Climate-resilient practices and welfare impacts on rice-cultivating households in Vietnam: Does joint adoption of multiple practices matter?

Farmers have a long history of adjusting their production practices in response to changing production conditions. Using a multinomial endogenous treatment effects model that accounts for observable and unobservable heterogeneity, this study investigates the adoption and welfare impacts of climate-resilient practices on Vietnamese rice-cultivating households. We found evidence of clear and positive welfare impacts from the adoption of canal irrigation (CI) and the joint adoption of agricultural conservation practices (CP) and CI as the main adaptation strategies to increase water stress. More importantly, although farmers with access to CI systems obtained the highest returns, the joint adoption of multiple practices still had substantially high adoption rates and significantly positive effects on rice yield, rice revenue and household income. Our findings indicate that farms' and farmers' characteristics, market information and climatic conditions are generally the main factors driving rice farmers' decisions to adopt climate-resilient technologies, both individually and jointly. Follow-up policy interventions should focus on improving CI systems and promoting the joint adoption of climate-resilient technologies to improve rice farmers' well-being and enhance their resilience capacity to cope with incoming climatic uncertainty.     

Does oligopsony power matter in price support policy design? Empirical evidence from the Thai Jasmine rice market

In the oligopsony market, farmers may receive low prices and policy analysis assuming perfect competition can yield serious bias results. In this paper, we estimate oligopsony power between processors and farmers and evaluate the welfare impact of the paddy pledging program (PPP), a generous price support program in the Thai Jasmine rice market, with an imperfect competition model. We develop a model that consists of rice supply equation and derived demand equation. We then simultaneously estimate these equations using system estimation methods to recover oligopsony power parameters. Finally, we use these parameters to assess the welfare impact of the price support program. Using annual panel data running from crop marketing year 2001/2002–2015/2016 and exploiting the institutional feature of the PPP, we find strong evidence of some oligopsony power, a moderate level of oligopsony price distortion, and a negative relationship between price support and oligopsony power. We also find that the PPP is inefficient but effective in income redistribution. Moreover, the program benefits both farmers and consumers. With better policymaking decisions, the PPP can be efficient by setting a suitable support price. Therefore, our results show that in the case of the Thai Jasmine rice market, the generally accepted “wisdom” about agricultural price support policy does not necessarily hold, and price support can be designed to improve the efficiency of the market.     

日本稻米价格竞争力分析与中日比较的启示

［目的］文章以稻米价格竞争力为视角,从稻米单位面积产量长期增长停滞与总体成本水平持续上涨方面分析了日本稻米生产成本的特征与变化,从稻米生产成本指标与生产成本以外指标方面比较分析了中日稻米价格竞争力的优劣与变化。［方法］采用文献分析法、趋势分析法与比较分析法进行分析。［结果］日本稻米的高生产成本与单位面积产量长期停滞是比较显著的问题,造成日本稻米价格竞争力优势逐渐降低; 但是不同规模稻米生产成本的差距却越来越大,随着时间推移,日本稻米种植规模越大生产成本越低。与日本比较,中国稻米生产成本虽然较低,但上涨速度显著高于日本。在稻米价格竞争力方面,中国与日本之间的差距在缩小,中国的优势逐渐降低。［结论］基于日本经验,结合国内情况,从扩大稻米生产经营规模、加快稻米生产机械化进程、引导优质稻米品种发展等方面借鉴日本经验,旨在为加强中国稻米价格竞争力提供参考。     

林业专业合作组织发展的理论基础分析

运用交易成本、信息不完全和不对称、组织创新和组织优势、专业分工等理论,深入剖析林业专业合作组织发展的理论基础,这不仅有利于理解林业专业合作组织的内涵和实质,还将为中国林区坚持发展林业专业合作组织提供理论支持。     

退耕还林边际内部成本中信息不完全的经济学福利分析

退耕还林还草工程是一项具有正的外部性的经济活动,然而在实施中,却存在着诸多问题。对这些问题进行整理之后发现,其中一些问题来自于信息不完全,因此本文通过成本效益曲线对外部性情况下的市场失灵的福利损害进行分析,然后比较高估和低估边际内部成本带来的社会福利损害,最后提出解决的建议。     

中国水稻加工环节成本结构及影响因素分析

［目的］“产业兴旺”是乡村振兴战略中的重要内容,探究中国水稻加工环节成本结构及影响因素,对促进我国农业一、二、三产业的融合,实现农业价值链转型升级,提升我国农产价值链竞争力具有重要的意义。［方法］通过微观调研数据,构建超越对数成本函数和要素需求函数,采用似不相关回归法（Seemingly Unrelated Regression）实证分析我国水稻加工厂的成本及要素投入的影响因素。［结果］（1）稻米加工厂存在规模报酬经济,扩大规模可以降低稻米加工平均成本。（2）建立品牌、与农户形成合同关系、鼓励多元主体经营、公司成立时间、企业能够获得政府支持对降低加工厂的平均加工成本具有正向显著影响。（3）建立品牌、与稻农签订合同、企业负责人的年龄、受教育年限越高对提高加工厂资本投入,促进结构升级具有显著影响。［结论］应采取相关政策措施鼓励稻米加工产扩大加工规模,与上下游形成更为紧密的利益共同体,加强稻米加工企业的品牌意识进而提高我国稻米加工产业的成本竞争力,并鼓励具有更为丰富管理经验、接受更高教育水平的管理者担任企业负责人,在促进我国稻米加工行业的升级转型的同时,提高我国稻米副产品的深度开发利用。     

Evaluating Alternative Policy Responses to Higher World Food Prices: The Case of Increasing Rice Prices in Madagascar

Higher world food prices have led many developing countries to adopt policies to mitigate the impact on low-income households. This article sets out a partial equilibrium framework to evaluate the efficiency, distributional, and revenue implications of alternative policy responses. The model is applied to evaluate tariff reductions and targeted transfers in Madagascar. Although lowering tariffs generates substantial efficiency gains, these accrue mainly to the top half of the welfare distribution, and poor net sellers are actually worse off. Developing a system of targeted direct transfers to poor households is likely to be a substantially more cost-effective approach to poverty alleviation.     

北京城市家庭水产品在外消费的影响因素分析

本文使用记帐式调查数据,采用Double—hurdle模型分析了北京城市居民家庭水产品在外消费及其影响因素。计量分析结果发现,收入与时间机会成本会显著增加城市居民家庭水产品在外消费的参与概率与消费数量。此外,家庭在外水产品消费的参与和消费决策还受到家庭人口结构与区域分布的显著影响。本文的研究结果对促进我国餐饮业与水产业的健康发展和相关政策的制定有重要意义。