Choice Modelling: Assessing the Environmental Values of Water Supply Options

Three criticisms of the contingent valuation method (CVM) are considered in this article. One technique that would appear to answer such criticisms is choice modelling (CM). CM permits value estimates for different goods sharing a common set of attributes to be pieced together using the results of a single multinomial (conditional) logit model. The CM approach to environmental value assessment is illustrated in the context of a consumer-based assessment of future water supply options in the Australian Capital Territory. CM is found to provide a flexible and cost-effective method for estimating use and passive use values, particularly when several alternative proposals need to be considered.     

Farm Input, Farm Output and Retail Food Prices: A Cointegration Analysis

This paper investigates the adjustment mechanism between farm input prices, farm output prices and food retail prices in Canada. Johansen's maximum likelihood approach is used in addition to the Engle-Granger approach to test for cointegration. Contrary to the common assumption that farm output prices are more flexible than farm input prices, it is found that farm output prices, though cointegrated, are weakly exogenous in the sense that they do not respond in a systematic manner to disequilibrium in farm input prices and retail food prices. Evidence is found to support “cost push” and “demand pull” theories but, since food retail prices carry a heavier weight in the cointegration relations, it can be concluded that shocks manifesting themselves (first) at the retail level do not persist as long. Cet ouvrage se concentre sur le mécanisme d'ajustement entre les prix des intrants à la ferme, les prix payés aux producteurs agricoles et les prix de l'alimentation au détail au Canada. Les techniques développées par Johansen et par Engle et Granger sont utilisées pour vérifier des hypothèses reliées à la cointegration. Contrairement à la présomption que les prix payés aux agriculteurs sont plus flexibles que les prix de leurs intrants, on a découvert que les prix payés aux agriculteurs, bien que cointégrés, sont exogènes au moindre degré dans le sens qu'ils ne s'ajustent pas en fonction du déséquilibre dans les prix des intrants et les prix de l'alimentation au detail. La théorie voulant que les prix montent à cause des hausses dans les prix des intrants est vérifiée de même que la théorie alternative voulant que les ajustements des prix se fassent du détail aux intrants. Fluctuations occasionées par des changements dans les prix de l'alimentation au détail sont dissipées plus rapidement que les ajustements causés par des variations dans les prix des intrants.     

Agricultural Commercialisation and Nutrition in Smallholder Farm Households

Commercialisation of smallholder agriculture is important for rural economic growth. While previous studies have analysed effects of commercialisation on productivity and income, implications for farm household nutrition have received much less attention. We evaluate the effects of commercialisation on household food security and dietary quality with a special focus on calorie and micronutrient consumption. We also examine transmission channels by looking at the role of income, gender, and possible substitution effects between the consumption of own-produced and purchased foods. The analysis uses survey data from farm households in Kenya and a control function approach. Generalised propensity scores are employed to estimate continuous treatment effects. Commercialisation significantly improves food security and dietary quality in terms of calorie, zinc and iron consumption. For vitamin A, effects are insignificant. Commercialisation contributes to higher incomes and increased nutrients from purchased foods, but it does not reduce the consumption of nutrients from own-produced foods. Enhancing market access is important not only for rural economic growth, but also for making smallholder agriculture more nutrition-sensitive.     

Noncash Income Transfers and Agricultural Land Values

Several studies have considered the impact of government cash income transfers to agricultural producers on agricultural land prices. This study examines the effects of a noncash income transfer on agricultural land prices. The impact of the U.S. sugar program on irrigated land prices in Montana is evaluated using a hedonic regression model. The model considers the impacts of sugar beet price and land characteristics on land prices. The results indicate that noncash income transfers generated by the U.S. sugar program have been capitalized into cropland prices.     

Agricultural Credit Subsidies and Farmland Values in Canada

The objective of this study is to determine the impact of farm credit subsidies on the value of farmland in Canada. The price-components model based on the capitalization principle is developed and estimated using the pooled data from four selected provinces (Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan) from 1972 to 1991. The results show that increases (decreases) in interest subsidies are expected to increase (decrease) farmland and building values. However, the short-term impact is estimated to be small. The regional analysis shows that the abolition of interest subsidies across the country is likely to have a relatively higher impact on land and building values in Quebec than in the prairie provinces.     

