Strategies to increase agricultural productivity and reduce land degradation: evidence from Uganda

This paper estimates a structural econometric model of household decisions regarding income strategies, participation in programs and organisations, crop choices, land management, and labour use, and their implications for agricultural production and soil erosion; based upon a survey of over 450 households and their farm plots in Uganda. Many factors have context-specific impacts and involve trade-offs between increasing production and reducing land degradation. Government agricultural extension and training programs contribute to higher value of crop production in the lowlands, but to soil erosion in the highlands. By contrast, non-governmental organization (NGO) programs focusing on agriculture and environment help to reduce erosion, but have less favourable impacts on production in the lowlands. Education increases household incomes, but also reduces crop production in the lowlands. Poverty has mixed impacts on agricultural production, depending on the nature of poverty: smaller farms obtain higher crop production per hectare, while households with fewer livestock have lower crop production. Population pressure contributes to agricultural intensification, but also to erosion in the densely populated highlands. Several household income strategies contribute to increased value of crop production, without significant impacts on soil erosion. We find little evidence of impact of access to markets, roads and credit, land tenure or title on agricultural intensification and crop production and land degradation. In general, the results imply that the strategies to increase agricultural production and reduce land degradation must be location-specific, and that there are few 'win-win' opportunities to simultaneously increase production and reduce land degradation.     

浅议农用地分等成果在第二次土地调查中的应用

将农用地分等成果应用到第二次土地调查中,可对土地条件调查进行探索;土地数量与土地质量信息的结合,为土地利用总体规划修编、基本农田划定、占补平衡管理、土地开发整理规划、土地整理项目后评价等提供技术支持,进而实现土地数量与质量管理并重.     

Frontier production functions and technical efficiency: a survey of empirical applications in agricultural economics

The modelling and estimation of frontier production functions has been an important area of econometric research during the last two decades. Försund, Lovell and Schmidt (1980) and Schmidt (1986) present reviews of the concepts and models involved and cite some of the empirical applications which had appeared to their respective times of publication. This paper seeks to update the econometric modelling of frontier production functions associated with the estimation of technical efficiency of individual firms. A survey of empirical applications in agricultural economics is an important part of the paper.     

Zionism and agricultural land: National narratives,environmental objectives,and land policy in Israel

The 1990s saw two different and even contradictory trends in Israel. On the one hand, there was a substantial increase in environmental awareness, on the part of both the general public and decision-makers, that led to a change in the land use planning policy at the national level. On the other hand, the Israel Lands Council (ILC), the body empowered by law to shape the national land policy, made a series of decisions that severely violated the principle of preserving agricultural land and led to massive conversion of agricultural land and open space for commercial, industrial, and residential development. Thus the national land policy became incompatible with the land use planning policy and the rise in environmental awareness it reflected.     

国有土地使用制度改革、效应与走向

近年来,土地问题一直是社会热点,尤其对国有土地使用制度及其改革,学界更是贬多于褒,批评多于鼓励。然而,若从一个发展的历程看,我国的国有土地使用制度的改革进程是符合我国政治经济发展方向的。也许它离人们的期望还有一定的距离,但这一系列改革都是建立在我国现实基础上的。事实上,其政策效应也是可圈可点的。所以,探讨土地问题,评价现有的国有土地使用制度,不能忽视我国国有土地使用制度改革的演进及特点,不能不考察其政策效应。国有土地使用制度改革的总体演进我国的国有土地使用制度改革,始于上个世纪八十年代初。大致分为两个阶段,十…     

The agricultural,environmental and socio-political repercussions of Brazil's land governance system

Although many contemporary studies of agriculture associate larger properties with higher relative productivity, this assumption has limited relevancy for the analysis of situations in which property owners profit more from large-scale property accumulation itself rather than any superiority in exploitation opportunities offered by increased size. In Brazil, the efficiency-of-scale paradigm has been used to criticize peasant agriculture as unproductive and hide contradictions deriving from land concentration. As this paper argues, however, small-scale agriculture is actually responsible for most of Brazil's food production, rural employment and agricultural income. The paper utilizes a land governance perspective to analyze the implementation of structural reforms aimed at turning back the land monopolization tide as well as efforts to weaken long-standing legal principles that socially condition individual property “rights” in Brazil.     

Modelling the likely impact of healthy eating guidelines on agricultural production and land use in England and Wales

Quadratic programming techniques were applied to household food consumption data in England and Wales to estimate likely changes in diet under healthy eating guidelines, and the consequences this would have on agriculture and land use in England and Wales. The first step entailed imposing nutrient restrictions on food consumption following dietary recommendations suggested by the UK Department of Health. The resulting diet was used, in a second step as a proxy for demand in agricultural commodities, to test the impact of such a scenario on food production and land use in England and Wales and the impacts of this on agricultural landscapes. Results of the diet optimisation indicated a large drop in consumption of foods rich in saturated fats and sugar, essentially cheese and sugar-based products, along with lesser cuts of fat and meat products. Conversely, consumption of fruit and vegetables, cereals, and flour would increase to meet dietary fibre recommendations. Such a shift in demand would dramatically affect production patterns: the financial net margin of England and Wales agriculture would rise, due to increased production of high market value and high economic margin crops. Some regions would, however, be negatively affected, mostly those dependent on beef cattle and sheep production that could not benefit from an increased demand for cereals and horticultural crops. The effects of these changes would also be felt in upstream industries, such as animal feed suppliers. While arable dominated landscapes would be little affected, pastoral landscapes would suffer through loss of grazing management and, possibly, land abandonment, especially in upland areas.     

