Spillovers from high-value agriculture for exports on land use in developing countries: evidence from Madagascar

High-value agriculture for exports is increasingly important in developing countries. In a case study of contract farming for exports of vegetables from Madagascar, strong spillover effects of these trade opportunities on land use are found to exist. Using a matched plot sampling design, the productivity of rice—the main domestically consumed staple—is shown to be two-thirds higher on fields that were contracted during the off-season for the production of vegetables. This increase in yields is linked to an increase of soil fertility due to the application of fertilizer and compost, which farmers did not use prior to the contracts. Although agricultural output goes up significantly, labor productivity stays the same, suggesting that there is greater labor absorption on existing land and the diffusion of this type of technology at a larger scale throughout Madagascar would be expected to substantially decrease incentives to deforest by increasing wages and to boost productivity of existing lands relative to newly deforested ones.     

我国水产品海／淡比重对城镇居民额外消费支出的影响

我国水产品存在“质量”引致城镇居民额外消费支出现象,论文以Deaton理论为依据,利用VECM模型研究了海／淡产品结构对额外“质量”支出的影响。研究结果表明,海／淡比重调整是我国城镇居民“质量”消费支出增长的诱因,二者呈负相关关系,其中海水贝类与淡水甲壳类是导致该现象的重要因素。因此,一方面对水产品未来需要更全面和细分的价格监控,另一方面扩大海水产品比重（特别是贝类）有利于缓解城镇居民购买水产品时的额外支出增长。     

The impact of water conservation and intensification technologies: empirical evidence for rice farmers in Ghana

This study employs the propensity score matching model to examine the impact of the adoption of water conservation and intensification technologies on farm output and income among small-scale lowland rice farmers in the Northern Region of Ghana. The matching was conducted based on the Mahalanobis distance combined with the propensity score. Balancing tests by checking the mean standardized absolute bias in the matched sample were conducted as well as a sensitivity analysis was conducted to check for hidden bias due to unobservable selection. The empirical results show a positive and significant impact of the adoption of bunds technology on input demand as well as a positive but insignificant impact on output supply and net returns. Adopters of the dibbling technology were found to have higher output supply, whereas no statistically significant difference was found between the incomes of adopters and nonadopters of dibbling seed method. The results, however, reveal a positive and significant effect on output and net returns when the dibbling method is combined with intensified weeding. The estimates were found to be relatively insensitive to hidden bias.