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NEP: New Economics Papers
Agricultural Economics
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Edited by: Angelo Zago
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pza49.html
Universita degli Studi di Verona
Date: 2006-10-14
Papers: 29
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. Combining revealed and stated preference methods to assess
the private value of agrobiodiversity in Hungarian home
gardens:
Birol, Ekin; Kontoleon, Andreas; Smale, Melinda
2. Occupational health hazards of agriculture: understanding the
links between agriculture and health
Cole, Donald
3. Farmer management of production risk on degraded lands: the
role of wheat genetic diversity in Tigray Region, Ethiopia
Di Falco, Salvatore; Chavas, Jean-Paul; Smale, Melinda
4. Agriculture, food safety, and foodborne diseases:
understanding the links between agriculture and health
Todd, Ewen C. D.; Narrod, Clare
5. A hedonic approach to estimating the supply of variety
attributes of a subsistence crop:
Edmeades, Svetlana
6. Overview: understanding the links between agriculture and
health
Hawkes, Corinna; Ruel, Marie T.
7. Conflict, food insecurity, and globalization:
Messer, Ellen; Cohen, Marc J.
8. Removing border protection on wheat and rice: effects on
rural income and food securities in China
Yinhua Mai
9. Urban agriculture and health: understanding the links between
agriculture and health
Lee-Smith, Diana; Prain, Gordon
10. Agriculture and health in the policymaking process:
understanding the links between agriculture and health
Benson, Todd
11. An analysis of trade related international regulations of
genetically modified food and their effects on developing
countries:
Gru?re, Guillaume P.
12. Economies of Scale in the Canadian Food Processing Industry
Gervais, Jean-Philippe; Bonroy, Olivier; Couture, Steve
13. The Impact of Access to Credit on the Adoption of hybrid
maize in Malawi: An Empirical test of an Agricultural
Household Model under credit market failure
Simtowe, Franklin; Zeller, Manfred
14. Fish and health: understanding the links between agriculture
and health
Roos, Nanna; Wahab, Md. Abdul; Chamnan, Chhoun; Haraksingh
Thilsted, Shakuntala
15. Philippine rice and rural poverty: an impact analysis of
market reform using CGE
Cororaton, Caesar B.
16. Policy distortions in the segmented rice market:
Rakotoarisoa, Manitra A.
17. Agriculture, Aggregation, Wage Gaps, and Cross-Country
Income Differences
Marla Ripoll; Juan Carlos Cordoba
18. Livestock and health: understanding the links between
agriculture and health
Catelo, Maria Angeles O.
19. A gap analysis of confined field trial application forms for
genetically modified crops in East Africa: evaluating the
potential for harmonization
Linacre, Nicholas A.; Cohen, Joel I.
20. An exploration of the potential benefits of integrated pest
management systems and the use of insect resistant potatoes
to control the Guatemalan Tuber Moth (Tecia solanivora
Povolny) in Ventaquemada, Colombia:
Falck Zepeda, Jos?; Barreto-Triana, Nancy; Baquero-
Haeberlin, Irma; Espitia-Malag?n, Eduardo; Fierro-Guzm?n,
Humberto; L?pez, Nancy
21. Food policy liberalization in Bangladesh: how the government
and the markets delivered
Chowdhury, Nuimuddin; Farid, Nasir; Roy, Devesh
22. Impacts of considering climate variability on investment
decisions in Ethiopia:
Block, Paul J.; Strzepek, Kenneth; Rosegrant, Mark W.; Diao,
Xinshen
23. Restructuring Uganda ' s coffee industry : why going back to
the basics matters
Baffes, John
24. Insights from poverty maps for development and food relief
program targeting: an application to Malawi
Benson, Todd
25. Enforcing ?Self-Enforcing? International Environmental
Agreements
David M. McEvoy; John K. Stranlund
26. Within and Between Group Variation of Individual Strategies
in Common Pool Resources: Evidence from Field Experiments
Maria Alejandra Velez; James J. Murphy; John K. Stranlund
27. Local seed systems for millet crops in marginal environments
of India: industry and policy perspectives
Nagarajan, Latha; Pardey, Philip G.; Smale, Melinda
28. Price-Based vs. Quantity-Based Environmental Regulation
under Knightian Uncertainty: An Info-Gap Robust Satisficing
Perspective
John K. Stranlund; Yakov Ben-Haim
29. Efficiency and distribution in contract farming: the case of
Indian poultry growers
Ramaswami, Bharat; Birthal, Pratap Singh; Joshi, P.K.
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1. Combining revealed and stated preference methods to assess
the private value of agrobiodiversity in Hungarian home
gardens:
Birol, Ekin
Kontoleon, Andreas
Smale, Melinda
" Hungarian home gardens are small-scale farms managed by farm
households using traditional management practices and family
labor. They generate private benefits for farmers by enhancing
diet quality and providing food when costs of transacting in
local markets are high. Home gardens also generate public
benefits for society by supporting long-term productivity
advances in agriculture. In this paper, we estimate the private
value to farmers of agrobiodiversity in home gardens. Building on
the approach presented in EPTD Discussion Paper 117 (2004), we
combine a stated preference approach (a choice experiment model)
and a revealed preference approach (a discrete-choice, farm
household model). Both models are based on random utility theory.
