Determinants of herbicide use in rice production in the Philippines

This study identifies farm‐specific and market factors affecting the adoption of herbicides and the level of herbicide use by rice farmers in the Philippines. This requires the application of a modified version of Heckman's two‐step method to estimate a random‐effects double‐hurdle model for unbalanced panel data. The age of the farmer, household size, and irrigation use are significant determinants of the decision of farmers to adopt herbicides as an alternative to manual weeding, while economic variables such as the price of herbicides, total income, and access to credit determine the level of herbicide use. Determinants of both adoption and level are land ownership, farm area, and the method of crop establishment. These results are potentially relevant when designing policies to reduce excessive herbicide use or to encourage the adoption of alternative weed control methods such as integrated weed management.     

Geographical indication regulation and intra‐trade in the European Union

Protection of indications of geographical origin (GIs) can reduce information asymmetry between producers and consumers, and potentially enhance trade. However, GIs can also possibly divert trade. We rely on panel data about agri‐food trade among the 27 countries of the European Union to investigate these issues using variations of estimators proposed by Head and Mayer ( 2000 ) and Santos Silva and Tenreyro ( 2006 ). Our findings suggest that the protection of GIs creates trade when the importing and exporting countries have GI‐protected products. There is also empirical evidence regarding a trade‐diverting effect when the importing country does not have GIs and a border enlargement effect arising from European GI‐protection.     

基于第二次全国R&D资源清查的农业科技资源配置效率分析

[目的]农业科技资源配置效率的高低在一定程度上决定着农业科技系统的运行效率,而农业科技系统的运行效率状况对提高农业科技资源的高效利用、增强农业科技创新能力、加快促进农业现代化进程有着重要的影响。文章基于2009年第二次全国RD资源清查数据,对政府部门属农业科研机构的配置效率进行测算,并分析其规模报酬以便为相关决策部门提供参考。[方法]通过构建农业科技资源配置效率评价的投入产出指标体系,选取包含科技人员、科技经费及科技成果在内的6个投入产出指标,运用数据包络分析方法 (DEA)中的超效率模型测算全国32个省份政府部门属自然科学和技术领域研究机构(含直辖市)的综合效率、纯技术效率、规模效率。[结果]全国农业科研机构科技资源技术效率平均值为0.581,科技运行效率还有较大的提升空间。按机构学科领域分,水产学学科的效率值最高(TE Score=2.867 9);按机构服务的国民经济行业分,渔业的效率值最高(TE Score=1.901 1)。各省(市、区)农、林、牧、渔业农业科研机构的综合运行效率值大于1的有天津、吉林、贵州、宁夏、北京、辽宁。规模效率的平均值是0.686,规模收益递减的省(市、区)占87%。[结论]DEA非效率地区所占比例较大,技术效率低于全国平均值的地区占56%,地区规模效率的提升可以依靠加大科研投入来实现。农业科技资源配置的结构需要进行调整,在合理调控种植业科研机构的发展规模的同时优化其科技人员结构。通过开展农业科技计划绩效评价、组建农业科技创新联盟来促进农业科技协同创新。同时应根据农业科研机构的不同类型提出相应的管理措施,以便实现分类指导和科学管理。     

粮食主产区水稻适度规模经营意愿影响因素研究——基于江西省7县428个水稻种植户的调查

[目的]农业适度规模经营是提高我国农业经营主体收入的最佳途径,是粮食主产区现代农业发展、维护国家粮食安全的现实选择。明晰粮食主产区农户水稻适度规模经营意愿水平,并深入考察其影响因素,对进一步提高水稻适度规模经营意愿、扩大土地经营规模具有重要的现实意义。[方法]基于江西省7县428个水稻种植户的实地调查数据,运用Logistic回归模型,借鉴柯布—道格拉斯生产函数,对粮食主产区水稻适度规模经营意愿影响因素进行了实证分析。[结果](1)各县水稻适度规模经营意愿及其影响因素特征存在着一定差异,且它们之间具有较为密切的关系;(2)劳动力、土地、资金和其他因素对粮食主产区水稻适度规模经营意愿均具有显著影响,其中土地因素对水稻适度规模经营意愿影响最为显著,劳动力和资金因素具有较大影响,其他因素影响较小;(3)在引入模型的13个影响因素中,土地规模、土地流转和户主文化程度对水稻适度规模经营意愿影响最为显著,劳动力人数、融资难易程度和非农收入比例次之,户主年龄、人均收入和区域经济水平也有影响,而家庭生命周期、粮食补贴、农业技术培训和购买农业保险则没有对规模经营意愿产生显著影响。[结论]根据以上研究结果,从加快土地流转、提升农户素质、破解融资瓶颈和分区分类推进适度规模经营4个方面提出了相关对策,认为要加快土地流转,扩大土地经营规模,创造适度规模经营前提条件;加强教育培训力度,提高农户职业素养,培养适度规模经营职业队伍;扩大融资渠道,改善粮食补贴模式,克服适度规模经营资金瓶颈;充分考虑地区差异,区分不同的地域类型,分区分类推进适度规模经营。     

