Profitability analysis of foodgrain in the Sudan's irrigated agricultural sector

This paper discusses the situation of irrigated sorghum and wheat with respect to their financial and economic profitability and international competitiveness in use of domestic resources, in light of declared government policy which emphasizes shifting from traditional rainfed sector to irrigated sector for production of staple foodgrain. Domestic resource cost analysis has been employed using official and shadow exchange rates. Measures of domestic resource cost ratio, international value added, international competitiveness, nominal and effective protection coefficients were also estimated. Results indicate that the economic profitability has been significantly higher than the financial one due mainly to variability in international prices, yields and overvalued exchange rates; but devaluation of the currency is not a sufficient condition for paying higher prices to farmers.     

Estimating shadow price for symbiotic nitrogen and technical efficiency for legume‐based conservation agriculture in Malawi

Determining the value of legumes as soil fertility amendments can be challenging, yet this information is required to guide public policy and to incentivise prescribed land‐management practices such as conservation agriculture. We use a directional input distance function (DIDF) to estimate shadow prices for symbiotic nitrogen and the technical efficiency for mixed maize‐legume production systems in Malawi. The shadow prices reflect the trade‐off between fertiliser nitrogen and symbiotic nitrogen required to achieve a given quantity of output. Our results reveal considerable technical inefficiency in the production system. The estimated shadow prices vary across farms and are, on average, higher than the reference price for commercial nitrogen. The results suggest that it would be beneficial to redesign the current price‐support programs that subsidise chemical fertilisers and indirectly crowd‐out organic soil amendments such as legumes.     

Incorporating risk in a positive mathematical programming framework: a dual approach

In this study we develop a new methodological proposal to incorporate risk into a farm‐level positive mathematical programming (PMP) model. We estimate simultaneously the farm nonlinear cost function and a farmer‐specific coefficient of absolute risk aversion as well as the resource shadow prices. The model is applied to a sample of representative arable crop farms from the Emilia‐Romagna region in Italy. The estimation results confirm the calibration ability of the model and reveal the values of the individual risk aversion coefficients. We use the model to simulate different scenarios of crop price volatility, in order to explore the potential risk management role of an agri‐environmental scheme.     

The impacts of biofuels targets on land‐use change and food supply: A global CGE assessment

We analyze the long‐term impacts of large‐scale expansion of biofuels on land‐use change, food supply and prices, and the overall economy in various countries or regions using a multi‐country, multi‐sector global computable general equilibrium model augmented with an explicit land‐use module and detailed biofuel sectors. We find that an expansion of biofuel production to meet the existing or even higher targets in various countries would slightly reduce GDP at the global level but with mixed effects across countries or regions. Significant land re‐allocation would take place with notable decreases in forest and pasture lands in a few countries. The expansion of biofuels would cause a moderate decrease in world food supply and more significant decreases in developing countries like India and Sub‐Saharan Africa. Feedstock commodities (sugar, corn and oil seeds) would experience significant increases in their prices in 2020, but other price changes are small.     

Supply responses of peasant cultivators in the Sudan—a rational expectations model

Abstract

Most attempts to increase agricultural production rely on incentives to the farmer, especially regarding market prices, and a positive response by him. In this paper the latter is analysed with reference to two major oilseed export crops in the Sudan, groundnuts and sesame, under small peasant farming conditions. The methodology used to study the behaviour of farmers is based on Rational Expectations techniques and the data used are drawn from official time series material. The results obtained show that small farmers are responsive to price changes for these crops by adjusting crop areas. The implications of the results are of importance to policy makers in that peasant production can be stimulated by ensuring that the producers obtain sufficient price incentives to do so. An immediate priority is an in‐depth study of the competitiveness of the marketing system to provide adequate information on which to base remedial measures to ensure that the price mechanism transmits the appropriate signals to the farmers. A further important policy aspect is the need to change the reliance of the small peasant sector on shifting agriculture to maintain soil fertility, because of the increasing population pressure on land. In the longer term farmers should adjust to real price rises not by increasing the amount of land cultivated but by raising the productivity of their holdings in a new system of sedentary agriculture.     

Estimating a Primal Model of Regional Crop Supply in the European Union

This article estimates behavioural parameters of the quadratic regional supply models in the modelling system CAPRI. Using the time‐series data in the CAPRI database, we directly estimate the optimality conditions using a Bayesian highest posterior density estimator. After discarding regions with insufficient data, parameters for up to 23 crop production activities with related inputs, outputs, prices and behavioural functions are estimated for 219 regions in EU‐27. The results are systematically compared with the outcomes of other studies. For crop aggregates (e.g. cereals, oilseeds, etc.) at the national level, the estimated own price elasticities of supply are found to be in a plausible range. On a regional level and for individual crops, the picture is much more diverse. As far as we know, there is no other study of similar regional and product coverage.     