To combine the models, primary data were collected from the same
239 farm households in three regions of Hungary. Combining
approaches leads to a more efficient and robust estimation of the
private value of agrobiodiversity in home gardens. Findings can
be used to identify those farming communities, which would
benefit most from agri-environmental schemes that support
agrobiodiversity maintenance, at least public cost." Authors'
abstract
Keywords: Home gardens, Small-scale farmers, Diet quality,
Agricultural productivity, Agrobiodiversity, Household
surveys, Private value, Choice experiment model, Farm
household model, Revealed and stated preference methods,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:154&r=agr
2. Occupational health hazards of agriculture: understanding the
links between agriculture and health
Cole, Donald
"According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the
agricultural sector is one of the most hazardous to health
worldwide. Agricultural work possesses several characteristics
that are risky for health: exposure to the weather, close contact
with animals and plants, extensive use of chemical and biological
products, difficult working postures and lengthy hours, and use
of hazardous agricultural tools and machinery. This brief
outlines the occupational health hazards of agriculture, presents
a case study on the trade-offs between their health and economic
impacts, and proposes responses... To effect change, the
agriculture and health sectors should work together more closely.
The agricultural sector should develop and build on ways of
working with farmers to grow crops that promote healthier
cultivation practices and reduce exposure to hazards. Health-
sector staff, meanwhile, should document health problems and
identify the greatest hazards, help explain the health reasons
for such changes, and monitor changes in health with improved
production methods." From text
Keywords: Agriculture, Diseases, Sustainability, Environmental
management, Agricultural technology, Agriculture-health
linkages,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:2020br:13(8)&r=agr
3. Farmer management of production risk on degraded lands: the
role of wheat genetic diversity in Tigray Region, Ethiopia
Di Falco, Salvatore
Chavas, Jean-Paul
Smale, Melinda
"This paper investigates the effects of wheat genetic diversity
and land degradation on risk and agricultural productivity in
less favored production environments of a developing agricultural
economy. Drawing production data from household survey conducted
in the highlands of Ethiopia, we estimate a stochastic production
function to evaluate the effects of variety richness, land
degradation, and their interaction on the mean and the variance
of wheat yield. Ethiopia is a centre of diversity for durum wheat
and farmers manage complex variety mixtures on multiple plots.
Econometric evidence shows that variety richness increases farm
productivity. Variety richness also reduces yield variability but
only for high levels of genetic diversity. Simulations with
estimated parameters illustrate how planting more diverse durum
wheat varieties on multiple plots contributes to improving
farmer's welfare." Authors' abstract
Keywords: Land degradation, Wheat production, productivity, Risk,
Genetic diversity, Household surveys, Stochastic
analysis,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:153&r=agr
4. Agriculture, food safety, and foodborne diseases:
understanding the links between agriculture and health
Todd, Ewen C. D.
Narrod, Clare
"To improve the ability of farmers in developing countries to
reduce the burden of foodborne illness, government agencies need
to take the following steps: (1) Implement a farm-to-table
approach to agricultural health by focusing efforts on the
prevention of potential food safety and agricultural health
threats at all stages of the supply chain including production,
processing, marketing, and retailing. (2) Raise awareness among
decisionmakers, public servants, producers, traders, and
consumers about the potential sources of food safety problems and
ways to protect against such problems. (3) Encourage a multi-
stakeholder approach to improving public health. (4) Strengthen
surveillance and diagnostic capacity in all countries to improve
measurement of prevalence and detection of outbreaks. (5)
Strengthen risk analysis capacity to help decisionmakers in all
countries to set strategies and priorities, to consider the many
needs of the supply chain, and to increase their focus on the
preharvest stage. (6) Switch from command-control policies to
performance-based standards to meet national and international
food safety goals. Command-control policies are often less
flexible and have higher fixed costs, which may result in the
displacement of poor producers from the market. (7) Improve
infrastructure and access to cold storage facilities to ensure
the delivery of highly perishable foods to distant markets. (8)
Support efforts to improve supply chain management to improve
food safety along the whole supply chain." From text
Keywords: Agriculture-health linkages, Agriculture, Health and
nutrition, Agricultural technology, Food safety,
Diseases, Education, Supply chain management, Risk
analysis,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:2020br:13(5)&r=agr
5. A hedonic approach to estimating the supply of variety
attributes of a subsistence crop:
Edmeades, Svetlana
"The paper extends the household hedonic model, as a non-market
valuation tool, by estimating a supply function for variety
attributes of a subsistence crop in a developing country. The
model is applied to bananas in Uganda, making use of
disaggregated data on variety-specific farm-gate banana bunch
prices and attributes. The hedonic analysis is applied at the
farm-gate, the first link in the market chain, while accounting
for the semi-subsistence nature of banana producing households.
Within the framework of the agricultural household, where
consumption and production decisions are non-separable, prices
reflect the implicit marginal valuation of both consumption and
production attributes jointly. The paper is motivated by the need
to quantify the value of banana attributes in light of targeted
efforts for variety improvement. Whether variety improvement will
pay-off at the market level requires a more detailed examination
of the relative worth of banana attributes within the structure
of consumer preferences and production technologies related to
bananas in Uganda. By revealing important price-attribute
relationships, the findings provide guidance for future crop
improvement efforts and diversification choices, while taking
into account implicit market signals for output characteristics."
