Tenants, Landlords, and Soil Conservation

It has long been argued that tenants tend to overexploit land, but this conventional wisdom has been derived largely without consideration of landlords' actions. We examine what happens when landlords can invest in durable conservation measures in addition to choosing rental contract terms. When tenants are risk neutral, landlords overinvest in conservation under cash rental contracts but can achieve first best levels of output and protection against land degradation when conservation investment is combined with share rental. When tenants are risk averse, the first best is unattainable. In this case, conservation investment combined with share rental results in output levels below the first best, while equilibrium conservation investment may be greater or less than the first best. These results suggest that contract form and conservation investments are likely made simultaneously, so that econometric studies of conservation practice adoption that treat rental status as exogenous are likely subject to bias.     

Land Tenure and the Adoption of Conservation Practices

We use a logit adoption model with data on 941 U.S. corn producers from the 1996 Agricultural Resource Management Study to analyze the influence of land tenure on the adoption of conservation practices. We extend previous analyses by distinguishing renters according to lease type and by distinguishing practices according to the timing of costs and returns. We find that cash-renters are less likely than owner-operators to use conservation tillage, but share-renters are not. Both cash-renters and share-renters are less likely than owner-operators to adopt practices that provide benefits only over the longer term (grassed waterways, stripcropping, and contour farming).     

Conservation agriculture (CA) in Tanzania: the case of the Mwangaza B CA farmer field school (FFS), Rhotia Village,Karatu District,Arusha

This project was initiated to promote conservation agriculture (CA) in Tanzania so as to improve the food security and rural livelihood of small- and medium-scale farmers through the scaling-up of CA as a sustainable land management (SLM) tool as well as increasing the numbers of SLM-CA farmer field schools (FFS) in communities. The project had two phases from 2004 to 2010. It was funded by a Government of Germany trust fund and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture in Tanzania. The project pilot districts include Arumeru (Arusha and Meru Councils), Karatu, Babati, Hanang and Moshi districts. CA has been shown to offer positive elements that could contribute to fighting hunger and poverty.     

旱作农区土壤风蚀过程、影响因素及其防治技术措施

我国北方旱作农业区土壤风蚀问题十分严重,不仅对当地形成生态灾难,而且风蚀的细粒物质可随风榆移到很远的地方,对广大地区的环境造成影响,尤其在沙尘暴期间,这种影响更为突出;加强北方早作农田土壤风蚀防治工作十分重要,应根据土壤风蚀发生的过程。针对影响风蚀的因素,采取有效的防治技术措施,加强土壤风蚀的防治;在查阅文献的基础上,对土壤风蚀的过程、影响闲素、防治的主要技术措施进行了较全面的分析和阐述。     

Productivity and Land Enhancing Technologies in Northern Ethiopia: Health, Public Investments, and Sequential Adoption

The adoption of more efficient farming practices and technologies that enhance agricultural productivity and improve environmental sustainability is instrumental for achieving economic growth, food security, and poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. Our research examines the interaction between public investments, community health, and adoption of productivity and land enhancing technologies by households in the northern Ethiopian state of Tigray. Agricultural technology adoption decisions are modeled as a sequential process where the timing of choices can matter. We find that time spent sick and opportunity costs of caring for sick family members are significant factors in adoption. Sickness, through its impact on household income and labor allocation decisions for healthcare and other activities, significantly reduces the likelihood of technology adoption. Our findings suggest that agencies working to improve agricultural productivity and land resource conservation should consider not only the financial status of potential adopters, but also their related health situation.     

