Technological change and agricultural household income distribution: theory and evidence from China

This article applies a general equilibrium model to analyse the impact of new rice technology on household income and uses agricultural household survey data from China to test the implications of this model. It is shown that, when a new rice technology becomes available, the adopting household will reallocate resources to increase rice production and reduce the production of other goods. Meanwhile, the non-adopting households will do the opposite. Thus, the income from rice becomes increasingly concentrated in the adopting households and income from non-rice becomes increasingly concentrated in the non-adopting households. If only one source of income is examined, the introduction of new rice technology increases the inequality of income distribution in rural areas. But, if the total household income is examined, the distributional inequality is mitigated.     

居民家庭消费结构变动的环境效应研究——以兰州市为例

选择食品消费支出、衣着支出、日常用品支出和医疗保健支出作为自变量,代表居民家庭消费结构组成;以生活污水排放量和生活垃圾产生量为因变量,代表环境因子,通过构建多元通径分析模型来定量分析1989～2002年间兰州市居民家庭消费结构变动的生态环境效应;从直接影响和间接影响力度综合来看,按大小对生活污水排放量的影响依次为衣着消费支出、食品消费支出、医疗保健消费支出和日常用品消费支出;对生活垃圾产生量影响为医疗保健消费支出、食品消费支出、日常用品消费支出和衣着消费支出。     

我国粮食生产主要影响因子的灰色关联动态分析

根据1994～2004年我国粮食生产相关指标的统计数据,运用灰色关联理论对影响我国粮食生产的主要因素进行了关联动态分析,定量分析了粮食总产量与各因子的关系密切程度,指出了粮食单产、粮食播种面积、有效灌溉面积及受灾面积是影响中国粮食生产的最重要因素;提出了相关的发展对策。     

A meta-analysis of intercropping in Africa: impacts on crop yield,farmer income,and integrated pest management effects

Poverty and hunger in Africa are prevalent and will increase in absolute terms with population growth and continued land degradation. Therefore, there is a need for sustainable agricultural strategies, such as conservation agriculture (CA) and integrated pest management (IPM). Among CA practices, intercropping holds the promise of providing benefits to smallholders through increased crop yields and income as well as improved resource use. We review intercropping’s effects on crop yield, income, and output of IPM practices in Africa. On average, intercropping increases crop yields by 23% and gross income by 172 USD/ha, but effects vary significantly depending on management practices and agro-ecological factors. There was no evidence that yields and gross income for intercropping treatments increase when leguminous intercropping combinations, minimum/reduced tillage, pesticides, or fertilizers were utilized. Dual use of herbicides and intercropping practices garnered 1442 USD/ha more in gross income and yielded 1422 kg/ha more compared to those in conventionally managed fields, signifying the positive influence supplemental inputs can have on intercropping’s effects. Although IPM practices increased yields by 20%, on average, IPM systems integrated with intercropping yielded 24% less than IPM systems that did not. This meta-analysis indicates that intercropping is an advantageous sustainable agricultural practice, but that its effective implementation would depend on considering other factors such as adequate control of competing vegetation. There is a clear need for more scientific studies which examine intercropping’s role in complex sustainable agricultural systems, in order to understand its effects in differential environmental and socioeconomic situations and to optimize the practice’s transfer and benefits.     

西部城市少数民族家庭收入与消费调查报告——以兰州市为例

甘肃省兰州市是多个少数民族聚集的城市之一,每一个少数民族家庭又是城市的一个重要组成单元,少数民族家庭的经济状况也是直接关系整个城市的稳定与发展。学术界对城镇居民经济情况研究较多,但针对家庭经济状况尤其是少数民族家庭经济状况的研究甚少。为此,本文通过对兰州市三个区的200户少数民族家庭收入结构、消费储蓄结构、消费支出结构、投资积累结构、基本生活状况争睛况作了调查研究。     

Controlling deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Regional economic impacts and land-use change

Brazil confirmed targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, including an 80% reduction in deforestation in the Amazon by 2020. With this in mind, we investigated the trade-off between environmental conservation and economic growth in the Amazon. The aim of this study is to project the economic losses and land-use changes resulting from a policy to control deforestation and the rise in land productivity that is necessary to offset those losses. We developed a Dynamic Interregional Computable General Equilibrium Model for 30 Amazon regions with a land module allowing conversion between types of land. The results have shown that the most affected regions would be soybeans and cattle producers as well as regions dominated by family farms. To offset these impacts, it was estimated that an annual gain of land productivity of approximately 1.4% would be required.     

