An open-access method for targeting revegetation based on potential for emissions reduction,carbon sequestration and opportunity cost

We propose a simple heuristic that uses open-access models and government data on agricultural activities to estimate total carbon emissions from agriculture, the gross carbon benefit and the opportunity cost per tonne CO₂-e from revegetating to environmental plantings or plantation forestry. We test this across ten areas of mixed land-use that represent diverse Australian agricultural systems along a rainfall transect. The local value of agricultural production was obtained from government statistics and used to estimate the current economic opportunity cost of converting cleared agricultural land to mixed environmental plantings for carbon sequestration. Gross carbon benefit from revegetation was closely related to current agricultural use, as was financial opportunity cost. These were not related simply to site productivity potential or rainfall. The proportion of land cleared for agriculture that would need to be re-vegetated to achieve a localised zero-carbon land-use scenario was calculated by the ratio of current agricultural emissions to gross carbon benefit from revegetation; this ranged from 13% to 66% for groups of agricultural industries across Australian rainfall transects. While the heuristic does not capture the detail of models built specifically for local research questions it does provide a different lens on the questions policy makers and land managers may ask about the costs and benefits of revegetating agricultural land, and provides open-access methods to guide them.     

The value of education in small‐scale agriculture: Some evidence from Ogun State,Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the value of education in Ogun State agriculture using the production function framework. The results indicate that education contributes substantially to agricultural production in the State. The allocative effect of increased education was found to be more important than the worker effect while the input‐selection component of the allocative effect was more important than the input‐allocation component. Thus involvement in farmers’ education or a successful policy at luring educated persons into agriculture can be expected to bring about increased agricultural production in the State and, by extension, the entire country.     

Sudan's agricultural sector diversity and policy reforms with reference to devaluation and food self‐sufficiency

Abstract

Sudan's agricultural sector is characterized by division into three structurally and institutionally distinct sub‐sectors. This paper discusses the likely impact of exchange rate reform on the structure of incentives, relative competitiveness and food self‐sufficiency, both intersectorally and intrasectorally. Employing domestic resource cost analysis and a simple framework for calculating expected net revenue for staple foodgrain, results indicate that policy reforms, particularly devaluation, appear to have affected the various sub‐sectors differently, and overall devaluation has met inadequately the challenge of sustaining a viable agriculture. The pursuit of food self‐sufficiency strategy may be explained in terms of expected net revenues and risk aversion; both are largely related to policy reforms and efficiency of the marketing system.     

Determining Opportunities for U.S. Exports of Consumer-Oriented Foods to African Regional Markets

Abstract

This study examines the level of trade between the U.S. and Africa for consumer-oriented agricultural products during the 1990s. To achieve this objective, we propose six congruent regional African markets and examine patterns of U.S. trade with Africa on consumer-oriented agricultural products. The reason for such groupings is to identify trade flow differences and similarities between the U. S. and each of these regional groups. The results shed light on the extent to which U.S. exporters of consumer food products are capitalizing on the emerging markets of Africa. The graphing technique used in the study, in combination with trend stability measures for the six proposed congruent regional African markets, introduce a method for identifying market opportunity.     

Value of moving from central planning to a market system: lessons from the Israeli water sector

This paper explores the implications of the transformation of the system of water resources allocation to the agricultural sector in Israel from a one in which allotments are allocated to the different users without any permission to trade with water rights. A mathematical planning model is used for the entire Israeli agricultural sector, in which an ‘optimal’ allocation of the water resources is found and compared to the existing one. The results of the model are used in order to gain insight into the shadow price of the different water bodies in Israel (about eight). These prices can then be used to grant property rights to the water users themselves in order to guarantee rational behavior of water use, since now one can sell their rights at the source itself. The implication is clear with regard to any possible movement towards a market system in any other sector. From the dual prices of the primal problem we can forecast the equilibrium prices and their implications for the different users. The central government does not have to interfere with the market mechanism because, as will be shown, every farmer has the option to sell his right or to use it. As participation in the market is voluntary, every farmer makes a decision that is both individually and socially rational. However, in moving from a central planning allocation to a market mechanism, the government has another task, which is to grant the property rights in order for the market to begin to evolve. It is not guaranteed that under any initial allocation a decentralization of the system will benefit all the regions but at least part of the problem is to be resolved between the regions themselves. As the results shows, there is a potential budgetary benefit of 28 million dollars when capital cost is not included and 64 million dollars when they are included.     