家庭农场退出诱发的专用性资产问题研究

研究目的:明确家庭农场专用性资产的构成和特点,探究家庭农场退出对专用性资产的影响,提出家庭农场退出时专用性资产的处置策略与方案。研究方法:文献资料法、规范分析法。研究结果:在家庭农场退出时,应当妥善处理好专用性资产的闲置浪费、权利归属不清晰、价值评估与补偿等问题,否则,不利于家庭农场正常有序的进入机制和退出机制的构建。研究结论:(1)在家庭农场退出时,应通过家庭农场的整体转让、整体出租或者专业机构托管经营等途径,盘活专用性资产,帮助家庭农场主收回前期投资;(2)依据竞争性和排他性为标准,区分产品的不同类型,对照确定专用性资产的权利主体归属,并通过完善法律赋予设施农用地等专用性资产的物权属性;(3)组建家庭农场资产评估小组,建立公开、公正、透明的专用性资产评估程序,选择科学的方法评估专用性资产的价值,根据实际情况,合理确定专用性资产的补偿主体。     

我国农业科技园区需要研究解决的几个问题

农业科技园区巳经成为我国农业和农村发展的一个亮点，但农业科技园区普遍亏损问题十分突出，急需予以研究解决。本文在初步调查的基础上，提出政府扶持方式、经营管理机制，用地保障、技术集聚机制与形式、企业员工激励机制、从经营的角度进行规划调整等6个方面的研究课题。     

Distortions to World Trade: Impacts on Agricultural Markets and Farm Incomes

The latest versions of the Global Trade Analysis Project database and the Linkage model of the global economy (projected to 2015) are used to estimate the impact of removing all merchandise trade distortions (including agricultural subsidies). Results suggest that a move to free merchandise trade would increase farm employment, the real value of agricultural output and exports, real returns to farm land and unskilled labor, and real net farm incomes in developing countries. This would occur despite the decline in international terms of trade for some developing countries that are net food importers or are enjoying preferential access to agricultural markets of high-income countries.     

Environmental Production Factors and Efficiency of Smallholder Agricultural Households: Using Non‐parametric Conditional Frontier Methods

External environmental factors play a significant role in the agricultural production of smallholder farmers. This is especially the case in developing countries where production is less technologically intensive. These factors are mainly exogenous and affect both the farmers’ input choices and the final output levels. However, previous studies of technical efficiency of smallholder agricultural production either ignore these factors or assume separability between environmental factors and input choice, which is often not the case in developing counties. Using data on smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, we relax this separability assumption and investigate the importance of external environmental factors in farmers’ performance and efficiency variation across regions. The empirical analysis is based on a non‐parametric conditional order‐m estimation method that relaxes some of the traditional strong assumptions in efficiency modeling and, more importantly, the separability between environmental factors and the choice of physical inputs. Using data from four major agricultural regions of Ethiopia, we show the extent that environmental factors contribute to the technical efficiency and the significance of environmental factors in farmers’ performance.     

Using Multi-Criteria Decision Models to Assess the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Farming Decisions in an Agricultural Watershed

This paper reports on the integration of a farm decision model with a watershed biophysical model to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of farming decisions in an agricultural watershed. A baseline, one uncoordinated and four watershed-level coordinated decision scenarios were evaluated and compared as alternative ways of managing the significant tradeoffs expected when multiple conflict management objectives exist. The four coordinated scenarios outperform the uncoordinated one in terms of economic returns and key environmental impacts. The study's findings contribute to the understanding of biophysical and economic processes in agricultural watersheds.     

Implementable Ramsey-Boiteux Pricing in Agricultural and Environmental Policy

Agricultural producers frequently face price discrimination that is based either on characteristics of their products, or on the physical manner in which the product is produced. We consider how to set such discriminatory prices optimally and show that for a very broad range of production technologies, the first-best voluntary policy, which involves a modified version of Ramsey-Boiteux pricing, is implementable even in the presence of hidden knowledge by farmers about their types.