Green Light for Green Agricultural Policies? An Analysis at Regional and Global Scales

This paper analyses the effects of introducing biodiversity‐targeted ecological focus area (EFA) requirements on all farms with arable land in the EU by quantifying their global, regional, economic and environmental impacts in a mutually consistent way. To capture these impacts, different spatial scales need to be considered – ranging from on‐farm decisions regarding the EFA in the EU, to supply response around the world. In order to address this challenge, we combine the supply side of the CAPRI model, which offers high spatial, farm and policy resolution in the EU, with the GTAP model of global trade and land use. Both models are linked through a multi‐product, restricted‐revenue function for the EU crop sector. The results predict improved environmental status in the high‐yielding regions of the EU. However, output price increases lead to intensification in the more marginal areas of the EU where little or no additional land is taken out of production. The decrease in arable land in the EU is partially compensated by an increase of crop land, as well as increased fertiliser applications, in other regions of the globe. Thus, the improvement of environmental status in the EU comes at the price of global intensification, as well as the loss of forest and grassland areas outside the EU. Overall, we find that every hectare of land that is taken out of production in the EU increases greenhouse gas emissions in the rest of the world by 20.8 tonnes CO₂ equivalent.     

The influence of land-use change paradigm on Romania’s agro-food trade competitiveness—An overview

The current transformations of the Romanian agricultural sector have imposed new paradigms in using the land resources. The objective of this study is to assess Romanian agro-food products competitiveness on world market, in terms of land use changing paradigms. The research question is whether the land is cultivated with crops which are competitive on world market. For assessing agro-food competitiveness, Balassa index is calculated. The findings show relative performance for barley, maize, triticale, wheat, poultry meat, oilseeds, and tobacco. But the areas cultivated with barley and wheat decreased in the period under analysis, although these products have highest relative performance of exports. The paper also proposes structural changes of land use needed for encouraging those crops and products which have high revealed comparative advantages on world markets.     

FOOD SECURITY IN KWAZULU: RESULTS OF A HOUSEHOLD-BASED PROGRAMMING MODEL

A mathematical programming model of rural KwaZulu, excluding three northern districts, was developed to simulate agricultural production in regions of high and low cropping potential. This model aggregates enterprise levels predicted for four representative households of which two are in the high-potential region and two in the low-potential region. Several economic scenarios are simulated with the model to predict, inter alia, responses to changes in cereal prices, input subsidies, changes in off-farm employment and a rental market for crop land. Long-run food supply response is estimated to be inelastic with respect to changes in product and input prices. Higher food prices harm the majority of rural households. Lower input prices have little impact on household welfare. Conversely, it is predicted that a rental market for arable land could have a large positive impact on crop production and would improve household welfare.     

当前我国农用地估价实践中亟待解决的问题

从当前农用地估价的实践出发，提出影响估价精度的六大问题，以期农用地估价实践者关注区域农用地地价水平平衡和农用地价与城镇地价在时间与空间的连续与衔接。     

The Impact of Trade Liberalization on the International Oilseed Complex

One approach to trade liberalization is the zero-for-zero sectoral approach which involves agreements to eliminate export subsidies, import tariffs, and export taxes in a sector. This article provides an assessment of the impact of border trade liberalization on oilseeds and oilseed products trade. The analysis suggests that under all of the scenarios examined, North American oilseed crushers and oilseed producers gain from trade liberalization. The exact size and the distribution of these gains depends on the number of countries that participate in trade liberalization. The results suggest that the United States and Canada would gain from the adoption of the zero-for-zero proposal.     

Are medium‐scale farms driving agricultural transformation in sub‐Saharan Africa?

This study presents evidence of profound farm‐level transformation in parts of sub‐Saharan Africa, identifies major sources of dynamism in the sector, and proposes an updated typology of farms that reflects the evolving nature of African agriculture. Repeat waves of national survey data are used to examine changes in crop production and marketed output by farm size. Between the first and most recent surveys (generally covering 6 to 10 years), the share of national marketed crop output value accounted for by medium‐scale farms rose in Zambia from 23% to 42%, in Tanzania from 17% to 36%, and in Nigeria from 7% to 18%. The share of land under medium‐scale farms is not rising in densely populated countries such as Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, where land scarcity is impeding the pace of medium‐scale farm acquisitions. Medium‐scale farmers are a diverse group, reflecting distinct entry pathways into agriculture, encouraged by the rapid development of land rental, purchase, and long‐term lease markets. The rise of medium‐scale farms is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. Findings indicate that these farms can be a dynamic driver of agricultural transformation but this does not reduce the importance of maintaining a clear commitment to supporting smallholder farms. Strengthening land tenure security of local rural people to maintain land rights and support productivity investments by smallholder households remains crucial.     

