Farmers’ objectives as determinants of organic farming adoption: the case of Catalonian vineyard production

This article assesses the decision to adopt organic farming practices. We use Duration Analysis (DA) to determine why farmers adopt organic farming practices and what influences the timing of adoption. We extend previous studies by including farmers’ objectives, risk preferences, and agricultural policies as covariates in the DA model. The Analytical Hierarchy Process is used as a multicriteria decision‐making methodology to measure farmers’ objectives. The empirical analysis uses farm‐level data from a sample of vineyard farms in the Spanish region of Catalonia. Farmers’ objectives are found to influence the conversion decision. Moreover, farmers who are not risk averse are more likely to adopt organic farming. Results point to the policy changes that have been most relevant in motivating adoption of organic practices.     

Modelling the adoption of organic horticultural technology in the UK using Duration Analysis

Duration Analysis, which allows the timing of an event to be explored in a dynamic framework, is used to model the adoption of organic horticultural technology in the UK. The influence of a range of economic and non-economic determinants is explored using discrete time models. The empirical results highlight the importance of gender, attitudes to the environment and information networks, as well as systematic effects that influence the adoption decision over the lifetime of the producer and over the survey period.     

Conservation practice complementarity and timing of on-farm adoption

The adoption of conservation practices is a dynamic process. Factors that vary over time can affect farmers’ decision to adopt and adoption timing. We used a duration model to evaluate the farmer's adoption time for continuous no-till (CNT), cover crops (CCs), and the variable-rate application of inputs (VRA). We found that producers who had previously adopted soil conservation practices were more likely to adopt additional complementary practices. Farmers using crop rotation adopted CNT and CCs approximately 48% and 62% faster than farmers without a crop rotation, respectively. The CC adoption time was also reduced by 70% for farmers who had adopted CNT. Complementarities between conservation practices may enhance the benefits from adoption and allow farmers to adopt bundles of conservation practices more quickly over time. This can be taken advantage of in conservation programs by promoting or requiring practices first that enhance adoption of other practices. We also found important heterogeneity in the adoption speed associated with farm management characteristics, producers’ attitudes, weather patterns, and crop prices.     

The adoption of intensive monocrop horticulture in southern Cameroon

Results from a 1997 survey of 208 households in the humid forest zone of southern Cameroon indicate that African policy makers seeking to intensify agricultural production should focus attention on the horticultural sub‐sector. The survey, which gathered information on horticultural production practices, found that the average expenditure on agro‐chemical inputs by horticultural producers using monocrop production systems was 190US$/ha, which greatly exceeds the FAO reported national average expenditure of 6.50 US$/ha. A logit model of monocrop adoption indicated that the size of land holding per household had a negative effect on adoption, congruent with population‐driven technical change and that increases in unit transportation costs significantly decreased the probability of adoption. These findings suggest that policy makers should target horticultural intensification in areas of higher population density and promote investment in rural roads. The age of the household head had a significant negative and elastic effect on adoption, which in combination with an increase in the cohort of younger farmers in the rural population induced by macro‐economic events contributed to the spread of intensified horticulture. In the study area, roughly two‐thirds of rural households also produce cocoa and the quantity of cocoa produced was positively associated with adoption of intensive horticultural systems suggesting that export crop promotion indirectly facilitated diversification of agriculture. Women's participation in intensive monocrop production was limited and efforts to promote their greater involvement are recommended.     

Descriptive Analysis of Saskatchewan Organic Producers

A total of 69 Saskatchewan organic producers were surveyed in the spring of 1991. Although Saskatchewan organic farming represents a move toward an alternative conventional system of agriculture it is not a complete reversal from conventional practices. Saskatchewan organic farmers are experimenting with highly integrated systems which incorporate green manure crops and soil testing and require high management and marketing skills. In a study of then-goals and objectives using fuzzy sets, environment and healthy food were ranked above farm survival. This leads to the conclusion that most organic farmers do not adopt organic practices based on purely economic criteria but on higher goals within their own hierarchy.     

BRITISH HORTICULTURE AND THE COMMON MARKET

Tariffs and quotas against the Six are not consistent with Britain as a part of the Common Market. Such restrictions have produced the traditional policy for horticulture in Britain. Now their removal is threatened and with it the incomes of our producers. This paper attempts to measure the seriousness of the threat to British growers. Three features are most relevant to this question. Firstly, somewhat less than two-thirds of the producers depend wholly on income from horticultural produce. Secondly, only one-tenth of the producers account for two-thirds of the output. Thirdly, horticultural produce is of distinct types, decorative, dessert, salad, or staple, and the future demand and supply prospects vary accordingly. The E.E.C. is poised to send us more glasshouse vegetables and more apples and pears. Thus the most highly capitalised sectors of horticulture are most vulnerable and those growers with modernised investment will best meet the increased competition. The future will see further adjustment within the industry, but the outcome will mainly depend on the general level of prosperity in Britain.     