Effect of modern rice varieties and irrigation on household income distribution in Nepalese villages

Since high-yielding modern rice varieties (MVs) are adopted only in favorable production environments, significant regional productivity differentials have emerged in Nepal. This study explores the distributional consequences of such differential MV adoption based on an intensive survey of favorable and unfavorable villages. We found that MV adoption increased returns to land but decreased family labor earnings from rice production, as it facilitated the substitution of hired for family labor. As a result, the differential MV adoption did not significantly worsen the household income distribution according to the results of the counterfactual Gini decomposition analysis.     

Farm-scale ecological and economic impacts of agricultural change in the uplands

Recent decades have witnessed substantial losses of biodiversity in Europe, partly driven by the ecological changes associated with intensification of agricultural production. These changes have particularly affected avian (bird) diversity in marginal areas such as the uplands of the UK. Future trends for upland birds will likely be impacted by changes in agricultural support regimes, such as those currently envisaged in on-going reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy. We developed integrated ecological-economic models, using seven different indicators of biodiversity based on avian species richness and individual bird densities. The models represent six different types of farms which are typical for the UK uplands, and were used to assess the outcomes of different agricultural futures. Our results show that the impacts of these future agricultural scenarios on farm incomes, land use and biodiversity are very diverse across policy scenarios and farm types. Moreover, each policy scenario produces un-equal distributions of farm income changes and gains and losses in alternative biodiversity indicators. This shows that generalisations of the effects of policy and pricing changes on farm incomes, land uses and biodiversity can be misleading. Our results also suggest that a focus on umbrella species or biodiversity indicators (such as total species richness) can miss important compositional effects.     

我国技术创新能力地区差异研究

创新是一个民族进步的灵魂，是一个国家兴旺发达的不竭动力。结合影响技术创新的因素，构建了评价指标体系。采用因子分析法，找出了影响我国技术创新能力的主要因子。建立技术创新能力计价模型，比较了我国省区之间技术创新能力的差异；提出了建议。     

Changes in regional inequality in rural China: decomposing the Gini index by income sources

A new method is proposed to decompose inequality changes as measured by the Gini index into structural effects, real inequality effects and interactive effects. Application of the method to updated Chinese data reveals that structural effects represent the driving force underlying the increasing trend in regional income inequality in rural China. Policy implications are explored. In addition to these contributions, considerable efforts are made to construct the income data used in the article. Pitfalls in measuring income inequality in rural China are discussed.     

The effects of current income and expected change in future income on stated preferences for environmental improvements

We formulate and test the hypothesis that expectations regarding changes in future income influences the WTP for environmental goods. For valuation of environmental goods in forests and other habitats in Denmark, we find that both current income and expected changes in future income are significant determinants for preferences. The effect of income on WTP seems to be caused by changes in preferences for environmental attributes rather than by marginal utility of income. The results suggest that to evaluate the distributional impacts of environmental improvements, researchers need a better measure of expected future consumption options than current income.     

Declining inflows and more frequent droughts in the Murray–Darling Basin: climate change,impacts and adaptation*

It is likely that climate change will be associated with reductions in inflows of water to the Murray–Darling Basin. In this study, we analyse the effects of climate change in the Murray–Darling Basin using a simulation model that incorporates a state‐contingent representation of uncertainty. The severity of the impact depends, in large measure, on the extent to which climate change is manifested as an increase in the frequency of drought conditions. Adaptation will partially offset the adverse impact of climate change.     

The quasi-legal challenge: Assessing and governing the environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation in the North Coastal Basin of California

The liberalization of cannabis policies is rapidly changing the cannabis industry. Though cannabis cultivation has environmental effects, little is known about how drug policy shapes knowledge about and efforts to mitigate those effects. We use a study of cannabis in the North Coastal Basin of California to examine how the legal status of cannabis shapes efforts to study and govern the environmental effects of cultivation. Drawing on interviews, a review of relevant rules and regulations, and existing literature, we review the state of the knowledge regarding the environmental effects of outdoor cannabis cultivation, document the range of governance tools that aim to mitigate those effects, and discuss the unique challenges to researching and governing cannabis cultivation. We argue that the quasi-legal status of cannabis and the mixing of black and medical markets create substantial barriers to the assessment and mitigation of the environmental effects of cannabis cultivation. We discuss the policy implications of these findings and highlight the importance of understanding the linkages between other semi-legal and illicit practices, governance, and the environment. The research shows the broad importance of examining ways that legal status and enforcement regimes surrounding semi-legal activities shape particular human-environment interactions.     

