Understanding fertilizer adoption and effectiveness on maize in Zambia

Increased fertilizer use will likely be crucial for raising and sustaining farm productivity in Africa, but adoption may be limited by ineffectiveness under certain conditions. This article quantifies the impacts of soil characteristics on maize response to fertilizer in Zambia using a nationally representative sample of 1453 fields, combining economic, farm management and soil analysis data. Depending on soil regimes, average maize yield response estimates range from insignificant (0) to 7 maize kg per fertilizer kg. For the majority of farmers, the estimated average value cost ratio is between 1 and 2, meaning fertilizer use would be fiscally rational, barring uncertainty and transfer costs. Since transfer costs exist and outcomes are uncertain, however, many farmers may sensibly pause before deciding whether to adopt fertilizer. This suggests shifting the emphasis of chronically low fertilizer use in Africa away from explanations of “market failure” toward greater emphasis on improving fertilizer efficacy.     

Warming temperatures will likely induce higher premium rates and government outlays for the U.S. crop insurance program

Likely climate change impacts include damages to agricultural production resulting from increased exposure to extreme heat. Considerable uncertainty remains regarding impacts on crop insurance programs. We utilize a panel of U.S. corn yield data to predict the effect of warming temperatures on the mean and variance of yields, as well as crop insurance premium rates and producer subsidies. While we focus on corn, we demonstrate that the subsidy impacts are likely to carry over to other major program crops. We find that warming decreases mean yields and increases yield risk on average, which results in higher premium rates. Under a 1°C warming scenario, we find that premium rates at the 90% coverage level will increase by 39% on average; however, there is considerable statistical uncertainty around this average as the 95% confidence interval spans from 22% to 61%. We also find evidence of extensive cross‐sectional differences as the county‐level rate impacts range from a 10% reduction to a 63% increase. Results indicate that exposure to extreme heat and changes in the coefficient of variation are large drivers of the impacts. Under the 1°C warming scenario, we find that annual subsidy payments for the crop insurance program could increase by as much as $1.5 billion, representing a 22% increase relative to current levels. This estimate increases to 3.7 billion (57%) under a 2°C warming scenario. Our results correspond to a very specific counterfactual: the marginal effect of warming temperatures under current technology, production, and crop insurance enrollments. These impacts are shown to be smaller than the forecasted impacts under a commonly used end‐of‐century general circulation model for even the most optimistic CO₂ emissions projection.     

Farm production diversity is associated with greater household dietary diversity in Malawi: Findings from nationally representative data

Farm production diversity has the potential to influence the diversity of household diets, an important nutrition outcome associated with the nutrient adequacy of diets and the nutritional status of individuals. Yet, little empirical research has assessed the relationship between farm diversity and diet diversity or the plausible causal mechanisms that may operate between these two constructs. This research examines cross-sectional data from the Malawi Third Integrated Household Survey (IHS3), a nationally representative sample of farming households in Malawi, implemented from March 2010–March 2011 as part of the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). These data were used to determine the relationship between farm production diversity and household dietary diversity, and to identify determinants of this relationship. Two indicators of dietary diversity, a modified Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), and the Food Consumption Score (FCS), were calculated along with three indicators of farm production diversity including the Simpson’s Index, a metric accounting for both species richness and evenness. In multiple regression analyses, adjusting standard errors for the complex survey design of the IHS3 and controlling for the effects of several covariates on household dietary diversity, farm production diversity was consistently positively associated with dietary diversity (P < 0.0001). The association of increased farm diversity as measured by a combined crop and livestock measure on dietary diversity was significantly greater in woman-headed households compared to those headed by men (HDDS: P = 0.008; FCS: P = 0.076). The positive association of farm diversity with dietary diversity was also greater in wealthier households (P < 0.05). Consumption of legumes, vegetables and fruits was especially strongly associated with greater farm diversity. More diverse production systems may contribute to more diverse household diets. However, this relationship is complex; it may be influenced by gender, wealth, control of household decisions, the relative market-orientation of a household’s agricultural production, and the specific nature of farm diversity.     

Crop burning and forest fires: Long-term effect on adolescent height in India

This paper examines the effect of biomass burning on adolescent health in India. The biomass burning problem is quite acute especially in North India, with some states experiencing forest fires and few states actively engaging in crop burning practice. We combine remote sensing data on biomass burning events with a pan-India survey on teenage girls (TAG survey). We exploit regional and temporal variation in our data to establish the link between occurrence of extremely high levels of biomass burning during early life and adolescent height for girls in India. Our results indicate that exposure to extremely high level of biomass burning during prenatal and postnatal period is associated with lower height (by 0.7 percent or 1.07 cm) later in life. Girls from North India are found to be especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of exposure to biomass burning.     