Farmer Compensation and its Consequences for Environmental Benefit Provision in the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme

The Environmental Stewardship Scheme (ESS) provides payments to farmers for the provision of environmental services based on forgone agricultural income. Consequently, farmers with a relatively low opportunity cost of agricultural land will be particularly attracted to apply for entry into the ESS within a given payment region. This article tests whether there exists a significant relationship between Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) Scheme entry and agricultural yields. Empirically, HLS participation is found to be negatively related to cereal yields at the farm level. This could be associated with ‘auspicious selection’ of land into the Scheme, with greater ‘value for money’ provided by the higher entry of land with lower agricultural forgone income but higher environmental benefit within the region.     

Chinese Peasant Choices: Migration,Rural Industry or Farming

A nationally representative rural labour force survey of China is analysed to explore the allocation of labour among farming, local non-farming and temporary migration activities. Various tests of labour market segmentation are conducted. The estimated returns to labour off the farm greatly exceed those on the farm. The personal and household determinants of activities, and of days worked in them, are examined for demand or supply constraints on employment; some results are consistent with the former. The relationship between days worked off and on the farm suggests that the opportunity cost to households of non-farm work is very low. The evidence is consistent with there being rationing of non-farm employment. However, tastes, imperfect information, imperfect capital markets, risk-aversion and transaction costs are also relevant. The overcoming of the obstacles to diversification away from farming is important for rural development in China.     

供求均衡视角下的农业科技成果转化研究——以湖北省为例

从供求角度来看,湖北省农业对科技的有效需求和有效供给双重不足,导致了成果转化"高成本、低数量"均衡。新机制的构建应从改善有效供给和刺激有效需求两方面下功夫,建立按技术属性和专利保护程度分类的农业科技成果转化体系。政府在加强公益性农业科技无偿供给的同时,应诱导市场资源配置于农业科技领域,通过培育科研机构、农业企业等成为科技市场主体,建立经营性农业技术研究和成果有偿转化的内生机制。     

Estimating the opportunity costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions via avoided deforestation,using integrated assessment modelling

Estimates show that, in recent years, deforestation and forest degradation accounted for about 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The implementation of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) is suggested to provide substantial emission reductions at low costs, although cost estimates show large uncertainty. Cost estimates can differ, as they depend on the approach chosen, for example: giving an economic stimulus to entire countries, taking landowners as actors in a REDD framework, or starting from protecting carbon-rich areas. This last approach was chosen for this analysis. Proper calculation of the economic cost requires an integrated modelling approach involving biophysical impact calculations and their associated economic effects. To date, only a few global modelling studies have applied such an approach. In modelling REDD measures, the actual implementation of REDD can take many forms, with implications for the results. This study assumes that non-Annex I countries will protect carbon-rich areas against deforestation, and therefore will refrain from using these areas as agricultural land. The opportunity costs of reducing deforestation within the framework of REDD were assessed using an integrated economic and land-use modelling approach comprising the global economic LEITAP model and the biophysical IMAGE model. One of the main methodological challenges is the representation of land use and the possibility to convert woodlands land into agricultural land. We endogenised the availability of agricultural land by introducing a flexible land supply curve, and represented the implementation of REDD policies as a reduction in the maximum amount of unmanaged land that potentially would be available for conversion to agriculture, in various regions in the world. In a series of model experiments, carbon-rich areas in non-Annex I countries were protected from deforestation. In each consecutive scenario the protected area was increased, starting off with the most carbon rich lands, worldwide systematically working down to areas with less carbon storage. The associated opportunity costs, expressed in terms of GDP reduction, were calculated with the economic LEITAP model. The resulting net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from land-use change was calculated with the IMAGE model. From the sequence of experiments, marginal cost curves were constructed, relating carbon dioxide emission reductions to the opportunity costs. The results showed that globally a maximum of around 2.5 Gt carbon dioxide emissions could be avoided, annually. However, regional differences in opportunity costs are large and were found to range from about 0 to 3.2 USD per tonne carbon dioxide in Africa, 2 to 9 USD in South America and Central America, and 20 to 60 USD in Southeast Asia. These results are comparable to other studies that have calculated these costs, in terms of both opportunity costs and the regional distribution of emissions reduction.     

