Dynamic Area Allocation and Economies of Scale and Scope

This article applies the adjustment cost framework to the case of area allocation by simultaneously determining the levels of input demand and output supply. Dynamic measures of economies of scale and scope are defined for output‐specific areas. An application to a rotating sample of Dutch cash crops reveals that farmers have a strong incentive for specialisation, but that large adjustment costs for area allocation resulting in small adjustments toward the optimal level prevent them from doing so.     

中国农户在农地流转市场上能否如愿以偿?——流转市场的交易成本考察

农地流转是实现规模经营的重要途径,尽管中国农地流转市场发展迅速,但农户在流转市场上能否转入自己想要转入数量的土地尚无人关注。本文利用全国6省1200户2000年和2008年追踪调查数据实证分析农户的流转意愿多大程度上可以在流转市场上得以实现,进而考察流转市场交易成本的存在性、对称性和动态性。研究表明,中国农地流转市场存在明显的交易成本,因此流转市场是不完善的。具体结论:第一,流转市场存在明显进入门槛,进入市场后农户也无法实现完全调整,转入户2000年和2008年分别能实现调整意愿的24%和37%,高于转出户的19%和18%;第二,流转市场的交易成本存在非对称性,转入户比转出户面临的交易门槛高,但进入市场后转入户调整意愿实现程度高于转出户;第三,从2000年到2008年,流转市场的交易门槛显著降低了,但进入市场后调整意愿实现程度并没有显著提高;第四,农资设备和劳动力等要素市场的不完善程度更严重,因此农地流转市场发挥了将土地这种"不能移动"的要素移动起来以迎合那些"本该移动"的要素功能,提高了资源配置效率。政府应进一步提高农地产权稳定性,降低流转市场交易成本,加快农业生产社会化服务业发展,完善农村劳动力市场。     

Assessing the Impact of the ‘Decoupling’ Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy on Irish Farmers’ Off‐farm Labour Market Participation Decisions

This paper assesses the impact of the ‘decoupling’ reform of the Common Agricultural Policy on the labour allocation decisions of Irish farmers. The agricultural household decision‐making model provides the conceptual and theoretical framework to examine the interaction between government subsidies and farmers’ time allocation decisions. The relationship postulated is that ‘decoupling’ of agricultural support from production would probably result in a decline in the return to farm labour but it would also lead to an increase in household wealth. The effect of these factors on how farmers allocate their time is tested empirically using labour participation and labour supply models. The models developed are sufficiently general for application elsewhere. The main findings for the Irish situation are that the decoupling of direct payments is likely to increase the probability of farmers participating in the off‐farm employment market and that the amount of time allocated to off‐farm work will increase.     

The Potential for Nitrogen Abatement Trading in Agriculture: A Hypothetical Market Experiment

The effectiveness of nitrogen abatement trading as a policy measure relies on both heterogeneity in costs and environmental effectiveness across landscapes. Cost‐efficient implementation may therefore critically depend on spatial distributions of farm and farmer characteristics in water catchments. We use a spatially specific hypothetical market experiment to analyse the likelihood of farmers’ enrolment into nitrogen abatement trading contracts, and derive demand and supply functions for farmers’ nitrogen abatement. We find that farm characteristics influence both the decision whether to supply or purchase nitrogen abatement, as well as the amounts being traded. The derived demand and supply functions for farmers’ N abatement, using hypothetical market experiment data, can be used to reveal the variability in costs of abatement within a market. This provides valuable information to test potential trading schemes ex ante, to evaluate potential economic gains from policy implementation.     

乡村内生型农机服务市场形成机理及其运行机制研究

大国小农是我国的基本农情.未来相当一段时间,小规模兼业农户仍将是我国农业经营的主要微观主体.内生型农机服务市场能够有效连接小农户与农机服务提供者,有助于解决因土地细碎化而产生的高交易成本问题,为此,本文重点揭示了内生型农机服务市场的形成机理,设计了其运行机制.研究发现,小农户分散且多元的农机服务需求是内生型农机服务市场...     

A Market-Forces Policy for the New Farm Economy?

