Impact of agricultural innovation adoption: a meta‐analysis

The impacts of adopting agricultural innovation and technology are widely examined. This paper synthesises 154 studies, which yielded a total of 600 estimates of the impact of adopting agricultural innovation and technology on production, social and economic outcomes. Using meta‐regression analysis, the empirical results show that the reported impact of adopting agricultural innovation and technology rises significantly over time, notwithstanding a significant publication bias. Whether studies find significant impacts of adopting agricultural innovation and technology depends on the use of experimental research designs, parametric method, endogenous switching regression and region. Our results show a large bias in the literature towards agricultural innovations and technologies that focus on high‐yielding varieties and thus, neglect other forms of complementary innovations and technologies.     

The Interaction of Global Value Chains and Rural Livelihoods: The Case of Smallholder Raspberry Growers in Chile

This paper integrates aspects of global value chain and sustainable rural livelihoods analyses in an exploration of the local impacts of agri‐food globalization in Chile. In particular, it examines the evolution of the raspberry export sector in the context of Chile's non‐traditional agricultural export boom, and considers its importance to smallholder growers and rural households in central Chile. The paper first outlines the geography and structural configuration of the global value chain for Chilean raspberries, and considers modes of governance and forms of coordination between key actors within the chain. Second, the terms and implications of smallholder grower participation in the value chain are explored in a discussion of access to key livelihoods assets. The paper concludes that institutional support to smallholders, even in the case of a crop that is widely seen to have a small‐scale ‘size bias’, remains integral to their capacity to comply with required safety and quality standards and gain and retain market access via the value chain.     

The impact of strengthening agricultural extension services on women farmers: Evidence from Ethiopia

This paper evaluates the effect of the Rural Capacity Building Project (RCBP), which aimed at promoting growth by strengthening the agricultural service systems in Ethiopia, and by making them more responsive to smallholders’ needs, in particular women farmers. We examine the gender‐differentiated impact of the RCBP using panel data on 1,485 geographically dispersed households in project and control kebeles. We find that women farmers’ access and satisfaction with extension services increased significantly immediately after the start of the project, but that effect did not last into the medium term. The project led to an increase in the adoption of high‐value crop farming, area of land cultivated, and economic participation of household members, benefiting male‐ and female‐headed households equally. Results point to the positive impact of incorporating women's needs and constraints in the design of the agricultural extension system. However, the project was not able to reduce the preexisting gender gap in agricultural outcomes.     

Unpacking systemic innovation capacity as strategic ambidexterity: How projects dynamically configure capabilities for agricultural innovation

Problems in agriculture and land use are increasingly recognised as complex, uncertain, operating at multiple levels (field to global value chains) and involving social, economic, institutional, and technological change. This has implications for how projects navigate complexity to achieve impact. However, few studies have systematically evaluated how project actors engage with other actors to configure capabilities and resources across multiple levels in agricultural innovation systems (AIS), from the individual to the network, to mobilise and build systemic innovation capacity. An analytical framework conceptualising the nested configuration of capabilities at multiple levels in the AIS is applied to two projects that successfully tackled agricultural and land management problems of differing complexity: (i) improving lamb survival; and (ii) sustainable land management in New Zealand. Findings indicate that innovation capacity constitutes project actors interacting with other AIS actors to configure capabilities and resources at different levels of the AIS in order to leverage positive project path dependencies and break path dependencies that are created by existing and historical capability configurations. Project actors also balance exploiting existing innovation capabilities, as well as using adaptive capability for exploring and creating new capability configurations to respond to emerging circumstances. This implies that projects should have strategic ambidexterity in terms of how they combine exploiting existing and exploring new networks to access, combine, create, or disconnect certain capabilities to address ‘capability voids’ in AIS. This requires support to projects to constantly scrutinise, through reflexive monitoring by dedicated facilitators, specific agriculture and land use policies connected to major sustainable development models (e.g. climate smart agriculture, urban farming, smart farming). The can help assess whether the AIS provides the right mix of capabilities and whether this is adequately supported by innovation policy, to realize transformative policy objectives.     