Off‐farm work,technical efficiency,and rice production risk in Taiwan

This article investigates the differences in yield production, production efficiency, and yield risk for farmers both with and without off‐farm work. Using a nationwide survey of rice farmers in Taiwan, we estimate two stochastic production frontier models that accommodate technical inefficiency and production risk simultaneously for farmers both with and without off‐farm work. The stochastic dominance criterion is then applied to compare the differences in the distributions of the estimated technical efficiency and yield risk between groups. The empirical results indicate that these two groups of farmers use resources in different ways, and off‐farm work is not necessarily associated with lower technical efficiency. For farmers in the lower percentiles of the efficiency distribution, those with off‐farm work are more efficient than their counterparts without off‐farm work. In addition, farmers with off‐farm work face higher production risk and this result is robust for the entire distribution.     

Foot‐and‐mouth disease and the Mexican cattle industry

The objective of this article is to analyze the domestic and international effects of a hypothetical foot‐and‐mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the Mexican cattle industry. A discrete time dynamic optimization model of the Mexican cattle sector is specified, and linked to domestic and international markets. Economic consequences of FMD outbreaks are simulated over time and under different scenarios. Specific findings and general policy recommendations are provided. The study reports a range of outbreaks from localized to large scale and suggests that changes in economic surplus due to FMD range from a positive net gain of $0.89 to $1.6 billion to a net loss of about $67 billion, depending on the specific mitigation strategy and outbreak scenario.     

中小企业融资研究

针对我国中小企业融资的经营现状和存在的主要问题，分析了中小企业融资难的症结，从企业和银行两方面提出了改善融资环境的对策。认为企业自身必须自我完善，尽快建立现代企业制度，达到企业融资的标准要求；商业银行也应积极进行制度创新，突破传统的制度限制，灵活应对市场变化；政府应在中小企业信用担保体系的建设中适应市场经济条件，为中小企业服好务。     

Who Will Feed China in the 21st Century? Income Growth and Food Demand and Supply in China

This study uses resource‐based measures to explore the evolution of China's demand and supply for food. China's dietary shift from plant to animal‐based foods, induced by its income growth, is likely to impose considerable pressure on agricultural resources. China's demand for food on this measure appears consistent with global trends, while China is an out‐performer on the supply side, producing much more food than its income level and land endowment would predict. China's current per capita income is in a range where consumption growth is high and in excess of production growth, but the gap between supply and demand is likely to diminish as population and per capita consumption growth decelerate. Continuing agricultural productivity growth and sustainable resource management will be important influences on the growth of China's future net import demand for food.     

Adoption of farm‐based irrigation water‐saving techniques in the Guanzhong Plain,China

This article analyses adoption of farm‐based irrigation water saving techniques, based on a cross‐sectional data set of 357 farmers in the Guanzhong Plain, China. Approximately 83% of the farmers use at least one farm‐based water‐saving technique. However, the traditional, inefficient techniques border and furrow irrigation are still prevalent whereas the use of advanced, more efficient techniques is still rather rare. We develop and estimate an adoption model consisting of two stages: awareness of water scarcity and intensity of adoption. We find that awareness of water scarcity and financial status enhance adoption of more advanced techniques whereas access to better community‐based irrigation infrastructure discourages it. We furthermore find both community‐based irrigation infrastructure and farm‐based irrigation water‐saving techniques have mitigating effects on production risk. From the results it follows that adoption can be stimulated via financial support and via extension aimed at enhancing awareness of water scarcity.     

The Coal Crisis in Appalachia: Agrarian Transformation,Commodity Frontiers and the Geographies of Capital

Capital's commodity frontiers strategy has at once woven together regional differences within an expanding world‐system and remade the productive and reproductive activities of humans and the rest of nature. The development of successive commodity frontiers gave way to long waves of economic expansion that have been pivotal to accelerating accumulation and transcending capital's recurrent crises. In short, commodity frontiers are constitutive of world‐ecological moments premised on booms and crises of accumulation. In this paper, I examine the coal commodity frontier in Appalachia, to illustrate the region's history as one of succeeding frontiers in and out of the region over the long twentieth century of American capitalism. I argue that the origin of Appalachia's coal frontier was decisively made through the nineteenth‐century agricultural revolution expressed outside of the region. Appalachia's full‐fledged development was an outcome of capital's under‐reproduction strategies. The crisis of the region's frontier turned on a lack of surplus from under‐reproduction strategies, competing coal basins, economic diversification and competing energy sources. I find that the commodity frontier concept not only illuminates regional political economies and ecologies of difference, but also explains the production of nature of historical capitalism.