This paper first discusses the changes that are bringing about the New Farm Economy. A wave of consolidation has shifted agricultural production to larger, lower cost producers in almost all sectors of agriculture. At the same time, supply chains represent a new form of ownership and control that is replacing commodity markets as the preferred way to market farm output. Both consolidation and the development of supply chains offer the possibility of producing a greater variety of safer, cheaper food. The paper argues that farm policy, crafted for the agriculture of the 1930s, is no longer necessary to raise or stabilize farm incomes, and is largely ineffective anyway. Moreover, farm policy impedes the market forces driving innovation and efficiency in the farm economy. Letting market forces guide the evolution of the farm economy, unfettered by outdated government programs and unnecessary farm subsidies, is the best way to harness the benefits of the New Farm Economy. Getting rid of government subsidies and control will lead to dramatically fewer farmers in agriculture: a policy to deal explicitly with those who will leave agriculture is needed. A transition policy is described that focuses on helping reduce the number of farmers by offering a buyout to farm producers which subsidizes their exit from farming and prevents reentry.     

Optimal Investment in Transportation Infrastructure When Middlemen Have Market Power: A Developing-Country Analysis

Transportation costs and buyer market power reduce prices and income received by farmers in developing countries. Transportation costs directly affect the marketing margin and also exacerbate market power by limiting farmers' access to buyers. This article develops a multistage spatial model to determine optimal investment in transportation improvements, taking account of impacts on marketing costs and competition. The beneficial impact of investments from farmers' perspective is mainly through enhanced competition, meaning significant under-investment may occur if this effect is ignored. However, the optimal investment depends on the relative importance of transportation costs; in some settings, transportation improvements reduce farm prices because buyers rationally over-compensate farmers for these costs.     

FARM SYNDICATION AND RISK SHARING: A CASE STUDY*

The effectiveness of fully integrated group farming as a means of permitting farmers to achieve economies by working together and to share risk is investigated using two case-study farms from the mid-north region of S.A. Linear programming is used to explore the scope for economies achievable through group farming. The results show that, by joint use of resources, total net farm income can be increased and average costs per unit value of output can be reduced. The risk-sharing advantages of group farming are examined using quadratic risk programming. A group farm plan is found that generates a risky income which, when shared between the two risk-averse farmers, allows both to increase their expected utilities. The group plan also generates a higher aggregate expected net farm income than with sole ownership.     

Technology,market policies and institutional reform for sustainable land use in southern Mali

To identify appropriate interventions that support sustainable land use; a farm household modelling approach is applied to analyze micro-economic supply reactions to various policy measures. The modelling framework links agro-technical and economic data, and takes both production and consumption decisions into account, allowing land use and production technology adjustments in accordance with farm household objectives. Different types of farm households are distinguished on the basis of their resource endowments, savings coefficients and time discount rate. Actual and alternative (sustainable) cropping and livestock activities for different weather regimes are defined for southern Mali. The effects on sustainable land use and expected farm household welfare of adopting alternative technologies and modifying prices, transaction costs, access to credit and land taxes are demonstrated. Even with full information on sustainable technologies, strong policy interventions are required to halt soil degradation. Structural policies proved to be more effective than price policies to reduce soil degradation while maintaining positive income effects. When prices are determined endogenously, structural policy loses some effectiveness as an incentive for sustainable land use due to the effect of additional supply on local cereal and meat Prices.     

农业生产托管推进小农生产现代化的逻辑创新

[目的]“大国小农”是我国的基本国情、农情,未来我国农业现代化的难点是如何实现小农户生产经营现代化。针对现阶段小农户发展现代农业面临的“谁来种地”“如何种好地”“种地如何赚钱”等问题提出改进措施,从而为进一步丰富农业生产托管实践路径提供借鉴。[方法]文章采用理论研究、实证研究和案例研究相结合的方法,从推进生产托管服务主体联合、推动小农户组织化、满足农户个性化生产经营需求、健全小农户与市场主体的利益联结机制、建立农业生产托管的风险分担机制等五个方面,系统梳理农业生产托管推进小农生产现代化的逻辑创新。[结果]农业生产托管一定程度上起到了将小农户引入现代农业发展轨道的作用,提高了农业生产效率,同时也巩固了农户家庭经营的主体地位,没有将小农户排斥在现代农业发展的轨道之外。[结论]提出灵活推进各种规模化经营模式、提升小农户组织化程度、培育农业生产托管供需市场等改进措施。     

