Pesticides,Preference Heterogeneity and Environmental Taxes

In this paper we present results from two choice experiments (CE), designed to take account of the different negative externalities associated with pesticide use in agricultural production. For cereal production, the most probable impact of pesticide use is a reduction in environmental quality. For fruit and vegetable production, the negative externality is on consumer health. Using latent class models we find evidence of the presence of preference heterogeneity in addition to reasonably high willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for a reduction in the use of pesticides for both environmental quality and consumer health. To place our WTP estimates in a policy context we convert them into an equivalent pesticide tax by type of externality. Our tax estimates suggest that pesticide taxes based on the primary externality resulting from a particular mode of agricultural production are a credible policy option that warrants further consideration.     

基于成本内涵的农田防护林生态补偿标准分析

农田防护林生态系统的存在不仅关乎平原地区粮食安全、农民增收问题,更关系社会主义新农村建设及农业生态文明。本研究在阐述农田防护林现状及问题的基础上,运用外部性理论对其进行解释,认为直接成本、机会成本和生态服务功能效益是生态补偿的主要部分,尝试运用外部性理论对生态补偿标准的核算问题进行分析。     

A Note on Evaluating Agricultural Policy in the Presence of Health Care Cost Externalities: Dairy Production Quotas and Coronary Heart Disease Costs

The purpose of this note is to illustrate that the health cost externalities related to food consumption are significant and can be large enough to have implications for the economic evaluation of agriculture and food policy. The individual dietary intake of fats can affect the probability of being afflicted with coronary eart disease (CHD). While fat consumption is primarily a private decision, much of the annual $7.4 billion cost of CHD in Canada is borne socially through publicly funded health care, disability and pension plans. This note calculates the per-unit disease cost externality from saturated fatty acid consumption in Canada to be $5.07 per kilogram of saturated fatty acid. To demonstrate the importance for policy analysis, the disease cost externality was incorporated in a conventional welfare analysis of dairy production quotas in Canada. The externality was large enough to make the restrictive production quotas no further from social optimum than the competitive equilibrium. The importance of the disease cost externality suggests much more research is needed to incorporate these and other health cost externalities into many types of agricultural policy analysis.     

Asymmetric Information,Externalities and Incentives in Animal Disease Prevention and Control

Incentives influence behaviour while an understanding of farmer behaviour facilitates the control and prevention of infectious livestock disease. This paper lays out several perspectives on how information problems and other externalities affect biosecurity incentives. We use the principal–agent framework to examine livestock disease management in the presence of potential moral hazard and adverse selection. Moral hazard may apply to biosecurity decisions while adverse selection may apply to disease reporting. The example of compensation policies illustrates the importance of creating appropriate incentives: compensation must be sufficient to ensure early reporting but not so large as to discourage appropriate levels of biosecurity effort. Other cases of externalities are more diffuse than those modelled using principal–agent analysis, placing emphasis on third‐party effects and coordination problems. Three examples are provided. One concerns free‐riding when facing an endemic disease pool that can be managed by limiting sources and flows. Another regards coordination failure when securing against an exotic disease where farmer efforts complement and communicating actions are important. The last arises from absence of a risk market where an adverse infrastructural support externality could be managed by disease outbreak insurance.     

Fungicide resistance and misinformation: A game theoretic approach

Fungicide resistance is a serious problem for agriculture today. This analysis provides additional insight into the strategic behavior of farmers when their fungicide use generates a negative intertemporal production externality in the form of fungicide resistance. We find that when farmers encounter this type of externality, they choose fungicide levels that exacerbate fungicide resistance. We examine a compensation mechanism in which a farmer reduces fungicide use in exchange for a transfer. This mechanism reduces fungicide use; however, misinformation about the severity of fungicide resistance generates distortions. We find that one-sided misinformation could lead a farmer to choose socially optimal fungicide levels, which makes the compensation mechanism less necessary. In addition, we show that when both farmers are misinformed, the mechanism could lead farmers to choose fungicide levels below the socially optimal level depending on their pessimistic beliefs about the severity of fungicide resistance.     

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.     

