Will cotton make a comeback in Mali?

With the decline of cotton especially in the marginal cotton areas, farmers have been using more of the cotton‐financed inputs on the cereals. The cotton para‐statal company (CMDT) has made a virtue out of this recommending diversification for these regions. Following the world price spike in 2010, the Malian government responded with a substantial price increase for cotton in 2011 of 38% to rejuvenate the Malian sector. This article looks at the impact of this price policy in the cotton economy and the potential of new cereal technology and marketing strategy to raise incomes and facilitate the diversification. Given the importance of the marketing decision of selling later after the recovery of cereal prices from the harvest collapse, a discrete stochastic programming model was developed for three‐stage decision making. Then, the recent changes in the cotton economy and government fertilizer subsidies were analyzed along with the introduction of the new technology marketing of sorghum. Cotton and maize continue to dominate the economy but the combined sorghum technology marketing increases farmers’ incomes by 16% to 21% and eases the return to normal cotton prices, after the 2011 price spike, as well as the removal of the fertilizer subsidies.     

Competition in the US meatpacking industry: is it history?

The US meatpacking industry has become concentrated to a degree not experienced since the days of the ‘Beef trust’ a century ago. A number of mainstream studies have investigated if such concentration has been detrimental to competition. Just as earlier studies may have helped shape competition policy towards meatpacking a century ago, contemporary studies have made their way into current discussions and may shape competition policy at the turn of this century. This paper asks whether or not contemporary studies are useful in informing competition policy. After comparing how competition looks from the econometric vantage point with how it looks from the vantage point of the industry's 300-yr history, this article concludes that mainstream studies are more useful for a competition policy targeting conduct rather than structure.     

Rice productivity in Bangladesh: What are the benefits of irrigation?

Green Revolution technologies transformed Bangladesh’s agricultural system through the introduction of high-yielding rice and wheat varieties, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the expansion of tubewell-irrigated area, enabling crop production during the dry season. However, serious challenges continue to plague the agriculture sector, including scarcity of land due to high population density, unbalanced use of fertilizers and pesticides, and great variation in water supply across seasons – from drought to stagnant flood conditions. Further expansion of irrigated area – including through the continued development and improvement of surface water systems – is being eyed by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Agriculture to address many of the remaining challenges facing the country. However, such expansion is not without risks or consequences, and a careful analysis of who benefits from irrigation, and how, must guide development priorities.We examine plot-level data for rice production during Bangladesh’s three rice seasons – aus, boro, and aman – across a nationally-representative household survey in Bangladesh. While rainfall is the most important determinant of rice yield during aus and chemical inputs are most important during aman, access to irrigation has the greatest influence on boro rice yield during the dry season, particularly for the coastal south. The government of Bangladesh is planning massive investments in the southern region for the improved provision of surface water irrigation. The expected decline in groundwater, coupled with our econometric findings, suggests that expanding boro production in the south may not be a good strategy to promote, for the region. Whether brackish shrimp aquaculture can provide an equitable and sustainable livelihood alternative should continue to be a focus of research.     

Multidimensional poverty in Afghanistan: who are the poorest of the poor?

Taking a capability approach perspective, our paper aims at advancing our understanding of poverty in Afghanistan, and at identifying the most deprived, including persons with disabilities, in order to address the first Sustainable Development Goal to eradicate poverty in all its forms. We used data from a national survey carried out in Afghanistan in 2005. We calculated one index using two weights structures, the adjusted headcount ratio, part of the multidimensional poverty measures. Following a participatory process, we identified and validated 13 indicators clustered in seven dimensions of poverty, including three usually neglected dimensions. Findings suggest that exploring various domains of deprivation would better inform poverty eradication policies than an approach focused only on income. Our results also demonstrate that nearly all Afghan adults are deprived in at least one dimension and those residing in rural areas, from minority ethnic groups, women, elderly people and persons disabled at birth or of an unknown cause are the poorest of the poor. Efforts to improve well-being must acknowledge these inequalities so that public policies in Afghanistan aiming at alleviating poverty take these disparities into account, when facing a reduction in available resources.     

Agriculture trade restrictiveness in Canada: How important are the cross effects?

A trade restrictiveness index (TRI) aggregates an entire protection structure into a single uniform measure that is consistent with trade theory and reflects the extent of policy interventions on trade or welfare. Although there are several variants of a TRI, all approaches aggregate protective measures using weights that depend on import demand and export supply elasticities; some studies ignore cross-price effects while others account for them. This study measures the degree of bias introduced by ignoring cross effects. It provides a practical approach to account for demand- and supply-side cross-price effects in a multi-commodity TRI setting. This approach is illustrated with a case study of distortions in the Canadian crop and livestock sector. Domestic demand and supply cross effects are approximated using a “constant differences of elasticities of substitution” functional form. On average, over the period 1996–2016, we find that cross-price effects do make a difference, and that including them makes the TRI 27% higher than an approach which ignores them. Furthermore, both TRI approaches produce indices that are higher and more variable than the OECD's percentage Producer Support Estimate (PSE) that measures policy transfers as a share of gross farm receipts. The fundamental differences between a TRI and PSE% is driven by market price support for milk.     