Author's Abstract
Keywords: small farms, Households Models, agricultural sector,
Crops Economic aspects, Crop diversification, Variety
attributes, Decision-making,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:148&r=agr
6. Overview: understanding the links between agriculture and
health
Hawkes, Corinna
Ruel, Marie T.
"Good health and productive agriculture are both essential in
the fight against poverty. In a rapidly changing world,
agriculture faces many challenges, both old (natural resource
constraints, extreme weather conditions, and agricultural pests)
and new (globalization, environmental degradation, problems of
maintaining production in conflict situations). At the same time,
new global health threats emerge, such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, and
avian influenza, while old ones persist. Not only do malaria,
tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, respiratory infection, and
malnutrition continue to take a heavy toll, but the health sector
is faced with increasing problems of chronic disease, drug and
insecticide resistance, and a diminishing arsenal of effective
interventions. And as the world becomes more integrated, so do
the agricultural and health problems the world faces... The
briefs in this series aim to communicate what is known about the
linkages between agriculture and health in science and policy,
thereby stimulating interest in and dialogue on agriculture and
health. With a focus on the poor in developing countries, the
briefs deal with the relationship between agricultural producers,
systems, and outputs and the world's leading causes of death and
disease. They examine the various trade-offs involved and set out
some of the approaches needed to create improved synergies
between the agricultural and health sectors." From text
Keywords: Agriculture, Agroforestry, Health and nutrition,
Agricultural technology, Food safety, Diseases,
Sustainability, Biodiversity, Agrobiodiversity,
Environmental management,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:2020br:13(1)&r=agr
7. Conflict, food insecurity, and globalization:
Messer, Ellen
Cohen, Marc J.
"For more than two centuries, proponents and critics of an open
global economy have debated whether the free flows of goods,
services, and capital make the world more peaceful and food
secure or instead exacerbate inequalities and hardships, fanning
interclass or interethnic violence motivated by grievance and
greed. Food security and pri-mary agricultural commodities have
been largely left out of these discussions; the authors begin to
fill these gaps... the paper recommends four agendas for further
food policy consideration: first, more attention to equitable
outcomes in food distribution and food production and trade
programs, so that such food security programs do not further
contribute to ethnic divisions favoring violence-prone grievance
and greed. Second, more careful scrutiny of national marketing
and financial policies that influence farmer and middlemen income,
and who benefits from agricultural export crops. Third, the
design of some type of compensation fund for sudden or certain
?losers? in globalization, who face loss of livelihood and
recruitment to violence when cash crops like coffee fail to
deliver expected livelihoods. Fourth, and in sum, more systematic
use of livelihood-security and rights-based frameworks that
address local-level food security in the context of national food
policy planning " from Text
Keywords: Hunger, Conflict, war, Globalization, Crops, exports,
coffee, Cotton, Human rights, Right to food, Fair trade,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fcndbr:206&r=agr
8. Removing border protection on wheat and rice: effects on
rural income and food securities in China
Yinhua Mai
In this paper, I use the Monash Multi-Country (MMC) model - a
dynamic CGE model of China, Australia and the Rest of the World -
to analyse the effects of removing border protection on wheat and
rice in China. The analysis points to the possibility that
removing border protection on wheat and rice may lead to an
increase in rural income in China. This is due mainly to the
following two factors. First, while removing border protection on
wheat and rice leads to a contraction in agricultural activities,
it also leads to an expansion in manufacturing and services
activities. Second, on average, rural households in China obtain
over half of their income from manufacturing and services
activities.
Keywords: China, Wheat and rice, CGE modelling, rural income
JEL: C68 F14 Q17
Date: 2006-05
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-160&r=agr
9. Urban agriculture and health: understanding the links between
agriculture and health
Lee-Smith, Diana
Prain, Gordon
"With half the world's population living in cities and towns,
many poor urban dwellers face problems gaining access to adequate
supplies of nutritionally balanced food. For many urban
populations, an important source of food is urban and peri-urban
agriculture (UPA). Production and processing of
crops?particularly horticultural crops?and livestock is
frequently part of urban and peri-urban livelihood strategies,
and the food produced forms a large part of informal sector
economic activity. This brief examines the benefits and problems
of UPA for the nutrition and health of poor urban and peri-urban
populations... An adequate health-impact assessment of urban
agriculture is still incomplete.Research questions remain
concerning the level of chronic disease risk posed by
contamination of urban food from air pollution, as well from
industrial effluents. Further assessment is needed of the health
risks of using biological wastes as fertilizer. Research
questions also remain regarding the infectious disease risks
posed by urban livestock keeping... Adequate waste treatment
systems and sanitation need to be provided to poor countries'
urban areas, but the technologies should be designed to capture
the nutrients in waste for increased food production. Control of
discharges into soil, air, and water by industries, whether large
factories or small kiosks, is likewise essential. Existing
environmental legislation needs to be made effective by proper
implementation through both community action and government
support in urban neighborhoods." From text
Keywords: Health and nutrition, Urban population, Nutritional
status, Urban agriculture, Peri-urban areas, Crop
production, Horticultural crops, livestock, Livelihoods,
Informal sector (Economics), Chronic diseases,
Fertilizers, Agriculture-health linkages, Sanitation,
environmental policies,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:2020br:13(13)&r=agr
10. Agriculture and health in the policymaking process:
understanding the links between agriculture and health
Benson, Todd
"Earlier briefs in this series make the case that there is added
value for the agricultural and health sectors in working more
closely together to address problems of human well-being that
fall at the intersection of the two sectors. Yet the divisions
between the two sectors are wide and difficult to bridge.
