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NEP: New Economics Papers
Agricultural Economics
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Edited by: Angelo Zago
Universita degli Studi di Verona
Date: 2005-02-13
Papers: 21
This document is in the public domain, feel free to circulate it.
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In this issue we have:
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1. Regulating Between National Fears and Global Disciplines:
Agricultural Biotechnology in the EU
Gregory Shaffer; Mark Pollack
2. Bridging research, policy, and practice in African agriculture
Omamo, Steven Were
3. Strategic analysis and knowledge support systems for rural
development strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Johnson, Michael; Resnick, Danielle
4. The importance of public investment for reducing rural
poverty in middle-income countries
Fan, Shenggen; Jitsuchon, Somchai; Methakunnavut, Nuntaporn
5. Smallholder African agriculture
Resnick, Danielle
6. International exchange of genetic resources, the role of
information and implications for ownership
Rubenstein, Kelly Day; Smale, Melinda
7. Dairy development in Ethiopia
Mohamed A. M. Ahmed; Ehui, Simeon; Yemesrach, Assefa
8. Spatial patterns of crop yields in Latin America and the
Caribbean
Wood, Stanley; You, Liangzhi; Zhang, Xiaobo
9. Assessing the spatial distribution of crop production using a
cross-entropy method
You, Liangzhi; Wood, Stanley
10. Water allocation policies for the Dong Nai River Basin in
Vietnam
Ringler, Claudia; Vu Huy, Nguyen
11. Assets at marriage in rural Ethiopia
Fafchamps, Marcel; Quisumbing, Agnes R.
12. Evidence and implications of non-tradability of food staples
in Tanzania 1983-1998
Delgado, Christopher; Minot, Nicholas; Tiongco, Marites
13. Are horticultural exports a replicable success story?
Minot, Nicholas; Ngigi, Margaret
14. Producer Support Estimates (PSEs) for agriculture in
developing countries
Mullen, Kathleen; Sun, Dongsheng; Orden, David; Gulati,
Ashok
15. Domestic support to agriculture in the European Union and
the United States
Gopinath, Munisamy; Mullen, Kathleen; Gulati, Ashok
16. Post-Uruguay Round price linkages between developed and
developing countries
Yavapolkul, Navin; Gopinath, Munisamy; Gulati, Ashok
17. Agricultural diversification in India and role of
urbanization
Rao, P. Parthasarathy; Birthal, P. S.; Joshi, P. K.; Kar, D.
18. Agricultural policies in Indonesia
Thomas, Marcelle; Orden, David
19. Agricultural policies in Vietnam
Nguyen, Hoa; Grote, Ulrike
20. "It pays to be green" - a premature conclusion?
Kjetil Telle, Iulie Aslaksen and Terje Synnestvedt
21. Environmental risk and the precautionary principle. ?Late
lessons from early warnings? applied to genetically
modified plants
Iulie Aslaksen, Bent Natvig and Inger Nordal
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1. Regulating Between National Fears and Global Disciplines:
Agricultural Biotechnology in the EU
Gregory Shaffer
Mark Pollack
In this paper, we develop three interrelated arguments about the
nature of GMO regulation and the challenges that it poses to the
European Union (EU). First, we highlight the inherently multi-
sectoral nature of GMO regulation, which links together the
internal market with industrial policy, research and
technological development, environmental policy, food safety,
agriculture, and international trade. As a multi-sectoral issue,
the regulation of GMOs raises the challenge of coordinating
policymaking horizontally among a large number of public and
private actors with diverse perspectives about the aims and the
content of EU regulation. Second, we emphasize the multi-level
nature of the process, which involves overlapping and sometimes
conflicting regulations promulgated at the national,
supranational/EU, and international levels. As such, EU policy
has faced sharp political and legal challenges both from below (
in the form of national revolts against the licensing of
individual GM foods and crops) and from above (in the form of
challenges from other countries within the World Trade
Organization, or WTO). Third, the regulation of GM foods and
crops is an instance of a broader category of ?risk regulation,
? in which government actors are called upon to adopt
regulations about the acceptable degree of risk posed to society
by products or industrial processes. Such decisions about risk
regulation ? including the regulation of GMOs ? not only
mobilize diverse interest groups, they also raise fundamental
normative questions about the degree of risk judged to be
acceptable to society, as well as about the roles of science and
politics in the regulation of risk under uncertainty. As such,
risk regulation raises fundamental questions of the legitimacy of
decision-making at different levels of government, and, in
particular, for our case, at the supranational level of EU
institutions.
