We assess the economic impacts of the Landcare Programme in the Province of Bohol. We first explore whether the adoption of Landcare practices, particularly those of contour farming and tree planting, in a highly degraded landscape has resulted in improved livelihood outcomes for upland farming families. Second, we analyse the potential for the piecemeal adoption of these measures to deliver tangible benefits at the watershed scale. Finally, using a benefit–cost approach, these outcomes are compared with the costs of research and extension projects that have helped achieve them. We conclude that the net economic impact of the Landcare Programme in Bohol is positive, with the primary beneficiaries being the individual households that adopt the Landcare practices. These benefits are largely generated by productive opportunities that arise once the hillsides have been stabilized. Although the downstream impacts of land-use changes associated with the Landcare Programme are positive, they are of marginal economic importance. Hence, the focus and primary justification of the Landcare Programme should be on improving the productivity and livelihoods of upland farming households.     

Specialization or diversification? The situation and transition of households’ livelihood in agricultural heritage systems

Zhagana Agriculture-Forest-Animal Husbandry Composite System (ZCS) is the first Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems site in the Tibetan Plateau. Similar to many traditional agricultural regions, with the development of tourism and leisure agriculture, the peasant households in ZCS have gradually changed their livelihood strategies and livelihood activities in the past 10 years, resulting in the disappearance of some traditional farming methods and agricultural landscapes with a long history. By taking livelihood assets as the entry point and livelihood strategies as the core, this paper analyzed the basic situation of households’ livelihood and the transition mechanism of different livelihood strategies in order to offer suggestions for the dynamic conservation and sustainable development of Agricultural Heritage Systems (AHS). (1) The livelihood strategies of peasant households in ZCS can be divided into two major categories: specialized strategies and diversified strategies. (2) According to the empirical calculation of the livelihood asset accounting framework of AHS, the average livelihood asset value of peasant households in ZCS is 2.040, showing that the situation of peasant households’ livelihood is inadequate. (3) The transition of peasant households’ livelihood strategies from traditional strategy to specialized or diversified livelihood strategies is mainly influenced by natural assets, human assets, cultural assets, social assets and informational assets. In order to meet the growing material and spiritual needs of peasant households and achieve the sustainable development of ZCS simultaneously, it is suggested that the agriculture-forestry-animal husbandry-tourism composite strategies shall be taken as the development direction of peasant households’ livelihood strategies.