基于背包模型的水稻种植负外部性评估方法研究

目的 为改善现有研究对水稻种植负外部性承载效率关注不足的问题,在理论模型、评估方法、检验方式3个层面实现新的边际贡献。方法 文章尝试引入背包模型设计一个解决环境承载效率优势问题的算法框架,结合数学推演的逻辑框架给出3种算法的效率优势排序结果,并基于“双重维度”的检验原理,分别利用已有研究文献中局部地区的实证数据与AHP模型中的评分数据进行检验。结果 单调算法是实现水稻种植负外部性评估与承载的最优处理方法,不规则贪婪算法在处理效率与满意程度方面虽较单调算法存在一定改进空间,但仍较贪婪算法更易实现最优承载。结论 （1）农业部门应提高对水稻种植负外部性评估的认识程度;（2）统计部门应扩展水稻主产区水稻种植的相关数据;（3）政策部门应加强对水稻种植负外部性污染源的预防性宣传;（4）水稻产业不能走低产出的“老路”和先污染后治理的“弯路”,应走负外部性低的生态农业“新路”。     

影响林农木本食品安全生产因素研究

根据农户行为理论分析结果,运用Tobit模型对浙江省杭州市临安区的119户山核桃种植户安全生产行为的影响因素进行实证分析。研究结果表明:性别、年龄、受教育程度、户主对农药危害认知以及是否参加合作社对林农进行山核桃安全生产具有显著的负向影响;经营地产量、户主化肥使用标准以及种植户所在地区对林农进行山核桃安全生产具有显著的正向影响。因此,为了规范木本食品安全生产,从林农角度而言,应加强学习相关种植知识并提升个人素质;从政府和山核桃种植协会而言,应加强对林农进行安全用药知识宣传并组织技术培训,此外还应推进山核桃种合作社建立。     

耕地保护的外部性及其内化研究

耕地作为一种比较特殊的公共物品,决定了耕地保护具有外部性.本文在提出耕地保护外部性概念的基础上,对耕地保护外部性的表现和原因进行分析,最后提出耕地保护外部性内化的途径.     

广东省良种补贴绩效分析

本文概述了广东省良种补贴政策的实施情况,对由广东省农业厅和华南农业大学经济管理学院组成的调研组在广东省内韶关、清远、梅州、河源、湛江、茂名共6个市开展的问卷调查进行分析,共回收501份有效问卷。调查结果表明农村务农劳动力中中老年人占绝对主体,农民的受教育程度偏低;农民对良种补贴政策比较满意,对其认知情况良好,希望该政策能够保持且加大力度实行;大多数农民认为良种补贴政策有利于提高自身的种粮积极性和粮食产量,并提高和稳定他们的种植收入。同时,农民也认为良种补贴政策主要存在补贴金额不足和良种补贴品种单一这两个不足之处。     

Cash cropping and food crop productivity: synergies or trade‐offs?

The case for promoting export‐oriented cash crops in Africa has generally been based on their direct potential contribution to agricultural productivity and small farmer incomes. A relatively neglected avenue of research concerns the synergistic effects that cash cropping can have on other household activities, including food production. The conventional view that cash crops compete with food crops for land and labour neglects the potential for cash crop schemes to make available inputs on credit, management training, and other resources that can contribute to food crop productivity, which might otherwise not be accessible to farmers if they did not participate in cash crop programs. This article builds on previous research by hypothesising key pathways by which cash crops may affect food crop activities and empirically measuring these effects using the case of cotton in Gokwe North District in Zimbabwe. Analysis is based on instrumental variable analysis of survey data on 430 rural households in 1996. Results indicate that—after controlling for household assets, education and locational differences—households engaging intensively in cotton production obtain higher grain yields than non‐cotton and marginal cotton producers. We also find evidence of regional spill‐over effects whereby commercialisation schemes induce second round investments in a particular area that provide benefits to all farmers in that region, regardless of whether they engage in that commercialisation scheme. The study suggests that the potential spill‐over benefits for food crops through participation in cash crop programs are important to consider in the development of strategies designed to intensify African food crop production.     

Valuation of environmental and social functions of the multifunctional Cypriot agriculture

The multifunctional farming sector in Cyprus poses threats on the island’s water resources, but highly contributes to the protection of the cultural identity and to the provision of incomes and employment in its rural areas. These services are externalities, as farmers are not remunerated in markets for the environmental and cultural services they provide, nor for the fact that they maintain vivid rural areas. This paper presents an application of the Choice Experiment method, in order to evaluate these non-traded outputs of Cypriot agriculture. The results of the empirical analysis demonstrate that the Cypriot public is in favor of a less intensive pattern of agriculture. Furthermore, Cypriots are willing to pay in order to mitigate adverse environmental effects of agriculture, to improve cultural heritage and to safeguard the continuation of farming trade on the island. The estimated benefits often exceed income losses from changes in the cropping pattern towards extensification, which verifies that EU rural development policies are regarded as beneficial by the public.     

