专业化、市场结构与农民收入

专业化农业可通过节省劳动和其他耗费以及积累生产知识而提高农产品的生产效率和质量,使农民通过降低成本、提高竞争力和增加农产品的出售量而获得较高的收入,也可通过专业化发展改善完全竞争型的农产品市场结构,从而在农产品的供应方面创造一个相对垄断的市场结构,促进农民增收。本文主要从理论和实证两个方面对农业专业化与农民收入展开分析。     

Income Risk,Consumption Security and the Poor

Households in developing countries have to deal with large fluctuations in income without being able to rely on formal insurance and credit markets. This paper presents an overview of the ways in which poor households attain consumption security and shows that doing so in the absence of security enhancing institutions is costly, especially for the poor.     

Economic Development,Income Distribution and Meat Demand

Meta-Engel curves for meats are estimated from international cross-section data. Income explains a large proportion of meat consumption variance and tastes are relativefy unimportant. Growth in meat consumption accelerates as countries pass through the middle income stage. Greater equality in income distribution reduces average meat consumption, Therefore, part of the reason why growth In meat consumption accelerates as countries pass through the middle income stage is because income distribution is more skewed at that stage of development.     

资源、产权与农民收入问题

1997年至2000年，全国农民人均纯收入增幅已经连续4年下降，对此，政府部门和学术界进行了广泛的探讨，但这些探讨仍未触及到农民收入问题的根本源因，即农户拥有资源特别是土地与劳动力资源的产权未得到有效的尊重和保护。本文将对这一主题进行论述并提出相应的建议。     

提升农业竞争力促进农民收入增长

近年来，我国农民人均收入增幅连续下降，农民收入增长迟缓已成为农业和农村乃至整个国民经济工作的焦点。如何提高农民收入已超越了经济范畴，成为广为人们关注的政治社会问题。造成农民收入增长迟缓是多种因素共同作用的结果，对它的解决也不是一蹴而就的，应该说，不断提升农业竞争力是提高农民收入的关犍，而农业产业化则是提升农业竞争力的重要途径。     

Spatial Yield Risk Across Region, Crop and Aggregation Method

A researcher interested in crop yield risk analysis often has to contend with a lack of field- or farm-level data. While spatially aggregated yield data are often readily available from various agencies, aggregation distortions for farm-level analysis may exist. This paper addresses how much aggregation distortion might be expected and whether findings are robust across wheat, canola and flax grown in two central Canadian production regions, differing mainly by rainfall, frost-free growing days and soil type. Using Manitoba Crop Insurance Corporation data from 1980 to 1990, this research, regardless of crop or region analyzed, indicates that (i) spatial patterns in risk are absent; (ii) use of aggregate data overwhelmingly under-estimates field-level yield risk; and (iii) use of a relative risk measure compared to an absolute risk measure leads to slightly less aggregation distortion. Analysts interested in conducting farm-level analysis using aggregate data are offered a range of adjustment factors to adjust for potential bias.     

Income Mobility and Income Inequality in Scottish Agriculture

The paper explores the distributional consequences of farm income mobility in Scotland, focusing on the extent to which farm income inequality is a chronic as opposed to a temporary phenomenon and on the nature of the dynamic processes driving changes in farm income inequality over time. The empirical results reveal that the majority of farm income inequality was long‐run or structural in nature, reflecting differences in both farm business size and farm‐specific factors such as land quality, managerial ability and business structures. Evidence of absolute convergence in farm incomes is explained by short‐run adjustments towards equilibrium or target incomes conditional upon prices, technology and farm business size, with farm business growth conditional upon survival found to have had no significant redistributive effect.     

Share Tenancy, Ownership Structure, and Prevented Planting Claims in Crop Insurance

A conceptual model based on opportunity cost and expected utility principles establishes linkages between the likelihood of prevented planting claims in crop insurance and existing share leasing arrangements/internal farm business structures. Results of heteroskedastic probit estimation procedures indicate that simpler internal business structures and more dominant farmer–tenant leasing position can increase the probability of submitting a prevented planting claim.     

Colorado Crop to Cuisine

Direct marketing opportunities are experiencing renewed interest across the country as small or specialized agricultural producers look for appropriate distribution strategies for their niche and value-added products. This, together with continued growth in the food service industry, led to interest in and development of a Northern Colorado producer direct marketing effort targeting chefs. This case study details the early stages of development for this project, its marketing successes and the constraints and limitations that continue to challenge its economic feasibility.     