LABOUR SUPPLY AND OFF-FARM WORK BY FARMERS: THEORY AND ESTIMATION

Off-farm employment has become increasingly important as an aspect of resource adjustment and a source of income in Australian agriculture. However, it is surprising that there is a paucity of work on this topic reported in the agricultural economics literature. Therefore, we have drawn upon recent developments in labour economics in order to investigate off-farm employment in Australia. A conceptual model of the allocation of a farmer's labour between farm and off-farm work is developed and applied to cross-sectional data from the Australian Agricultural and Grazing Industries Survey. A Tobit maximum likelihood procedure is utilised to test the influences of the life cycle, level of human capital, wealth, non-wage income and farm income on the off-farm labour supply of farmers.     

Demand for area crop insurance among litchi producers in northern Vietnam

This study examines the need for crop insurance for litchi production in northern Vietnam and how farmers might participate in such a program. Hypothetical insurance programs were developed which proposed all‐risk coverage based on area yields. This coverage was offered to farmers to determine both their interest in the program and how insurance features and farmer characteristics affected their decision to buy insurance. Farmers were also surveyed regarding their production practices, price and yield expectations, and financial and personal characteristics. Even before considering other program costs and government budget constraints, there is not a strong case for establishing a crop insurance program here. Results indicate that while farmer participation would be significant, crop insurance is not needed to achieve policy goals like raising farmer income or guaranteeing subsistence levels of income. Crop insurance is not needed to promote litchi production, which is already expanding rapidly due to its high profitability relative to other farm enterprises. In their choice of coverages, farmers preferred higher yield guarantee levels and lower indemnity prices. Estimated premiums were quite low when expressed as a percent of expected revenue, and farmers were not responsive to changes in premiums. Econometric analysis indicated that high income farmers were more likely to participate, but other farmer characteristics seemed to matter little. Anecdotal evidence suggested that farmers believed the expected area yields used to set insurance coverage levels were too low. Because litchi productivity varies significantly by tree age and the litchi planted area is expanding rapidly, determining appropriate values for expected area yields and insurance coverage levels appeared to be the biggest challenge in program design. It is hypothesized that additional farmer education about the relationship between area and farm yields and other aspects of area insurance could improve such a program's operation. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.     

IMPACTS OF TAXES TO REDUCE AGRICHEMICAL USE WHEN FARM POLICY IS ENDOGENOUS

The economic impacts of policies to reduce water pollution from agriculture have been explored in a number of studies. A standard assumption in this literature is that farm income support policies are given. However, the modern public choice view of agricultural policy suggests that significant environmental initiatives in agriculture would likely be accompanied by changes in farm income policies to protect those with a significant stake in agriculture. We explore the potential effects of such compensating adjustments on the costs and effectiveness of taxes on polluting chemical inputs in US corn production. We find that compensating farm policy adjustments can greatly increase the costs and reduce the effectiveness of the environmental protection measure. The results also indicate the potentially high costs of poor policy co-ordination.     

集体林权制度改革的经济学分析

运用新制度经济学与微观经济学相关理论分析了中国集体林权制度存在交易成本极高、"搭便车"行为、"败德"行为、"少数派"侵占"多数派"利益、不能满足林农个体偏好多样性等经济缺陷,而集体林权制度改革能够克服上述经济缺陷,具有对林业经营主体进行激励与约束、将林业负外部性内在化、改变林业资源配置方式和提高配置效率等经济功能,并提出了实现其经济功能的途径:通过完善林权的排他性、可分割性、可转让性和安全性使林农拥有真正的私人产权;同时取消对商品林的采伐限额制度。     

Assessing the effectiveness of rural credit policy on the adoption of integrated crop-livestock systems in Brazil

This study analyzes the effectiveness of rural credit policy to increase the adoption of ICLS. Analyzes are based on a survey with 175 farmers in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Our estimates suggest that rural credit has positive and relevant impacts on the adoption of ICLS. In turn, the adoption of these systems may also involve investments in fixed capital and increases in operational costs, which create additional demand for rural credit. Other factors, such as access to extension policy, production scale, ex-ante perceptions, and market infrastructure also explain ICLS adoption. The access to rural credit policy is also determined by dependence on farm income, farmer’s perception of transaction costs, and supply of credit in the municipality. The study finally discusses important implications for the devising of rural credit policies and the diffusion of sustainable production systems in developing countries.     

