Linking participatory and GIS-based land use planning methods: A case study from Burkina Faso

Sustainable land use planning is crucial for realizing the aim of food security and for combating land degradation in the Sahel. A participatory land use planning workshop was organised in a village in the eastern region of Burkina Faso to investigate land use problems, their causes, effects and possible solutions. Participatory research tools and GIS were combined to get insight into possible conflicts or synergies between different land use options as mapped by different ethnic groups. Pictograms were used to locate alternative land use options on the map, after which they were digitised for analysis with GIS. The workshop confirms the importance of integrating scientific and local knowledge to develop concrete options for sustainable land use that fit to local realities and aspirations. Local people are knowledgeable about the driving forces behind land degradation, they take actions to combat the effects of degradation, and they have concrete ideas about alternative land use options. The use of GIS proved its added value in the participatory process of integrated land use planning. The maps that were produced also facilitate discussions between community members, researchers and government representatives at the regional level, both regarding current land use problems and regarding alternative options as perceived by the local population.     

Using soil and water conservation techniques to rehabilitate degraded lands in northwestern Burkina Faso

Agricultural productivity in West Africa is low and cropping systems are hard to sustain. Farmers generally make little use of improved seeds or mechanization, and rely on organic matter to improve the fertility of their soils. Soil and water conservation techniques (SWCTs) can help secure agricultural output in unpredictable climates, and have been promoted in northwestern Burkina Faso for several decades. Rock bunds, filter walls, zaï, half-moons and agroforestry are now widespread. This paper describes the agroecological conditions in Burkina Faso and discusses the agroforestry and SWC technologies most widely applied in the country. SWCTs have contributed to improvements on the ground, helping secure livelihoods and reduce rural poverty and vulnerability to drought and famine.     

Disparate but not antagonistic: Classes of labour in cotton production in Burkina Faso

This paper examines the variety of agrarian classes of labour and the challenges they face in organizing and pursuing their interests. By taking the cotton sector in Burkina Faso as a case study, it analyses how various ‘classes of labour’ organize and mobilize for collective action to raise their claims: poor cotton farmers and workers in the cotton factories. Poor and middle farmers recently came to the fore when they boycotted cotton production in large numbers. The study focusses on the boycott campaign, and more broadly on class struggle and collective action by farmers and workers, on interclass alliances, and on capital's attempts to play the classes of labour against one another. The boycott campaign provides an outstanding case to analyse the interests of the various classes of labour and of opportunities for rural–urban mobilization and alliances across classes of labour. I argue that poor farmers and factory workers along the chain of cotton production can be considered as various classes of labour that are not necessarily antagonistic to one another but, first and foremost, to capital. In order to achieve radical transformation in the agrarian context, what is needed are networks and organizations to establish interclass solidarity and alliances.     

Industrial mining land use and poverty in regions of Burkina Faso

Industrial mining generally develops in rural areas where agriculture is the main subsistence activity of the population. However, there seems to be an incompatible coexistence between agricultural and mining activities, as both require a large amount of land. Given the extensive agricultural system in Burkina Faso and the expansion of mining since 2007, this study analyzed the effect of industrial mining land use on poverty in the 13 regions of Burkina Faso. The study examined the effect of mining land use intensity on cereal production/yield before exploring its impact on poverty by using several econometric methods and various data from the National Statistics Institute. The results indicate that mining land use intensity had no direct effect on poverty; instead, the effect is indirect. Indeed, mining land use intensity negatively affects cereal yield, and that reinforces the incidence of poverty in mining regions. Moreover, the results show that cereal production increases with cropped land. As cereal yield decreases with industrial mining land use intensity, this suggests that the expansion of mining would contribute to the jeopardizing of the food supply as well as the exacerbation of poverty in mining regions. Therefore, policies are needed to encourage the sustainable management of land and mining revenue redistribution in the mining regions of Burkina Faso.     

Input subsidies and crop diversity on family farms in Burkina Faso

Since their independence, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have used input subsidies to increase agricultural productivity and improve food security. We analyse the effects of both a fertiliser and a seed subsidy on farming households' land allocation among crops and crop diversity in Burkina Faso. Although previous studies investigated either the impact of a fertiliser or a seed subsidy on targeted crops, few examined the effects of both subsidies combined. Applying a correlated random-effects model with a control function approach to nationally representative, 2-year panel data collected from farming households, we find that those with access to the fertiliser subsidy allocate more land to the crops it targets (rice, maize and cotton) than non-targeted crops. Focusing on a minor crop with key agronomic and nutritional attributes, we conclude that land allocation to cowpea as the primary crop and intercrop declined with the fertiliser subsidy. The fertiliser subsidy also negatively affects crop diversity. However, we find that the cowpea seed subsidy offsets the bias of fertiliser subsidy toward fertiliser-targeted crops and enhances diversity.     