峡江县森林涵养水源和保育土壤价值核算

以最新发布的《中国森林生态系统服务功能评估规范》为依据,根据2009年峡江县二类森林资源调查资料,对峡江县森林生态系统的涵养水源(调节水量、净化水质)、保育土壤(固土、保肥)等生态服务功能价值进行初步核算,核算结果,峡江县森林生态系统涵养水源价值为30.55亿元/a,保育土壤价值为872.64万元/a。     

东北黑土区农户保护性耕作技术采用行为研究基于政府规制的调节效应分析

[目的]探究黑土区农户保护性耕作技术采用行为,对推动黑土区农业可持续发展具有重要意义。[方法]文章从感知价值视角出发,利用东北黑土区的733份农户调研数据,采用结构方程模型,探讨了政府规制在农户感知价值与保护性耕作技术采用行为过程中的调节作用。[结果]（1）农户的感知利益和感知风险对农户采用保护性耕作技术的意愿和行为都具有直接和间接的显著影响,其中感知利益对农户采用保护性耕作技术意愿的正向影响程度最大,感知风险对农户采用保护性耕作技术行为的负向影响程度最大;（2）政府规制在农户感知价值与保护性耕作技术采用行为发生过程中具有调节作用,激励型政策的实施促进了农户技术采用意愿向采用行为的转化,约束型政策的实施扩大了农户感知风险对技术采用意愿的负向影响。[结论]地方政府应通过提升农户保护性耕作技术感知利益、降低感知风险、优化激励型和约束型政策等方面,引导黑土区农户采用保护性耕作技术。     

From Microlevel Decisions to Landscape Changes: An Assessment of Agricultural Conservation Policies

The growth in conservation programs has created a need for modeling frameworks capable of measuring microlevel behavioral responses and macrolevel landscape changes. This paper presents an empirical model that predicts farmers' production practices and the resulting levels of agricultural runoffs at more than 42,000 agricultural sites in the upper-Mississippi river basin under alternative conservation policies. Results suggest that payments for conservation tillage and crop rotations increase the use of these conservation practices. However, the acreage response is inelastic and the programs are not likely to be cost effective on their own for addressing hypoxia problem in the Gulf of Mexico.     

Green Agriculture: foundations for biodiverse,resilient and productive agricultural systems

There are many visions on how to achieve a sustainable agriculture that provides enough food and ecosystem services for present and future generations in an era of climate change, increasing costs of energy, social unrest, financial instability and increasing environmental degradation. New agricultural systems that are able to confront the challenges of a rapidly changing world require a minimum of ten attributes that constitute the defining elements of a Green Agriculture. A major challenge is to identify a set of thresholds that any agricultural production strategy must meet, beyond which unsustainable trends caused by the farming technologies would lead to tipping-point phenomena. Only those styles of agriculture that meet the established threshold criteria while advancing rural communities towards food, energy and technological sovereignty would be considered viable forms of Green Agriculture. Considering the diversity of ecological, socio-economic, historical and political contexts in which agricultural systems have developed and are evolving in, it is only wise to define a set of flexible and locally adaptable principles and boundaries of sustainability and resiliency for the agroecosystems of the immediate future.     

Adoption of conservation agriculture in Europe: Lessons of the KASSA project

According to KASSA findings, conservation agriculture is less adopted in Europe compared to other adopting regions and, reduced tillage is more common than no-tillage and cover crops. Currently, it is not popularised and it is less researched. The lack of knowledge on conservation agriculture systems and their management and, the absence of dynamic and effective innovation systems make it difficult and socio-economically risky for European farmers to give up ploughing which is a paradigm rooted in their cultural backgrounds. In Norway and Germany the adoption of conservation agriculture has been encouraged and subsidised in order to mitigate soil erosion. In the other European countries the adoption process seems mainly driven by farmers and, the major driving force has been the cost reduction in machinery, fuel and labour saving. Soil and water conservation concerns did not appear as main drivers in the European farmers’ decision to shift or not to conservation agriculture.The shift of European farmers to conservation agriculture is being achieved through a step-by-step attitude, large scale farms are the most adopters. This adoption trend may grow in the future. Indeed, the need to improve farms’ competitiveness, the market globalization and the steady increase of fuel cost will likely contribute to arouse European farmers’ interest in conservation agriculture as it slashes significantly the production costs.Conservation agriculture is not equally suitable for all the European agroecosystems. The need of soil and water conservation in Europe requires anticipating the ongoing process in order to improve its ecological and socio-economic sustainability. Priority would be to define which regions in Europe are the most suitable for conservation agriculture taking into account climate and soil constraints, length of growing period, water availability and quality, erosion hazards and farming conditions. Policy favouring the use of soil cover and profitable crop rotations as management strategies for weed, pest and diseases control will certainly allow developing and disseminating efficient and acceptable conservation agriculture systems.     