Date: 2004-12-12
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:jeanmo:p0163&r=agr
2. Bridging research, policy, and practice in African agriculture
Omamo, Steven Were
"Policy research on African agriculture is long on prescriptions
for what needs to be done to spur agricultural growth but short
on how such prescriptions might be implemented in practice. What
explains this state of affairs? What might be done to correct it,
and, most important, how? This paper addresses these questions
via a comprehensive review and assessment of the literature on
the role and impact of research in policy processes. Six major
schools of thought are identified: the rational model; pragmatism
under bounded rationality; innovation diffusion; knowledge
management; impact assessment; and evidence-based-practice. The
rational model with its underlying metaphor of a 'policy cycle'
comprising problem definition and agenda setting, formal decision
making, policy implementation, evaluation, and then back to
problem definition and agenda setting, and so on has been
criticized as too simplistic and unrealistic. Yet it remains the
dominant framework guiding attempts to bridge gaps between
researchers and policy makers. Each of the other five schools
relaxes certain assumptions embedded within the rational model e.
g., wholly rational policy makers, procedural certainty, well-
defined research questions, well-defined user groups, welldefined
channels of communication. In so doing, they achieve greater
realism but at the cost of clarity and tractability. A unified
portable framework representing all policy processes and
capturing all possible choices and tradeoffs faced in bridging
research, policy, and practice does not currently exist and is
unlikely ever to emerge. Its absence is a logical outcome of the
context-specificity and social embeddedness of knowledge. A
fundamental shift in focus from a 'researcher-as-disseminator'
paradigm to a 'practitioner-as-learner' paradigm is suggested by
the literature, featuring contingent approaches that recognize
and respond to context-specificity and social embeddedness. At
bottom, the issue is how to promote 'evidence-readiness' among
inherently conservative and pragmatic policy makers and
practitioners and 'user-readiness' among inherently abstraction-
oriented researchers." Author's Abstract
Keywords: Policy research ,Agriculture Africa ,Agricultural
growth ,Research Methodology ,Knowledge management ,
evaluation ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:dsgddp:10&r=agr
3. Strategic analysis and knowledge support systems for rural
development strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Johnson, Michael
Resnick, Danielle
"While greater growth in agriculture and the broader rural
sector is crucial for ameliorating Africa's high levels of
poverty and malnutrition, developing strategies to achieve these
objectives is hindered by a number of factors, including the
broad array of interventions needed, the lack of accurate data,
and dearth of trained local policy analysts. As such, this paper
proposes a Strategic Analysis Knowledge Support System (SAKSS) in
which data, tools, and knowledge are compiled, analyzed, and
disseminated for the purposes of identifying a set of priority
investment and policy options to promote agricultural growth and
rural development. These analyses can in turn help inform the
broader process of designing, implementing, and monitoring and
evaluating a country's rural development strategy. In order to be
an influential and sustainable part of this process and become a
genuine "knowledge system," SAKSS will need to be established
with an awareness of each country s development priorities and
unique political, social, and economic context. By
institutionalizing SAKSS through a network structure that
includes government ministries, research institutions,
universities, regional organizations, non-governmental
organizations, and donors, SAKSS can become not only more
relevant and legitimate for its intended end-users but also help
strengthen local analytical capacity to inform the policy debate
on future development strategies and outcomes." Authors' Abstract
Keywords: Agricultural growth ,Strategic analysis ,Development
policies Africa, Sub-Saharan ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:dsgddp:14&r=agr
4. The importance of public investment for reducing rural
poverty in middle-income countries
Fan, Shenggen
Jitsuchon, Somchai
Methakunnavut, Nuntaporn
This study estimates the impacts of different types of
government expenditure on agricultural growth and rural poverty
in Thailand. The results show that, despite Thailand's middle-
income status, public investments in agricultural R&D, irrigation,
rural education, and infrastructure (including roads and
electricity), still have positive marginal impacts on
agricultural productivity growth and rural poverty reduction.
