bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Efficient income redistribution for a small country using optimal combined instruments
Authors: Salhofer K. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractIn this paper I improve Gardner's surplus transformation curve framework by assuming that governments are able to vary many policy instruments simultaneously instead of only one. I use my framework to find the combination of the currently used instruments which provides the most efficient income redistribution for the Austrian bread grains market. Comparing the most efficient policy with the actual policy reveals that 464 × 106 Austrian shillings were wasted. I theoretically compare for a small country the transfer efficiency of every possible pair of the four major agricultural policy instruments: floor price, (production) quota, co‐responsibility levy, and deficiency payments. Without considering the marginal cost of public funds (MCF), deficiency payments cum quota (equal to a fully decoupled direct income support) is the most efficient policy, succeeded by floor price cum quota, and floor price cum deficiency payments. If the MCF is taken into account, the ranking crucially depends on the market parameters, the transfer level, and the value of the MCF. For the Austrian bread grains market, I empirically demonstrate that given the present support level, a fully decoupled direct income support redistributes income most efficiently as long as the MCF is lower than 1.17. Beyond this value a floor price cum quota policy becomes more efficient. A floor price cum deficiency payments policy is never superior to the floor price cum quota.
Quantifying the socio‐economic determinants of sustainable crop production: an application to wheat cultivation in the Tarai of Nepal
Authors: Ali Mubarik 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis study specifies a procedure to quantify the determinants of sustainable crop production, and applies the method to wheat cultivation in the Tarai of Nepal. Three aspects of sustainability were considered. First, the fertility of the land was found to have deteriorated owing to long‐term practices incompatible with soil and drainage conditions. Three‐quarters of the farmers had reduced land fertility and for one‐third of them the wheat yield was at least 20% lower than for farmers who applied farmyard manure to every crop and adopted a rotation consistent with soil and drainage conditions. Secondly, the study found that it was possible to improve resource‐use efficiency in wheat production to give 25% higher production at current levels, type, and quality of farm resources. Resource‐use efficiency was significantly related to farm management practices such as crop stand, variety, disease, and land preparation quality, and socio‐economic factors such as off‐farm job opportunities, poor plot accessibility, and migration. Thirdly, the increasing population pressure on land, decreasing livestock number per cropped area, and diminishing fuel wood sources, significantly reduced farm‐based nutrient cycling because farmyard manure had to be used for fuel. This had implications for the higher use of the fossil‐based inputs in crop production.
Sustainable development of forest resources in industrialized countries
Authors: McKillop William , Sarkar Amin 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThere is no general consensus about what sustainable development means. We seek to clarify the meaning and utility of the concept by focusing on forest resources in countries possessing higher levels of per capita incomes. The meaning of sustainable development becomes complex when one asks what social goals are being pursued, what types of stability are permitted, whether amenities and commodities should receive equal consideration, and to what landbase the concept should be applied. A simulation/linear programming model of California's private forest resource is used to demonstrate that strict decade‐to‐decade ‘even‐flow’ stability of production may result in lower aggregate levels of output over a prolonged planning period, with ending levels of the stock resource that are scarcely greater than when output is permitted to vary over the planning period. The model was also used to show that greater levels of output and ending stocks are possible when the land base for sustainability assessment is not a restrictively small geographical area or a single class of ownership. In the case of National Forests and other public lands, the application of the sustainable development concept is significantly more complex because of the importance of amenity values and because of the inherent conflict between development and the preservation of ecosystems in a pristine state.
Agreement on agriculture in the Uruguay Round of GATT: from Punta del Este to Marrakesh
Authors: Hassan Zuhair A. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractTo help appreciate the outcome of the negotiations, this paper will attempt to provide answers to the following questions. Why did the agreement take as long as 7 years to negotiate? What were the major obstacles to reaching an agreement? How did the negotiators reconcile differing points of view on issues such as the role of border measures and domestic policy measures in agriculture? What has been accomplished during the negotiations? Was the agreement successful in reforming agriculture? What are the likely effects on agricultural commodity prices in implementing the agreement?
Impacts of trade liberalizations under the Uruguay Round on the world sugar market
Authors: Devadoss Stephen , Kropf Jurgen 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe impacts of the Uruguay Round policy provisions on the world sugar market show that these policies will stabilize the world sugar price at slightly higher levels than in the baseline. Global sugar consumption will increase as a result of the income growth caused by the Uruguay Round. Economic resources will be allocated more efficiently among the sugar industries of the various countries. However, the impacts on the sugar industries in countries with strong producer supports will be rather small because the negotiation process of the Uruguay Round has accommodated the changes in sugar policies already implemented by individual countries in the past few years. Low‐cost sugar producing countries will benefit from the higher world sugar price, and consumers in countries with protected markets will benefit from lower domestic prices.