Building the space and providing sufficient incentives and
resources for collaborative activities between them will require
changes in government policy?itself not a straightforward
endeavor. Moreover, the sharp human and financial resource
constraints in developing countries compound the challenge. This
brief describes some of the important barriers to effective
collaboration between the two sectors and suggests ways to
overcome them. First, though, why does policy matter in this
context? Policy states how government intends to prioritize the
allocation of resources under its control for what is perceived
to be the best interest of society. Poor health and stagnant or
declining agricultural productivity are among the most
fundamental challenges to improved human welfare and economic
growth. Government has the responsibility for providing many of
the institutions, infrastructure, and resources ? key public
goods ? without which many farmers, in particular, will remain
unhealthy, unproductive, and mired in poverty. Thus the policies
and actions of government are a critical component in enabling
individuals, particularly in rural areas, to live healthier and
more productive lives." From text
Keywords: agricultural sector, Health services, Quality of life,
Government policy, Government spending policy, economic
growth, Public goods, Public health,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:2020br:13(15)&r=agr
11. An analysis of trade related international regulations of
genetically modified food and their effects on developing
countries:
Gru?re, Guillaume P.
"This paper reviews current trade?related regulations of
genetically modified (GM) food and discusses their effects on
developing countries. There is a large heterogeneity in current
import approval and marketing policies of GM food worldwide. At
the international level, the harmonization efforts are led by the
Codex Alimentarius Commission, the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety and the World Trade Organization. While internationally
harmonized guidelines for safety approval have been finalized, we
show that there is no clear consensus on labeling regulations for
GM food, and there is an increasing risk of conflicts among
international agreements. We analyze the GM food regulations of
two large rich importers, Japan and the European Union (EU) and
discuss their differences and their potential impact on
international trade. We also show that the effects of
international and domestic trade related regulations critically
depend on the type of traded products and their intended use:
food and unprocessed products are subject to more stringent
regulations than animal feed and processed products. Finally, we
identify the main spillover effects of national and international
regulations on developing countries' policy making, and suggest
four policy arrangements on GM food to enable developing
countries to satisfy production, consumption, international trade,
and risk management objectives simultaneously while complying
with their international obligations.
Keywords: Genetically modified food Developing countries,
Biosafety, Trade regulation, Labeling, International
trade, Tariff,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:147&r=agr
12. Economies of Scale in the Canadian Food Processing Industry
Gervais, Jean-Philippe
Bonroy, Olivier
Couture, Steve
Cost functions for three Canadian manufacturing agri-food
sectors (meat, bakery and dairy) are estimated using provincial
data from 1990 to 1999. A translog functional form is used and
the concavity property is imposed locally. The Morishima
substitution elasticities and returns to scale elasticities are
computed for different provinces. Inference is carried out using
asymptotic theory as well as bootstrap methods. In particular,
the ability of the double bootstrap to provide refinements in
inference is investigated. The evidence suggests that there are
significant substitution possibilities between the agricultural
input and other production factors in the meat and bakery sectors.
Scale elasticity parameters indicate that increasing returns to
scale are present in small bakery industries. While point
estimates suggest that increasing returns to scale exist at the
industry level in the meat sector, statistical inference cannot
rule the existence of decreasing returns to scale. To account for
supply management in the dairy sector, separability between raw
milk and the other inputs was introduced. There exists evidence
of increasing returns to scale at the industry level in the dairy
industries of Alberta and New Brunswick. The scale elasticity for
the two largest provinces (Ontario and Quebec) is greater than
one, but inference does not reject the null hypothesis of
increasing returns to scale.
Keywords: Translog cost function; Canadian food processing
industry; returns to scale; double bootstrap
JEL: C30 D24
Date: 2006-08
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64&r=agr
13. The Impact of Access to Credit on the Adoption of hybrid
maize in Malawi: An Empirical test of an Agricultural
Household Model under credit market failure
Simtowe, Franklin
Zeller, Manfred
A substantial amount of the literature has reported on the
impact of access to credit on technology adoption, and many
studies find that credit has a positive impact on adoption.
However, most existing studies have failed to explicitly measure
and analyze the amount of credit that farm households are able to
borrow and whether they are credit constrained or not. They
overlooked the fact that credit access can be a panacea for non-
adoption only if it is targeted at households that face binding
liquidity constraints. Guided by the frame work of a household
model under credit market failure, this paper aims at
investigating the impact of access to credit on the adoption of
hybrid maize among households that vary in their credit
constraints. The data used in the study is from Malawi collected
by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).Using
the direct elicitation approach, households are classified into
constrained and unconstrained regimes. We start by estimating the
probability of being credit constrained, followed by an
estimation of the impact of access to credit for the two
categories of households (credit constrained and unconstrained),
while accounting for selection bias. The impact of access to
credit is estimated using a switching regression in a Double-
Hurdle model. Results reveal that while access to credit
increases adoption among credit constrained households, it has no
effect among unconstrained households. Results also show that
factors that affect adoption among credit constrained households
are different from those that that affect adoption among
unconstrained household. Landholding size, for example, has
opposite effects on adoption in the two regimes of households.