Quantifying land-use change impacts on the dynamic evolution of flood vulnerability

Recently, dramatic flood disasters have occurred incrementally in several regions of the world. Land-use change as one of the main affecting factors becomes a key component in flood risk management. This study strives to deal with quantifying how changes in land use to affect the dynamic evolution of flood vulnerability. The floodplains of Wuhan, which are located in the Yangtze River Basin, have been selected as an example. In this paper, we use GIS to gather different historical geometric data as sources of land-use information. By proposing the Simpsons-dominance index and location index to analyze the characteristics of land-use changes, and building a quantitative model to measure flood vulnerability, a series of flood vulnerability maps demonstrate differential flood vulnerability of floodplains of Wuhan in three inundation scenarios and four historical periods. Finally, the non-parametric correlation is used to reveal the interactive effect of land use and flood vulnerability. Based on this study, comprehensive flood disaster management strategies for land-use planning are proposed for government decision-makers to reduce the flood vulnerability of Wuhan in future.     

区域经济协调发展视角下的科技创新路径探讨——以蓝黄两区为例

区域科技与经济系统的协调发展是实现区域集约型高质量经济增长的突破口,是社会、经济、生态三者获得高效协调统一的重要途径,是区域在不断变化的竞争格局中率先振兴的关键,更是区域凸显比较优势、实现可持续发展的前提条件和基础保障。科技创新在蓝黄统筹发展过程中同样发挥着重要的作用。一方面,科技进步对发展蓝黄统筹新型经济、提高海陆开发和综合管理能力具有重要的支撑引领作用;另一方面,蓝黄经济的统筹发展也能够产生强大的反哺效应,为科技创新奠定雄厚的物质基础。科技创新与蓝黄区域融合发展存在着较强的互动关系,两者相互影响、彼此制衡,其在高效互动状态下能够产生强大合力,推动区域经济社会健康快速发展。     

我国农业企业区域创业环境的实证研究

论文从基本创业环境及特定创业环境两个维度设计了评价区域农业企业创业环境的指标体系,利用主成分分析方法对我国31个省（区、市）的农业企业创业环境进行了评价,并分彖部、东北部、中部和西部区域进行了深入分析。论文认为,区域农业企业综合创业环境与区域经济发展水平呈高度相关关系,即也呈现出东部、东北部、中部和西部的层级关系,各区域各具优势,不同区域应该根据自身特点对创业环境进行改善。     

Assessing the efficiency of switchgrass different cultural practices for pellet production

Switchgrass is a perennial crop producing high amounts of biomass for good quality pellet production. The objective of this study is to examine the efficiency of different cultural practices of switchgrass for pellet production under field conditions for four different N-fertilization (0, 80, 160 and 240 kg ha⁻¹) and two different irrigation levels (0 and 250 mm), in two soils in central Greece with rather different moisture status over the period 2009–2012. Moreover, comparison between three harvest methods (two different types of bales and silage) was made. The results derived from this study revealed that the bale at 22 kg is the harvesting practice with the highest costs while there was reduction of efficiency scores when nitrogen levels increased. At both environments the efficiency scores followed the same trend, confirming that low levels of nitrogen fertilization enhance the economic competitiveness of switchgrass production. Palamas site is the area where switchgrass for pellet production had positive income ranging from 400 to 1600 € ha⁻¹, while Velestino site had always negative. Therefore, places like Velestino with non-aquic soil should be avoided for switchgrass. These data suggest that growing switchgrass for solid biofuel production as energy crop is a worthwhile decision only in areas with a moderately shallow groundwater table (aquic soil) or maybe in high precipitation regions.     

ZonAgri: A modeling environment to explore agricultural activities and water demands on a regional scale

To design integrated water management for a whole region, all agricultural activities need to be taken into account together with their irrigation water requirements and agricultural outputs. The aim of this paper is to present a modeling environment, called ZonAgri, that allows agricultural activities to be represented at regional scale and enables prospective scenarios concerning these activities to be tested. The modeling of agricultural activities is based on typologies of farms and production units (i.e. plant cropping systems) using a simple framework. A region is designated as a set of “sectors” that correspond to geographical spaces; each sector is designated as a weighted (by strength) sum of “farms”. A “farm” is designated as a weighted (by size) sum of “production units” that can be linked with specific geographical “sites” in the region. Each “production unit” consumes inputs and produces outputs that can have prices. This framework allows the aggregated calculation of inputs and outputs, as well as of the incomes of farms, sites or sectors. Scenarios can be built to change the original values or to envisage changes that may occur over a period of several years. The results of multi-year simulations make up the database. The information contained in the database can be requested by area or by sector, and can be mapped and exported to be used in a GIS. Maps of agricultural activities or water demand can then be superimposed on maps of water resources and hydraulic facilities to check if they are consistent.