Additional government spending on agricultural research and
development improves agricultural productivity the most and has
the second largest impact on rural poverty reduction. Investments
in rural electrification reduce poverty the most and have the
second largest growth impact. These two investments dominate all
others and are win-win for growth and poverty reduction. Road
expenditure has the third largest impact on rural poverty
reduction, but only a modest and statistically insignificant
impact on agricultural productivity. Government spending on rural
education has only the fourth largest impact on poverty, but a
significant economic impact through improved agricultural
productivity. Irrigation investment has the smallest impact on
both rural poverty reduction and productivity growth in
agriculture. Additional investments in the Northeast region
contribute more to reducing poverty than investments in other
regions. This is because most of the poor are now concentrated in
the Northeast and it has suffered from under investment in the
past. The poverty reducing impacts of infrastructure investments,
such as electricity and roads, are particularly high in this
region. The growth impacts of many investments are also greatest
in the Northeast than in other regions, hence there is no evident
tradeoff between investments for growth and investments for
poverty reduction. Thailand is a middle-income country and it is
insightful to compare these results with similar studies
undertaken in low-income countries like India, China, and Uganda.
Some of the results are similar, for example, the high returns to
public investments in agricultural research and some kinds of
rural infrastructure arise in most countries because of the
inherent market failures associated with these types of public
goods. But others results are different. For example, the returns
to public investment in education in Thailand are quite low,
partly because of increasing private investment but also the
inappropriate composition of much public spending on education.
Within infrastructure, results from low-income countries often
show higher returns to road investments than telecommunications
and electricity. But in the case of Thailand, it is investment in
electricity that shows the highest return. Thailand has invested
heavily in rural roads and a dense road network has already been
built, suggesting that additional investment may yield
diminishing returns. Also, there has been significant investment
by the private sector in rural telecommunication, leading to a
much-reduced role for the public sector. This situation differs
from many low-income countries, especially in Africa, where the
private sector is still embryonic and the public sector must play
a dominant investment role for the foreseeable future.
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:dsgddp:7&r=agr
5. Smallholder African agriculture
Resnick, Danielle
In contrast to uniformly pessimistic assessments about Sub-
Saharan Africa's (hereafter Africa) ability to meet the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), this paper examines recent
trends in poverty, malnutrition, and growth to delineate where
the challenges are the greatest within the entire region and sub-
region and to highlight informative cases of success in specific
countries. The performance of agriculture, especially smallholder
agriculture, receives particular attention due to its role in
sustaining the livelihoods of a majority of Africa's poor. In
recent years, the importance of smallholder agriculture has been
greatly recognized, demonstrated by both African governments and
the donor community pledging to engage in the requisite
interventions for generating agricultural growth. By seizing on
this new enthusiasm and learning from case studies of smallholder
successes, agriculture could significantly contribute to Africa's
ability to meet the MDGs.
Keywords: Millenium Development goal ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:dsgddp:9&r=agr
6. International exchange of genetic resources, the role of
information and implications for ownership
Rubenstein, Kelly Day
Smale, Melinda
"Changing perceptions of resource ownership have altered
international exchange of genetic resources. After summarizing
the role of genebanks and issues related to property regimes,
this paper presents an empirical study of one of the largest
national genebanks, the U.S. National Germplasm System. The
demand for its genetic resources appears to be substantial, both
domestically and internationally. Utilization rates are higher
than suggested by past studies. The role of information in
enhancing the usefulness of NPGS resources is explored with an
econometric model that indicates that accompanying data make
germplasm more useful. U.S. requestors account for most of the
germplasm demanded, but developing countries appear to make
greater use of these resources, proportionally, in terms of
overall usefulness, secondary sharing, and the presence of useful
data. Demand for public germplasm is likely to increase in the
future, particularly from developing countries." Authors' Abstract
Keywords: Crop genetic resources ,Genebanks ,Germplasm
collection ,Genetic resource management ,Developing
countries ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:119&r=agr
7. Dairy development in Ethiopia
Mohamed A. M. Ahmed
Ehui, Simeon
Yemesrach, Assefa
Ethiopia holds large potential for dairy development due to its
large livestock population, the favorable climate for improved,
high-yielding animal breeds, and the relatively disease-free
environment for livestock. Given the considerable potential for
smallholder income and employment generation from high-value
dairy products, development of the dairy sector in Ethiopia can
contribute significantly to poverty alleviation and nutrition in
the country. Like other sectors of the economy, the dairy sector
in Ethiopia has passed through three phases or turning points,
following the economic and political policy in the country. In
the most recent phase, characterized by the transition towards
market-oriented economy, the dairy sector appears to be moving
towards a takeoff stage. Liberalized markets and private sector
investment and promotion of smallholder dairy are the main
features of this phase. Milk production during the 1990s expanded
at an annual rate of 3.0 percent compared to 1.63-1.66 percent
during the preceding three decades. Review of the development of
dairy sector in Ethiopia indicates that there is a need to focus
interventions more coherently. Development interventions should
be aimed at addressing both technological gaps and marketing
problems. Integration of crossbred cattle to the sector is
imperative for dairy development in the country. This can be
achieved either through promotion of large private investment to
introduce new technology in the sector such as improved genotypes,
feed and processing, and promotion of integration of crossbred
cattle into the smallholder sector through improving their access
to improved cattle breeds, AI service, veterinary service, and
credit. Similarly, government should also take the lead in
building infrastructure and providing technical service to
smallholders. Severe shortages, low quality and seasonal
unavailability of feed likewise remain as major constraints to
livestock production in Ethiopia. These constraints need to be
addressed and technological change be promoted to increase milk
production.
