Identifying entry points to improve fertilizer use efficiency in Taihu Basin,China

Overuse of fertilizers in China causes environmental problems and high costs for farmers. In this paper we aim to identify entry points to improve fertilizer use efficiency in Taihu Basin, China. We use stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the technical and fertilizer use efficiency of rice production based on a survey held among 320 households in Wuxi, Zhenjiang and Changzhou, located upstream of Taihu Lake. Subsequently, Tobit model is applied to analyze factors influencing fertilizer use efficiency. The average technical efficiency and fertilizer use efficiency in this area in 2008 were 84.2% and 25.4% respectively. On average, rice production is thus efficient, but fertilizer use efficiency can be substantially improved. The results of the regression analyses explaining fertilizer use efficiency indicate that although extension services have stimulated the use of formula fertilizer in Taihu Basin, the use of formula fertilizer has not (yet) improved fertilizer use efficiency. Environmental awareness on water pollution and on the effect of fertilizers, off-farm income and a positive risk attitude have a significant positive effect on fertilizer use efficiency in Taihu Basin. Possessing a car or truck, labor intensity and the occurrence of disasters, on the other hand, have a significant negative effect on fertilizer use efficiency. Policies aimed at improving fertilizer use efficiency may therefore focus on increasing knowledge on the environment and fertilizer management, improving extension services and encouraging farmers to migrate or work off-farm.     

Marketing reforms,market development and agricultural production in China

Chinese agricultural reforms have consisted of two transitional stages; initially decollectivization in the late 1970s followed by market liberalization in the mid 1980s. While much research has been conducted on the initial stage of increasing the incentives for farmers in collective cultivation, little quantitative evidence exists on how marketing reforms and the development of rural markets has affected agricultural production decisions. Using more accurate and disaggregated measures of the reform and market development components of liberalization than previous research, this study examined the effects of these liberalization policies on the agricultural production decisions in Shaanxi province. Procurement quota levels were found to be positively associated with the area planted to grain crops. Thus, quotas represent an effective way of increasing grain production and thereby also a means of achieving food self sufficiency which remains an important policy objective for the Chinese government. The involvement of state grain stations in free market grain trade and the expansion of rural markets has increased the area planted to the two potential cash crops, soybeans and wheat, and reduced the sown area of the Subsistence crop, corn reflecting the reduced need to plant corn as a self insurance mechanism for smoothing consumption. An increase in procurement quotas increases fertilizer use on grain crops, due to the policy of linking quotas to access to below-market priced fertilizer, but decreases the use of labor, which shifts to other more profitable enterprises. Market development has increased these off-farm employment opportunities and the earnings associated with them, thereby promoting the shift of labor out of crop production and increased the use of fertilizer which has also become more available.     

Parametric and Semiparametric Modeling of the Off-Farm Labor Supply of Agrarian Households in Transition Bulgaria

The reaction of labor markets to economic reforms is an important indicator of the progress of transition. Because of diminished government support and the breakup of state and collective enterprises, labor market adjustments in the transition economies have been particularly severe in the agricultural sector. This article evaluates the off-farm labor market for a sample of agrarian households in transition Bulgaria. We give particular attention to the distributional assumptions that underlie standard approaches to the evaluation of labor supply. A variety of specification tests are considered and support for standard maximum likelihood estimates which rely on normality as a maintained hypothesis is mixed. Alternative semiparametric (distribution-free) estimators are also considered. The empirical results indicate that, five years after the initiation of the transition, off-farm labor supply patterns for Bulgarian agricultural households are similar to what is commonly observed in developed market economies. Labor supply is positively affected by factors such as education and work experience which are hypothesized to increase off-farm wages. Social benefit programs providing monetary or in-kind support payments are shown to significantly decrease off-farm work.     

Moving off the farm and intensifying agricultural production in Shandong: a case study of rural labor market linkages in China

This study examines linkages between off-farm labor markets and the labor allocated by farmers to on-farm production of fruit crops. Using a stratified random sample of rural households in Shandong Province, we find that young and educated members of the labor force tend to work more frequently in the off-farm labor market, and that off-farm employment reduces the likelihood and intensity of fruit production. Fruit production is associated with lower levels of off-farm employment. Households and individuals who are less likely (or able) to find off-farm employment can benefit from shifting into fruit production. Although off-farm employment is an important avenue out of poverty, fruit production provides ways for the less educated and older households to raise their income.     

