Wheat Policy Options in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Zimbabwe

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Zimbabwe is experiencing rapid growth in wheat consumption and imports. Policy makers in Zimbabwe and elsewhere must decide whether increased domestic wheat production might reduce dependency on imports and at the same time contribute to economic efficiency and food security goals. The domestic resource cost framework was used to assess Zimbabwe's comparative advantage among six major irrigated crops and to measure the effects of current government policies on producer incentives. The results indicate that irrigated wheat production represents an efficient use of Zimbabwe's resources during times of abundant rainfall, but the nation enjoys a comparative advantage in tobacco, maize, and cotton production during times of water scarcity. Existing agricultural policies provide disincentives for commercial farmers, because private profitability is less than social profitability for the major irrigated crops. However, this tax occurs across all commodities with similar incidence, so that the private incentives among crops are not greatly distorted from their social pattern. Sensitivity analysis confirms the robustness of these findings under a range of possible future economic and political developments. The domestic resource cost approach used in this study provides an operational method for measuring comparative advantage and should be of interest to policy analysts throughout sub-Saharan Africa.     

Economics of Soil Conservation: The Upper Mahaweli Watershed of Sir Lanka

This paper estimates the benefits and costs of soil conservation in the Upper Mahaweli Watershed of Sir Lanka. The costs of soil erosion control include the implementation costs of control measures, while the benefits are reductions in the costs of soil erosion. In contrast to many studies in developed countries, the on‐site benefit of soil erosion control in Sri Lanka is estimated to be greater than the off‐site benefit While a social benefit‐cost analysis demonstrates that it is socially desirable to implement conservation measures, the private financial analyses indicate that it is feasible for individual farmers to adopt the conservation measures. Despite private economic feasibility, programs addressing farmers' reluctance to adopt soil conservation measures may be preferable to public intervention in soil conservation activities when the on‐site benefits are greater than the off‐site benefits.     

Adoption and Impacts of Sustainable Agricultural Practices on Maize Yields and Incomes: Evidence from Rural Zambia

This paper uses a multinomial endogenous treatment effects model and data from a sample of over 800 households and 3,000 plots to assess the determinants and impacts of adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) on maize yields and household incomes in rural Zambia. Results show that adoption decisions are driven by household and plot level characteristics and that the adoption of a combination of SAPs raises both maize yields and incomes of smallholder farmers. Adoption of improved maize alone has greater impacts on maize yields, but given the high cost of inorganic fertiliser that limits the profitability of adoption of improved maize, greater household incomes are associated rather with a package involving SAPs such as maize–legume rotation and residue retention.     

USING INPUT DEMAND AND PRODUCTION FUNCTION MODELS TO ASSESS THE NET BENEFITS OF DAIRY HERD IMPROVEMENT

Two methods of evaluating (the net social benefits of the dairy herd-improvement scheme operated by the New South Wales Department of Agriculture are described. The first involves derivation of 'an input demand' function for the herd-recording aspect of the scheme and use of this function to estimate the economic surplus (net of both private and public costs) provided by the service. The second approach involves deriving a production function for milk from which it is possible to estimate the contribution herd-recording and artificial breeding have made to increasing milk yields per cow. Social benefits are shown to have been less than social costs for herd-recording, however dairy farmers have made net private gains. The herd-recording scheme has contained a regressive subsidy element. The production function approach show that artificial breeding and herd-recording were profitable complements in production.     