Firm Size,Technological Capabilities and Market-oriented Policies in Mauritius

Mauritius is an outlier in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of its impressive growth in garment exports since it adopted outward-oriented policies in the early 1980s. Little, however, is known about the role of technological factors in the behaviour of Mauritian garment exporters. Using recent methodological developments in the literature on technological capabilities, this paper explores this issue. It constructs a "technology index" and conducts econometric analysis on factors affecting enterprise-level technological development and export performance in a sample of enterprises. Firm size, technical manpower, training expenditures and external technical assistance are positively related to the technology index, suggesting that investments in human capital and information (both facilitated by size) improve technological performance. The technology index and foreign ownership have positive and significant effects on export performance. The technology index is a robust tool of empirical research and can be used to analyse the technological record of enterprises in adjusting countries.     

State Trading Enterprises: Some Legal and Conceptual Issues

State trading may become an important issue in the current WTO negotiations on agricultural trade as witnessed by some of the recent proposals for negotiating agendas. On the premise that state trading enterprises can hinder market access in importing countries and can affect export competition, it has been proposed that state trading enterprises should be pan of the negotiations. We consider the current status of state trading enterprises in the GATT framework and summarize the list of concerns relating to the effects which they may have on agricultural trade. Drawing on some recent research, we show that state trading enterprises are likely to influence market access and export competition under trade liberalization when measured relative to a benchmark of imperfect competition.     

Aggregate measures of support in the Uruguay round: Application to the EC cereals sector

Abstract

This paper examines the use of aggregate measures of support (AMSs) in the proposals for the long‐term reform of agricultural support tabled by the major participants in the Uruguay Round. The USA, the Cairns Group (CG) and the EC have proposed measures based on the OECD's Producer Subsidy Equivalent (PSE), adjusted to take account of only the most trade‐distorting policies, and using a fixed reference price to calculate the extent of market price support. If the proposed ‘adjusted PSEs’ are used, the reductions in internal support levels in the EC cereals sector from the base periods to 1995 range from 8 billion ECU under the US proposal to 4.5 billion ECU under the EC proposal. The resulting ‘producer prices’ would be almost 20% higher under the EC proposal than under the other two. In terms of percentage PSEs, support to farmers would be around 20 to 25 percentage points below present levels under the US and CG proposals and around 18 percentage points lower under the EC's plan.     

Does carbon farming provide a cost‐effective option to mitigate GHG emissions? Evidence from China

In this study, we apply a whole farm bioeconomic analysis to explore the changes in land use, farm practices and on‐farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emission under varying levels of agricultural greenhouse gas abatement incentives in the form of a carbon tax for a semi‐arid crop‐livestock farming system in China's Loess Plateau. Our results show that the optimised agricultural enterprises move towards being cropping‐dominated reducing on‐farm emission since livestock perform is the major source of emission. Farmers employ less oats‐based and rapeseed‐based rotations but more dry pea‐based rotations in the optimal enterprise mix. A substantial reduction in on‐farm greenhouse gas emission can be achieved at low cost with a small increase in carbon incentives. Our estimates indicate that crop‐livestock farmers in China's Loess Plateau may reduce their on‐farm GHG emission between 16.6 and 33 per cent with marginal abatement costs <￥100/t CO₂e and ￥150/t CO₂e in 2015 Chinese Yuan. The analysis implies that reducing greenhouse gas emission in China's semi‐arid crop‐livestock agriculture is potentially a low‐cost option.     