Environmental farm planning in Ontario: exploring participation and the endurance of change

The Ontario Environmental Farm Plan Programme (EFP) represents a significant departure from previous agri-environmental initiatives in Canada. In this programme, the focus is not on the promotion and adoption of any particular farming innovation, but rather on the completion of a farm-level environmental appraisal and the development of a farm-specific environmental action plan. As with more traditional schemes, there is interest in understanding how the programme is performing and in documenting outcomes. Evidence suggests that a significant proportion of farmers who enter the programme complete only part of the process or apply the evaluation to only certain aspects of their operation. In effect, there is variation in the way participants participate. This paper examines the nature of, and reasons for, differing levels of engagement among participants in the EFP Programme. Results from a survey of past participants suggests that farm-specific environmental conditions, farmers’ motivations concerning the environment, and positive perceptions of the programme itself are associated with more complete levels of participation. Underlying some of the revealed variations in participation are abiding concerns for the confidentiality of the process and more general concerns relating to the intervention of the state in agricultural land use.     

影响我国农业发展制度变迁不足的原因及对策

传统农业发展受土地、劳动供给的约束,绿色革命产生了以节约劳动与土地为主要特点的现代机械和生物技术的运用,使农业生产边界大大扩展,同时发展经济学家也认识到制度在农业发展中的重要作用。本文从制度变迁存在需求引致型和供给主导型两种模式出发,探讨影响我国农业发展制度变迁不足的一系列因素,并提出相应的对策措施。     

Environmental and socio-economic sustainability of chinampas (raised beds) in Xochimilco,Mexico City

The chinampas (raised beds) of Xochimilco, Mexico City, are highly productive, traditional wetland agricultural systems, which were able to feed most of the population in pre-hispanic times. There is a strong trend to substitute chinampas with plastic greenhouses for flower production, which creates negative impacts in the landscape, environment and culture. This study compares the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of chinampas and greenhouses, at both the farm and regional levels, using the MESMIS framework. Even though the results show that greenhouses are more profitable, the contribution of chinampas to ecosystem services cannot be substituted by greenhouses, as tree cover is lost, canals are filled and food is not provided. Greenhouses had a higher diversity, but also a higher agrochemical use and are heavily dependent on external inputs and subsidies. Chinampas have shifted from staple crops to commercial horticulture in order to remain a technically viable and economically feasible option for local farmers. However, compensation mechanisms for the provision of ecosystem services are urgently needed if this ancient system is to be maintained. The framework allowed the integration of indicators at both farm and regional scales, combining on-farm surveys with GIS techniques, which could assist in ecosystem service valuation.     

Joint Estimation of Technology Adoption and Land Allocation with Implications for the Design of Conservation Policy

One challenge to estimating the parameters of a technology adoption model is that technology is selected jointly with land allocation. The article estimates a nested logit model of technology and crop choices that accounts for unobserved correlation among decisions. Estimation is conducted with a data set of adoptions, in contrast to the more common approach of using cross-section observations of existing technologies. Estimation results support the choice of a nesting structure as opposed to a more standard multinomial logit model. Adoption of precision irrigation technology is shown to be more sensitive to financial incentives affecting input price and technology cost than suggested by previous studies.     

Dynamics of Agricultural Technology Adoption: Age Structure, Reversibility, and Uncertainty

We develop a dynamic model of technology adoption that generalizes previous literature by incorporating technology age, reversible investment, variable inputs and outputs, and stochastic prices. The model is calibrated for irrigated cotton production in California. Optimal investment exhibits a significant vintage capital effect which provides a new candidate explanation for delayed technology diffusion. We show that the hurdle rate derived by option value models can be partially explained by the assumption of irreversible investment, and simulations demonstrate this assumption has regional policy relevance. Uncertainty affects optimal investment but has a declining effect with technology age.     