Conservation Payments, Liquidity Constraints, and Off-Farm Labor: Impact of the Grain-for-Green Program on Rural Households in China

This study evaluates the labor response of rural households participating in the Grain-for-Green program in China, the largest payments for ecosystem services program in the developing world. Using a panel data set that we designed and implemented, we find that the participating households are increasingly shifting their labor endowment from on-farm work to the off-farm labor market. However, the effects vary depending on the initial level of human and physical capital. The results support the view that one reason why the participants are more likely to find off-farm employment is because the program is relaxing households' liquidity constraints.     

How does off-farm work affect chemical fertilizer application? Evidence from China’s mountainous and plain areas

There is a rising concern that the ongoing wave of off-farm employment will have profound effects on agriculture-based environment problems-measured by the intensity of chemical fertilizer (CF) usage. Yet, our understanding of the regional heterogeneities of this effect remains scant. This research gap is addressed by using panel data of selected cities in Sichuan and Henan provinces in China, which are representative mountainous and plain regions respectively, to empirically examine the impact of off-farm employment on CF use. Our findings indicated that there exists an inverted “U” shaped relationship between off-farm employment and CF use in the mountainous region, whereas CF use is positively correlated with off-farm employment in the plain area. The increased CF inputs, which resulted from the substitution effect and remittance effect, can compensate for the negative effect of labor loss, while land marginalization is the main reason for the decrease in CF consumption at the later stage of urbanization in the mountainous region. Meanwhile, the deagriculturalization of farmers’ employment patterns decreases the intensity of CF usage, which resulted from the scale effect produced by land transfer and large-scale management in the plain region. Besides, the evolution pattern of this effect may present a similar trend in these provinces, but the turning point of plain regions would appear later than that of mountainous areas due to the inherently unique physical conditions and socio-ecological contexts. Based on the empirical results of this paper, some policy recommendations are provided.     

Is off-farm income reforming the farm? Evidence from Mexico

Does access to off-farm income complement or compete with agricultural production? This article explores the effect of off-farm income on agricultural production activities, using data from the 2003 Mexico National Rural Household Survey. We first discuss the theoretical conditions under which access to off-farm income may influence production in an agricultural household model. Instrumental-variable (IV) estimation methods are then used to test whether agricultural production activities, technologies, and input use differ between households with and without access to off-farm income. We find that off-farm income has a negative effect on agricultural output and the use of family labor on the farm, but a positive impact on the demand for purchased inputs. There is also a slight efficiency gain in households with access to off-farm income. Findings offer insights into how household production evolves as rural households increasingly engage in off-farm income activities.     

Off-farm Labour Supply with Productivity Increases,Peak Period Production and Farm Structure Impacts

The study of of-farm employment of farm family members in the context of a neoclassical time allocation model of labor supply is used to attempt to explain the amount and type of off-farm employment currently prevalent on the Canadian Prairies. The effect of labor saving technical change together with a production process characterized by periods of peak activity affect the priority that may be assigned to off-farm work These factors require explicit consideration in the theoretical framework for the study of off-farm employment. The refinements occasioned by expanding the paradigm in this manner have implications for the role of rural development policy in the support of the agricultural sector     

Weather Risk, Wages in Kind, and the Off-Farm Labor Supply of Agricultural Households in a Developing Country

This article investigates the effects of weather risk on the off-farm labor supply of agricultural households in a developing country, distinguishing different types of off-farm labor markets. A multivariate two-limit tobit model is applied to data from India. The regression results show that the share of the off-farm labor supply increases with weather risk, the increase is much larger in the case of nonagricultural work than in the case of agricultural wage work, and the increase is much larger in the case of agricultural wages paid in kind than in the cash wage case, suggesting farmers' considerations of food security.     

劳动力转移行为对土地流转意愿影响的实证研究

研究目的:从外出务工人员转移行为的角度研究其对土地流转意愿的影响。研究方法:实证分析法。研究结果:劳动力转移距离和转移时间影响土地流转的意愿,在县内务工的人员不愿意转出土地的意愿更强,但是有将近一半的农户对土地流转问题没有考虑过。研究结论:应通过加强农民工培训、建立区域性的劳动力市场、推进农村社会保障制度的建设来促进农村土地的流转。     

Farm productivity in Rwanda: effects of farm size,erosion, and soil conservation investments

This paper examines the effects of farm size, soil erosion, and soil conservation investments on land and labor productivity and allocative efficiency in Rwanda. There were several key results. First, there is a strong inverse relationship between farm size and land productivity, and the opposite for labor productivity. For smaller farms, there is evidence of allocative inefficiency in use of land and labor, probably due to factor market access constraints. Second, farms with greater investment in soil conservation have much better land productivity than average. Those with very eroded soils do much worse than average. Smaller farms are not more eroded than larger farms, but have twice the soil conservation investments. Third, land productivity benefits substantially from perennial cash crops, and the gains to shifting to cash crops are highest for those with low erosion and high use of fertilizer and organic matter. Program and policy effort to encourage and enable farmers to make soil conservation investments, to use fertilizer and organic matter, and to participate in cash cropping of perennials will have big payoffs in productivity. Land markets that allow smaller farmers to buy land could also increase aggregate productivity.     