The roles of public sector versus private sector in R&D and technology generation: the case of maize in Asia

This paper reports the findings of a study whose objectives were to compare and contrast the public and private sectors in Asia in terms of their (1) estimated level of investment in maize breeding research; (2) germplasm outputs; and (3) nature and extent of roles played in the maize seed industry. Since the 1960s, yield gains, rather than area expansion, have fuelled increases in maize production in Asia. Yield gains, in turn, have been due to the shift in maize cultivation from mostly open‐pollinated varieties (OPVs) to mostly hybrids. This transition also shifted the locus of modern maize breeding research from government research organisations to private national and multinational seed companies. In countries where both the public and private sectors participated in maize research, private sector research investment far exceeded that of the public sector. With more aggressive marketing programmes, the private sector captured 89% of the Asian maize seed market in the late 1990s. National public seed research agencies (including universities and cooperatives) developed and produced more maize OPVs than hybrids, mass‐produced and distributed seed cheaply, addressed location‐specific production problems, and provided agricultural extension services. The private seed companies developed, produced, sold and promoted their own proprietary hybrids. The reluctance of the private sector, however, to address the needs of marginal maize farmers should encourage the public sector to continue playing an active role in maize research and development (R&D), seed production and modern maize technology dissemination, especially with adequate support from appropriate government policies.     

Private transaction costs of participation in water quality improvement programs for Australia's Great Barrier Reef: Extent,causes and policy implications

The direct private cost to landholders of participating in programs that result in improved farming activities (IFAs) is generally well understood. However, the private indirect or transaction costs, such as the cost of a landholder's time and the expense to learn about IFAs and apply for assistance to implement these changes on‐farm, are not so well understood. Where these have been studied, they have been shown to be extensive. We assess the extent and causes of private transaction costs incurred by sugarcane growers participating in the Australian Government's Reef Rescue scheme which pays farmers to adopt environmentally beneficial farm management practices. Utilising a mail‐out‐mail‐back survey of 110 growers, we found that the average total transaction cost per farm of participating in the program was AU$8389. The average total transaction costs per farm as a percentage of the average funding provided was 38 per cent. We also assessed which type of improved farming activity (soil, nutrient, pest or water management) generated the greatest transaction costs and how landholder characteristics such as bounded rationality, opportunism and social connection impacted on the extent of transaction costs.     

从以专家为主导到以农民为主导的实地研究

参与式理念已经成功地应用于许多农业发展项目,在农业研究项目中我们尝试应用以农民为主导的实地研究方法。在外来者的参与下,由农民讨论和制定研究计划,由农民实施和管理研究项目。实践证明,以农民为主导的实地研究,完全符合当地的自然和社会条件,产生了良好的社会经济效益。     

The Effects of Maize Market and Policy Reforms on Price Discovery and Competitiveness in Zimbabwe, 1991–1997

Abstract

Maize is Zimbabwe's staple food. An adequate supply of maize is essential to food security and domestic stability. A series of droughts and government mismanagement of the economy led to a maize production and food security problem in the 1980s. Zimbabwe's maize marketing system was transformed dramatically from a government monopoly to a competitive market system in which prices are determined by market forces in the 1990s. This paper examines the steps that Zimbabwe took towards maize market reform and the benefits of that reform. The movement to a competitive market led to formation of a commodity exchange to improve price discovery and increase price transparency. De-regulation has increased entry and competitiveness from new private sector hammer millers and traders. Farmers, millers, and traders face new profit opportunities and new price and financial risks that have increased management responsibilities. Consumers enjoy lower cost maize meal products and more convenient service. The benefits of the 1991–1997 reforms indicate what could be achieved in the long run if prices are determined by the market, rather than by the government.     

Technical efficiency and productivity of maize producers in eastern Ethiopia: a study of farmers within and outside the Sasakawa-Global 2000 project

This paper investigates the technical efficiency of two samples of maize producers in eastern Ethiopia, one involving farmers within the Sasakawa-Global 2000 project and the other involving farmers outside this program. The study uses stochastic frontier production functions in which the technical inefficiency effects are assumed to be functions of the age and education of the farmers, together with the time spent by extension advisers in assisting farmers in their agricultural production operations. For the cross-sectional data obtained for the 1995/96 agricultural year, Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontiers are found to be adequate representations of the data, given the specifications of the translog stochastic frontiers for farmers within and outside the project. The empirical results indicate that farmers within Ihe SO 2000 project are more technically efficient than farmers outside the project, relative to their respective technologies. The mean frontier output of maize lor farmers within the SG 2000 project is significantly greater than that for the farmers outside the project.     