Are local market relationships undermining organic fruit and vegetable certification? A bivariate probit analysis

This article investigates how an organic fruit and vegetable farmer's choice to use direct‐to‐consumer market channels impacts his/her decision to be certified organic. First, we model the decision to be certified organic as a conditionally independent decision from the farmer's chosen market channels. Second, we estimate the probability of certifying organic as an endogenously determined marketing decision to the choice of market channels, and use a bivariate probit specification to model this decision. Empirical evidence indicates that the decision to certify is endogenous to the chosen market channels. We show that farmers selling direct to consumers are less likely to certify organic.     

The contribution of organic farming to rural development: An exploration of the socio-economic linkages of organic and non-organic farms in England

Organic farming has experienced considerable growth in recent years. Proponents of organic farming point to the environmental and nutritional benefits of organic systems, although these are contested by some. More recently, it has been argued that organic farming can provide rural development benefits through enhanced employment and through closer connections with the local economy, reconnecting consumers with producers and stimulating positive economic multipliers. Against the background of claims made for the rural development potential of organic farming, this paper considers the generation and retention of income, purchasing patterns, and direct employment impacts of a large sample of organic and non-organic farmers in England. The paper reveals some important distinctions between the characteristics of organic and non-organic farms and farmers. It is argued that most of these differences do not stem directly from differences in farming systems but, rather, reflect considerable differences in the people who operate organic farms as well as the distinctive business configurations they frequently adopt.     

Role of information in the adoption of best management practices for water quality improvement

This study investigates the role of information in influencing the adoption of improved farm management practices. A lack of producer information regarding both the profitability and the environmental benefits of adopting improved practices may be a reason why widespread adoption of these practices has not occurred. Compared to direct regulation or financial incentives, raising producer information levels may be a more cost-effective method of increasing adoption. The United States Department of Agriculture has recently established and begun implementing a program based on this idea. To test the validity of the program, a two-stage adoption model is specified and estimated using data from a survey of producers in the program area. The results indicate that producer perceptions Play an important role in the decision to adopt. Changing these perceptions by means of an educational program may be a reasonable alternative to financial incentives in encouraging BMP adoption.     

Differential uncertainties and risk attitudes between conventional and organic producers: the case of Spanish arable crop farmers

The growing importance of economic factors in farmers' decisions to go organic has raised interest in characterizing the economic behavior of organic versus conventional farms. In general, published analyses so far have not considered differential uncertainties, abilities to control production risk, and farmers' risk preferences between conventional and organic practices when comparing these techniques. Our article attempts to assess this issue. We use a model of farmer decision under risk to analyze the differential values between organic and conventional Spanish arable crop farms and to assess the incentives for adoption of organic practices. Results show that organic and conventional farms do have different production risks as well as different aversions to risk. Organic price premiums and subsidies are found to be powerful instruments to motivate adoption of organic techniques.     

Investing in Perennial Pasture Improvement: A Real Options Analysis

In investment analysis, uncertainty and irreversibility can undermine net present value (NPV) as a decision rule since the option to delay investment may have value. We apply the real option theory of investment to the pasture investment decision facing livestock producers in southwest Western Australia. In 2006, livestock producers thinned their herds as pasture availability dwindled due to extreme drought conditions. This left producers with a unique opportunity to either establish new perennial pastures for their cattle or utilize volunteer annual pasture and invest in more sheep breeders. In either case, large and irreversible investments fraught with multiple sources of uncertainty implies that one can gain useful insights by casting the investment problem in a real option context. The results suggest that required rates of return for each investment alternative are about 1% to 1.5% higher than standard NPV would suggest with sheep production having the lower required rate of return.     

Meeting the Needs of Organic Farmers: Benchmarking Organizational Performance of University Extension

A stochastic frontier model is used to explain the performance evaluation by organic producers of programs provided by the U.S. university extension systemproviders. We identify nonmanagerial factors that influence both performance ratings and performance efficiency, defined as achieving a rating as close to the highest rating as possible. Results based on the organic farmer evaluators indicate that extension agents are performing at high mean efficiency of 0.95, but that the average rating is relatively low at 2.66 on a four-point scale. Years of experience in organic farming and the severity of production problems facing farmers have significant impacts on performance ratings.     

Rationale and Motivation of Agricultural Producers in Adopting Crop Rotation in the Northern Great Plains,USA

Despite several environmental and economic benefits of crop rotation, the adoption of this agricultural practice is relatively low. Understanding the reasons for low adoption is important from a sustainability policy perspective. This study explores the motivation, challenges, and sources of information of agricultural producers who participate in crop rotation practices in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. The findings of a mail survey of 672 producers in these three states show that producers are familiar with the crop rotation practice. Economic profitability is found to drive motivation for crop rotation adoption. The results of a binary logistic regression model show that a producer who perceives that crop rotation is beneficial to farm profitability is 1.83 times more likely to adopt it than the producer who does not believe in its profitability to the farm. The lack of time or resources is the primary barrier to the adoption of crop rotation practice. This study provides additional evidence in support of the importance of farm profitability for the adoption of the practice of crop rotation. Understanding the rationale and addressing the challenges faced by agricultural producers would be useful in planning and policy making of sustainable agriculture.     