Keywords: Ethiopia ,Dairy products industry ,Livestock
productivity Ethiopia ,Africa sub-Saharan ,East Africa ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:123&r=agr
8. Spatial patterns of crop yields in Latin America and the
Caribbean
Wood, Stanley
You, Liangzhi
Zhang, Xiaobo
>From a theoretical perspective crop yields should tend to
converge over time and space as: growth in yield potential
exhibits diminishing returns; an increasing share of farmers
shift to using high yielding varieties (HYVs); barriers to the
free flow of knowledge and information are removed; and
significant investments continue to be made in supporting
institutions whose mandates include facilitating and accelerating
the cross-border flow of improved agricultural technologies.
Using a new, sub-national crop yield database for Latin America
and the Caribbean (LAC) we examine whether convergence is indeed
occurring, and discover it is not. On the contrary, there is
evidence of divergence. We test three hypotheses that might help
account for this finding: that technology generation has been
biased towards production in more-favored production systems
leaving behind persistent pockets of production in more marginal
lands; that rainfall patterns have changed in ways that
exacerbate yield divergence, and that technology spillover across
borders remains more problematic than within-country spillover.
We find evidence to support all three of these hypotheses.
Further work is needed to assess the relative importance of these
sources of yield divergence both across and within LAC. As
anticipated, rainfall variability is poorly linked to the
variability of irrigated crop yields, but more strongly linked to
variability in rainfed crops. The results suggest while some
countries and regions within countries forge ahead with crop
yield improvements there are many areas, often in smaller
countries, where the livelihoods of many farmers - and likely a
disproportionate share of LAC's rural poor - continue to be
constrained by low-productivity agriculture. There remains
significant work ahead for national governments and for publicly-
funded regional and international agricultural technology
institutions to remedy this situation.
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:124&r=agr
9. Assessing the spatial distribution of crop production using a
cross-entropy method
You, Liangzhi
Wood, Stanley
While agricultural production statistics are reported on a
geopolitical ? often national - basis we often need to know the
status of production or productivity within specific sub-regions,
watersheds, or agro-ecological zones. Such re-aggregations are
typically made using expert judgments or simple area-weighting
rules. We describe a new, entropy-based approach to making
spatially disaggregated assessments of the distribution of crop
production. Using this approach tabular crop production
statistics are blended judiciously with an array of other
secondary data to assess the production of specific crops within
individual ?pixels' ? typically 25 to 100 square kilometers
in size. The information utilized includes crop production
statistics, farming system characteristics, satellite-derived
land cover data, biophysical crop suitability assessments, and
population density. An application is presented in which
Brazilian state level production statistics are used to generate
pixel level crop production data for eight crops. To validate the
spatial allocation we aggregated the pixel estimates to obtain
synthetic estimates of municipio level production in Brazil, and
compared those estimates with actual municipio statistics. The
approach produced extremely promising results. We then examined
the robustness of these results compared to short-cut approaches
to spatializing crop production statistics and showed that, while
computationally intensive, the cross-entropy method does provide
more reliable estimates of crop production patterns.
