Recent evolution of land use systems in the Abruzzi region, Italy

Agriculture in the Abruzzi mountain area of Italy's Mezzogiorno region has been drastically transformed over the past 20 years. This article describes the traditional land-use systems and the processes by which they have changed to modern farming or fallen into decline. Traditional farming still has a strong influence, even where new crops such as grapes and peaches are being grown. A confusion of systems exists, ranging from the most conservative mixed farming to intensive monoculture.     

Measuring agricultural knowledge and adoption

Understanding the tradeoffs in improving the precision of agricultural measures through survey design is crucial. Yet, standard indicators used to determine program effectiveness may be flawed, and at a differential rate for men and women. We use a household survey from Mozambique to estimate the measurement error from male and female self‐reports of their adoption and knowledge of three practices: intercropping, mulching, and strip tillage. Despite clear differences in human and physical capital, there are no obvious differences in the knowledge, adoption, and error in self‐reporting between men and women. Having received training unanimously lowers knowledge misreports and increases adoption misreports. Other determinants of reporting error differ by gender. Misreporting is positively associated with a greater number of plots for men. Recall decay on measures of knowledge appears prominent among men but not women. Findings from regression and cost‐effectiveness analyses always favor the collection of objective measures of knowledge. Given the lowest rate of accuracy for adoption was around 80%, costlier objective adoption measures are recommended for a subsample in regions with heterogeneous farm sizes.     

中国加入世贸组织后对农业的影响及应采取的措施

中国是农产品国际贸易大国，加入世贸组织后，对农业的生产和贸易将产生较大的影响。中国加入世贸组织既是挑战，又是机遇，有利有弊，利大于弊．应采取的措施有：改革现行的政府管理机构；采取“绿箱政策”；调整产业结构；提高产品质量；加强动植物检疫。     

The Rural Environment Protection Scheme of the Republic of Ireland

Agricultural modernisation has had an impact on the Irish environment but official policy to address this developed only slowly. The reform of the EU CAP provided the incentive for the formulation of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS). This is a wide-ranging scheme to promote environmentally friendly farming through application of 11 measures and six supplementary measures. Significant characteristics of the REPS include its: universal availability, voluntary nature, comprehensiveness, payment limitation, tailoring to individual farms and inclusion of training. There has been a high level of adoption, with participation being greatest in the small-farm west with its cattle and sheep enterprises.     

A strategic environmental assessment method for agricultural policy in the UK

There are a number of significant environmental impacts that arise from agricultural practices that may be influenced by policy. A Strategic Environmental Assessment Method (SEAM) is described which aims to assess the environmental impacts of agricultural policy and aid the development of more sustainable policy formulation. The method addresses the issues of selecting appropriate performance criteria and measurements, and makes use of effect-damage functions and targets to determine the significance of potential impacts in relation to sustainability. A set of profiles is produced, describing the environmental performance of a specific policy. A confidence assessment system (CAS) is also described which provides details about the quality of the assessment and areas of uncertainty. SEAM provides information about impacts in simple format that can be easily used in decision making. It can identify environmental trade-offs and provides a holistic view that is essential when making decisions that affect the environment.     

The economic impacts of drought on the economy of Iran: An integration of linear programming and macroeconometric modelling approaches

In this paper, we provide economy-wide estimates of the costs of drought in the cropping sector of the Iranian economy, using a linear programming model to estimate the direct costs on agriculture, and a macroeconometric model to trace the indirect impacts on the rest of the economy. The results indicate that a severe drought such as the one that occurred in the crop year 1999-2000 imposes a direct cost of 1605 million USD, equivalent to 30.3% of the total value added of the cropping sector in Iran. This, in turn, leads to a 12.7% reduction in the value added of other agricultural sub-sectors (livestock, fisheries and forestry). In the rest of the economy, the manufacturing and service sectors experience value added declines of 7.8 and 3.7%, respectively. In addition, there is a substantial decrease in investment in the agricultural, manufacturing and service sectors. Thus, such a drought reduces overall GDP by about 4.4%, and it would also result in decreased non-oil exports, increased food imports, and a rise in inflation. The results of some drought mitigation simulations are reported in brief. Such estimates strengthen the case for increased attention to drought strategies and management in agriculture in Iran and elsewhere.     

发展观光农业调整农业结构

观光农业是以农业为基础,农业和旅游业相结合的一项交叉性产业,也是充分利用农业资源,改变单一农业结构,发展高效农业的一条重要途径.调整农业结构是农业自身发展的要求,是农民增收的途径.本文拟就发展观光农业,以优化农村产业结构方面做理论上的分析与探讨.     

关于完善佛山市基层农业公共服务体系的调研报告

本文以佛山市基层农业技术推广、动植物疫情防控、农产品质量监管三大体系为研究重点，基于调研各区（未含顺德区）、镇（街道）获取的基本数据，深入剖析基层农业公共服务体系存在的问题，提出改进工作的相关建议。     

Estimating the impact of rural investments in Nepal

As a largely rural society, most people in Nepal still depend upon agriculture as their major livelihood strategy. Therefore, it is important to improve the allocation efficiency of limited public expenditures to promote agricultural growth and poverty reduction. However, evaluating the returns of public investment is limited by methodological challenges. We use hedonic and panel data methods to examine the returns to different types of rural public investments including roads, irrigation and extension advice. The use of diverse identification strategies reduces the risk of using a narrower set of results driven primarily by a particular methodology. We find that rural roads and irrigation are one of the most productive public expenditures according to the benefit-cost ratio calculations, though the magnitudes of these ratios depend on methodology.     

An Organisational Discussion of Incomplete Contracting and Transaction Costs in Conservation Contracts

Conservation in the agricultural sector is difficult to achieve. A primary complicating factor in achieving conservation is the large number of public good environmental services provided by large numbers of individuals acting under diverse economic and ecological conditions. The complexity of the problem implies that additional consideration must be given to transaction cost economics and the theory of incomplete contracting. Drawing on insights from organisational economics, this paper argues that conservation policy and research could be improved with explicit consideration of the effects of ‘holdup problems’, transaction costs and trust on the provision of conservation services. ‘Bottom‐up’ approaches are promising as they directly incorporate these organisational issues, and the paper concludes with an example of a ‘bottom‐up’ conservation programme, the Ontario Environmental Farm Planning programme.