三明市集体林产权制度变迁研究

论文客观记录了三明市20余年集体林产权制度改革的历程。分析了在农村改革初期南方集体林区的林业改革背景下,三明市从分户经营改革及转变到林业股东会制度改革的效果和推动力;论文又分析了从林业股东会的整顿到农户和个人自主经营制度的建立过程中,支持集体林集中经营制度力量的消散和市场配置资源力量的增长过程。论文证实了约束条件的改变是三明市出现不同的集体林产权制度安排的规律。     

Sales location among semi‐subsistence cassava farmers in Benin: a heteroskedastic double selection model

In much of rural Africa, high transaction costs limit farmers’ market participation and thus their potential for income growth. Transaction costs can affect not only whether a farmer sells product but also whether sales occur at the farm gate or at a market. If production behavior is related to a chosen sales location, then analysis of interventions can be improved by explicit consideration of the decision of where to sell. This article develops a double‐selection model that explains consumption and production decisions by semi‐subsistence farmers who first decide whether to be a seller and then whether to sell at the farm gate or at an off‐farm location before deciding on production and consumption. The study tests the validity of this dual‐criteria model against a single‐criterion model in which a grower first decides to be a seller and then decides production, consumption, and sales location simultaneously. The results suggest that the dual‐criteria model provides more information than the single‐criterion model using a sample of cassava producer in Benin.     

北美新一代合作社经验对中国林业合作社发展的启示

相比于农民专业合作社,国内学者对于林业合作社的研究还相对较少,但随着集体林权制度改革的逐步落实,越来越多的个体经营的林农会希望通过加入合作社来提高组织化程度,共同抵御市场风险,最终实现提高林业经营收益的目标。通过介绍北美新一代合作社组建、发展过程中的成功经验,初步探索适合当前中国林业合作社发展状况的合作社规范化发展措施,力图通过具体措施的实施来实现促进中国林业合作社更好更快发展的目的。     

基于供销合作社系统的武汉市农产品流通对策研究

为充分利用供销合作社网络完善武汉市农产品流通供应链体系,文章对供销合作总社近10年来的销售业绩进行提取分析,结果表明:供销社是流通领域中符合体制内运作的重要组织,在农产品流通领域中是解决"买难"、"卖难"的可行性方案,是符合农民利益和提高农民收入的重要路径;创建以供销合作社为核心的农产品交易体系,必将对武汉市的农产品流通具有非常显著的促进作用;供销合作社所占有的市场份额所形成的品牌效应将对农产品流通体系的完善有着直接的正向促进作用。以供销合作社作为研究视角,并提出基于武汉市供销合作社的农产品流通系统需要从建立农产品加工生产专用服务体系、加快供销合作社的农产品流通速度以及合理开发农产品流通电商营销渠道等3个方面入手,减少不必要的生产销售环节的同时,加强各供销合作社的合作规模,以切实建立起便利惠民的农产品流通体系,实现再生产环节中农户经济权益的有效保护。     

What do Agricultural Income and Productivity Measurements Really Mean?

Statistical data on labour productivity and income in agriculture reveal large discrepancies between various EC member states, both with respect to their absolute levels and in relation to non-farm productivity and income in the respective countries. Insofar as they appear to reflect the failure of markets in allocating agricultural resources efficiently, and seem to be inconsistent with conventional wisdom concerning structural adjustment of agriculture, however, it can be seen that those data are misleading to a large extent. Based on a simple model of optimal time allocation between farm and non-farm activities of members of farm households, it is demonstrated that farm labour productivity and income must be different according to differences in the relation of farm to non-farm labour supply. The implications concerning international, interregional, intersectoral and intertemporal comparisons of income and productivity are discussed as well as the relevance of market failure in agriculture.