Nonpecuniary Benefits to Farming: Implications for Supply Response to Decoupled Payments

We develop a household model wherein farmers allocate labor to maximize utility from leisure, consumption, and nonpecuniary benefits from farming. The model shows that farmers with decreasing marginal utility of income respond to higher decoupled payments by decreasing off-farm labor and increasing farm labor, resulting in greater agricultural output. We then estimate the difference between farm and off-farm returns to labor using data from three nationally representative farm household surveys. The finding of a large on-farm/off-farm wage differential provides compelling evidence of substantial nonpecuniary benefits from farming.     

非农就业对家庭营林劳动力投工女性化的影响研究

根据劳动力转移新经济学理论和家庭内部劳动力分工理论,基于2018年浙江省14个县(市)681户营林调查户样本数据,运用Tobit模型分析了非农就业对营林劳动力女性化的影响。结果表明:非农就业对女性劳动力单位面积营林投工量和女性营林投工比例具有显著正向影响;非农就业对不同林种营林投入女性化有明显差异,对经济林农户家庭营林投工女性化有显著正向影响,而对用材林农户家庭营林投工女性化作用不明显。提出完善农村劳动力社会保障制度;加强农村女性劳动力营林生产技能培训;发挥女性劳动力的营林生产优势等建议。     

The Impact of Coupled and Decoupled Government Subsidies on Off-Farm Labor Participation of U.S. Farm Operators

With the 1996 Farm Act, the United States introduced payments that were designed to be "decoupled." Labor allocation choices are likely to be affected by receipt of payments, and income from off-farm jobs has been the major source of income for most farm households for sometime. This article examines whether the 1996 change has affected the off-farm labor participation of farm households. We conclude that the observed increase in off-farm participation of farm operators who received payments was not the result of the 1996 policy change. Government payments, whether coupled or decoupled, have a negative effect on off-farm labor participation.     

The Theory of the Farm Household: An Application to Saskatchewan

A theoretical model is presented which integrates the consumption and production components of the rural household. A theoretically determined system of expenditure equations, derived factor demand equations and an off-farm labor supply equation are estimated using primary data for Saskatchewan farm households. From the empirical results we conclude that if the wage rate can be observed or estimated, the farm household's behavior can be explained empirically in a manner consistent with received theory. Summary and Conclusions A theoretical model integrating the consumption and production sides of the farm household or enterprise is estimated empirically using primary data for Saskatchewan farm households. The farm household was assumed to maximize its utility function subject to farm production and cash flow constraints. The empirical results indicate that the theoretical model can be estimated successfully even when data are sparse. While the coefficients for the expenditure, derived demand, and off-farm labor supply equations are consistent with coefficients from similar equations estimated separately by others, the theoretically more precise integrated approach specifies the simultaneous effect of the variables across equations. From the empirical results and the theoretical considerations it is obvious that the wage rate is a key explanatory variable in the model. The wage rate links the three components of the model–final expenditures, the derived input demands and off-farm labor hours. The wage rate is one determinant of the allocation of the operator's time (although other factors such as the nature of the operation and opportunities to work off-farm dominated in this study), and both the wage rate and the allocation of the time determine the eventual income available to the rural household. In essence, then, the problem of explaining farm household behavior when the household's business enterprise function cannot be separated from its consumption activity is similar to that of traditional models based on the theory of the firm and models of consumer behavior. The only difference is that the wage rate is observable in the traditional models but needs to be estimated as a shadow price in models which seek to explain rural household behavior. As a result, research in this area must start with an explanation of the allocation of (at least) the operator's labor and a measure of the shadow wage rate. If the entire household's allocation of time between on-farm and off-farm labor and leisure is determined, it is possible to treat its consumption and production activities separately. Further research is required to extend the model to explain household labor supply to both the farm and off-farm labor markets.     