公私合作农地整理项目的博弈分析：一个分析框架

在界定公私合作农地整理项目模式的基础上,采用博弈分析法,分析公私合作农地整理项目参与主体的行为目标,探究公私合作农地整理项目中的政府与企业、企业与农村集体组织、企业与农户的博弈关系。研究结果表明,公私合作农地整理项目参与主体的行为目标存在差异;协调政府追求社会福利最大化与企业追求利润最大化的目标冲突可提高项目效率;协调企业与农村集体组织对促进合作有正向影响;农户参与对提高农户项目的满意度有显著意义;政府单一财政投资存在低效率现象,企业单独投资可能导致社会福利损失,政府和企业合作有利于提高农地整理项目的投资效率;政府和企业的合作均衡受各自保留效用的影响,企业与农村集体组织合作投资的初始投入成本对合作具有正向作用;超额收益分配是否合理,影响企业与农村集体组织双方的策略选择,而初始投入成本和违约赔偿金额对农户与企业的合作关系有正向影响。     

都市郊区农地规模经营综合效益分析——基于北京市规模经营主体的多案例研究

[目的]规模经营是破解“小规模、分散化”农地经营格局的关键举措,考察农地规模经营的综合效益对推进农业现代化具有重要意义。[方法]文章以规模经营主体为研究对象,通过采用多案例研究法,分析农业龙头企业、合作社及家庭农场3种不同类型主体的农地规模经营综合效益。[结果]尽管不同类型规模经营主体各有特点,但都能实现规模经营经济效益、生态效益和社会效益。规模经营过程中,农业龙头企业仍面临土地和劳动力成本居高不下问题,合作社存在与小农户链接松散问题,家庭农场面临资金不足问题,各主体皆未能实现一二三产融合发展。[结论]建议改善农业龙头企业外部环境,开展租金和就业支持补贴;规范合作社运营,提高小农户参与度;帮助家庭农场进行品牌塑造,提高家庭农场核心竞争力;大力推进一二三产融合发展,开展多形式培训、考核。     

Welfare impacts of maize–pigeonpea intensification in Tanzania

This article examines the driving forces behind farmers’ decisions to adopt improved pigeonpea and maize and estimates the causal impact of technology adoption on household welfare using data obtained from a random cross‐section sample of 613 small‐scale farmers in Tanzania. We use seemingly unrelated and recursive bivariate probit regressions to test the endogeneity and joint decision making of pigeonpea–maize production. A double hurdle model is used to analyze the determinants of the intensity of technology adoption conditional on overcoming seed access constraints. To address the impact of adoption on welfare, the article employs both propensity score matching and switching regression techniques. Results from bivariate probit models show that unobservable factors cause both decisions to be correlated but the finding does not support the conjecture that both decisions are made jointly. Overall the analysis of the determinants of adoption identifies inadequate local supply of seed, access to information, human capital, and access to private productive asset as key constraints for pigeonpea technology adoption. The causal impact estimation from both the propensity score matching and switching regression suggests that maize/pigeonpea adoption has a positive and significant impact on income and consumption expenditure among sample households.     

The Malawi agricultural input subsidy programme: 2005/06 to 2008/09

Malawi's implementation of a large-scale agricultural input subsidy programme has attracted significant international interest. This paper reviews the programme from 2005/06 to 2008/09. Nationwide disbursement of heavily subsidized fertilizers and seed to large numbers of beneficiaries represents a significant logistical achievement and substantially increased national maize production and productivity, contributing to increased food availability, higher real wages, wider economic growth and poverty reduction. However, the latter years of the programme have been accompanied by high international fertilizer prices and costs and high maize prices, the latter undermining the programme's food security, poverty reduction and growth benefits for many poor Malawian farmers relying on purchased maize for substantial amounts of their staple food requirements. Estimated economic returns to the programme have been satisfactory, given other programme benefits not captured in cost—benefit analysis. With substantial reductions in both prices and subsidized volumes of fertilizers in subsequent years, there is considerable scope for building on achievements to raise programme effectiveness, efficiency and benefits. Any application of Malawi's subsidy experience to other countries should take into account the special characteristics of the Malawian maize economy and measures needed to raise programmes' effectiveness and efficiency and their contribution to sustainable development policies.     