Keywords: Entropy ,Cross entropy ,Remote sensing ,Spatial
allocation ,Crop distribution ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:126&r=agr
10. Water allocation policies for the Dong Nai River Basin in
Vietnam
Ringler, Claudia
Vu Huy, Nguyen
Recent water sector reforms, increased scarcity and
vulnerability of existing water resources, combined with
declining public funding available for large-scale infrastructure
investment in the sector have led to an increased awareness by
the Government of Vietnam for the need to analyze water resource
allocation and use in an integrated fashion, at the basin scale,
and from an economic efficiency perspective. This paper presents
the development, application, and results from an integrated
economic-hydrologic river basin model for the Dong Nai River
Basin in southern Vietnam that attempts to address these issues.
The model framework takes into account the sectoral structure of
water users (agriculture, industry, hydropower, households, and
the environment), the location of water-using regions, and the
institutions for water allocation in the basin. Water benefit
functions are developed for the major water uses subject to
physical, system control, and policy constraints. Based on this
modeling framework, policies that can affect water allocation and
use at the basin level, including both basin-specific and general
macroeconomic policies, are analyzed.
Keywords: River basin model ,water allocation policy ,integrated
assessment ,Vietnam ,Dong Nai basin ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:127&r=agr
11. Assets at marriage in rural Ethiopia
Fafchamps, Marcel
Quisumbing, Agnes R.
"This paper contributes to the economic analysis of marriage and
the family by examining and analyzing the relative importance of
potential determinants of assets brought to marriages in rural
Ethiopia. One potential determinant is assortative matching,
whereby the rich marry the rich and the poor marry the poor,
generating a positive correlation between assets brought to
marriage by both spouses. Another determinant explored is
compensating parental transfers at marriage, whereby parents
reduce assets transferred to their marrying children if their
spouses bring more. The third determinant analyzed is parents'
strategic behavior to improve the marriage-market ranking of
their children by transferring more assets to them at the time of
marriage." from Text
Keywords: Intrahousehold allocation ,Intergenerational transfers
Marriage market ,Inheritance ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fcnddp:185&r=agr
12. Evidence and implications of non-tradability of food staples
in Tanzania 1983-1998
Delgado, Christopher
Minot, Nicholas
Tiongco, Marites
"Economic reform programs assume that major goods are tradable,
such that depreciation of the real exchange rate raises the value
of output compared to factor costs in domestic currency. In
Tanzania, major food staples that account for most real income
are non-tradables in at least one-quarter of the country. This is
demonstrated and implications assessed for the constraints
imposed on macroeconomic-led adjustment strategies." Author's
Abstract
Keywords: Food staples ,Food prices ,Tradable goods ,Non-
tradable goods ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:72&r=agr
13. Are horticultural exports a replicable success story?
Minot, Nicholas
Ngigi, Margaret
Kenyan horticultural exports are often cited as a success story
in African agriculture. Fruit and vegetable exports from C?te
'Ivoire have received less attention, but the export value is
similar to that of Kenya. This paper focuses on three questions.
First, do the horticultural sectors of Kenya and C?te d'Ivoire
constitute valid success stories? Second, what factors have
contributed to the success (or lack thereof)? And third, to what
degree can the success be replicated in other African countries?
The paper finds that Kenyan horticultural exports are indeed a
success story: horticulture has become the third largest earner
of foreign exchange, more than half the exports are produced by
smallholders, and smallholders gain from producing for the export
market. At the same time, the total number of smallholders
producing for export is relatively small, and trends in European
retailing may shift the advantage to larger producers. C?te
d'Ivoire is not as clearly a success story because the most of
the exports are produced on large industrial estates and because
growth has been uneven. Ivorian exports rely on preferential
access to European markets relative to Latin American exporters,
raising doubts about sustainability. Factors in the growth and
success of horticultural exports include a realistic exchange
rate, stable policies, a good investment climate, competitive
international transport connections, institutional, and social
links with markets in Europe, and continual experimentation with
the market institutions to link farmers and exporters.
Smallholder participation is encouraged by farmer training and
extension schemes, investment in small-scale irrigation, and
assistance in establishing links with exporters. Many of the
lessons of Kenyan horticulture can be applied elsewhere in Africa.
Indeed, Kenya faces increasing competition from neighboring
countries trying to replicate its success. At the same time,
market institutions take time to develop, and demand constraints
probably prevent other African countries from achieving the same
level of success as Kenya.