Implications of biofuels mandates for the global livestock industry: a computable general equilibrium analysis

The rapid growth of biofuels production, particularly in the United States, the EU, and Brazil, has had important implications for the global livestock industry—both by raising the cost of feed grains and oilseeds and by forcing onto the market a large supply of biofuel by‐products, most of which end up in livestock feed rations. This article investigates the impact of an expanding biofuels industry on the mix and location of global livestock production. Surprisingly, we find that growth in the U.S. and EU biofuels industries results in larger absolute reductions in livestock production overseas than in those regions, due to the international transmission of grains prices which is offset locally by the lower cost of by‐products. We also find that nonruminant production is cut more than ruminant livestock, because it is less able to use biofuel by‐products in its feed rations. Implementing biofuel mandates increases cropland area, a large portion of which is estimated to come from reduced grazing lands. The biofuel producing regions are expected to reduce their coarse grains exports and increase imports of oilseeds and vegetable oils, while they increase their exports of processed feed materials. In sum, biofuel mandates have important consequences for livestock as well as crops, with net effects influenced by the important role of by‐products in substituting for feedstuffs.     

藏粮于地战略与路径选择

针对长期实施的藏粮于仓、以丰补歉策略所带来的一系列问题,中央提出实施"藏粮于地"战略。何为"藏粮于地"?实施"藏粮于地"有何益?实施"藏粮于地"面临哪些挑战?如何实施"藏粮于地"?对此,文章进行了系统分析论述。我国粮食生产"十二连增",粮食库存丰富,粮食生产稳定性增强,近年国际粮食价格低廉,这些为我国实施"藏粮于地"战略创造了条件。然而,实施"藏粮于地"并非易事,面临许多问题与挑战,包括:耕地面积有可能再次大幅减少,耕地质量堪忧;水资源约束日益突出,粮食生产能力提升的难度越来越大;农业抵御自然灾害的能力低,农业自然灾害突出;规模化生产经营与社会化服务水平低,粮食生产调控能力弱;国内粮食生产大萎缩和世界粮食价格危机有可能再现,冲击"藏粮于地"行动计划。实施"藏粮于地",关键在"地",核心在"藏"。数量充足和高质量的耕地是基础,同时,还必须有完好的"养地"与"用地"机制。因此,应强化"护地"、"建地"、"养地"与"用地",即走护、建、养、用"四结合"之路。     

Macro–micro feedback links of water management in South Africa: CGE analyses of selected policy regimes

The pressure on an already stressed water situation in South Africa is predicted to increase significantly under climate change, plans for large industrial expansion, ongoing rapid urbanization, and government programs to provide access to water to millions of previously excluded populations. This article employs a general equilibrium approach to examine the economy‐wide impacts of selected macro and water‐related policy reforms on water use and allocation, rural livelihoods, and economy at large. The analyses reveal that implicit crop‐level water quotas reduce the amount of irrigated land allocated to higher‐value horticultural crops and create higher shadow rents for production of lower‐value water‐intensive field crops, such as sugarcane and fodder. Accordingly, liberalizing local water allocation within irrigation agriculture is found to work in favor of higher‐value crops, and expand agricultural production and exports and farm employment. Allowing for water trade between irrigation and nonagricultural uses fuelled by higher competition for water from urbanization leads to greater water shadow prices for irrigation water with reduced income and employment benefits to rural households and higher gains for nonagricultural households. The analyses show difficult trade‐offs between general economic gains and higher water prices, which place serious questions on subsidizing water supply to irrigated agriculture, i.e., making irrigation subsidies much harder to justify.     