Farmers’ Preferences For Bluetongue Vaccination Scheme Attributes: An Integrated Choice and Latent Variable Approach

Re‐emergence of the bluetongue disease in Europe poses a continuous threat to European livestock production. Large‐scale vaccination is the most effective intervention to control virus spread. Compared to command‐and‐control approaches, voluntary vaccination approaches can be effective at lower costs, provided that farmers are willing to participate. We use a discrete choice experiment to estimate the preferences for vaccination scheme attributes, accounting for preference heterogeneity via an integrated choice and latent variable approach. In designing livestock disease control schemes, it is often argued that governments should use financial, incentive‐based policy instruments to compensate farmers for externalities, assuming they act in rational self‐interest. Our results suggest that in addition to economic motives, farmers can have intrinsic or social motives to invest in livestock disease control. Implications for the effectiveness of providing subsidy or information to motivate voluntary participation are discussed.     

A Classroom Experiment about Tradable Permits

This article describes an experimental market designed for undergraduate classes in agricultural economics, environmental economics, public finance, or rural development. The experiment is a series of double-oral auctions that demonstrate private and social costs, externalities and market failures, and the efficiency of tradable permits relative to Pigouvian taxes. The novel feature is the non-pecuniary way that the negative production externality is mimicked in the classroom experiment. Details, instructions, and suggestions for how to tailor the experiment for different classes or purposes are included.     

农民加入合作组织影响因素研究

[目的]从农户行为视角提炼农民加入合作组织影响因素,并试图找到影响农民加入合作组织的主要因素,揭露农民合作组织发展的规律。[方法]文章分析影响农民加入合作组织的主要因素有农民的受教育程度、可得模仿机会及地区的经济发展水平,并根据上述3个主要因素选取一系列变量,在对变量进行相关系数分析后,建立模型分析农户行为的正负影响。[结果](1)农民的受教育水平对农民加入合作组织是正的影响,即农民的受教育水平越高,其越愿意加入合作组织;(2)农民可得模仿机会越多,农民参加合作组织的比例越高,即通讯设备越普及、交通越发达、合作组织数越多、合作组织中成员数越多的地区,农民在合作组织中模仿学习的机会越多,农民加入合作组织的比例越高;(3)在经济发展水平越高的地区农民加入合作组织的比例越低,在经济发展水平较高的地区市场体系较为完善、农产品的销售渠道越多、农产品不存在滞销问题,农民加入合作组织的效益不高,因此农民不愿意加入合作组织。[结论]农民受教育水平和可得模仿机会对农民加入合作组织是正的影响,而地区的经济发展水平对农民加入合作组织是负的影响。     

Determinants of the Willingness of Belgian Farmers to Participate in Agri‐environmental Measures

This paper explores the willingness of Belgian farmers to participate in two voluntary agri‐environmental policies. Farmers' contingent behaviour is analysed on the basis of survey data. Derivations based on a conceptual micro‐economic model indicate that decision subject and decision maker characteristics are important for farmers' participation. The model is empirically tested through the specification and estimation of a probit model. Consistency is found between the theoretical framework and the empirical results indicating that both the expected effect on farm production and the farmers' environmental attitude, which is more positive among younger and better educated farmers, are significant determinants of the acceptance rate of agri‐environmental policies. Other variables which influence participation decisions are farm size and previous experience of farmers themselves or of neighbouring farmers with agri‐environmental measures.     

食用菌种植户的生存策略研究——以山东省为例

作为农业循环经济的代表性产业,中国食用菌产业近年来发展迅速,产业结构出现了新变化,工厂化大规模集中生产方式发展较快。但近三年的产量数据表明,我国食用菌产业的生产主体仍是以家庭为生产单位的种植户。通过实地调研与对比观察法,文章分析了山东省食用菌种植户的相对优势、自身缺陷及生存战略,并提出了对策建议。文章首先指出,食用菌种植户的竞争优势在于低生产成本与高生产灵活性。继而分析了影响种植户生存能力的负面因素,即:议价能力低、技术与操作水平低、外部交易成本高、销售渠道有限、抵御市场风险能力差。并指出为了提高生存能力,种植户采取了差异竞争、合作化及多元经营的生存策略。最后,从进一步降低成本与优化合作模式的角度提出了加强种植户生存能力的对策建议:指出循环利用工厂化企业废弃菌棒与杂菌污染菌棒可以有效降低生产成本;并提出在合作社发展基础薄弱的地区率先发展"农户+议价合作社+公司"的合作模式,在基础较好的地区大力推行"农户+合作社+超市"的合作模式。     