Population pressure,rural-to-rural migration and evolution of land tenure institutions: The case of Uganda

This study examines the evolutionary process of land tenure systems in Uganda from communal to private ownership with a special attention to the role of rural-to-rural migration as a key driving force. By tracing migration patterns using unique longitudinal household survey data containing detailed information on land tenure and migration history, we found that immigrant-dominated communities have a higher incidence of private land ownership even after controlling for population density and market access. We also found that land markets are more active in immigrant-dominated communities and that private land ownership results in higher agricultural productivity.     

Price and quantity controlled agricultural markets and disequilibrium econometrics: a survey

This survey reviews the literature on estimating single markets in disequilibrium in the presence of regulated price and/or quantity controls, e.g., minimum price regimes and/or marketing quotas. Most of the literature is found to describe pure econometric technique, with only a few applications having emerged to date. Various reasons for the broad non-acceptance of this literature are offered, including a perceived lack of realism. Proposals to close this econometric theory–application gap are put forward, including: the use of effective demand concepts in specifying demand and supply functions; synthesizing some closely related literature on agricultural price/quantity controls with disequilibrium econometrics (i.e., endogenous government policy and the effects controls have on yield uncertainty and price risk); and outlining more ‘applicable’ econometric technique extensions.     

State of national land survey and large-scale mapping

There is still a dearth of appropriate and adequate land survey and large-scale mapping coverage in many countries to facilitate more effective land-related planning, development and management. This situation, in relative terms, applies to both developed and developing countries. Fortuitously, technology is now available and accessible to expand land surveys and the production of large-scale maps at the scales required to support planning and sustainable land development and management. What is now required is official public policy recognition, the attribution of a higher level of priority to this issue, and the allocation of adequate resources to implement an expanded production programme of large-scale maps of cities, towns and villages to facilitate more appropriate settlements and other related land development planning.     

我国传统的生态化土地利用思想、理论与实践

人与自然的和谐发展一直是人类社会发展永恒的主题,而伴随经济的发展,生态环境的破坏程度日益严重,土地生态破坏是我因生态恶化中较为严重的一个方面;如何维护土地利用的可持续性及土地环境的生态平衡,已经引起广泛的关注与思考;从我国土地生态思想的起源入手,叙述古代土地利用生态管理的相关思想,并指明我国当前进一步加强土地利用生态管理的现实意义.     

魅力,来自集约--从上海闵行开发区看土地集约利用的现状和趋势

●在开发区的土地利用上,我们必须嫌贫爱富●按照比较优势的原则配置土地资源,发展优势产业、稳定均势产业、淘汰劣势产业●企业有生命周期,产业结构有阶段性,土地则必须永续利用     

Traditional agricultural land use and some changing trends in Maridi district, southern Sudan

This article looks at the differences in land use management in Maridi District, southern Sudan, and asserts that these reflect not only varying socioecological and environmental circumstances, but also factors such as population pressure, sociocultural and traditional beliefs and values, economic and resource factors, opportunities and accessibility and historical trends. The article concludes that policy makers and socioeconomic development planners of the rural areas of southern Sudan should identify constraints to increases in food production. This is only possible through appropriate knowledge about the different enterprise patterns and crops grown, including information on socioecological factors, environmental resource use and farmers' perceptions and production techniques. It should be possible to offer alternative methods of analysis essential for effective rural and agricultural land use development planning in similar socioecological and environmental situations in the southern Sudan and other areas of tropical Africa.     

Design of a decision support tool for visualising E. coli risk on agricultural land using a stakeholder-driven approach

Enabling knowledge exchange between scientists and decision-makers is becoming increasingly necessary to promote the development of effective decision-support tools (DSTs) for environmental management. Participation of stakeholders in the design process beyond a basic level of consultation is essential for promoting trust in modelled outputs and accelerating eventual uptake of resulting tools and models by end-user communities. This study outlines the development of a DST to visualise and communicate the spatial and temporal patterns of E. coli (a faecal indicator organism) on agricultural land, as a first step in managing microbial pollution risks to the wider environment. A participatory approach was used to engage regulators, catchment managers, environmental scientists, farmers and farm advisors, researchers in geospatial technologies and water industry staff in the co-design of a novel, user-friendly and accessible DST for guiding on-farm microbial risk assessment. Recommendations for maximising the benefits of a participatory process to DST design are discussed with reference to a series of opportunities and limitations identified by our stakeholder cohort during the development of the Visualising Pathogen & Environmental Risk (ViPER) DST. The resulting toolkit provides environmental managers and farm advisors with one of the first freely-available DSTs for visualising patterns of E. coli inputs to pasture in space and time, and begins to address the lack of advisory tools currently available for informing decision-making with respect to managing microbial risks in agricultural systems.     

云南金沙江流域热区土地资源及可持续利用探讨

针对金沙江流域土地资源利用现状,利用效益及存在的问题,以可持续利用为指导思想,以提高土地资源利用为目标,探讨本区土地资源可持续利用途径。     

农地发展权的设定及评估

随着我国经济的快速发展,土地供需矛盾已为各方所关注。近几年来,建设项目每年占用耕地300万亩左右,保护耕地、保护农民权益已成为关系国民经济可持续发展的重要问题。如何建立保护耕地、保护农民权益的长效机制?作者认为必须完善土地产权制度,尤其要设定农地发展权。