Urban proximity,demand for land and land shadow prices in Malawi

We assess the spatial and intertemporal variation in farmland prices using per hectare minimum willingness to accept (WTA) sales and rental (shadow) prices in Malawi. We use three rounds of nationally representative farm household panel data from the Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMS), collected in 2010, 2013 and 2016. The sample is split in quintiles based on distance from the nearest major city, building on the land valuation and transaction cost theory, and agrarian political economy perspectives on global and national land transactions. Generally, farmland shadow prices decrease with distance from urban areas. However, farmland shadow sales prices increased more sharply between 2010 and 2013 in rural areas (+100 % vs +30 % in urban proximity). The results indicate that the sharp increase in demand for large-scale land transfers following the sharp increase in energy and food prices also affected rural smallholders’ land valuation, even in remote rural areas of Malawi. Conversely, by 2016 land shadow sales prices were again, like in 2010, about three times as high in areas near urban centres compared to remote rural areas. Even though sales prices declined in remote rural areas from 2013 to 2016, rental prices remained high. Using farm household-level population pressure variable, we show that local population pressure is a driver of farmland shadow prices, indicating land scarcity challenges, growing demand for land, and poorly developed land markets. With increasing land scarcity, land markets are becoming more important and need to be factored in when formulating development policies that aim to improve access to land in both peri-urban and rural areas.     

New markets and technological change for the traditional cereals in semiarid sub-Saharan Africa: the Malian case

During the last three decades in sub‐Saharan Africa, development and research resources have concentrated on the higher‐rainfall and irrigated regions, especially on export crops and the principal food crops grown there. There has been much less concern and investment in semiarid regions without irrigation. Another negative factor has been the lack of public policy concern with the profitability of the basic food crops. With good weather, prices collapse. With bad weather, governments and NGOs dispense food crops as food aid or at subsidized prices. This article documents the importance of the demand side to facilitate diffusion of new technologies for the basic food commodities of semiarid regions—the traditional cereals. With farm programming models aggregated into a sector model, the combination of technological change and demand shifts for sorghum are evaluated in one semiarid region where the traditional cereals are concentrated. It focuses on combining policies to increase the prices farmers receive after introduction of technologies that use higher input levels. It also compares benefits of a strategy that focuses on yield and demand increases for a traditional cereal of the semiarid region, sorghum, with two alternative strategies for the higher‐rainfall zone.     

黄河流域农业高质量发展中水土资源优化配置研究

目的 推进黄河流域农业高质量发展是实现黄河流域高质量发展的重点任务,也是破题之举。水资源利用较为粗放、农业用水效率不高是黄河流域农业高质量发展的最大制约,也是推进黄河流域农业高质量发展亟待破解的问题。方法 文章基于水资源刚性约束的现实条件,将水资源作为内生要素纳入柯布-道格拉斯生产函数,构建“以水定土、以土量水”的水土资源优化模型,运用黄河流域西北干旱区1 933份农户实地调研数据,实证分析不同配水方案及水价情景下,农作物种植面积的调整策略。结果 研究表明,黄河流域农业生产具有较大节水空间;调整配水方案,配水量向具有水资源利用比较优势的作物倾斜,有利于提高收益及水资源利用率;调节水价,增加用水成本,有助于抑制不合理用水需求,实现农业节水目标。结论 黄河流域农业水土资源优化配置应坚持“以水而定、量水而行”,推进水资源节约集约利用;完善水资源定价机制,抑制不合理用水需求;坚持生态优先,大力推进农业节水,推动设施农业发展,适度调减农作物种植面积,为生态用水提供更大的空间。黄河流域农业发展不应以规模论英雄,而是侧重向技术、管理、质量要效益,走质量兴农、绿色兴农、品牌强农的农业高质量发展之路。     

Long and Short Term Economies of Scope in Dutch Vegetable Production

This paper derives long and short‐term economies of scope from a dual profit maximising model of production, using the concept of shadow prices. The dual model includes lagged netput quantities to reflect past experience in the production of outputs and the application of inputs. The framework is applied to aggregate data of specialised producers of vegetables in the Netherlands in the period 1981–1994. Adjustments of most netputs are instantaneous, with small adjustment lags being found for cucumbers, materials and services. Long and short‐term economies of scope indicate that at the sector level, there is an incentive towards specialisation in the production of tomatoes and a strong incentive towards diversification in case of all other outputs. Keywords: Generalised Maximum Entropy estimation, Economies of Scope, Horticulture.     

Estimating Disequilibrium Cost Elasticities in Agricultural Production

A restricted cost function is estimated using annual data for western Canadian agriculture over the period 1961–84. Using the parameter estimates, disequilibrium cost elasticities are calculated. The elasticities for the sector indicate that the ex ante market prices of quasi-fixed inputs were higher than their shadow values. That is, quasi-fixed factors were underutilized during the sample period. Excess agricultural land contributed most to the cost of disequilibrium.