Agrarian Winners of Neoliberal Reform: The ‘Maize Boom’ of Sinaloa,Mexico

While the detrimental impact of neoliberal policy on Mexico's maize smallholders is well researched, little attention has been paid to the rise of maize in the northern state of Sinaloa. Sinaloa's entry into maize has restructured the geography of national supply, and generated a new national confidence in white maize self‐sufficiency. Using semi‐structured interviews and secondary data, we document the primary social and political drivers of Sinaloa's maize boom. Local actors trumpet Sinaloa's response as a success story of entrepreneurship and technological innovation, while simultaneously appropriating the language of food sovereignty to justify preferential entitlements in public investment. Our analysis confirms interpretations of neoliberalism as a political project, illustrating how existing natural, social and political capital held by specific interest groups can be leveraged and reinforced through private–public partnerships to mould national policy and investment, and the potential vulnerabilities that may emerge from this process.     

The Role of Home Gardens in Promoting Multi-Functional Agriculture in Hungary

Home gardens are small-scale family farms managed with traditional methods. Throughout Hungary's history, they have provided food security and diet quality to families who have faced volatile food prices and fluctuating real incomes. If markets function better with European Union (EU) accession, the conditions for reliance on home gardens may weaken—although not for all Hungarians. This paper reports the results of an interdisciplinary project investigating the economic value of home gardens of over 400 farmers in rural Hungary. We find that home gardens generate several public goods, including agro biodiversity and cultural heritage. The most economically, geographically and ecologically marginalized farmers not only manage the home gardens with the highest levels of public goods, but also derive the highest private benefits from them. Should Hungary seek to promote multi functional agriculture in line with the objectives of the EU's reformed Common Agricultural Policy, then provisions for home gardens would need to be incorporated into national programmes and legal frameworks. This research identifies some of the crops and the characteristics of farmers and farming communities that would constitute least cost targets for related programmes. Findings have implications for other EU member Central and Eastern European Countries with similar traditions of home gardening.     

Breeding for Africa's new smallholder maize paradigm

This paper describes the evolution of a newly emerging smallholder maize paradigm in southern Africa beginning in 1996. This new paradigm involves the breeding, extension, and adoption of a new generation of open-pollinated ‘flinty’ maize varieties that specifically address the needs of southern African smallholder farmers for seed varieties that can be replanted (recycled) and that resist drought and low fertility problems increasingly common in southern Africa. The described mechanism is the extension and breeding work of the Southern Africa Drought and Low Fertility programme (SADLF) of the Centro Internationale por la Mejoridad de Maize y Trigo (CIMMYT). This paper explains the devolution of southern African maize production in the past two decades from centralized large-scale producers to smallholder farms, signalling a shift in research and plant breeding needs. The research/extension approach described here had profound consequences beyond the technical benefits of screening maize varieties for tolerance to stress; it empowered small-scale farmers to become informed consumers of agricultural technology. The transformation of the smallholder from a passive consumer to one actively seeking the best opportunity and seed to produce food, create economic opportunities and address local social conditions is an important development in the history and sustainability of maize production in southern Africa, and one consistent with modern African history of economic liberalization in the global food economy.     