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:73&r=agr
14. Producer Support Estimates (PSEs) for agriculture in
developing countries
Mullen, Kathleen
Sun, Dongsheng
Orden, David
Gulati, Ashok
In many developing countries, governments rely on price-based
measures (including border protection and subsidies on inputs and
outputs) more than on budgetary payments to achieve agricultural
policy objectives defined to include price stabilization or food
self-sufficiency. Assessing the effects of these price-based
measures is thus important to evaluating whether agriculture is
being protected or disprotected by commodity or in the aggregate.
This aspect of producer support estimates (PSEs) is simple to
describe conceptually but difficult to evaluate well empirically.
Developing countries may face higher international transport and
port costs for imports and exports than developed countries or
may have substantial internal handling, transportation and
processing costs. Separating these structural effects on farmers
from agricultural policy effects that drive a wedge between the
domestic farmgate price and an adjusted international reference
price requires extensive data and judgments. In this paper, we
describe the PSE measurement issues and illustrate their
importance. We estimate product-specific market price support,
budget expenditures and PSEs for three important agricultural
commodities (wheat, rice and corn) in India (1985-2002), using
representative disaggregated state-level results, and for five
commodities (wheat, rice, corn, soybeans and sugar) in China (
1995-2001). The results for India suggest that ignoring factors
such as internal transport costs, marketing margins and quality
differences can result in inaccurate price support estimates and
PSEs that may be of the wrong sign. We also explore how relaxing
or changing certain standard PSE assumptions (such as altering
the ?scaling up? procedure or computing the PSE as a
percentage of value of production at world reference prices) can
have large impacts on the results. Finally, for commodities that
are near self-sufficiency, we follow Byerlee and Morris (1993)
and define a relevant adjusted reference price based on the
relationship between an estimated autarky price and the import
and export prices. We discuss this procedure and use the
resulting reference prices to compute the market price support
component of the PSE for India. Based on our three-commodity PSEs
for India, support is largely counter-cyclical, rising when world
prices are low (as in the late 1980s and 1990s) and falling when
world prices strengthen (as in the mid 1990s). From our more
preliminary five-commodity PSE estimates for China, a trend
decline in disprotection is more evident. Further research is
needed to confirm and elaborate on these results.
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:74&r=agr
15. Domestic support to agriculture in the European Union and
the United States
Gopinath, Munisamy
Mullen, Kathleen
Gulati, Ashok
In this study, we outline the farm policy changes in the
European Union, EU, and the United States, US, since 1996 and
compare their levels of support under various policies. The
producer support estimates for the EU are more than twice that of
the US, although the value of EU agricultural production is only
30% more than the US production value. In the EU, reductions in
the intervention (support) prices for cereals, oilseeds and beef
sector have been compensated by increased direct payments, i.e.,
payments based on historical acreage and yield or animal head
counts. In 1996, the US eliminated target prices and deficiency
payments for major crops, and acreage set-sides for supply
control. They have been replaced with fixed and emergency
payments. However price floors (loan rate with deficiency
payments) have been retained for major crops. The sugar and dairy
sector policies of the EU and the US have undergone few changes
since 1996....The initial EU and US agricultural proposals for
the Doha round focused on reducing market access barriers and
export subsidies, but refrained from limiting domestic support
measures. Developing countries' effective opposition to these
proposals led to the collapse of the 2003 WTO Ministerial Meeting
at Cancun, Mexico. The recently announced Doha Work Program
proposes complete elimination of export subsidies and significant
reductions in market access barriers. In the case of domestic
support, developing countries' views such as the reductions in
product and non-product specific de minimis provisions, and the
criteria for blue box payments are reflected in the proposal. At
the same time, developed countries' views on the continued
placement of direct payments in either blue or green box have
been included in the proposal. However, agreement on the extent
of reductions and the specific modalities is expected in the next
16 months. The final agreement, scheduled for presentation to
members at the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference in December
2005, likely depends on whether or not the new proposals and
their modalities would result in meaningful limits on domestic
support.