碳视角下的粮食生产环境技术效率评价——基于超效率SBM-Undesirable模型

目的 粮食生产绿色发展具有保障粮食安全和生态安全的双重意义。方法 文章运用碳足迹工具,在相关理论分析的基础上,基于2021年的粮食主产区农户样本数据,采用超效率SBM-Undesirable模型对农户粮食生产环境技术效率和无效率来源进行分析,并对粮食生产环境技术效率的影响因素进行实证研究。结果 （1）碳视角下的粮食生产系统具有显著的正外部性,碳生态效率平均为3.125,生产投入的碳排放以化肥施用和机械使用为主。（2）粮食生产环境技术效率平均为0.514,进一步对无效率项的分解表明,农药超标使用、人工投入冗余是造成环境技术无效率的主要原因。（3）购买农业保险、采纳节水灌溉技术、提高户主受教育年限、提升耕地质量促进了环境技术效率的改善。结论 农户粮食生产普遍缺乏效率,要素利用率低与污染过量是限制粮食生产环境技术效率提高的关键因素,应加快推动中低产田改造,推广低碳节能农机装备,增加农田污染监测点位,指导农户农药科学使用,推进粮食生产有机肥与化肥的结合施用。     

Are short rotation coppices an economically interesting form of land use? A real options analysis

Short rotation coppice (SRC) is intensively discussed as being an economical and ecological advantageous alternative to traditional agricultural land use. In various countries, farmers have been encouraged through incentives to cultivate SRC. Nevertheless, they often do not switch from conventional land use to SRC, even if SRC is relatively beneficial according to the net present value (NPV) rule. Therefore, farmers do not follow the classical investment theory. A relatively new theory is the real options approach (ROA). The ROA takes further aspects like irreversibility of the investment costs, flexibility regarding investment timing, and uncertainty of the investment returns into account, which the NPV rule ignores. In the case of SRC, investment (conversion) triggers when a farmer should switch to SRC following the ROA can be higher than those following the NPV rule. As it is often the case in real options applications, decision makers’ possibility to disinvest in general and farmers’ possibility to reconvert, in particular within the useful lifetime of SRC, is not considered. We build a model to calculate the conversion triggers for switching from annual crop production to SRC following the ROA. We consider the opportunity to reconvert the land and evaluate the respective effects on the conversion triggers according to the ROA. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of a former governmental incentive, in terms of an investment subsidy, on the conversion triggers of both theories. Our calculations show that following the ROA, a farmer should change land use to SRC more slowly than when following the NPV rule. Furthermore, neglecting the reconversion possibility would cause considerable bias amongst the results. The consideration of investment subsidies diminishes the conversion triggers of both theories. We conclude that the ROA can at least partially explain farmers’ inertia of converting to SRC.     

基于SEM的农户绿色农业生产行为研究——来自新疆352个样本农户的证据

目的 农户作为生产经营的主体,农户的绿色生产行为决定着绿色农业的发展方向。此研究分析影响农户绿色农业生产意愿及行为的相关因素及路径。方法 文章基于新疆各地州的352份农户调研数据,运用结构方程模型实证分析各影响因素对农户绿色生产行为的影响程度以及各影响因素的形成机理。结果 （1）农户对绿色农业的认知、政策的引导、感知利益和绿色生产意愿与农户的绿色生产行为呈正比,感知成本则对农户绿色生产意愿和行为具有负向作用。（2）农户的绿色认知越清晰,绿色生产意愿越强烈,政府的政策补贴和推广力度越强,越能刺激农户进行绿色生产行为。（3）农户感知到花费的金钱、劳动和精力越多,则会削弱农户的绿色生产行为。结论 行为态度、主观规范、行为控制和感知利益对农户绿色生产行为均有正向作用,其中各项指标对农户绿色生产意愿和行为的影响程度各不相同,但相对而言,农户的行为态度和主观规范对绿色生产意愿的影响更为显著,感知利益对农户绿色农业生产行为影响更强。