Agricultural development with rainforest conservation: methods for seeking best bet alternatives to slash-and-burn,with applications to Brazil and Indonesia

Forests continue to fall for agricultural purposes throughout the humid tropics, with immediate and potentially large consequences for climate change and biodiversity loss-issues of key interest to the international community. Some of the actors directly responsible for forest conversion fell trees to meet food security needs and alleviate poverty-issues of urgent interest to them and also to national policymakers. This multiplicity of groups with differing (often conflicting) interests in the multifarious goods and services produced by tropical forests complicates the search for alternative agricultural activities for forest margins since these alternatives must satisfy such divergent objectives. This paper sets out a conceptual framework for comparing the impacts of different land use systems and agricultural practices at the margins of tropical rainforests in terms of the concerns and objectives of two key interest groups: small-scale farmers seeking livelihoods at the forest margins and the ‘international’ interests in the global public goods and services supplied by tropical rainforests. This framework should be useful to a third key group, the national and regional policymakers who must consider these and other policy objectives and then decide on courses of action. The paper identifies data needs and analytical methods capable of supplying an empirical base for this conceptual framework, based on quantifiable indicators. It then presents preliminary results of the application of this conceptual framework in Indonesia and Brazil in association with a global, collaborative, multidisciplinary research program. Even using preliminary order-of-magnitude estimates (to be replaced by more precise measurements as they become available), this conceptual framework presents results in ways that allow researchers and policymakers to select clear ‘best bets’ for development, when they exist, and to assess tradeoffs and options for complementary policy action and research efforts, when they do not.     

Farmers’ land use decision-making in the context of changing land and conservation policies: A case study of Doi Mae Salong in Chiang Rai Province,Northern Thailand

In Thailand, land use planning and policy decision-making were—and to some extent still are—organized in a hierarchical and disjointed fashion. This is also true for the utilization of public lands, including forest reserves in the northern uplands that are often settled by ethnic minorities. There are, however, instances of change in land policies and regulations and in the way decisions and plans are made. Doi Mae Salong (DMS) in Northern Thailand, where there is a trend towards land use for conservation purposes, is a case in point. This paper aims to explore decision-making by farmers in DMS in the context of changing land regulations and policies from the 1950s to the present. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, together with a historical perspective and with narratives on land management through time, were applied by using in-depth interviews of key informants and group farmers’ discussions as tools. The time period under investigation was divided into three periods of change: The first period, before the year 1960, was an era of security concern. In contrast, the second period, from 1961 to 1996, was an era of emerging conservation priorities. Finally, the third period, from 1997 to the present, is an era of lessons learned from the conservation era. Land use decision outcomes reveal that the decision-making processes of farmers are influenced both by the hierarchical decisions of higher authorities and by horizontal linkages among multiple stakeholders. However, while farmers participate readily in forest conservation activities, they do not play an active role in the process of changing policies.     

Potential and limitation of an organic fertilizer‐based development strategy: evidence from Tamil Nadu,India, from 1993 to 2003

This article explores the potential and limitations for using farmyard manure (FYM) to improve paddy and upland cereals productivity under various soil conditions in Tamil Nadu, India. Using household‐level fixed effects, estimated yield functions from 1993 to 2003 confirm that FYM application directly increases crop productivity in upland cereals, but not in paddy rice. Complementary effects through an increase in the marginal product of inorganic fertilizer is observed for both paddy and upland cereals, especially where inherent soil fertility is low. Farmers’ FYM use is responsive to changes in the price of FYM, but transport costs limit price transmission across space. Dairy sector development thus improves crop productivity, but only in the small area around the animals which limits the spread of FYM‐based development strategy.     

A household hedonic model of rice traits: economic values from farmers in West Africa

New crop varieties often have been promoted in developing countries based upon superior yield vis-a-vis locally available varieties. This research presents a hedonic price model for upland rice by drawing upon the input characteristics and consumer good characteristics model literature. Model specification tests determine that a combination of production and consumption characteristics best explains the willingness to pay for new upland rice varieties. The household model specification determined that five traits explain the willingness to pay for new rice varieties: plant cycle length, plant height, grain colour, elongation/ swelling and tenderness. Yield was not a significant explanatory variable of the willingness to pay for seed. The implications of this model are two-fold. First, varietal development and promotion must include post-harvest characteristics in addition to production traits when determining which varieties to promote for official release. Secondly, non-yield production characteristics such as plant height and cycle length are significant factors in producer's assessments of the value of a new variety. Overall, this paper provides an alternative explanation for limited adoption of modern upland rice varieties in West Africa: varietal evaluation programs have focused too narrowly on yield evaluation and have not promoted varieties with superior non-yield characteristics than locally available varieties.     

Future of the hills of Scotland: Stakeholders’ preferences for policy priorities

This paper sets out to assess stakeholders’ preferences for policy priorities for the management of the hill areas of Scotland, using an adaptive conjoint analysis (ACA) method. The method is used to evaluate trade-offs that stakeholders make between policy priorities. A pre-survey was carried out to obtain a large number of defining characteristics of a Scottish hill land system, which were subsequently narrowed down to 20 attributes. A survey was implemented, where a range of stakeholders, who had an interest in the hill and upland areas of Scotland, were asked to select and rank five attributes (out of the 20) that, for them, best described a hill system. They were also asked to describe what constituted both good and poor levels for each of their 5 chosen attributes. A computerised ACA questionnaire was designed, using attributes and levels defined from the previous surveys. Respondents were asked what the policy targets for management choices and options should be in the next 10 years for the Scottish hill areas. Policy simulations were subsequently carried out using the ACA software, to compare stakeholders’ actual preferences with seven different policy profiles, designed to reflect current land use issues and orientations for the Scottish hills.     

Increasing yield and farm income of upland farmers: The case of Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project in the Philippines

The 17th Sustainable Development Goal aims to enhance the international cooperation between developed and least-developed countries, and the Official Development Assistance (ODA) program is the largest source of external support in the attainment of this goal. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the Panay Island Upland Sustainable Rural Development Project (PIU-SRDP), an ODA project supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and the Local Government Units of project municipalities in the Philippines. We focused on Phase II of the PIU-SRDP, which implemented randomly various agriculture-based income-generating projects, aimed at improving the sustainable productivity of low-income farming households. Based on a spatial and intertemporal variations of the project, we exploit a difference-in-difference approach using household-level data. The results suggest that the project significantly increased the rice yield and farm income of beneficiaries. With the opposing views about the true impacts of ODA programs, our study shows evidence of the positive effects of an ODA project on farmer-beneficiaries. This study provides insights for future engagement and implementation of related community-based ODA, agriculture, and rural development projects.