Keywords: Agricultural price supports ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:75&r=agr
16. Post-Uruguay Round price linkages between developed and
developing countries
Yavapolkul, Navin
Gopinath, Munisamy
Gulati, Ashok
The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture attempted to lower
distortions in the global agricultural markets. However, the
significant fall in commodity prices in late 1990s may have
reduced the incentives for both developed and developing
countries to better integrate into the world markets. This study
analyzes price linkages and adjustment between developed and
developing countries during the post-Uruguay Round period. Prices
of two key commodity markets, long-grain rice and medium-hard
wheat, are assembled for major exporters and producers. Results
from the multivariate cointegration analysis suggest partial
market integration between developed and developing countries in
the post-Uruguay Round period. Developed countries are found to
be price leaders in these two markets, and in most cases, the
changes in their prices have relatively large impacts on those of
the developing countries. The new entrants into world markets (
Vietnam and Argentina) have faced considerable price adjustment
due to changes in the developed countries' prices.
Keywords: Price linkages ,Wheat markets ,Rice markets ,Uruguay
Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) ,Doha
Developmental Round of the World Trade Organization (
WTO) ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:76&r=agr
17. Agricultural diversification in India and role of
urbanization
Rao, P. Parthasarathy
Birthal, P. S.
Joshi, P. K.
Kar, D.
Indian agriculture is diversifying during the last two decades
towards High-Value Commodities (HVCs) i.e., fruits, vegetables,
milk, meat, and fish products. The pace has been accelerated
during the decade of 1990s. HVCs account for a large share in the
total value of agricultural production. Supply and demand side
factors coupled with infrastructural development and innovative
institutions drive these changes. In this paper, the focus is on
diversification towards HVCs in the context of urbanization.
Group of urban districts (districts with >1.5 million urban
population) have a higher share of HVCs compared to the urban-
surrounded (near urban districts) and other districts (districts
in the hinterland). Among the HVCs, vegetables and meat products
have a higher share in urban districts compared to the other two
groups. Milk production is more widespread due to excellent
network of co-operatives and infrastructure facilities. Using GIS
geographic Information System) approach it was found that urban-
surrounded districts with better road network connection to urban
centers have been able to diversify towards HVC's to meet the
demand in the urban centers. Model results further confirm these
findings. Thus, urbanization is a strong demand side driver
promoting HVCs. Since urban population is growing at more than 3%
per annum, demand for HVCs will drive their production. The
analysis has also brought out regional variations in HVCs across
different districts in the country that has implications on
regional development and planning, and consequently on public and
private sector investment strategies.
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:77&r=agr
18. Agricultural policies in Indonesia
Thomas, Marcelle
Orden, David
As in many other developing countries, the concerns about food
security in Indonesia during the 1980s and early 1990s resulted
in policies aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in food crops.
The Government of Indonesia (GOI) combined price interventions
and economic incentives to encourage agricultural production,
especially of the staple crops. From 1985 to 1998, Indonesia
started a series of domestic and trade reforms emanating from a
combination of unilateral undertakings, the country's commitments
to the WTO, and the government's agreement with the IMF following
the 1997/98 financial crisis. This study computes nominal
protection rates and producer support estimates (NPR and PSE) for
Indonesia for the period 1985-2003 for six agricultural
commodities, rice, maize, sugar, soybeans, crude palm oil, and
natural rubber (representing more than two-thirds of Indonesian
agricultural output) in an attempt to quantify the net effects of
these policies. The NPRs and PSEs computed for Indonesia show
that in spite of the reforms, the GOI has protected its
agriculture over the past twenty years, although not uniformly
across commodities. Although the reforms went a long way in
reducing trade and domestic regulations on agricultural products,
the study results demonstrate a return to protection for some
commodities in recent years.
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:78&r=agr
19. Agricultural policies in Vietnam
Nguyen, Hoa
Grote, Ulrike
Since 1986, Vietnam started to move from a centrally-planned
towards a market-oriented system. It underwent several major
economic and trade reforms ? a process which is still not
completed. At the same time, it also started to open its economy.
Vietnam has become a member of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (
AFTA), signed several bilateral trade agreements and is currently
negotiating accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
First positive results of the reform process became visible in
the early 1990s when poverty declined to a large extent. Since
then, the Vietnamese agricultural sector has also experienced
high growth and impressive export achievements. The country
changed from a food importer to one of the major exporters
worldwide. The question arises to what extent support policies
contributed to this growth, especially of the agricultural sector.