The policy implication is that microfinance institutions should
consider scaling up their credit services to ensure that more
households benefit from it, and in so doing maize adoption will
be enhanced.
Keywords: credit constraints; double-hurdle; hybrid maize;
adoption; Malawi
JEL: Q12
Date: 2006-09-30
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45&r=agr
14. Fish and health: understanding the links between agriculture
and health
Roos, Nanna
Wahab, Md. Abdul
Chamnan, Chhoun
Haraksingh Thilsted, Shakuntala
"Fish production is an important source of livelihoods among the
world's poor, and fish consumption has long been known to have
nutritional benefits. The dynamics of the world's fisheries?and
fish consumption?are changing, bringing health-related
challenges. This brief describes the various links and the
challenges they present... The importance of fish for the health
of consumers and producers demands policy attention. For poor
riparian and coastal populations, national and local fisheries
management policies need to incorporate the need for access to
fish, especially nutrient-dense small fish species, and fisheries
by these groups. Thus, it is critical to develop and disseminate
sustainable aquaculture technologies that are suitable for
adoption by the rural poor, such as making use of rice paddies,
irrigation canals, and seasonal ponds to produce fish both for
sale and for consumption. In addition, aquaculture in these water
bodies can promote human health by controlling mosquitoes, and
thereby malaria, as well as snails that bear schistosomiasis
parasites. For growing urban populations, measures are needed to
increase fish intake as a means of curbing the rise of chronic
diseases. To cope with urban demand, intensification of
aquaculture is thought to be the way forward. This entails the
use of technologies (breeding, management, and biotechnology) to
raise productivity and requires large private and public sector
investments... [T]he overexploitation of fish and fisheries to
satisfy demand for fish consumption, fish meal, and fish oil and
to generate economic and income growth has resulted in serious
risks to the health and well-being of the poor, the environment,
wild fish stocks, the quality of fish, and the viability and
sustainability of the fisheries sector.
Keywords: Agriculture-health linkages, Health and nutrition,
Food safety, Sustainability, Environmental management,
Technology adoption, Chronic diseases, Urban population,
productivity,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:2020br:13(10)&r=agr
15. Philippine rice and rural poverty: an impact analysis of
market reform using CGE
Cororaton, Caesar B.
"This paper looks at how Philippine trade reform which consists
of tariff reduction and elimination of quantitative restrictions (
QR) on rice imports will affect poverty within two world trade
scenarios: Doha and free world trade. The impact of Doha is very
small and generates biased effects against agriculture. The
impact of Philippine trade reform within the Doha agenda
magnifies this biased effect, making rural households worse-off
compared to urban households. However, eliminating rice QR
generates a set of effects where consumer price reduction
dominates nominal income decline. Thus, real income improves and
poverty declines across household groups, but the net effects are
lower in rural than in urban households. The impact of a free
world trade economy is favorable in terms of higher export prices
and export demand for agriculture and agriculture-related
manufacturing industries. This mitigates the biased effects
against agriculture, and is therefore favorable to rural
households. However, if Philippine trade reform is added to the
analysis, the result switches back to the previous biased effects
on agriculture and on rural households." Author's Abstract
Keywords: rice, Impact analysis, Agriculture, Poverty,
Computable general equilibrium (CGE), Trade reform,
Doha agreement, Free trade, Rural households, Urban
households, consumer prices,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:96&r=agr
16. Policy distortions in the segmented rice market:
Rakotoarisoa, Manitra A.
"High production and export subsidies in developed countries and
high protection in both developed and developing countries have
distorted rice trade. This study estimates the impact of rice
policy distortions on developing countries' rice production and
trade potential. Because rice markets are highly segmented, major
rice types are differentiated to estimate the impact of current
and likely policy reforms. Analysis in long-grain, high-quality
rice focuses on rice import and export markets in Latin America
and shows that reduction of direct and implicit export subsidies
in the US will benefit regional suppliers such as Argentina and
Uruguay. Analysis of Indonesia's import market of ordinary long-
grain rice, where protection is high, reveals that tariff hikes
in this large importing country are in part a response to
increased support from the exporting side. Level of domestic
stocks also determines tariff movements. In the short/medium
grain rice market, this study focuses on the highly supported and
protected rice market in Japan and find that only aggressive
rates of increase in import tariff-rate quota and reduction in
production subsidies would have significant impact on import
volume and price. Prices and trade would also be affected by a
reduction of the high over-quota tariff." from Authors' Abstract
Keywords: exports, subsidies, Rice trade, Rice markets, tariffs,
Imports,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:94&r=agr
17. Agriculture, Aggregation, Wage Gaps, and Cross-Country
Income Differences
Marla Ripoll
Juan Carlos Cordoba
Date: 2005-01
Date: 2005-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pit:wpaper:246&r=agr
18. Livestock and health: understanding the links between
agriculture and health
Catelo, Maria Angeles O.
"The linkages between livestock and health are significant,
particularly for the poor, whether as livestock raisers or as
consumers of meat and milk, or even as users of the environment.