农户分化对农村宅基地退出行为影响研究 ——基于江苏省1456个农户的调查

研究目的:揭示农户分化视角下农户宅基地退出行为的影响因素。研究方法:文献资料法和Logistic模型分析法。研究结果:农户分化是农户退出宅基地行为发生的主要诱因,这一行为还取决于被调查者自身和家庭禀赋条件以及由此带来的产权安全感知差异。研究结论:应该充分考虑异质化农户的行为差异,促进经济落后地区宅基地有偿退出机制的发展和完善,并将就业能力提升、农地流转、住房保障、权益保护与宅基地退出制度安排有效匹配,从而进一步促进闲置宅基地退出和土地资源优化配置。     

Impact of MGNREGA on the livelihood security of rural poor in India: a study using national sample survey data

This paper studies the impact of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) at the all-India level utilizing nationally representative data from the national sample survey (NSS). We propose an alternative methodology for the proper identification of target households in the baseline period using a secondary data source such as the NSS. The programme is assessed in terms of whether it has been successful in ensuring livelihood security for beneficiary households. The study found that the increase in spending capacity of non-beneficiary households was greater than MGNREGA beneficiary households. Moreover, the overall growth trend in spending capacity over time had a greater effect in improving the livelihood security of the target households than the estimated effect of the programme.     

新农村建设背景下的农林高校人才培养模式的创新研究

在新农村建设中,人才是发展的关键。社会主义新农村建设无疑为当前农林高校的人才培养提供了契机,然而从目前来看,人才培养模式存在诸多问题,如农林高校学科优势和专业特色有所削弱,学科专业设置与新农村建设的脱节,教学内容陈旧等。通过创新人才培养模式适应新农村建设对人才的需求,并从新农村建设的实践出发进行专业设置与课程建设,全面提升学生的综合素质。     

The impact of transport-and transaction-cost reductions on food markets in developing countries: evidence for tempered expectations for Burkina Faso

Reductions in transport and transaction costs are expected to have a major effect on the functioning of food markets in developing countries. For Burkina Faso, this is a relevant issue as it may have important consequences for the food markets in urban and rural deficit areas. A partial equilibrium model is presented to analyze the short-term effects of reduced costs on price formation, inter-regional cereal trade, and farmers' and traders' storage strategies. Our results show that the high expectations with regard to the direct effects of cost reductions on food prices and food availability require some nuance. The effects of a reduction of transport costs will be small. Moreover, also the unintended negative consequences on the competitive position of farmers and traders in other regions that do not profit from road construction should be taken into account. Finally, it is concluded that only if transport and transaction costs are reduced simultaneously, will both the consumers and farmers benefit significantly.     

A paradigm shift in African agricultural research for development: the role of innovation platforms

To demonstrate the development impact of their outputs, agricultural research and development (R&D) organizations used to focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of technologies. In recent years, innovation systems thinking has started to address institutional and organizational barriers to technological change in African agriculture. The main approach used has been the multi-stakeholder innovation platform (IP). This paper analyses the requirements for improving the competence and skills of IPs actors in agricultural value chains, food systems, and natural resource management. As case studies, it uses IPs in the maize and cassava value chains that were initiated in the dissemination of new agricultural technologies in Africa (DONATA), in both West and Central Africa, and made reference to the rice IPs facilitated by AfricaRice. Yields and incomes in maize and cassava IPs significantly increased and inter-actor relationships and behavioural change among the diverse social and economic operators were enhanced. This achievement built on three capacity development interventions: (i) learning workshops that sensitized and informed technocrats and policy-makers and nurtured their involvement and ownership, (ii) competence and skill training of IP facilitators and practitioners, and (iii) coaching and mentoring of these facilitators and practitioners. To better facilitate IPs, facilitators and practitioners need to learn to observe, recreate, test, and perfect the IP process and value chain approach. Practicable tools that can be visualized and put into practice by the IP actors are essential. The DONATA on which the paper is based has been invaluable in terms of experiential learning.     

不同阶段化肥施用量对我国粮食产量的影响分析——基于1952——2006年30个省份的面板数据

本文通过把1952-2006年全国30个省市的大样本面板数据分成5个不同时期,首次使用引入时间变量的变截距双对数模型,并根据不同结果的各方面检验进行模型改进,对不同阶段我国化肥施用量对粮食产量的影响进行了计量分析.分析结果表明,化肥施用量对粮食产量的显著的正增产效应一直保持到近期才变得不显著;化肥施用量对粮食产量的增产弹性先增大后减小;单位质量化肥投入带来的实际粮食产量增加量不断减少.     