Farm productivity in Rwanda: effects of farm size, erosion, and soil conservation investments
Authors: Byiringiro Fidele , Reardon Thomas 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis paper examines the effects of farm size, soil erosion, and soil conservation investments on land and labor productivity and allocative efficiency in Rwanda. There were several key results. First, there is a strong inverse relationship between farm size and land productivity, and the opposite for labor productivity. For smaller farms, there is evidence of allocative inefficiency in use of land and labor, probably due to factor market access constraints. Second, farms with greater investment in soil conservation have much better land productivity than average. Those with very eroded soils do much worse than average. Smaller farms are not more eroded than larger farms, but have twice the soil conservation investments. Third, land productivity benefits substantially from perennial cash crops, and the gains to shifting to cash crops are highest for those with low erosion and high use of fertilizer and organic matter. Program and policy effort to encourage and enable farmers to make soil conservation investments, to use fertilizer and organic matter, and to participate in cash cropping of perennials will have big payoffs in productivity. Land markets that allow smaller farmers to buy land could also increase aggregate productivity.
Food aid, food policy and the Uruguay round: implications for Bangladesh
Authors: Warr Peter G. , Ahammad Helal 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe relationship between the effects of food aid and those of the completion of the Uruguay Round of the GATT are studied in this paper, focusing upon the food aid recipient countries, and taking Bangladesh as an illustrative example. It is argued that, among other factors, the magnitudes of these effects depend crucially on the policy environment within the food aid recipient country itself, particularly the government's policy with respect to commercial food imports. It is shown that when the quantity of Bangladesh's commercial food imports is controlled by the government, the benefits derived from food aid are smaller than when these imports are liberalised. Likewise, the negative effects that the Uruguay Round may be expected to have on Bangladesh will also he larger if commercial food imports are subject to quantitative controls than if they are liberalised.The effects the Uruguay Round will have on Bangladesh will also depend on the way food aid donors respond to the Round. If donors reduce the volumes of food aid, either because of reduced food surpluses resulting from lower agricultural subsidies, or in response to increased international food prices resulting from the Round, the losses incurred by Bangladesh will be magnified. But these effects will also depend heavily on whether Bangladesh itself participates in the liberalisations that are central to the Round itself. If it were to participate fully, the negative effects that the Uruguay Round would otherwise have on Bangladesh may be entirely offset by the gains Bangladesh would derive from its own liberalisation.
Emerging differences in state grain trading: Australia and Canada
Authors: Carter Colin A. , Wilson William W. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe Australian Wheat Board (AWB) and Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) have attracted attention recently because they are two of the largest state trading enterprises (STEs) engaged in agricultural trade. They have traditionally been viewed as nearly sister agencies. Among major STEs in the world market, these two agencies historically had similar characteristics including: price pooling, cost pooling, export sales monopolies, monopoly powers within domestic markets, grain quality control, and government underwriting of initial producer prices and export credit. However, during the past 6 years, similarities between the AWB and CWB have begun to diverge and the importance of their differences is becoming increasingly apparent. This paper identifies major emerging differences between the AWB and CWB and explores potential explanations (hypotheses) for these dissimilarities. A major point is that reforms in institutional design and legislative changes have given rise to emerging differences in key aspects of the marketing systems and performance.
Research and extension expenditures and productivity in Japanese agriculture, 1960–1990
Authors: Kuroda Yoshimi 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis paper investigates the cause for the decline in the growth of productivity in Japanese agriculture since the late 1960s. For this objective, it investigates the effects of research and extension (R&E) activities on the extent and the direction of the bias of technological change in Japanese agriculture for the period 1960–90 based on the translog cost function framework. Empirical results show that the cost‐reducing effects of R&E measured in terms of the absolute value of the cost–R&E elasticity increased slightly from 0.194 in 1960 to 0.205 in 1965 and then decreased consistently to 0.110 in 1990. This finding is broadly consistent with the finding of the decline or slowdown in agricultural productivity since the late 1960s. The bias due to R&E was found to be toward labor, intermediate inputs, and other inputs saving on the one hand, and machinery and land using on the other. Labor‐saving and machinery‐using biases are consistent with the Hicksian induced innovation hypothesis.