The processes of livestock production and consumption bring both
benefits and problems for human health... Livestock production
and consumption can lead to four main types of human health risks:
(1) diseases transmitted from livestock to humans; (2)
environmental pollution; (3) foodborne diseases and risks; and (4)
diet-related chronic diseases. Zoonoses are diseases that can be
transmitted from animals to humans via bacteria, parasites,
viruses, and unconventional agents. The more common and serious
zoonoses caused by infectious agents include salmonellosis,
swineherds' disease caused by Leptospira species, brucellosis,
the hepatitis E virus (HEV), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (
BSE) and the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), Rift
Valley fever (RVF), adult meningitis caused by Streptococcus suis,
and the influenza virus... In developing countries, smallholders
have only rudimentary methods of protecting themselves from
diseases and preventing their spread to neighboring farms and
communities. There may be a need to rethink the trends toward
wholesale privatization of animal health services and public
disinvestment in these services and to look more deeply into
public and private partnerships." From text
Keywords: health, Meat consumption, Food safety, Public-private
partnerships, Environmental management, Chronic
diseases,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:2020br:13(9)&r=agr
19. A gap analysis of confined field trial application forms for
genetically modified crops in East Africa: evaluating the
potential for harmonization
Linacre, Nicholas A.
Cohen, Joel I.
"The regulatory approval of genetically modified crops in the
field initially requires small, restricted experimental trials
known as confined field trials. These small scale experiments
provide researchers with important information on environmental
interactions and agronomic performance of the crop in a safe and
contained manner. To authorize confined field trials regulatory
review is required, with formats for obtaining relevant
information differing from country to country. In this paper, a
Gap Analysis is used to identify informational gaps and potential
for harmonization of confined field trial application processes
in three East African countries ? Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.
The basic principle behind gap analysis is a comparison of the
status quo to an ideal with the identification of the differences
or gaps and the difficulty involved provides a potential basis
for harmonization of confined field trial application processes
between countries leading to potential efficiency gains."
Authors' abstract
Keywords: biotechnology, Biosafety, Bioconfinement, Confined
field trials, Gap analysis, Harmonization, Genetically
modified crops,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:149&r=agr
20. An exploration of the potential benefits of integrated pest
management systems and the use of insect resistant potatoes
to control the Guatemalan Tuber Moth (Tecia solanivora
Povolny) in Ventaquemada, Colombia:
Falck Zepeda, Jos?
Barreto-Triana, Nancy
Baquero-Haeberlin, Irma
Espitia-Malag?n, Eduardo
Fierro-Guzm?n, Humberto
L?pez, Nancy
"CORPOICA and IFPRI implemented a research project in
Ventaquemada, Colombia. The project's goal was to asses the
benefits of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices and the
potential of Genetically Modified insect resistant (Bt) potatoes
to manage damage caused by the Guatemalan Tuber Moth (Tecia
solanivora Povolny). The Guatemalan Tuber Moth is particularly
destructive because field spraying on the adult stage is
ineffective and there exists damage specificity to the tubers.
Excessive pesticide sprays have resulted in resistance to several
insecticides. Insect resistant (Bt) potatoes has been shown an
effective means to control other members of the Tuber Moth
complex. Thus a Bt potato may play a role in managing Tecia in
Colombia. This is an ex ante study as there are no Bt potatoes
currently under field conditions in Colombia.. To examine this
issue, we conducted a survey in 2003 of 78 farmers in the region
to estimate a baseline of traditionally and IPM managed systems.
The first year survey was supplemented with focus groups to
examine damage and production costs in 2003 and 2004. We also
implemented activities such as field verification of IPM
practices and damage, a Farmer Field School and other
participatory methods. Our analysis uses methods such partial
budgeting analysis, a production function input abatement
expectations model, and an economic surplus model augmented by
stochastic simulations. Results of the analysis presented here
outlines estimated losses under field and storage conditions,
likely range of benefits accrued by farmers in the region due to
the potential adoption of a portfolio of IPM management practices
and Bt potatoes. Results from the survey conducted in 2003 show
that producers in the area have endured significant field and
storage losses within the previous 10 years, but were low in that
particular year. Initial results where confirmed by results of
focus groups in 2003 and 2004 which show very low field and
storage damage. Sustained precipitation explains the observed low
levels of damage by the Tuber Moth. Low levels of damage induced
zero (or even negative) cost differences between conventional and
IPM management. In contrast, using the proposed expectation model
to estimate expected payoffs to IPM investments show that even
with low levels of damage it still pays for producers to invest
in IPM practices. The economic surplus estimates show that even
considering variability of field and storage losses, as well as
of other critical parameters, the use of Bt potatoes in Colombia
creates a positive return to investment to Bt potato research,
assuming that damage is present under field conditions. We
finalize by discussing some of the institutional and strategic
considerations for the potential use of Bt potatoes in the
country." Authors' abstract
Keywords: Potatoes Economic aspects, Genetically modified crops,
Economic surplus model, Risk, Research and development,
Bt-potatoes,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:152&r=agr
21. Food policy liberalization in Bangladesh: how the government
and the markets delivered
Chowdhury, Nuimuddin
Farid, Nasir
Roy, Devesh
"Three factors, advent of new technology (HYV), development of
infrastructure and market liberalization working in tandem have
delivered favorable food security outcomes for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh's food-policy has benefited from a liberalized trade
regime and a consistent downsizing of the government, all with
favorable effects on poverty and nutrition. Post liberalization,
the findings suggest a perceptible increase in the cost-
effectiveness of the public food grain distribution system (PFDS).