Public preferences for landscape features: The case of agricultural landscape in mountainous Mediterranean areas

Provision of landscape amenities produced by farmers, in addition to their economic function of producing food and fibre, has contributed to a reassessment of the role of agriculture in society. In this paper, we examine whether agricultural landscape provision really responds to a social demand as is argued by those in favour of multifunctionality. Thus, the aim of the present work is two-fold. First, we evaluate rural landscape preferences of citizens from a range of choices in the mountain area of the Alpujarras (south-eastern Spain), and second, we estimate their willingness to pay (WTP) to enjoy each of the landscape characteristics existing in the area. For the empirical analysis, based on a survey of public preferences due to the good public characteristics of landscape amenities, we applied two stated preference methods: Conjoint Analysis (CA) and Contingent Valuation (CV). Three landscape attributes were considered for this analysis: type of vegetation layer, density of rural buildings, and level of slope. Several levels were also considered for each attribute: abandoned fields, dryland farming, irrigated farming, and natural lands were included for the vegetation layer; three levels (low, intermediate and intense) were considered for the level of slope and three levels (none, little and intense) for rural buildings.     

The visual impact of agricultural sheds on rural landscapes: The willingness to pay for mitigation solutions and treatment effects

New rural and industrial sheds cause significant transformations determining a negative change in landscape perception. In this paper the willingness to pay (WTP) of residents to mitigate the visual impact of sheds in the rural areas of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato” is estimated through a Choice Experiment (CE). The CE survey was carried out through face-to-face interviews involving 400 residents. The set of mitigation attributes was selected by means of a landscape analysis and presented to respondents using a set of images (close and distant views). Conditional Logit (CLogit) and Mixed Logit (MXL) models both in preference and in WTP space were estimated. From the empirical point of view, the study shows that sheds are generally perceived as negative landscape elements, and that residents are willing to pay for mitigation solutions, such as tree lines and formal hedgerows. The results are relevant for policy makers since they suggest how agricultural sheds are perceived and which mitigation strategies are preferred by local residents. From the methodological point of view, we estimate and test different models for assessing the effect of the visual treatment (close vs distant view). We show the theoretical equivalence of a fully interacted model (i.e., estimated on the whole sample and including interaction terms with the treatment), with split models of the choice for separate subsamples submitted or not to the treatment. We find that in estimation the equivalence holds in the results of Conditional Logit models, but not in Mixed Logit models. The reasons and implications are discussed.     

Trade-off between photovoltaic systems installation and agricultural practices on arable lands: An environmental and socio-economic impact analysis for Italy

The paper introduces and discusses an open-source spatial-based model (called r.green.solar) able to quantify the energy production from solar photovoltaic (PV) ground-mounted panels. Socio-economic and environmental impacts can be evaluated by the model. The model starts from the theoretical quantity of solar PV potential energy and estimates a reduction of total amount of energy based on legal, technical, recommended and economic constraints. Model outputs were used for a trade-off analysis between energy production and traditional crops for food/feed cultivation on not irrigated arable land. The model was tested at regional level for a Mediterranean context (Italy). The results confirm that the economic profitability of PV systems follows a north-south gradient, but the main impacts are related to local peculiarities – such as the disposal of not irrigated arable land and the presence of constraints, in particular the landscape maintenance, the morphological variables and the specialization index – and crop yields.     

The impact of auction characteristics on prices of agricultural products traded online: evidence from cherries

This article provides an empirical study on the relationship between auction characteristics and prices using a data set on cherry sales from the online auction site Yahoo! Kimo. Using three alternative measures of the dependent variable, results indicate that reputation variables have a statistically important association with auction prices. The extent of reputation's impact on prices varies substantially depending on the model specification and estimation technique. The article highlights the effectiveness of a nonlinear specification for both measuring and interpreting the underlying reputation variables. The use of a “Buy It Now” option, size, and country of the origin is correlated with prices at statistically significant levels. Several econometric concerns regarding the empirical modeling strategy are discussed.     