Renegotiating Access to Shea Trees in Burkina Faso: Challenging Power Relationships Associated with Demographic Shifts and Globalized Trade

This paper uses an original integrated theoretical framework to reveal the mechanisms behind socio‐economic differentiation in the changing patterns of access to shea in western Burkina Faso, in the context of globalization of the shea nut trade and internal migrations from both the Mossi Plateau and the Sahelian zone. Based on more than 200 interviews, we unravel the complex dynamic mechanisms of changes in access to shea. We show that negotiations result in reduced access to shea for late comers as well as for people with a limited number of shea trees in their fields, since areas where shea is managed as a common‐pool resource are becoming less accessible. However, we also demonstrate that late comers are not powerless in the face of first comers’ claims to shea. Our results should help policy‐makers and project‐based activities concerning shea to focus more on issues related to access to this resource.     

Migration and technical efficiency in cereal production: evidence from Burkina Faso

This article uses a double bootstrap procedure and survey data from Burkina Faso in a two‐stage estimation to explore ways in which continental and intercontinental migration determine efficiency in cereal production of rural households. Findings suggest that continental migration has a positive relation and intercontinental migration no relation with technical efficiency. For continental migrant households, migration has removed surplus male labor, a cause for inefficiency in production. Intercontinental migration leads to a gender imbalance in the household, which cannot be compensated for by investments in farm equipment. The failure of intercontinental migration to transform cereal production from traditional to modern is attributed to an imperfect market environment.     

The adoption and impact of engineering‐type measures to address climate change: evidence from the major grain‐producing areas in China

Employing an endogenous switching regression model, we investigate the drivers underlying the adaptations made by farm households and their impacts on crop net incomes for adopters and nonadopters, based on a large panel survey data set across the major grain‐producing provinces in China. The results show that: (i) access to public climate information and technical or physical support increases the likelihood that farmers adapt to climate change by undertaking irrigation and/or drainage measures; and (ii) decisions to adapt increased crop yield, but they did not significantly increase crop profit margins. This point appears to have been ignored by previous studies. Based on these new empirical results, the paper suggests that government should continue to provide climate information and various types of supports to improve farmers’ adaptation abilities and help to reduce the levels of factor input by, for example, substituting organic for chemical fertiliser inputs. Such government‐led policies should be supported alongside the implementation of domestic agricultural supply‐side reform.     

中国名山旅游气候资源及气象景观评价

分别从发生学、外部形态、位置高度对名山气象景观进行了分类,选取了我国六大名山,对其气象景观类型和旅游气候资源进行了分析,提出了评价名山气象景观的量化方法,把名山气象景观分为3个等级,对我国六大名山进行了评价,结果表明该方法在名山气象景观评价中具有很好的应用价值。     

Regional Price Effects of Extreme Weather Events and Wheat Export Controls in Russia and Ukraine

We build on the price transmission framework to identify domestic wheat price effects of wheat export controls. We explicitly take into account that a harvest failure causes domestic price effects. Moreover, the analysis at the regional level provides further evidence of the functioning of export controls in a large country. Results suggest a pronounced regional heterogeneity in the strength of domestic price effects of the 2010/11 export ban in Russia. The wheat price dampening effects amount to up to 67% and are strongest in the major wheat exporting region with direct access to the world market. This effect is transmitted to other regions by increased and reversed interregional trade flows. In contrast, we find that regional variation of export controls’ domestic price effects in Ukraine is rather small.     

The role of health,experience, and educational attainment in agricultural production: Evidence from smallholders in Burkina Faso

We apply parametric and nonparametric methods to data from smallholders in Burkina Faso and assess the role that human capital characteristics play in the agricultural production process. Our results point to the technology‐changing nature of health, education, and experience. However, effects are rather heterogeneous. The productivity elasticity of health is much larger for households in the lowest landholding quintiles, while returns to experience are larger for households in the upper quintile. In terms of policy implications, our results suggest that productivity can be stimulated through the allocation of expenditure to social services that enhance certain types of human capital. Interventions aimed at improving the health status of households with smaller landholdings could have particularly strong welfare effects.     

Climate Change,Crop Selection and Agricultural Revenue in Ghana: A Structural Ricardian Analysis

We apply a Structural Ricardian Model (SRM) to farm‐level data from Ghana for seven principal food crops in order to model the factors which influence farmers' decisions about which food crops to grow and the revenue conditional on these choices. Our application of the SRM incorporates a flexible functional form to allow for the possibility that the effects of temperature and rainfall may not be linearly separable. We use this model as a basis for simulations of the effects of climate change. These simulations suggest that extreme climate change will lead to a significant reduction in the average net revenue per hectare from maize, which accounts for over half of current food production. Across a range of climate change scenarios, there is also substantial substitution of maize for heat‐tolerant millet, and a reduction in the cultivation of other crops. Under most of the climate change scenarios that we consider, these results imply a substantial reduction in the aggregate value of agricultural production, since millet is the lowest‐value crop.     

Landraces as an adaptation strategy to climate change for smallholders in Santa Catarina,Southern Brazil

Adapting to climate change has become a pressing and urgent issue given the alarming rapidity with which climate changes is taking place. Agriculture is strongly conditioned by climatic factors, but subsistence agriculture is particularly vulnerable because smallholders do not have adequate financial resources to adapt to climate change. Agrobiodiversity provides one option for smallholders to adapt to climate change. Landraces developed in the western region of Santa Catarina State, Brazil, are part of a deliberate strategy by smallholders to achieve a state of food sovereignty and independence from commercial sources of hybrid seed. The ability of smallholders to collectively conserve climate-adapted landraces indicates the depth of local knowledge and capability within local communities that can be drawn on to meet the future challenges of climate change.     