The favorable effects of liberalization are also evident in
growths in outputs, market size, the size of private stocks, the
emergence of a two peak harvest seasonality, and finally in
declining real rice prices. The government has moreover downsized
the PFDS, making poverty-reduction a priority basis for grain
allocation. While imports relative to total availability have
remained virtually unchanged during the last 25 years, public
issue relative to the availability has fallen by about a half.
Average food grain consumption has fallen slightly during the
1990s but in face of rising incomes, this could partly be driven
by diversifying tastes. Comparing the efficiency of the private
and the public sector, the private marketing margin is slightly
higher. In spite of the significant advantage(s) enjoyed by the
public sector, the margin being thin is significant. In order to
account for the expected global changes under the Doha round,
simulations using competitive spatial-equilibrium models for the
world's rice and wheat markets forecast increase in prices for
rice and wheat by 21.7% and 10.1% respectively by 2013. USDA
global CGE models (2001) show figures of increase in wheat prices
by 18.1%, and rice prices by 10.1%. These estimates are used in a
multi-market model for Bangladesh as estimates for global price
shocks. Sensitivity analysis shows that over a range of values
involving both an upper and a lower limit, small declines will
occur in real incomes and caloric levels of both urban poor and
rural landless households, while large farms will experience a
small gain in their real incomes. Based on values corresponding
to the lower limit, overall effects on food security are however
quite small." Authors' Abstract
Keywords: Food policy, Liberalization, Government policy,
Markets, food security,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:92&r=agr
22. Impacts of considering climate variability on investment
decisions in Ethiopia:
Block, Paul J.
Strzepek, Kenneth
Rosegrant, Mark W.
Diao, Xinshen
"Extreme interannual variability of precipitation within
Ethiopia is not uncommon, inducing droughts or floods and often
creating serious repercussions on agricultural and non-
agricultural commodities. An agro-economic model, including mean
climate variables, was developed to assess irrigation and road
construction investment strategies in comparison to a baseline
scenario over a 12-year time horizon. The motivation for this
work is to evaluate whether the inclusion of climate variability
in the model has a significant effect on prospective investment
strategies and the resulting country-wide economy. The mean
climate model is transformed into a variable climate model by
dynamically adding yearly climate-yield factors, which influence
agricultural production levels and linkages to non-agricultural
goods. Nine sets of variable climate data are processed by the
new model to produce an ensemble of potential economic prediction
indicators. Analysis of gross domestic product and poverty rate
reveal a significant overestimation of the country's future
welfare by the mean climate model method, in comparison to
probability density functions created from the variable climate
ensemble. The ensemble is further utilized to demonstrate risk
assessment capabilities. The addition of climate variability to
the agro-economic model provides a framework, including realistic
ranges of economic values, from which Ethiopian planners may make
strategic decisions." Authors' abstract
Keywords: Climate variability, Water, Droughts, Flooding,
Irrigation Economic aspects, Road construction Economic
aspects, Investments, Economic situation, Agro-economic
model,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:150&r=agr
23. Restructuring Uganda ' s coffee industry : why going back to
the basics matters
Baffes, John
After experiencing a boom during the mid-1990s, the performance
of Uganda ' s coffee industry has been disappointing. Most
existing analyses see the sector ' s problems as quality
deterioration, poor marketing position in the global market, weak
regulatory framework, and poor infrastructure. Recommendations
range from setting up a coffee auction to increasing the share of
specialty coffees. This paper concludes that such advice has been
largely inconsistent with the stylized facts of the Ugandan
coffee industry. It argues that the coffee wilt disease and the
effectiveness of the coffee replanting program are the two key
issues on which policymakers and the donor community should focus
their activities and allocate their resources.
Keywords: Crops & Crop Management Systems,Markets and Market
Access,Access to Markets,Water and Industry,Economic
Theory & Research
Date: 2006-10-01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4020&r=agr
24. Insights from poverty maps for development and food relief
program targeting: an application to Malawi
Benson, Todd
"This study aims to assess the value of poverty mapping to
public-works projects undertaken by the World Food Programme (WFP)
with the government of Malawi in its Food for Assets and
Development (FFASD) program....Poverty mapping is a useful
decisionmaking tool in targeting relief and development programs,
and it provides objective and nonpolitical information that is
also helpful in prioritizing areas for poverty alleviation
projects and emergency food aid relief." Authors' Abstract
Keywords: Poverty mapping, food security, Malawi, Food relief,
Targeting,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fcndbr:205&r=agr
25. Enforcing ?Self-Enforcing? International Environmental
Agreements
David M. McEvoy (Department of Resource Economics,
University of Massachusetts Amherst)
John K. Stranlund (Department of Resource Economics,
University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Theoretical analyses of international environmental agreements (
IEAs) have typically employed the concept of self-enforcing
agreements to predict the number of parties to such an agreement.
The term self-enforcing, however, is a bit misleading. The
concept refers to the stability of cooperative agreements, not to
enforcing these agreements once they are in place. Most analyses
of IEAs simply ignore the issue of enforcing compliance by
parties to the terms of an agreement. In this paper we analyze an
IEA game in which parties to an agreement finance an independent
enforcement body with the power to monitor the parties?
compliance to the terms of the IEA and impose penalties in cases
of noncompliance. This approach is broadly consistent with the
enforcement mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol under the Marrakesh
Accords. We find that costly enforcement limits the circumstances
under which international cooperation to protect the environment
is worthwhile, but when IEAs do form they will involve greater
participation than IEAs that do not require costly enforcement.