龙川县农民收入的现状、问题与增收途径探讨

广东省龙川县近年来农民收入稳步增长,但与发达地区相比,农民收入的总量和增幅还有很大的差距,要提高增收幅度,就必须拓宽农民工资性收入渠道,加快农业产业化的步伐,大力发展农村二、三产业经济,以较大幅度地增加农民收入。     

不平等度量与分解及在农民收入差距问题中应用

介绍了不平等概念的内容及历史演进、国内外对于不平等的测度指标及分解方法,并介绍了不平等的分解方法在中国农民收入差别研究方面的应用。在此基础上总结了学术界对于回归和模型应用的新进展。     

广东农村居民财产性收入现状、存在问题及对策

随着广东居民的人均GDP突破4000美元后,财产性收入已经成为农村居民的一个重要收入来源,本文深入分析近几年广东农村居民的财产性收入现状及存在问题,并提出增加农村居民财产性收入的对策建议。     

Crop research,biotech canola,and innovation policy in Canada: Challenges,opportunities, and evolution

Increased investment in agricultural research could contribute to sustainable development goals and benefit farmers, consumers, the environment, and the economy. This paper provides recent evidence and a critical assessment of the evolving Canadian canola crop development and innovation policy and compares it to the wheat and pulse sectors that differ in degree of biotechnology adoption, seeded acreage, intellectual property rights, and private sector involvement. This study also assesses how crop characteristics and technological changes affect future optimal public policy. A number of innovation policies are discussed that could stimulate further growth within the crop sector.     

On Crop Biodiversity, Risk Exposure, and Food Security in the Highlands of Ethiopia

This paper investigates the effects of crop genetic diversity on farm productivity and production risk in the highlands of Ethiopia. Using a moment-based approach, the analysis uses a stochastic production function capturing mean, variance, and skewness effects. Welfare implications of diversity are evaluated using a certainty equivalent, measured as expected income minus a risk premium (reflecting the cost of risk). We find that the effect of diversity on skewness dominates its effect on variance, meaning that diversity reduces the cost of risk. The analysis also shows that the beneficial effects of diversity become of greater value in degraded land.     

Designing Optimal Crop Revenue Insurance

When the indemnity schedule is contingent on the farmer's price and individual yield, an optimal crop revenue insurance contract depends only on the farmer's gross revenue. However, this design is not efficient if, as is the case with available contracts, the coverage function is based on imperfect estimators of individual yield and/or price. The producer's degree of prudence and the extent of basis risks have important influences on the optimal indemnity schedule. In this broader context, optimal protection is not provided by available U.S. crop insurance contracts and may include combinations of revenue insurance, yield insurance, futures, and options contracts.     

Optimal Area-Yield Crop Insurance Reconsidered

The implementability of area-yield insurance contracts in the presence of symmetric and asymmetric information about the farmer's "beta" linking his yield to the risk-pool's yield is examined. In the presence of fixed costs and symmetric information Mahul's result that optimality requires setting the slope of the indemnity schedule equal to each farmer's beta is confirmed. When there is asymmetric information between the insurer and the farmer, however, this full-insurance contract is vulnerable to adverse selection, and therefore may not be implementable for general cost structures. The optimal area-yield insurance contract under asymmetric information is characterized.     

Optimal Storage by Crop Producers

When post–harvest marketing strategies are restricted by disallowing speculative purchases, sales out of storage becomes an irreversible decision and the dynamic marketing problem becomes analogous to the optimal exercise of a financial option. The optimal marketing strategy is to hold at low prices and to sell at high prices with a cutoff price function marking the boundary between low and high prices. A method for estimating the cut–off price function is developed and applied to Illinois soybean prices. The decision rule is demonstrated to result in substantial gains from storage.     

Crop Insurance Under Catastrophic Risk

We develop a new insurance model that shows how catastrophic risk affects the nature and existence of a crop insurance market equilibrium. A reservation preference level is used to characterize long-run equilibrium when catastrophic risk makes insurance companies risk responsive. Catastrophic risk is shown to increase premiums, reduce farmer coverage levels and, under some conditions, lead to a complete breakdown of the crop insurance market. Reinsurance can help facilitate an equilibrium and/or increase participation, particularly if the reinsurance is subsidized. The analysis has important implications for the design and management of crop insurance and reinsurance programs.