“一带一路”背景下新疆农业资源配置效率及优化

[目的]通过测算新疆农业资源配置效率,并提出优化方案,以期抓住"一带一路"建设机遇实现新疆农业的可持续快速发展。[方法]采用DEA分析方法,在兼顾经济效益和生态效应的原则下选取3个产出指标和7个投入指标,选取2010~2015年新疆16个市州区作为研究样本采用B2C静态评价模型研究新疆农业资源配置效率,并提出从纯技术效率或规模效率入手优化资源配置的优化方案。[结果]新疆16市州区除了克拉玛依市、吐鲁番地区和生产建设兵团综合技术效率的值为1外,其余的都未达到生产前沿面,说明新疆大部分市州农业资源配置与经营规模不适应,农业资源未到达最优配置,存在浪费现象;新疆16个市州区的综合技术效率均值为0.714,说明新疆农业资源配置效率总体状况低效。[结论]新疆农业资源配置总体效率较高,但仍存在地区差异,部分地市的农业资源投入均不同程度出现冗余,其中化肥、农药和农膜使用量过剩现象较突出。同时发现,"一带一路"发展战略的实施给新疆农业发展提供了良好的发展机遇。     

Editorial - Decision rules, government rules, and the costs of vegetation protection in New South Wales

Governments regularly spend public funds to purchase environmental amenities. They might purchase land to add to the public estate, pay to fence stock out of endangered native forest, or offer stewardship payments as incentives to conservation. Governments also regularly introduce policies to achieve environmental goals, even though these policies impose costs on firms, households or farms. The basic decision rule, to maximise environmental benefits from a given budget, in all these cases is received wisdom within the economics profession. In the case of purchase of land to add to the public estate:Maximise environmental benefits by purchasing land in descending order of the ratio of benefit to cost until the budget is exhausted.More generally, funds should be allocated to individual activities within a programme in order of the decreasing ratio of benefits to costs until the budget is exhausted. This rule can be applied when benefits can be measured in any monetary or non-monetary quantitative index. In the case of conservation of vegetation, it can be applied relatively simply in the field when vegetation types and land values can be mapped jointly through GIS techniques.This simple decision rule is not always followed by government agencies that manage environmental programmes. Consider the protection of native vegetation, which is defined to include native forest, native woodland and native grassland. To meet international obligations to protect this kind of environment, most countries must involve private landholders in conservation because there are insufficient government reserves to meet the international commitments. Indeed, most countries have already introduced many policies to encourage private landholders to protect native vegetation on their forests and farms.The New South Wales state government, in Australia, has introduced the Native Vegetation Conservation Act (1998) to ensure that private landholders protect vegetation. The Act constrains farmers to retain all the native forest, native woodland, and native grassland, on their land irrespective of the costs to them. Farmers can then apply for consent to clear and crop this land, but consent is rarely granted in full and often not at all. The Act is consistent with a decision rule of “maximise-benefits-only” - protect all vegetation irrespective of the costs to those who have to conserve it.Constraints of this kind will inevitably lead to a loss of income and land value when they restrict the farm enterprises, and so will impose opportunity costs on the farmer. There is already ample published evidence on the sizes of these costs - from publications of the relevant state agency itself, consultants' reports, farmer submissions and independent research. For example, in a large region in the northwest of New South Wales, where land could be cropped very productively:- some farmers bear only small losses (a quarter lose less than five per cent of their potential income),- some farmers bear very large losses (another quarter lose more than half of their potential income),- the overall losses of income per farm are high (an average loss of almost 30 per cent of potential income across the region), and- the losses are highest for those who have already conserved most woodland.Consider now the problem of reducing these costs by applying the benefit-cost rule as opposed to the maximise-benefits-only rule that has led to this position. There are three economic decision rules that might be used to rank projects or activities.The benefit-cost rule: Impose the constraint on the farm with the highest ratio of environmental benefit per dollar of opportunity cost first, then on the farm with the next highest ratio, etc., until the