Climate change,weather shocks,and violent conflict: a critical look at the evidence

We use cross‐country data to explore whether temperature and rainfall shocks trigger violent conflict, or not. We include a wide range of country and time samples, and explore whether the impact of weather shocks is conditional on income or political regimes. Our overall conclusion is sobering. Notwithstanding the attention this topic has attracted from the media and policy makers, we find little robust evidence linking weather shocks to the onset of conflict.     

韩国的气候和农业(1799-1825)

文章主要依据《朝鲜王朝实录》、《朝鲜古代观测记录》和年轮年代学有关材料，阐明了1799—1825年韩国的气候与农业生产之间的相互关系。根据气温、降雨日和降雨量的变动，从历史文献和年轮年代学材料都可以看出，在这一期间，韩国也与同时期的其他国家一样，经历了“小冰期”的气候异常。旱灾、洪水、强雪、冰雹、地震、海啸等异常气候现象，不仅严重影响了当时的农业生产，也引发了严重的生存危机。     

林业减缓气候变化的国际进程、政策机制及对策研究

全球气候变化已是不争的事实,引起了世界各国的高度重视。通过林业措施应对气候变化,已成为国内外的共同行动。回顾总结林业应对气候变化的国际进程,介绍了主要国家应对气候变化采取的林业行动,提出了我国林业应对气候变化的政策建议。     

Early growing season weather variation,expectation formation and agricultural land allocation decisions in Ethiopia

Using unique crop-specific data gathered over 7 years, we study if and how maize-producing farmers in Ethiopia adjust their land allocation decisions in response to pre-planting-season weather variations. We show that farmers adjust their land allocation decisions in response to increased temperatures early in the growing season. In addition to quantifying a substantial adaptation margin that has not been documented before, our study also reveals the presence of a weather variation-induced expansion of maize production into areas that are less suitable for maize cultivation.     

Social Capital,Income Diversification and Climate Change Adaptation: Panel Data Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

The choice between specialisation and diversification of income is driven by multiple, interacting factors, such as economies of scale and scope, risk considerations, context, and household characteristics. Using panel data from Ethiopia, we investigate the role of social capital and the covariate risk of climate change and their interaction. We find that households with greater social capital tend to be more specialised, implying that diversification and informal insurance are substitutes in the mitigation of risk. We also find that this effect is significantly weaker in regions more prone to climate change, which is consistent with the average farmer being aware that informal insurance is not an effective protection against risks that affect the entire social network. We use instrumental variable random effects estimation to account for the plausible endogeneity of social capital and we also establish that our results do not depend on the poorest and most constrained individuals in our sample.     

An accelerating treadmill and an overlooked contradiction in industrial agriculture: Climate change and nitrogen fertilizer

In this article, we explore if and why farmers are responding to the impacts of climate change with practices that increase greenhouse gas emissions. Our examination focuses on heavy rainfall events and Midwestern corn farmers' nitrogen fertilizer management. Due to climate change, the frequency and intensity of heavy rain events is increasing across the Midwest. These events increase nitrogen loss to the environment and introduces economic risks to farmers. Drawing from a theoretical framework that merges O'Connor's second contradiction of capitalism and Schnaiberg's treadmill of production, we argue farmers' responses to these events reflect the second contradiction, increasing contributions to climate change, and are shaped by treadmill‐like political‐economic pressures. We examine this using a qualitative sample of 154 farmers across Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan. Given profit imperatives, adapting farmers in our sample primarily used increased nitrogen application rates to reduce their vulnerability to heavy rains. As nitrogen rate is directly associated with nitrous oxide emissions, this adaptive strategy is effective but increases agricultural contributions to climate change. This preliminarily suggests that the political‐economic structure encourages farmers to respond to climate change in ways that accelerate the environmental contradictions of industrial agriculture.     

Agent‐based Modelling of Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Options in Agriculture

Computer simulation models can provide valuable insights for climate‐related analysis and help streamline policy interventions for improved adaptation and mitigation in agriculture. Computable general equilibrium (CGE) and partial equilibrium (PE) models are currently being expanded to include land‐use change and energy markets so that the effects of various policy measures on agricultural production can be assessed. Agent‐based modelling (ABM) or multi‐agent systems (MAS) have been suggested as a complementary tool for assessing farmer responses to climate change in agriculture and how these are affected by policies. MAS applied to agricultural systems draw on techniques used for Recursive Farm Programming, but include models of all individual farms, their spatial interactions and the natural environment. In this article, we discuss the specific insights MAS provide for developing robust policies and land‐use strategies in response to climate change. We show that MAS are well‐suited for uncertainty analysis and can thereby complement existing simulation approaches to advance the understanding and implementation of effective climate‐related policies in agriculture.