The Dynamics of Agricultural Biotechnology Adoption: Lessons from series rBST Use in Wisconsin, 1994–2001

This article exploits panel data from Wisconsin dairy farmers to examine the dynamics of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) adoption and to identify the characteristics that distinguish among nonadopters, disadopters, and early and late adopters. Panel methods are used to control for omitted variables and endogenous regressors that call into question coefficient estimates derived from cross-section adoption models. The results, however, confirm previous findings that larger farms with complementary feeding technologies are more likely to adopt rBST, nonadopters appear quite unlikely to become adopters, and rBST adoption will remain at rather moderate levels in Wisconsin.     

Potential hazards of land policy: Conservation,rural development and fire use in the Brazilian Amazon

With growing awareness of fire hazard as an environmental threat within tropical rainforests, the state of Brazil initiated a set of fire control policies aimed at monitoring and ameliorating fire hazard in the Amazon region. These policies were developed in the aftermath of large-scale fire events and reflect a conservationist discourse that responded to internal as well as international environmental concerns. In doing so, the policies have framed the “fire problem” around those who use fire in their land use practices, in particular small-scale agriculturalists. Yet, land policy in general has repeatedly failed to address the institutional arrangements which compel small-scale farmers to use fire in their agricultural practices and the underlying development processes that have made the landscape more vulnerable to accidental spread of fire. Using regional level data on small-scale farmers, I suggest that the conservation oriented approach of fire policy may not be enough to curtail accidental fire events and instead that the fire issue needs to be positioned within rural development as well.     

Harnessing sustainability,resilience and productivity through conservation agriculture: the case of likoti in Lesotho

Subsistence farmers in Lesotho have been able to boost agricultural yields and increase food production by adopting conservation agriculture. The practice, locally known as likoti, also contributes to combating soil erosion and to enhancing fertility. The socio-economic and environmental benefits help poor households to rehabilitate and strengthen their livelihood capital base and ultimately help rural communities to build system resilience in the face of widespread poverty and increasing vulnerability that affect the country. This paper discusses the major advantages associated with the spread of likoti. By drawing on primary data collected by FAO-Lesotho, it enquires into the determinants of adoption, thereby highlighting constraints and options for future up-scaling. The results show that attending appropriate training is a crucial prerequisite for the correct adoption of likoti. However, training is more effective when trainers pursue true participation and when social capital among farmers is stronger. Further important determinants of adoption are the level of education and the economic incentives provided to vulnerable households. Stronger policy and institutional support in all these areas would thus help address the cultural and resource constraints that limit the full potential of likoti to be harnessed and ultimately hinder its further spread throughout the country.     

桂林会仙喀斯特湿地资源现状与保护恢复

摸清了会仙喀斯特湿地资源现状,分析了会仙喀斯特湿地保护与恢复存在的问题,提出了湿地保护恢复的主要技术思路、目标以及湿地保护恢复工程的主要内容与关键技术措施,以期为会仙喀斯特国家湿地公园的建设提供指导与帮助。     

农业资源禀赋的地区差异与农业FDI的区位选择——基于中国省际数据的实证研究

本文采用PanelData模型和中国农业FDI的省际数据,对农业资源禀赋的地区差异与农业FDI的区位选择的关系进行了实证研究。研究结果表明,农业资源非均衡分布,尤其是农业自然资源的地区差异,是导致农,2kFDI地区分布差异的根本原因。农,2kFDI一般都定位于农业自然资源丰裕的地区,然而当外商过度集中于这些地区时,可利用资源数量将会减少,获取资源的成本也会增加,进而诱发农,_lkFDI的空间转移。这可以在很大程度上解释农＆FDI为什么会从东部扩散到中部、由南方转移到北方的原因。农业外资政策制定的关键是合理引导外商投资与区域农业资源合理匹配,以促进跨国公司参与农业的积极影响。