The impact of seed industry concentration on innovation: a study of US biotech market leaders

Agricultural research drives increases in agricultural productivity, and the number of private agricultural input firms has been declining. The empirical relationship between the number of firms doing applied biotechnology crop research and the amount of research output they produce is investigated in a research profit function model. Increases in seed industry concentration have reduced biotech research intensity in the United States in the 1990s. Concentration and research are simultaneously determined and are influenced by the appropriability of research results and the state of technological opportunity.     

Diversity of Mexican diets and agricultural systems and their impact on the land requirements for food

Mexico is a megadiverse country with large agroclimatic diversity and socioeconomic inequality. These two factors result in strong diversity in diets and agricultural systems within the country. In this paper, we assess the impact of Mexican diets and production systems on the per capita land requirements for food. We estimate it for the extremes: from the very basic diet of the poorest share of the population to the affluent diet of the richest share of the population; and for extensive and intensive systems, with irrigation as the indicator of the intensity of the system. We show that the basic diet produced in rainfed systems requires 1620 m²/cap/yr and produced in irrigate systems requires 700 m²/cap/yr. The affluent diet produced in rainfed systems requires 2540 m²/cap/yr and produced in irrigated systems requires 1230 m²/cap/yr. Hence, differences in diets result in a requirement for 80% or 60% more land for an affluent diet; and differences in production systems result in more than twice the amount of land for extensive than for intensive systems. In 2050, it would be possible to feed the entire population with affluent diets only if all the present area of crop land had the productivity of intensive systems. In contrast, it would be possible to feed all people with a basic diet even if all present crop land area had only the productivity of extensive systems.     

农户农地经营权抵押贷款可获性及其影响因素——基于农村金融改革试验区2518个农户样本

研究目的:揭示已开展农地经营权抵押贷款业务的农村金融改革试验区农户农地经营权抵押贷款可获性不高的现象并解释其原因。研究方法:问卷调查、有序Logistic回归模型。研究结果:(1)规模农户和小农户土地抵押贷款可获得性具有差异性;(2)土地产权流转市场较小、土地评估机制不健全、农户承包经营权证不随经营权流转、农村土地确权颁证尚未完成、信贷风险分摊机制等制度基石尚未完全确立等因素降低了农户农地经营权抵押贷款的可获得性。研究结论:农地经营权抵押贷款的进一步推广需要提高银行对抵押土地的处置能力,简化规模农户贷款手续,同时完善信贷风险分摊机制。     

Evaluating the impact of agricultural extension on farms' performance in Crete: a nonneutral stochastic frontier approach

This article attempts to integrate the production‐ and the efficiency‐based approaches for evaluating the impact of extension on farms' performance. For this purpose the nonneutral production frontier model is used, and the empirical analysis refers to a sample of farms from Crete, Greece. The empirical results support the proposed formulation instead of either the production‐ or the efficiency‐based formulations as extension was found to have a statistically significant effect on closing both the technology and management gaps. Public and private extension services were found to be competitive in the production function and complementary in the technical inefficiency effect function. In addition, farms using both public and private extension services achieved a higher degree of technical efficiency than those using either public or private extension services, and farms with no extension services were found to be the least efficient.     

The impact of agricultural conservation easement on nearby house prices: Incorporating spatial autocorrelation and spatial heterogeneity

The impact of farmland under agricultural conservation easement (ACE) contract on the values of nearby residential properties is investigated using housing sales data in two Pennsylvania counties. ACE-protected farmland had a positive impact on nearby property values in one study county but a negative impact in the other. The paper also looks at the impact of forest land use, and discovers that preserved forest land had a positive impact on the nearby property values in both counties. House prices showed strong spatial correlation in both counties, and a spatial error components (SEC) model fit the data better than the OLS model, a spatial-lag model (SLM), or a spatial autoregressive error model (SEM). Geographically weighted regression (GWR) showed that the impact of ACE-protected farmland on nearby property values varied within one of the two study counties, with positive impacts in some parts of the county and negative impacts in other parts. The impact of forest cover on property values also varied, with positive impacts within both counties. A new hybrid GWR-SEC model is introduced that incorporates both spatial correlation in prices and spatial heterogeneity in the model parameters. Statistical goodness of fit measures showed that the GWR-SEC model fit better than the GWR model or a hybrid GWR-SEM model.