International research on vegetable improvement in East and Southern Africa: adoption,impact, and returns

There is a lack of evidence for impact at scale of vegetable research and development, although the importance of vegetables for human nutrition and smallholder incomes is generally understood. We therefore study adoption and impact of improved tomato and African eggplant varieties developed through international agricultural research, released by national agricultural research and extension systems, and supplied to farmers by private seed companies in East and Southern Africa from 1990 to 2014. The study finds that in 2014, varieties developed by the World Vegetable Center accounted for 50% of tomato and 98% of African eggplant commercial seed production in East and Southern Africa. For Tanzania alone, investment in crop improvement generated economic gains of US$ 255 million for tomato and US$ 5 million for African eggplant up to 2014. The internal rate of return is 26% for tomato and 12% for African eggplant, though we project the latter to increase to 26% by 2024 as the variety was released only in 2007. These findings support the view that agricultural policy and investment reoriented towards contemporary nutritional challenges will give high returns to investment.     

城乡基本公共服务均等化的财政政策研究

城乡“二元结构”利益固化的财政政策,导致局部地区城乡公共服务差异大,且地区城乡基本公共服务均等化程度因地而异。推进城乡基本公共服务均等化的财政政策,根本目标在于实现公共服务城乡统筹发展,应加快扩大国家财政“三农”支出比重、明确地方财政承担“三农”支出的责任、规范财政转移支付、加快推进新型城镇化,并同步推进城乡一体化建设。     

Prolonged Stagnation,Hesitant Recovery: Japan from an ‘Austrian’ Perspective

Tentative indications of recovery at the turn of the millennium offer the prospect of an end to the economic crisis that has afflicted the world's second largest economy since 1991. Both the duration of these difficulties and their insusceptability to conventional policy stimuli have presented challenges to mainstream macroeconomic thinking. It is argued here that the business cycle theory developed by Friedrich Hayek on the basis of the Austrian economic tradition, although eclipsed by the contemporary writings of Keynes, offers insight into the intractable nature of the Japanese crisis. This contrasting perspective stresses the links between monetary policy and the evolution of capital structure to provide an explanation for the inevitable dislocation following a credit‐financed boom. On these grounds, the application to Japan emphasises relaterd monetary and exchange rate developments in the 1980s as the underlying cause of the long stagnation of the 1990s. It therefore contradicts the view of the IMF and other multilateral bodies that the country's financial sector deficiencies were the primary factor. The structural focus of the analysis also suggests that the current (uncharacteristic) Fund emphasis on the need for demand stimulation is misplaced. Arguing that the surrounding economies have a particular interest in the means chosen to consolidate economic recovery in Japan, a policy approach consistent with the Austrain diagnosis is set out. It provides a framework in which fiscal consolidation and monetary policy normalisation, as desired by some elements of the country's administration, would be an appropriate strategy for the promotion of recovery.     

Agriculture as a funding source of ISIS: A GIS and remote sensing analysis

Agriculture is an important source of income for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), which currently rules over large parts of the breadbaskets of the two countries. It has received limited attention compared to other sources of ISIS revenues such as oil, looting, ransom, foreign donations and various forms of taxation. We estimate winter crops production of wheat and barley in ISIS-controlled areas in both Syria and Iraq for the years 2014–2015 and irrigated summer crops production (cotton) in Northeast Syria. We show that remote sensing can give a credible estimation of agricultural production in the absence of statistics. With evidence from MODIS Aqua and Terra Satellites as well as Landsat imagery, we find that agricultural production in ISIS-controlled Syrian and Iraqi zones has been sustained in 2014 and 2015, despite the detrimental impact of conflict. After a drought in 2014 production was able to capitalize on improved rainfalls in 2015. First indications show that the winter grain harvest of 2016 in Iraqi territories of ISIS was significantly above pre-conflict mean and below pre-conflict mean in its Syrian territories. We also show how water flows along the Euphrates have impacted production. We estimate the revenue that ISIS can derive from wheat and barley production and the likely magnitude of an exportable surplus. Agricultural production gives the group a degree of resilience, although its economy is not sustainable in the longer run and could be affected by military collapse. Taxation of recurrent income streams such as agriculture will become more important for ISIS as its extractive sources of revenues show signs of dwindling. Beside non-grain food imports, agricultural production is crucial for its political legitimacy by ensuring food provision to the broader population. Food security considerations would require a high priority in any post-ISIS reconstruction effort and would need to include the rehabilitation of supply chains for agricultural inputs such as quality seeds and fertilizers.     

