Jointness in production and farmers' willingness to supply non-marketed ecosystem services

This paper highlights how farmers' willingness to supply non-marketed ecosystem services (ES) is influenced by whether or not the non-marketed ES are produced jointly with agricultural products. When marketed products and non-marketed ES share some production inputs the production relationships between the two may be complementary, competitive or substitutive. Using a cost minimization framework, it is shown how complementary relationships lead to costless voluntary provision of non-marketed ES (typically the case for ES that are supportive of provisioning ES for marketed farm products). It is also shown how competitive production relationships lead to provision of non-marketed ES at lower cost than when non-marketed ES are direct substitutes for farm products or are produced outside of agriculture. The paper closes by showing how the minimum willingness to accept (WTA) payment for ES that are complementary/competitive is less than or equal to the minimum WTA for the same ES produced in substitute or independent production relationships.     

Investment in soil conservation in northern Ethiopia: the role of land tenure security and public programs

A double hurdle statistical analysis of 250 farms in the Tigray region of Ethiopia reveals different causal factors for soil conservation adoption versus intensity of use. Farmers' reasons for adopting soil conservation measures vary sharply between stone terraces and soil bunds. Long‐term investments in stone terraces were associated with secure land tenure, labour availability, proximity to the farmstead and learning opportunities via the existence of local food‐for‐work (FFW) projects. By contrast, short‐term investments in soil bunds were strongly linked to insecure land tenure and the absence of local food‐for‐work projects. Public conservation campaigns on private plots reduced adoption of both stone terraces and soil bunds. Whereas capacity factors largely influenced the adoption decision, expected returns carried more influence for the intensity of stone terrace adoption (measured as metres of terrace per hectare). More stone terracing was built where fertile but erodible silty soils in higher rainfall areas offered valuable yield benefits. Intensity of terracing was also greater in remote villages where limited off‐farm employment opportunities reduced construction costs. These results highlight the importance of the right kind of public interventions. Direct public involvement in constructing soil conservation structures on private lands appears to undermine incentives for private conservation investments. When done on public lands, however, public conservation activities may encourage private soil conservation by example. Secure land tenure rights clearly reinforce private incentives to make long‐term investments in soil conservation.     

Adding value to spatially managed inputs by understanding site-specific yield response

Many mechanized crop producers and agribusinesses are fascinated with precision agriculture technology, but adoption has lagged behind the expectations. Among the reasons for slow adoption of precision agriculture technology is that initial users focused excessively on in‐field benefits from variable‐rate fertilizer application using regional average fertilizer recommendations. This article illustrates how greater use of site‐specific crop response information can improve variable rate input application recommendations. Precision agriculture is spatial information technology applied to agriculture. The technologies include global position systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), yield monitoring sensors, and computer controlled within‐field variable rate application (VRA) equipment. Experimentation with these technologies is occurring everywhere there is large scale mechanized agriculture. Commercial use has been greatest in the US, where 43% of farm retailers offered VRA services in 2001. Except for certain high‐value crops like sugar beet, farmer adoption of VRA has been modest. The farm level profitability of VRA continues to be questionable for bulk commodity crops. The theoretical model and illustration presented here suggest that VRA fertilization has not yet reached its profitability potential. Most VKA field trials to date have relied upon existing state‐wide or regional input rate recommendations. Unobserved soil characteristics can potentially interact with an input to make its effect on yield vary site‐specifically within fields. Failure to use site‐specific response functions for VRA applications may lead to a misallocation of inputs just as great as that which results from using uniform applications instead of VRA. Agricultural economists have a long history of estimating output response to input applications. Several have started to develop tools to estimate site‐specific responses from yield monitor and other precision agriculture data. Likewise, agricultural economists have developed an important body of research results on information value based on managing variability—typically in temporal settings. With these tools, a major potential exists to develop further benefits from precision agriculture technologies that permit truly spatially tailored input applications.     

From Circle of Poison to Circle of Virtue: Pesticides,Export Standards and Kenya’s Green Bean Farmers

In response to growing consumer concerns, developed‐country governments have reduced permissible pesticide residue levels in food. Many food retailers have developed even more stringent private food safety protocols relating to pesticide use, storage and disposal and passed them on to their suppliers. Exporters in developing countries enforce these developed‐country pesticide standards (DC‐PS) by subjecting farmers to close monitoring. This study explores the effects of enforcing compliance with DC‐PS on smallholder farmers’ pesticide‐related health costs. Results suggest that enforcing DC‐PS encourages farmers to use protection that lowers pesticide‐induced morbidity, hence reducing farmers’ health costs from pesticide exposure. The study concludes that there are health benefits to family farmers from complying with DC‐PS beyond the acknowledged income generation from selling fresh produce in premium export markets.