Estimation of farmers' risk attitude: an econometric approach
Authors: Bar‐Shira Z. , Just R.E. , Zilberman D. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractAn econometric procedure for estimating Arrow‐Pratt coefficients of risk aversion is derived. The model of farmers allocating land among different crops, and time between leisure and labor, allows for testing Arrow's hypotheses of decreasing absolute risk aversion and increasing relative risk aversion. The empirical results support these hypotheses.
Dynamic input demand functions and resource adjustment for US agriculture: state evidence
Authors: Warjiyo Perry , Huffman Wallace E. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe paper presents an econometric model of dynamic agricultural input demand functions that include research based technical change and autoregressive disturbances and fits the model to annual data lor a set of stale aggregates pooled over 1950‐1982. The methodological approach is one of developing a theoretical foundation for a dynamic input demand system and accepting state aggreage behavior as approximated by nonlinear adjustment costs and long‐term profit maximization. Although other studies have largely ignored autocorrelation m dynamic input demand systems, the results show shorter adjustment lags with autocorrelation than without. Dynamic input demand own‐price elasticities for the six input groups are inelastic, ami the demand functions possess significant cross‐price and research effects.
Spatial allocation and the shadow pricing of product characteristics
Authors: Chavas Jean‐Paul , Cox Thomas L. , Jesse Edward 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe paper considers an industry transforming primary commodities (farm products) into processed commodities (food products). It focuses on the allocation of embedded characteristics (carbohydrate, protein, etc.) both across space and among commodities. The approach generates a spatial competitive market equilibrium of production, consumption, transformation, and trade for both primary and processed commodities, along with the spatial distribution of shadow prices for the product characteristics. The model provides a basis for analyzing the allocation and pricing of agricultural products, food products, and characteristics in spatial markets. The empirical usefulness of the model is illustrated in the context of regional resource allocation in the U.S. dairy sector.
Multiple job holdings among dairy farm families in New York and Ontario
Authors: Weersink Alfons , Nicholson Charles , Weerhewa Jeeveka 
Published: January 2020

AbstractPrevious empirical studies of multiple job holding have tended to focus on the characteristics of those obtaining off‐farm employment and the factors affecting the hours supplied to those obtaining off‐farm activities. None of these studies have explicitly addressed the reasons behind the decision to seek off‐farm employment. Neither have they been able to examine in‐depth the important issue of how this major component of the farm sector responds to alternative policies, since most studies have used cross‐sectional data for a given region. A comparison between countries would permit the analysis of how multiple job holding responds to differing government policies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for and factors affecting multiple job holdings of dairy farm families in neighboring regions of two counties, United States and Canada. The bordering regions of New York and Ontario have similar geographic conditions but significantly different farm support and social service policies. The results indicate the importance of farm income on why people work off the farm and provide evidence of multiple job holding as a flexible mechanism for coping with changes in the economic environment facing the household. For operators, the driving characteristics influencing off‐farm labor participation is the farm's financial position. The supply‐managed milk marketing system ensures higher and more stable returns for Ontario dairy farm labor. In contrast, it is family demographics, educational level and social support policy that appears to largely influence spousal off‐farm employment decisions. Free medical care in Ontario lowers the reservation wage for household members. The effect of these farm and social support policies on the relative returns to labor in agriculture and non‐farm employment explains the lower participation rate and hours supplied in off‐farm work by both operators, and hours supplied in off‐farm work by both operators and spouses in Ontario dairy farm household.
Impacts of price and exchange rate policies on pesticide use in the Philippines
Authors: Tjornhom Jessica D. , Norton George W. , Gapud Victor 
Published: January 2020

AbstractPesticide prices can influence producer decisions to apply pesticides as opposed to nonchemical means of pest control. Those prices are are turn influenced by price and exchange rate policies. The effective rate of protection for nine pesticides commonly applied to vegetables in the Philippines was calculated to determine whether government policies are creating incentives or disincentives to adopt more integrated pest management methods. Calculations found that direct price policies, primarily through an import tariff, tax pesticide use while an overvalued exchange rate subsidizes pesticide use. The net effect is a 6 to 8% pesticide subsidy. This subsidy results in economic surplus gains to vegetable producers and consumers when negative externalities associated with pesticide use are not accounted for. However, recent analysis of human health effects of pesticide use on rice in the Philippines demonstrates that these externalities can be substantial.