In order to answer this question, domestic and trade policies in
the agricultural sector are analysed and the market price support
MPS) and producer support estimates (PSEs) are calculated. To
account for the special conditions in Vietnam, the MPS and PSEs
are adjusted for country- and commodity-specific factors like
transportation costs, marketing margins and the quality
difference of exportables (or importables) at the border and
domestically. The selected agricultural commodities for which the
MPS and PSEs are estimated include rice, coffee, tea, rubber,
pepper, sugar, groundnut, cashew nut and pig meat. These nine
commodities are the main agricultural products and exportables of
Vietnam. Their shares in total output exceed 70% allowing for a
generalization of the calculated PSEs, thus roughly representing
the whole agricultural sector. The finding is that most
agricultural products were taxed in the mid 1980s until the mid
1990s. This was often due to large inefficiencies in the
production and processing of agricultural commodities, the
dominance and monopoly position of the state-owned sector,
restrictive trade policies like import and export quotas and
licenses, and distorted markets and prices in the country. The
domestic reform process, the opening of the economy since the
early 1990s, and the shift from an import-substitution strategy
towards export-promotion, however, impacted on the gaps between
the domestic and international prices. Thus, since the mid 1990s,
the support of agriculture increased - but still reaching only
rather low levels. At its peak, the %PSE for the agricultural
sector was 24.2% which is moderate compared with other countries.
The low level of protection implies that Vietnam may not face
excessive difficulties in its further international integration.
This study of Vietnam is the third comprehensive review conducted
within an IFPRI project on understanding and assessing domestic
and trade policies in the agricultural sector in developing
countries. The data are meant to deliver a basis for further
trade-related research to be conducted in the future.
Keywords: Agricultural policies ,Markets ,Free trade ,Trade
agreements ,World Trade Organization ,Poverty ,
Date: 2004
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:79&r=agr
20. "It pays to be green" - a premature conclusion?
Kjetil Telle, Iulie Aslaksen and Terje Synnestvedt (
Statistics Norway)
It has been claimed that good environmental performance can
improve firms? economic performance. However, because of e.g.
data limitations, the methods applied in most previous
quantitative empirical studies of the relationship between
environmental and economic performance of firms suffer from
several shortcomings. We discuss these shortcomings and conclude
that previously applied methods are unsatisfactory as support for
a conclusion that it pays for firms to be green. Then we
illustrate the effects of these shortcomings by performing
several regression analyses of the relationship between
environmental and economic performance using a panel data set of
Norwegian plants. A simple correlation analysis confirms the
positive association between our measures of environmental and
economic performance. The result prevails when we control for
firm characteristics like e.g. size or sub-industry in a pooled
regression. However, the result could still be biased by omitted
unobserved variables like management or technology. When we
control for unobserved plant specific characteristics in a panel
regression, the effect is no longer statistically significant.
Hence, greener plants perform economically better, but the
analysis provides no support for the claim that it is because
they are greener. These empirical findings further indicate that
a conclusion that it pays to be green is premature.
Keywords: Economic performance; environmental performance;
environmental regulations; pays to be green
JEL: Q25 Q28 K23
Date: 2004-11
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:394&r=agr
21. Environmental risk and the precautionary principle. ?Late
lessons from early warnings? applied to genetically
modified plants
Iulie Aslaksen, Bent Natvig and Inger Nordal (Statistics
Norway)
The environmental risk associated with genetically modified
organisms (GMO) implies that new approaches to risk assessment,
risk management and risk communication are needed. In this paper
we discuss the role of the precautionary principle in policy
responses to GMO risk. We first discuss application of the
criteria in the European Environment Agency report ?Late
lessons from early warnings: The precautionary principle 1896-
2000? to environmental GMO risk, with focus on crop plants.
Moreover, we discuss Bayesian analysis in the context of
improving the informational basis for decision making under
uncertainty. Finally, environmental uncertainties are intertwined
with economic uncertainties. Providing incentives for improved
risk assessment, risk management and risk communication is
crucial for enhancing social and environmental responsibility and
thereby facilitate implementation of precautionary approaches. We
discuss ethical screening of companies as an example of how such
incentives can be provided.
Keywords: Environmental risk; precautionary principle; Bayesian
analysis; genetically modified organisms.
JEL: D81 Q20 Q50
Date: 2004-12
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:398&r=agr
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