Addressing gender in agricultural research for development in the face of a changing climate: where are we and where should we be going?

Agricultural development efforts that do not address persistent gender gaps miss opportunities for greater impact. This synthesis reflects on key findings from integrated quantitative and qualitative analyses at the nexus of gender, agricultural development, and climate change. Linked farm household-, intrahousehold-, community-, and institutional-level data highlight significant and nuanced gender differences in adaptive capacity of individuals and communities to respond to climate change. The gender gap is also substantial in exposure to climate change and its impacts, and uptake of new practices that lower vulnerability. Women in agriculture will remain largely neglected by information and service providers unless their differing needs, access to, and control over resources are considered at policy and project design stage. Yet clear guidelines for addressing the needs of both men and women in different environments and agricultural systems are still lacking. Participatory ‘action research’ approaches with a focus on co-learning, and using innovative cell phone or social media-based approaches offer exciting new opportunities. Agricultural development decision-makers and project designers need to ‘design with gender in mind’. Equipping them with tools and knowledge of innovative gender-transformative practices and intervention options and creating accountability for serving women and men will be key.     

Water–milk nexus in India: a path to a sustainable water future?

This paper examines the nexus between milk production and water use in India. The nexus is examined in the context of extended consumptive water use (CWU) of milk production beyond drinking water. It includes the real CWU (evapotranspiration (ETa) that occurs during the production of green fodder and feed grains) and the virtual CWU (ETa embedded in by-products for animal feed). The real CWU appears as large as that of sugarcane, and the real and virtual CWU combined is as large as that of rice. However, milk production generates more value than the outputs of rice and sugarcane combined. Sustainable water use and agricultural growth in major milk-producing areas require a drastic reduction in groundwater CWU, which, at present, exceeds natural recharge. It is suggested that diversifying to a mix of milk and high-value (but low water consuming) crops can reduce groundwater CWU while ensuring higher total output.     

ASDA: Organic Growth of a Retailer in the United Kingdom?

This article analyzes the role of glocalization in Wal-Mart's venture in the United Kingdom. In 1999, Wal-Mart acquired ASDA, a British food retailer. Glocalization refers to strategies adopted by multinational corporations to cater to local tastes and differences after entering a foreign market. The authors' main argument is the following: after Wal-Mart acquired ASDA, it did not manage to successfully impose its Wal-Martization strategies because they consisted mainly of “organic growth” strategies. Organic growth is a practice whereby a corporation overpoweringly imposes its home-based blueprint of product consumption and corporate culture on foreign cultures. As demonstrated in this analysis, Wal-Mart had to drop its Bentonville-based shopping and corporate formula and, instead, adopt the principles of glocalization.     

Gender and inorganic nitrogen: what are the implications of moving towards a more balanced use of nitrogen fertilizer in the tropics?

For agriculture to play a role in climate change mitigation strategies to reduce emissions from inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer through a more balanced and efficient use are necessary. Such strategies should align with the overarching principle of sustainable intensification and will need to consider the economic, environmental and social trade-offs of reduced fertilizer-related emissions. However, the gender equity dimensions of such strategies are rarely considered. The case studies cited in this paper, from India, Lake Victoria in East Africa and more broadly from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), show that the negative externalities of imbalanced inorganic N use in high- and low-use scenarios impact more strongly on women and children. We examine, through a literature review of recent work in SSA, the relative jointness of intra-household bargaining processes in low N use scenarios to assess the degree to which they impact upon N use. We suggest that gender-equitable strategies for achieving more balanced use of N will increase the likelihood of attaining macro-level reductions in GHG emissions provided that they secure equity in intra-household decision-making and address food security. Gender-equitable N use efficiency strategies will help to integrate and assure gender and social equity co-benefits at local scales.     

Carbon accounting tools: are they fit for purpose in the context of arable cropping?

The agricultural sector contributes 9% towards total UK greenhouse gas emissions and so may offer significant potential as a sector to help meet national and international emission reduction targets. In order to help farmers manage their emissions and to encourage more sustainable farming, several carbon accounting tools are now available. This article describes a short study that selected five suitable tools and compared their performance on nine European arable farms, concentrating on the crop production components, to determine how useful they are for assisting in the development of site-specific mitigation strategies and how well they would perform within farm assurance or benchmarking schemes. The results were mixed, with some tools better designed for identifying mitigation opportunities than others. The results also showed that, quantitatively, the results are highly variable between tools and depended on the selected functional unit, this being highly important if the wider aspects of sustainability such as food security are to be considered. However, there is statistical consistency across the tools regarding the ranking order of the farms in terms of their emissions.     