environmental goal is met. And so maximise the ratio of benefits to opportunity costs.The benefit-only rule: Impose the constraint on the farm with the highest environmental benefits first, then on the farm with the next highest benefits, etc., until the environmental goal is met. And so maximise benefits.The cost-only rule: Impose the constraint on the farm with the lowest opportunity costs first, then the next lowest cost, etc, until the environmental goal is met. And so minimise opportunity costs.But do these rules normally lead to different outcomes? If the “budget” or willingness to impose opportunity costs were large enough, all three would lead to the same outcome because constraints would be imposed on all suitable land. Otherwise the outcomes differ - that is the different rules lead to different levels of environmental benefit from the imposition of a given level of opportunity cost (or from the expenditure of a given budget).Both the benefit-only and cost-only rules lead to inefficiencies (see Babcock et al (1997) and Wu et al (2000) for a discussion of the associated statistical issues). Benefit-only targeting leads to the retirement of highly-productive land from agricultural uses - which is a major reason why opportunity costs are often high when native vegetation is conserved under the Act in New South Wales. The cost-only rule can lead to the reservation or purchase of land with few environmental benefits, even though expenditure or opportunity cost is minimised.A comparison of the benefit-cost rule and the benefit-only rule in the northwest of New South Wales illustrates the problem. The region is potentially highly-productive crop land but large areas of it are presently covered by native forest and woodland which cannot now be cleared. Much of this vegetation is under various degrees of threat even though it is not rare or endangered. The farm is the unit of assessment under the Act, so is used in the example. Benefits are measured as the percentages of species that are saved on each farm when its vegetation is protected rather than cleared to crops. The total benefit is the aggregate of percentage species saved across the farms - again following the present administration of the Act. The opportunity costs are measured as the losses in land value because land cannot now be cleared due to the Act.The comparison of the two rules indicates substantial savings with the benefit-cost rule. For example, 90 per cent of the total benefits can be obtained by imposing 93 per cent of the total opportunity costs with the benefit-only rule, and by imposing only 54 per cent of the total opportunity costs with the benefit-cost rule. The benefit-cost rule saves 39 per cent of the total costs at this level of benefits. Again, 80 cent of the total benefits can be obtained by imposing 86 per cent of the total opportunity costs with the benefit-only rule, but by imposing only 46 per cent of the total opportunity costs with the benefit-cost rule. The benefit-cost rule saves 40 per cent of costs at this level of benefits.While such results can only be indicative of the magnitudes, they do serve to highlight the inefficiencies of decision rules used by government agencies. In New South Wales, the Native Vegetation Conservation Act imposes high opportunity costs on farmers, partly because it is implemented through a high-cost decision rule. Now that suitable GIS technology, vegetation maps, and spatial land value data, are becoming available, these costs can be lowered with a more rational decision rule to guide choices in the field.The environmental goal is not at issue, but the cost of achieving it is. We can identify who bears the opportunity costs of environmental conservation, and often value the magnitude of these costs. Now we can also reduce the levels of these costs with the use of the benefit-cost decision rule.Jack SindenAgricultural and Resource EconomicsUniversity of New EnglandArmidale, New South WalesReferencesBabcock Bruce A, Lackshminarayan PG, Wu JunJie and Silberman D (1997) “Targeting Tools for the Purchase of Environmental Amenities”, Land Economics, 73, 325-339.Wu JunJie, Adams Richard M., Zilberman David, and Bruce Babcock (2000) “Targeting Resource Conservation Expenditures”, Choices, Second Quarter, 2000, 3-8.     