Market access,organic farming and productivity: the effects of Fair Trade affiliation on Thai farmer producer groups*

The study analyses the impact of Fair Trade (FT) and organic farming on a sample of FT rice producers in Thailand. It finds that per capita income from agriculture is positively and significantly affected by years of organic certification and FT affiliation. The estimated FT and organic certification contributions to producers’ economic well‐being are higher when account is taken of the relatively higher proportion of self‐consumption among affiliated farmers. But the per capita income effect does not translate into higher productivity owing to a concurrent increase in hours worked.     

Farm succession,occupational choice and farm adaptation at the rural-urban interface: The case of Italian horticultural farms

The survival of family farming in Europe is a crucial issue, as it assures landscape maintenance in marginal areas and provides transmission and accumulation of site-specific knowledge in agricultural activity. Using data from a sample of Italian horticultural farms, we explored the multiple forces driving farm succession in a high value added sector. In addition to the traditional factors examined in the literature (farm, farmer and family features), we treated the farm transfer choice as the complement of the decision to migrate out of the agricultural sector, testing the effects of local labour market conditions (employment, income gap between farm and non-farm sector) and population density around the farm, as a proxy of rural-urban interface relationships. It has been shown that both traditional factors and territorial and labour market conditions influence the probability of farm succession. Interestingly labour market conditions exerted an effect in line with occupational choice theory only in less inhabited areas; in more densely populated regions a rural-urban linkage effect seems to prevail, creating an environment that fosters succession of young horticultural farmers. Peri-urban areas may thus be a favourable location for professional and specialised horticultural farms, as well as multifunctional and de-specialised ones, if their assets are properly protected against farmland subtraction. More generally, these findings confirm the validity of a more comprehensive approach toward farm succession, which takes occupational choice theory and rural-urban farm adaptation strategies into account.     

The Impact of Price Stabilizing Policies on the Risk Efficient Crop/Fallow Decisions of Wheat Farmers in the Brown Soil Zone of Saskatchewan

The micro-linkages between the crop/fallow decision and price-induced risk are examined for wheat producers located on the brown soils of Saskatchewan. Three generic price stabilization policies are defined. Based on a bio-economic simulation model, the risk-efficient FLEXCROP decision rules are selected, and their corresponding cropping patterns are assessed for each generic price stabilization policy. Assuming no subsidy component within the mandatory price stabilization program:
• risk lovers reduce cropped acreages by 0% to 4%, depending upon both the risk-aversion level and the stabilizing program and
• risk-averse producers increase cropped acreage from 10% to 35% over no price stabilization.     

Measuring technical efficiency of dairy farms with imprecise data: a fuzzy data envelopment analysis approach

This article integrates fuzzy set theory in the data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework to compute technical efficiency scores when input and output data are imprecise. The underlying assumption in conventional DEA is that input and output data are measured with precision. However, production agriculture takes place in an uncertain environment, and, in some situations, input and output data may be imprecise. We present an approach of measuring efficiency when data are known to lie within specified intervals and empirically illustrate this approach using a group of 29 dairy producers in Pennsylvania. Compared to the conventional DEA scores that are point estimates, the computed fuzzy efficiency scores are interval bound allowing the decision maker to trace the performance of a decision‐making unit at different possibility levels.     

Impacts of price and exchange rate policies on pesticide use in the Philippines

Pesticide prices can influence producer decisions to apply pesticides as opposed to nonchemical means of pest control. Those prices are are turn influenced by price and exchange rate policies. The effective rate of protection for nine pesticides commonly applied to vegetables in the Philippines was calculated to determine whether government policies are creating incentives or disincentives to adopt more integrated pest management methods. Calculations found that direct price policies, primarily through an import tariff, tax pesticide use while an overvalued exchange rate subsidizes pesticide use. The net effect is a 6 to 8% pesticide subsidy. This subsidy results in economic surplus gains to vegetable producers and consumers when negative externalities associated with pesticide use are not accounted for. However, recent analysis of human health effects of pesticide use on rice in the Philippines demonstrates that these externalities can be substantial.     

Welfare impacts of maize–pigeonpea intensification in Tanzania

This article examines the driving forces behind farmers’ decisions to adopt improved pigeonpea and maize and estimates the causal impact of technology adoption on household welfare using data obtained from a random cross‐section sample of 613 small‐scale farmers in Tanzania. We use seemingly unrelated and recursive bivariate probit regressions to test the endogeneity and joint decision making of pigeonpea–maize production. A double hurdle model is used to analyze the determinants of the intensity of technology adoption conditional on overcoming seed access constraints. To address the impact of adoption on welfare, the article employs both propensity score matching and switching regression techniques. Results from bivariate probit models show that unobservable factors cause both decisions to be correlated but the finding does not support the conjecture that both decisions are made jointly. Overall the analysis of the determinants of adoption identifies inadequate local supply of seed, access to information, human capital, and access to private productive asset as key constraints for pigeonpea technology adoption. The causal impact estimation from both the propensity score matching and switching regression suggests that maize/pigeonpea adoption has a positive and significant impact on income and consumption expenditure among sample households.