Preserving permanent mountain grasslands in Western Europe: Why are promising approaches not implemented more widely?

To protect grasslands and maintain the ecosystem services they provide, many European countries have been offering agri-environment measures aimed at maintaining extensive grazing by cattle, sheep or goats. Yet, despite more than two decades of agri-environment measures, semi-natural mountain pastures are still seen as threatened by abandonment and subsequent shrub encroachment. Building on a three-round Delphi inquiry, we analyse the perception of a range of experts on how measures aimed at maintaining mountain grasslands are designed and implemented in Austria, France and Norway. Results show that the experts see the need for a stronger involvement of diverse regional actors, the need to increase the flexibility given to farmers in managing mountain grasslands, and the need to reconceptualise monitoring as a social learning process. While these approaches are implemented in some ‘best practice’ examples, they are not widespread. Understanding these approaches as requiring double-loop learning may contribute to explaining their limited spread. Indeed, they build on a radically different conceptualization of farmers and of researchers, and thus of how agri-environment measures need to be designed and implemented to be effective. Yet, such radical changes are likely to be resisted.     

Rural households’ participation in charcoal production in Zambia: Does agricultural productivity play a role?

The study uses a nationally representative dataset of smallholder farmers in Zambia to determine the effect of agricultural productivity on households’ participation in charcoal production. An instrumental variable probit approach is applied to account for the endogeneity of agricultural productivity in household's charcoal participation decision. We find a negative and significant effect of agricultural productivity on household's likelihood of participation in charcoal production. Results also show that higher education, income, asset value, and participation in off-farm employment opportunities reduce the likelihood of participation in charcoal production. Therefore, interventions seeking to reduce charcoal production in rural Zambia could benefit from improving smallholder agricultural productivity, incomes, asset base, and off-farm employment creation. However, interventions need not lose sight of other important macro-level factors.     

The returns to promotion of healthy choices in Tasmania: are you in the dark about the power of mushrooms?

The Australian Mushroom Growers Association (AMGA) has recently developed a revised marketing strategy to promote mushrooms using messages based on scientific findings about the nutrition and health consequences of regularly incorporating mushrooms into meals. This article evaluates impacts based on a test‐market experiment in Tasmania. We use a difference‐in‐differences econometric methodology to quantify the programme‐induced shifts in demand, and we use the resulting estimates in a supply and demand modelling framework to quantify the effects of promotion‐induced demand shifts on prices, quantities, and measures of economic well‐being. We estimate a conservative benefit–cost ratio for Tasmanian producers of 7.6:1 if they were to bear the entire cost and 11.4:1 if the programme were financed by a levy on production (or spawn). The aggregate benefit–cost ratio, including benefits to consumers is also 11.4:1.     

Migrant Agricultural Workers in Local and Global Contexts: Toward a Better Life?

Four books published between 2013 and 2014 make a vital contribution towards understanding the political and ideological tools by which states and employers construct hyper‐exploitable agricultural workers. In this review essay, we provide an assessment of how these books have advanced our understandings of migrant farm labour regimes in local and international perspectives. After presenting a synopsis of each text, we critically reflect on key lessons learned, offer questions that merit further attention, and suggest directions for future research. Our review finds that despite wide differences in geopolitical and legal contexts in which migrant agricultural workers cross borders, live and work, there are remarkable resemblances in the ways in which states use (and abuse) migrant labour. Likewise, there are glaring similarities in the consequent vulnerabilities migrants experience. While each author provides compelling and empirically rich observations based on local fields of study, generally lacking are broader global connections and policy discussions about how the problems raised can be meaningfully addressed. Given the seeming ubiquity of exploitative migrant agricultural worker regimes, the fundamental question left largely unanswered is: Must ‘local’ agricultural systems depend on vulnerable imported workers in order to provide affordable food for consumers, or are there workable alternatives to this arrangement?     

Which smallholders are willing to adopt Acacia mangium under long-term contracts? Evidence from a choice experiment study in Indonesia

Smallholder ownership of forests has grown rapidly over the last 25 years, leading to global forest transition; however, incentives are required to keep smallholders growing trees under long-term afforestation contracts. This article reports on smallholders’ willingness to join afforestation programs, growing Acacia mangium under contract on their private farmland. In a Choice Experiment, we examine the effects of policy attributes of afforestation contracts, including contract duration, labour participation, timber insurance, training opportunities, road improvement, and expected income. We report the marginal value of changes in monetary terms. A scale-extended latent class model was used to analyse preference heterogeneity in data of 323 smallholders from three different regions in Indonesia (West Kalimantan, Yogyakarta, and South Sumatera). These regions are at different forest transition stages. Our results indicate that there are four latent preference classes, which value attributes of the contract differently. Individual characteristics (risk orientation, tree growing experiences, and occupation), and regional differences explain the probability of preference class membership. Our findings have important implications for enhancing afforestation strategies that improve social welfare of smallholders in various forest transition stages.     