Drivers of cropland abandonment in mountainous areas: A household decision model on farming scale in Southwest China

Cropland abandonment has emerged as a prevalent phenomenon in the mountainous areas of China. While there is a general understanding that this new trend is driven by the rising opportunity cost of rural labor, rigorous theoretical and empirical analyses are largely absent. This paper first develops a theoretical model to investigate household decisions on farming scale when off-farm labor market is accessible and there is heterogeneity of farmland productivity and distribution. The model is capable of explaining the hidden reasons of cropland abandonment in sloping and agriculturally less-favored locations. The model also unveils the impacts of heterogeneity of household labor on fallow decisions and the efficiency loss due to an imperfect labor market. The model is empirically tested by applying the Probit and Logit estimators to a unique household and land-plot survey dataset which contains 5258 plots of 599 rural households in Chongqing, a provincial level municipality, in Southwest China. The survey shows that more than 30% of the sample plots have been abandoned, mainly since 1992. The econometric results are consistent with our theoretical expectations. This work would help policy-makers and stakeholders to identify areas with a high probability of land abandonment and farming practice which is less sustainable in the mountainous areas.     

An Economic Analysis of Groundwater Contamination from Agricultural Nitrate Emissions in Southern Ontario

This paper analyzes the costs and benefits of controlling groundwater pollution from agricultural use of nitrogen fertilizer in southwestern Ontario. The Village of Hensall, where nitrate concentrations have been observed above 10 mg/L in recent years, is selected as the study site.'The CREAMS simulation model is used to estimate the effect of reducing nitrogen fertilizer on nitrate leaching and consequently on nitrate groundwater pollution. Estimates of the value of groundwater are obtained from the literature and are used to calculate the off-farm cost of groundwater contamination. This procedure results in a wide range of values for the benefits of reducing nitrate pollution. Estimated annual benefits of improved ground-water quality range from less than $1,000 to more than $30,000 for the village. The off-farm benefits of nitrate groundwater pollution abatement outweigh the cost of using bottled water and also exceed the on-farm cost of reducing nitrogen fertilizer application rates. Placing a tax on nitrogen fertilizer would reduce the level of nitrogen applications, but the farm cost of compliance to a nitrogen tax policy is substantially higher than the compliance cost under a regulatory policy that imposes a quantitative ceiling on nitrogen application rates over the part of the aquifer from which the village draws its water supply.     

Multiple job holdings among dairy farm families in New York and Ontario

Previous empirical studies of multiple job holding have tended to focus on the characteristics of those obtaining off-farm employment and the factors affecting the hours supplied to those obtaining off-farm activities. None of these studies have explicitly addressed the reasons behind the decision to seek off-farm employment. Neither have they been able to examine in-depth the important issue of how this major component of the farm sector responds to alternative policies, since most studies have used cross-sectional data for a given region. A comparison between countries would permit the analysis of how multiple job holding responds to differing government policies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for and factors affecting multiple job holdings of dairy farm families in neighboring regions of two counties, United States and Canada. The bordering regions of New York and Ontario have similar geographic conditions but significantly different farm support and social service policies. The results indicate the importance of farm income on why people work off the farm and provide evidence of multiple job holding as a flexible mechanism for coping with changes in the economic environment facing the household. For operators, the driving characteristics influencing off-farm labor participation is the farm's financial position. The supply-managed milk marketing system ensures higher and more stable returns for Ontario dairy farm labor. In contrast, it is family demographics, educational level and social support policy that appears to largely influence spousal off-farm employment decisions. Free medical care in Ontario lowers the reservation wage for household members. The effect of these farm and social support policies on the relative returns to labor in agriculture and non-farm employment explains the lower participation rate and hours supplied in off-farm work by both operators, and hours supplied in off-farm work by both operators and spouses in Ontario dairy farm household.     

FACTORS AFFECTING FERTILIZER ADOPTION IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES: AN APPLICATION OF MULTIVARIATE LOGISTIC ANALYSIS IN MALAŴI

Fertilizer is one of the critical inputs used in improving smallholder food and agricultural productivity in Mala?i. However, analytical studies to identify factors influencing fertilizer adoption have so far never been conducted in Mala?i and effects of policy changes relating to fertilizer adoption appear to be assessed subjectively. In this paper, a logit model is employed to identify the main factors influencing fertilizer use in farms surveyed in the Lilongwe Rural Development Project. In descending order, crop, farming system, crop variety, credit access, income from off-farm employment and regular labour are the main factors influencing fertilizer adoption, thus, policies impinging on these variables would be expected to have most effect on the number of fertilizer adopters, especially wholly subsistence and groundnut cash-crop farmers most of whom use no fertilizer at present.     

我国农户的非农劳动力资源分配决策研究

本文借鉴Cragg提出的双曲线模型进行劳动力资源分配决策研究,探讨影响农户非农劳动力资源分配决策的主次影响因素及该模型的适用性.通过对湖北省样本地区的研究表明,教育和性别是决定非农劳动力分配决策的两个重要个体特征变量;成年人人数、汇款水平、家庭的种植面积和其资产持有水平则是非农工作时间分配决策的显著要素.