Consequently, costly enforcement of IEAs is associated with
higher international environmental quality. Moreover, under
certain conditions, aggregate welfare is higher when IEAs require
costly enforcement. These conclusions are accentuated when
monitoring for compliance to IEAs is inaccurate.
Keywords: International environmental agreements, self-enforcing
agreements, compliance, enforcement
JEL: Q5 H41 C72 F53
Date: 2006-09
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dre:wpaper:2006-6&r=agr
26. Within and Between Group Variation of Individual Strategies
in Common Pool Resources: Evidence from Field Experiments
Maria Alejandra Velez (Department of Resource Economics,
University of Massachusetts Amherst)
James J. Murphy (Department of Resource Economics,
University of Massachusetts Amherst)
John K. Stranlund (Department of Resource Economics,
University of Massachusetts Amherst)
With data from framed common pool resource experiments conducted
with artisanal fishing communities in Colombia, we estimate a
hierarchical linear model to investigate within-group and between-
group variation in individual harvest strategies across several
institutions. Our results suggest that communication serves to
effectively coordinate individual strategies within groups, but
that these coordinated strategies vary considerably across groups.
In contrast, weakly enforced regulatory restrictions on
individual harvests (as well as unregulated open access) produce
significant variation in the individual strategies within groups,
but these strategies are roughly replicated across groups so that
there is little between-group variation.
Keywords: common pool resources, field experiments,
communication, regulation, hierarchical linear models
JEL: C93 H41 Q20 Q28
Date: 2006-09
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dre:wpaper:2006-4&r=agr
27. Local seed systems for millet crops in marginal environments
of India: industry and policy perspectives
Nagarajan, Latha
Pardey, Philip G.
Smale, Melinda
"Changes in India's seed regulations during the 1990s favored
the growth of privately- as compared to publicly-funded sectors.
Most advances have been made in the major millet crops, sorghum
and pearl millet, as compared to finger millet and other minor
millet crops, which in many ways dependent on local markets for
seed purposes. In this study, we have analyzed the evolving
interactions between formal systems related to the delivery of
modern varieties and informal systems for maintaining traditional
seeds in the semi-arid regions of India. It is evident that in
these marginal environments, crop and variety use decisions, and
the crop biodiversity levels take place within the context of
local seed markets and a national seed industry. The outcome of
the study would help to identify potential entry points for
millet crop improvement and related seed system interventions for
marginal environments of India." Authors' abstract
Keywords: Seed systems, Seed industry and trade, Seed supply,
Diversity, Markets, Local markets, Formal seed sector,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:eptddp:151&r=agr
28. Price-Based vs. Quantity-Based Environmental Regulation
under Knightian Uncertainty: An Info-Gap Robust Satisficing
Perspective
John K. Stranlund (Department of Resource Economics,
University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Yakov Ben-Haim (Mechanical Engineering Technion, Israel
Institute of Technology)
Conventional wisdom among environmental economists is that the
relative slopes of the marginal social benefit and marginal
social cost functions determine whether a price-based or quantity-
based environmental regulation leads to higher expected social
welfare. We revisit the choice between price-based vs. quantity-
based environmental regulation under Knightian uncertainty; that
is, when uncertainty cannot be modeled with known probability
distributions. Under these circumstances, the policy objective
cannot be to maximize the expected net benefits of emissions
control. Instead, we evaluate an emissions tax and an aggregate
abatement standard in terms of maximizing the range of
uncertainty under which the welfare loss from error in the
estimates of the marginal benefits and costs of emissions control
can be limited. The main result of our work is that the same
criterion involving the relative slopes of the marginal benefit
and cost functions determines whether price-based or quantity-
based control is more robust to unstructured uncertainty. Hence,
not only does the relative slopes criterion lead to the policy
that maximizes the expected net benefits of control under
structured uncertainty, it also leads to the policy that
maximizes robustness to unstructured uncertainty.
Keywords: emissions control, environmental regulation, info-gap,
Knightian uncertainty, robustness, satisficing
JEL: D81 L51 Q58
Date: 2006-07
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dre:wpaper:2006-1&r=agr
29. Efficiency and distribution in contract farming: the case of
Indian poultry growers
Ramaswami, Bharat
Birthal, Pratap Singh
Joshi, P.K.
"This paper is an empirical analysis of the gains from contract
farming in the case of poultry production in the state of Andhra
Pradesh in India. The paper finds that contract production is
more efficient than noncontract production. The efficiency
surplus is largely appropriated by the processor. Despite this,
contract growers still gain appreciably from contracting in terms
of lower risk and higher expected returns. Improved technology
and production practices as well as the way in which the
processor selects growers are what make these outcomes possible.
In terms of observed and unobserved characteristics, contract
growers have relatively poor prospects as independent growers.
With contract production, these growers achieve incomes
comparable to that of independent growers." Authors' Abstract
Keywords: Contract farming, Poultry, Vertical integration,
Date: 2006
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:mtiddp:91&r=agr
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