地质勘探企业理财观念体系的探讨

地勘企业与其他行业的企业相比,无论从理财观念上,还是从理财手段、方法上,都存在着不小的差距。强化财务管理工作,首先要从理财观念入手。理财观念不是一个孤立的概念,而是一系列相互联系又各自独立的观念体系。地勘企业理财观念体系应包括以下内容:财务管理的核心观念即理财目标、时间价值观念、风险观念、成本观念、空间价值观念、商机观念、预期观念、信息观念、竞争和合作相统一的观念、资产经营和资本经营的观念。     

Risk pooling cooperative games in contract farming

Contract farming can be an effective measure to deal with agricultural production risks. This study provides a two‐stage stochastic programming model to analyze farmers’ cooperation in the context of contract farming under uncertainty. It provides a fair cost allocation policy for a coalition of farmers using a stochastic linear duality approach. A fair cost allocation implies that no subset of farmers has an incentive to leave the coalition. Thus, a fair allocation policy ensures the stability of a coalition. Meanwhile, the risk pooling game is shown to have population monotonicity, which means that, every time a coalition adds a new member, each farmer within the coalition will incur a smaller cost. Hence, the population monotonicity gives an incentive for coalition expansion. Our results not only provide a simple way to design fair cost allocation policies for collaboration strategies in contract farming, but also play an important role in the sustainable development of farmers’ coalitions.     

When do Agricultural Exports Help the Rural Poor? A Political-economy Approach

Many economists have argued that agricultural exports should be one of the best ways to reduce rural poverty in developing countries, through the creation of productive employment in the rural areas. Non-economists have tended to be sceptical, often seeing such exports as competitive with food crops and thus potentially threatening to an adequate supply of food. The historical record includes many cases in which the prospect of profitable agricultural exports prompted the rich/powerful to appropriate land formerly occupied by lower income agricultural workers, often squatters or people with traditional land rights. That record, as currently understood, leaves it unclear whether such exports have more frequently brought benefits to the rural poor or hurt them. An adequate model of the poverty effects of agricultural exports must thus take account of how control of land (and labour as well) may be shifted among groups without compensation as it becomes more valuable. Two major issues/questions are of current interest. First, have the unjust mechanisms whereby the rich wrested valuable resources from the poor in the past become less common? Second, is there evidence that the sort of labour-intensive agricultural exports most likely to benefit the poor are growing fast enough to suggest an important poverty effect at present and in the future? More in-depth research is needed to clarify both points. For the present, it appears unlikely that agricultural exports will be a major source of poverty reduction for the rural poor in the Third World taken as a whole.     

水产养殖业新型农业经营主体全要素生产率研究——基于微观主体面板数据和SFA法

目的 新型农业经营主体是推动农业现代化发展的重要力量,研究其生产效率及变化趋势、分析比较不同类型新型农业经营主体的效率对于推进农业高质量发展、促进乡村振兴具有重要意义。方法 文章聚焦水产养殖领域,基于2018—2021年全国429个养殖生产新型农业经营主体样本面板数据,采用随机前沿生产函数分析了全要素生产率（TFP）,并分解其驱动因素。采用共同随机前沿模型比较分析了龙头企业、农民专业合作社和家庭农场3类新型农业经营主体模式的生产技术效率。结果 （1）增加物质资料、劳动力、固定资产等方面的投入对产出增长有显著促进作用,但增加服务投入并未显著促进产出。（2）TFP增长的动力来源是技术进步,规模报酬率的贡献不大,而技术效率和配置效率的下降对TFP增长起到阻碍作用。（3）龙头企业、合作社、家庭农场3类新型农业经营主体的技术效率各有特点,以群组前沿面为基准时家庭农场的技术效率最高,以共同前沿面为基准时合作社的技术效率最高,以技术差距比表征的技术水平衡量,则龙头企业技术水平最高。结论 建议加强科技投入,提升技术效率,优化成本投入结构,加强各类新型农业经营主体的联合与合作。