映射气候的大学校园规划

映射气候的规划研究旨在通过设计手段创造绿色低耗的校园环境,突出规划结合地域气候和自然地理,达到生态节能目的。应用建筑物理和生态学理论,采取图解分析和比较的方法,探究适宜地域气候的生态校园规划与设计的原理和方法,提出了校园规划布局结合地方气候与地理、空间规划组织自然通风与防风、节地省耗规划、建筑节能设计与校园空间的气候应变等规划与设计策略,为生态校园规划与实践奠定理论基础。     

Trade-off between photovoltaic systems installation and agricultural practices on arable lands: An environmental and socio-economic impact analysis for Italy

The paper introduces and discusses an open-source spatial-based model (called r.green.solar) able to quantify the energy production from solar photovoltaic (PV) ground-mounted panels. Socio-economic and environmental impacts can be evaluated by the model. The model starts from the theoretical quantity of solar PV potential energy and estimates a reduction of total amount of energy based on legal, technical, recommended and economic constraints. Model outputs were used for a trade-off analysis between energy production and traditional crops for food/feed cultivation on not irrigated arable land. The model was tested at regional level for a Mediterranean context (Italy). The results confirm that the economic profitability of PV systems follows a north-south gradient, but the main impacts are related to local peculiarities – such as the disposal of not irrigated arable land and the presence of constraints, in particular the landscape maintenance, the morphological variables and the specialization index – and crop yields.     

A gene-dependent climatoeconomic model of generalized trust

Given the benefits of generalized trust, its determinants receive growing attention in international/cross-cultural management/psychology. This research proposed a gene-dependent climatoeconomic model, integrating multiple types of determinants parsimoniously. Across 53 societies, generalized trust is a multiplicative function not only of climatic demands and wealth (climatoeconomic contextualization), but also of climatic demands, wealth, and the 5-HTTLPR S-allele prevalence (gene-dependent climatoeconomic contextualization), mediated by uncertainty avoidance. The climatoeconomic contextualization is present only in societies possessing a low level of the 5-HTTLPR S-allele prevalence. These findings shed light on trust and international management research as well as interventions and policy making for societal effectiveness.     

CAP payments and spatial diversity in cereal crops: An analysis of Italian farms

Agricultural biodiversity conservation has been recognized as a fundamental resource for the maintenance of ecological and economic functions. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has an impact on crop diversity decisions of farm managers. In so doing, we allow the diversity decision to depend on a rich set of economic and agro-ecological variables, such as prices of the most common cereal varieties, and agro-ecological and socio-economic characteristics at farm and regional level. Using a panel dataset over the period 2004–2010, we compare the results obtained from pooled-OLS and dynamic panel GMM estimators. The empirical analysis shows the existence of a positive relationship between CAP payments and diversity. In addition, decoupling subsidies from production seems to have a positive effect on biodiversity.     

Crop diversification in Thailand: Status,determinants, and effects on income and use of inputs

Following the national policy, the Department of Agriculture of Thailand has implemented a crop diversification program in several provinces of the country. This study, which was conducted in Nakhon Pathom Province, analyzed the extent of crop diversification and its determinants using primary information collected from 245 farm households using a structured questionnaire, and from selected farmer leaders and agricultural development officials. The study also assessed the effects of crop diversification on income and the inputs used. The findings of the study revealed that nearly three fourths of the land is still being used for rice mono-cropping, indicating little success in the promotion of the crop diversification program. Paddy fields, including farms for cultivating rice under mono-cropping and diversified system, still account for 90% of the total farmland in the country. The limited impact of the program on the farming sector is attributed primarily to the variation in land and labor resources available at the farmers’ disposal as well as soil suitability. The farmers’ attendance in training and interaction with farmer groups are the other influential factors. Although cropping diversification has provided attractive financial return particularly to the small farmers, it has also accelerated the use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. Broad policy instruments are therefore suggested for the effective implementation of future crop diversification programs in Thailand and perhaps elsewhere in Southeast Asia.     

Scope economies and technical efficiency of cocoa agroforesty systems in Ghana

A number of studies have addressed issues relating to the physiological, environmental and economic values of trees in cocoa farming systems. However, to date, little has been done to quantitatively examine the effect of crop diversity on cocoa farming efficiency. This study therefore sets out to first investigate whether and to what extent crop diversity (defined as the mixing of cocoa with other crop species on farmers' plots) affects productivity on cocoa farms. Secondly, it sought to establish whether there are economies of scope (i.e., cost complementarities) from the sharing of farm inputs by crops on the same plots. Our results indicate that diversified (i.e., multi-crop) cocoa farms are more efficient than single (i.e., mono) crop farms. Furthermore, our estimate for the economies of scope parameter indicates possibilities for cost complementarities between production of cocoa and other crops on the same plot. We advocate further investigation on the issue of scope economies to determine which crop combinations offer better cost complementarities and also meet biodiversity conservation objectives.