An integrated approach for ex-ante evaluation of public policies for sustainable agriculture at landscape level

An integrated methodological framework for ex-ante evaluation and planning of public policies for sustainable agriculture at agro-landscape level is proposed. The components of the framework are to: (1) determine the private, i.e. farmers’, and public benefits associated to agro-landscapes, consisting of an agricultural land-use system, according to its performance for several market and non-market functions. Market forces determine the market benefits and preferences of society the non-market benefits; (2) explore and select potential sustainable agro-landscapes based on the private and public benefits associated with possible land-use alternatives; (3) define efficient public policy mechanisms for improving social net benefit of agro-landscapes.The framework is illustrated with a case study in a small dairy farming dominated agro-landscape in The Netherlands, with gross margin, landscape quality, nature value and environmental health as the analysed ecosystem functions. Alternative landscapes consisting of hedgerow configurations and grassland management practices were explored, yielding a set of alternatives representing the solution space in terms of change in private and public benefits. Policy mechanisms were defined to move from the current to a desired landscape based on changes in social net benefits. Moreover, the necessity of a modification in the current agri-environmental support was analysed for each landscape. The analysis considered all farmers in the agro-landscape jointly. The results for the case study showed potential prototypes of landscapes and their performance compared to the current landscape. Extension was the most efficient policy mechanism to promote the change to the socially optimum landscape alternative.     

基于农户调查的双鸭山市采煤塌陷地复垦项目社会经济效益分析

基于农户调查结果,分析双鸭山市采煤塌陷地复垦项目经济、社会效益。结果表明:通过土地整理,居民耕地数量和质量都有所提高,人均年收入显著增加,公众充分参与,满意度较高。可见双鸭山市采煤塌陷地复垦项目取得了一定的经济、社会效益,是真正的惠民工程。     

The ‘Neighbourhood Effect’: A multidisciplinary assessment of the case for farmer co-ordination in agri-environmental programmes

In this paper we present a multi-disciplinary analysis of the potential impacts of undertaking similar environmental actions on multiple farms in a small geographic area, using organic farming as a proxy for a co-ordinated approach. Recent papers have called for more co-ordinated efforts between farmers in terms of their environmental actions, but there has been limited applied research demonstrating the environmental benefits or the economic and social implications to farmers of this approach. Comparative analysis of biodiversity, soil and water, and farm profitability were undertaken in England on 32 matched farms in areas of low and high organic farming concentration; qualitative interviews were also conducted with 48 farmers living in two of the eight areas. Findings demonstrate higher overall levels of biodiversity on organic farms (particularly in “hotspot” areas) but this was not universal across the species groups investigated. Higher water infiltration rates were found in organic grasslands, which could prove to be a useful measure to combat flooding. In terms of the technical efficiency of producing these environmental gains, conventional and organic farms in hotspot areas demonstrated equivalent efficiency from a financial perspective. Socio-cultural research identified the different amounts of trust farmers have in their neighbours, based in part on their performance as ‘good farmers’. We discuss the neighbourhood effect with a multi-disciplinary approach and conclude that encouraging local farmer co-ordination can have clear environmental benefits without high economic cost, but must be undertaken with caution - specifically regarding the trade-offs between benefits, local geophysical and social characteristics, and assumptions made about inter-farmer trust.     

水利风景区PPP项目政府与社会资本方利益协调行为策略研究

为促进水利风景区PPP项目中政府与社会资本方之间的利益协调,保障项目顺利建设运营,研究双方之间利益协调行为策略,并在博弈分析中同时考虑政府的宏观管理者和项目微观参与主体双重身份。采用静态博弈探寻政府和社会资本方的纳什均衡,构建演化博弈模型动态分析双方的行为策略并对该博弈过程进行仿真。仿真结果表明:在政府采取“不积极”策略所承担的风险成本大于“积极”策略所付出的项目建设运行成本、社会资本方采取“投机”策略所承担的风险成本大于“努力”策略所付出的项目建设运行成本的情况下,“积极、努力”在静态博弈和动态博弈中均为均衡策略;否则,要实现“积极、努力”的均衡策略,需满足政府获得的社会生态效益远大于支出的可行性缺口补贴,且社会资本方获得的品牌效应、社会影响力、政府奖励等附加收益和可行性缺口补贴之和远多于转投向其他经营领域所获得的收益。提出了完善水利风景区PPP项目收益分配、风险分担及政策保障机制,建立政府和社会资本方沟通机制,加强对水利风景区PPP项目的监管力度等对策。