Farmer training in off-season vegetables: Effects on income and pesticide use in Bangladesh

The cultivation of crops outside the regular cropping calendar when supply is low and prices are high can give farmers better profits and consumers more choice. However, off-season production may increase pesticide risk if crops are more affected by pests and diseases and farmers do not handle pesticides correctly. This study quantified the effect of training in off-season tomato production on the income and pesticide use of smallholder vegetable farmers in southwestern Bangladesh. The study uses farm-level data from 94 trained and 151 non-trained farm households and applies propensity score matching and inverse probability weighting to correct for selection bias. For the average smallholder vegetable farmer, training increased net household income by about 48%. We found that 31% of the trained farm households who had initially adopted the technology continued its use in the second year, but farm households who discontinued using the technology also experienced significant income gains from the training. There was a significant increase in pesticide use (+56%) and although there was an improvement in pesticide handling practices, trained farmers may have been more exposed to pesticide health risk. The policy implication is that while off-season vegetable production can create dramatic income improvements, it is important to emphasize safe and sustainable pest management methods as part of policies promoting it.     

Mortality, interest rates, investment, and agricultural production in 18th century England

This paper shows that the exogenous decline of adult mortality at the end of the 17th century can be one of the causes driving both the decline of interest rate and the increase in agricultural production per acre in pre-industrial England. Following the intuition of the life-cycle hypothesis, I claim that the increase in adult life expectancy must have implied less farmer impatience and it could have caused more investment in nitrogen stock and land fertility, the increase in agricultural land, and higher production per acre. I analyze this dynamic interaction using an overlapping generations model and show that the evolution of agricultural production and capital rates of return predicted by the model coincide fairly well with their empirical pattern.     

Agricultural Pricing Policies in Developing Countries: An Application to Pakistan

The range of and constraints on policy instruments available to thegovernment when raising and distributing revenue can have importantconsequences for the efficiency and equity implications of pricingpolicy. The usual trade-off between equity and efficiency ismagnified. We emphasize the potential for substantial efficiency gainsfrom reforming agricultural pricing policies and from developing moredirect income transfer mechanisms. The importance of incorporatingcross-price effects is highlighted and we show that these can changethe direction of welfare-improving marginal price reforms.     

农业产业化进程中的农村公共产品供给研究

农业产业化进程中的公共产品供给状况直接关系农业生产、农民福利和农村经济社会的发展,是建设社会主义新农村的关键所在。现行农村公共产品供给机制仍然存在诸多问题,因此,研究和创新农村公共产品供给机制,提高供给效率,对于推进新农村建设具有重要现实意义。     

实施农业名牌战略是解决三农问题的重要途径——对湖北实施农业名牌战略的思考

文章联系湖北三农问题实际，从农民增收、农业增效、农村社会进步三个方面分析了农业创名牌产品对解决湖北三农问题的重要意义，提出了实施农业名牌战略是解决三农问题的重要途径。     

我国农业公共科研投资的配置:要素稀缺性技术诱导假说的检验

本文首先推导出了要素稀缺性技术诱导假说的数学形式，然后在此基本上充分考虑我国农业公共科研投资配置的“基数”行为，将现有的检验模型拓展为三元计量模型，并采用我国30个省市的综列数据进行了实证分析。研究结果显示，近年来，我国农业公共科研投资的分配基本上以节约耕地面积技术为主要投入方向，这与要素稀缺性技术诱导假说基本一致。这个结论的理论意义是可将技术诱导性假说扩展到不完全市场经济下的技术创新，其政策含义是我国农业公共科研投资分配的倾斜对象依然是以提高土地生产率为目标的技术创新。