Resource degradation and adoption of land conservation technologies in the Ethiopian Highlands: A case study in Andit Tid, North Shewa
Authors: Shiferaw Bekelc , Holden Stein T. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis paper reports results from a study of resource degradation and conservation behavior of peasant households in a degraded part of the Ethiopian highlands. Peasant households' choice of conservation technologies is modeled as a two‐stage process: recognition of the erosion problem, and adoption and level of use of control practices. An ordinal logit model is used to explain parcel‐level perception of the threat of the erosion problem and the extent of use of conservation practices. Results show the importance of perception of the threat of soil erosion, household, land and farm characteristics; perception of technology‐specific attributes, and land quality differentials in shaping conservation decisions of peasants. Furthermore, where poverty is widespread and appropriate support policies are lacking, results indicate that population pressure per se is unable to encourage sustainable land use. The challenge of breaking the poverty‐environment trap and initiating sustainable intensification thus require policy incentives and technologies that confer short‐term benefits to the poor while conserving the resource base.
Policy and competitiveness of agroforestry‐based technologies for maize production in Cameroon: An application of policy analysis matrix
Authors: Adesina Akinwumi A. , Coulibaly Ousmane N. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractQuestions have been raised about the ecological consequences and economic sustainability of exclusive reliance on chemical fertilizers for the rapidly expanding maize production across sub‐Saharan Africa. Alternative agroforestry‐based natural resource management technologies have been developed for farmers. This paper applies the policy analysis matrix (PAM) to analyze the social profitability of agroforestry‐based technologies for maize production in the highland savanna zone of Cameroon, and the impacts of policy shifts on the financial competitiveness of maize production under these technologies. The paper shows that maize production under agroforestry‐based systems has high comparative advantage.
Agricultural productivity in developing countries
Authors: Fulginiti Lilyan E. , Perrin Richard K. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis paper examines changes in agricultural productivity in 18 developing countries over the period 1961–1985. We use a nonparametric, output‐based Malmquist index and a parametric variable coefficients Cobb‐Douglas production function to examine, whether our estimates confirm results from, other studies that have indicated declining agricultural productivity in LDCs. The results confirm previous findings, indicating that at least half of these countries have experienced productivity declines in agriculture.
Determinants of farmers' indigenous soil and water conservation investments in semi‐arid India
Authors: Pender John L. , Kerr John M. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis paper investigates the determinants of farmers' indigenous soil and water conservation investments in the semi‐arid tropics of India. A simple theoretical model is used to develop hypotheses about the determinants of investment under alternative factor market conditions, and these are tested using data on conservation investment from three villages. We find that conservation investment is significantly lower on leased land in two of the study villages and lower on plots that are subject to sales restrictions in one village, suggesting the potential for land market reforms to increase conservation investment. In one village, households with more adult males, more farm servants, and less land invest more in conservation, as predicted by Ihe model of imperfect labor markets; and households with more debt and off‐farm income invest more, consistent with the model of imperfect credit markets. Evidence that conservation investment is affected by factor market imperfections is weaker in the other villages, where investments are much larger, suggesting transaction costs as the source of the differences between villages. Other factors that have a significant effect on investment include the farmer's education and caste, characteristics of the plot (size, slope, irrigation status, and quality ranking) and the presence of existing land investments. The results suggest the importance of accounting for differences across communities and households in factor market and agroelimatic conditions in designing programs to promote investments in soil and water conservation.
Market access by smallholder farmers in Malawi: implications for technology adoption, agricultural productivity and crop income
Authors: Zeller Manfred , Diagne Aliou , Mataya Charles 
Published: January 2020

AbstractIn Malawi, maize is the major crop and food staple. Given limited off‐farm employment opportunities, much‐needed increases in household income for improving food security must come from gains in agricultural productivity through better technology and more profitable crops. In the past, hybrid maize and more recently, tobacco were promoted by policy for increasing smallholder income. An analysis of determinants of adoption of these two crops and related income effects is presented. Apart from factor endowment and exposure to agroecological risks, differences in the household's access to financial and commodity markets significantly influence its cropping shares and farm income.
Adoption of new tobacco varieties in Greece: Impacts of empirical findings on policy design
Authors: Dimara Efthalia , Skuras Dimitrios 
Published: January 2020

AbstractGreece is a major international tobacco producer. Flue‐cured tobacco varieties constituted the major alternative crop to Greek farmers growing certain oriental tobacco varieties. Diffusion of flue‐cured tobacco was rapid due to its high yields and the depressed market for certain oriental tobacco varieties. Currently, the common organisation of the tobacco market is undergoing substantial changes, and the farmers' response will be a vital factor of success. A portfolio selection model reveals that the major factors influencing the adoption decision of tobacco growers are the size of the farm measured in annual work units, the farm's proximity to urban centres, the farm's diversification and the farmer's age. The number of contacts with institutions is, surprisingly, inversely related to adoption. Future tobacco policies impinging on factors influencing decisions to adopt new varieties or production practices may be more cost‐effective.