‘Integrated’ Rural Development Policy in the EU: a Team Too Faar?

‘Integrate’ Rural Development Policy in the EU: a Term Too Far? Since its introduction in the early 1980s for Mediterranean and some other regions, an ‘integrated’ approach to EU rural development policy has come to-be increasingly advocated. However, the precise meaning of the term is seldom made clear in official and other documents, which appear to have applied it in a variety of contexts and in a number of different ways, This article discusses and analyses some alternative interpretations of ‘integrated’ rural development policy, including considerations of finance (funding from more than one source), administration (policy design, approval, monitoring and evaluation being undertaken by a single agency), institutions (responsibility and coordination being shared between different departments and agencies) and the economics of efficiency (better balancing of costs and benefits, and the encouragement of desired complementarities). These different meanings may explain some of the confusion in the long-running debate over rural policy in the EU, and suggest the need for more careful language. However, the arguments do endorse the apparent direction of thinking at the November 2003 Salzburg conference on rural development, i.e. that improved policy will result from better defined objectives, a single EU fund for rural development, and territorial programming at a local or regional level. Les politiques européennes de développement rural ‘intégré’:un mot de trop? Depuis l'introduction de ce vocable, au début des années 80, à propos, entre autres, des régions méditerranéennes, il est de plus en plus courant d'entendre vanter les mérites d'une approche ‘intégrée’ des politiques de développement rural. Pourtant, la signification précise de ce terme n'est que rarement explicitée, que ce soit dans les documents officiels ou dans d'autres. Le mot semble avoir été appliquéà de nombreuses situations différentes et de toutes sortes de façons. On essaie id d'analyser les différentes interprétations qu'il est possible de donner à la notion d'intégration des politiques de développement rural, que ce soit en termes de financement (utilisation de plus d'une seule source de financement), d'administration (l'élaboration des politiques, la décision, le suivi, et l'évaluation se trouvant sous la responsabilité d'une agence unique), destitutions (partage des responsabilités et des tâches de coordination entre différents départements ministériels ou agences d'exécution), ou d'efficacitééconomique (meilleur équilibre entre les bénéfices et les coûts, souci de créer des complérnentarités). La polysémie du mot semble expliquer la confusion qui entoure depuis longtemps le débat sur la politique rurale dans l'Union européenne et cela implique la nécessité d'employer un langage plus précis. Aussi bien, ce point correspond à la ligne générale de pensée qui s'est manifestéà la conférence de Salzbourg en novembre 2003 sur le développement rural: pour améliorer la politique, il faut que ses objectifs soient mieux définis, qu'il existe un seul fonds européen pour le développement rural, et que la planification territoriale se fasse au niveau local ou régional. ‘Integrierte’ Politik zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums in der EU: Ein zu weit gefasster Begriff? Seitdem der integerierte Ansatz für die Politik zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums der EU in den frühen 1980er Jahren für den Mittelmeerraum und andere Regionen eingeführt wurde, wird er zunehmend befürwortet. Die Definition dieses Begriffs geht jedoch selten eindeutig aus amtlichen und anderen Dokumenten hervor, welche diesen Begriff scheinbar auf die verschiedensten Arten und in vielfaltigen Kontexten verwenden. In diesem Beitrag werden einige Alternativen hinsichtlich der Auslegung des Begriffs der “integrierten” Politik zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums diskutiert und analysiert. Hierbei werden Finanzierung (Finanzierung aus mehreren Quellen), Verwaltung (Politikentwurf, Zustimmung, Überwachung und Evaluierung durch eine einzige Agentur), Institutionen (gemeinschaftliche Verantwortung und Koordination von verschiedenen Abteilungen und Geschäftsstellen) und Effizienz (verbessertes Abwägen von Kosten und Nutzen sowie Förderung erwünschter Komplementaritäten) behandelt. Diese unterschiedlichen Begriffsinhalte sind möglicherweise ein Grund für die Verwirrung in der seit langem geführten Debatte zur ländlichen Politik in der EU und lassen eine umsichtigere Sprachwahl sinnvoll erscheinen. Die Argumente untermauern jedoch die vorherrschende Meinung auf der Salzburger Konferenz zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums im November 2003, d.h. dass klarer definierte Ziele, ein einziger EU-Fonds für die Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums sowie territoriale Programmentwicklung auf lokaler oder regionaler Ebene zu einer verbesserten Politik führen.