Farmers' Subjective Valuation of Subsistence Crops PDF Download

Author: Aslıhan Arslan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Author: Aslihan Arslan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Shadow prices guide farmers' resource allocations, but for subsistence farmers who grow traditional crops they may bear little relationship with market prices. We theoretically derive shadow prices for a subsistence crop with nonmarket value, then estimate shadow prices of maize using data from a nationally representative survey of rural households in Mexico. Shadow prices are significantly higher than market prices for traditional but not improved maize varieties. They are particularly high in the indigenous areas of southern and southeastern Mexico, indicating large de facto incentives to maintain traditional varieties there.

Author: Aslihan Arslan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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[PhD Dissertation] Subsistence farmers may not respond to market incentives if their resource allocation decisions are based on shadow prices. This may seem puzzling from an economic point of view if shadow prices are not taken into account. Subsistence maize farmers in rural Mexico are an example with their non-response to decreasing maize prices after NAFTA. Previous research suggests that the market price may fail to represent incentives if farmers' crops have non-market values. I explore subjective valuation of subsistence crops in the context of traditional maize in Mexico - the center of domestication and diversity of maize. I show how these values affect farmer behaviour and the design of on-farm conservation programs. My theoretical contribution extends the basic agricultural household model by combining transaction costs and an asymmetric missing market for subsistence crop. This missing market arises from the fact that the market-purchased crops lack the non-market values attached to farmer's own crop, hence are imperfect substitutes for it. This model explains why some farmers may allocate resources in ways that cannot be explained by market prices even in the absence of transaction costs. Shadow prices predict farmers' resource allocation better than market prices and represent incentives to maintain subsistence crops. Using nationally-representative data, I estimate production functions and shadow prices. I conclude that the value of traditional maize to subsistence farmers is significantly higher than market prices for maize. The same is not true for modern maize. I identify key farm- and farmer-specific factors correlated with shadow prices of traditional maize. Use of irrigation and producing on land with high-quality soil are negatively correlated with shadow prices; male-headed households and those of indigenous origin have above-average shadow prices for traditional maize. The latter correlation is especially true in southern and southeastern Mexico indicating high (de facto) incentives to maintain traditional maize in these regions. On-farm conservation programs would be more effective if targeted to communities with high shadow prices. The method I use is flexible enough to be applied to guide conservation programs for other crops in other regions.

Author: Benson, Todd
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 47

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Increasing the productivity of commercially oriented smallholder farming households in Nigeria results in greater incomes for their households, which, in turn, can drive an expansion in local nonfarm employment opportunities and raise incomes across rural communities. Appropriately targeting agricultural development efforts towards commercially oriented farming households has important second-round development benefits for rural economies. We use nationally representative data from the Nigeria General Household Survey Panel to examine the characteristics of households and their context that determine their level of commercial orientation in 2015/16. We then use the same dataset for crop-specific analyses of the factors associated with a household choosing to produce a specific crop, to sell any of their harvest of that crop, and, if they sold any of the crop, whether they sold more than half of their harvest. Twelve crops are examined. We find that the commercial orientation of most smallholder farming households in Nigeria is not strong. One-third reported not making any crop sales, relying instead on household enterprises or wage employment to meet their cash needs. Another one-third reported selling less than one-third of the crops they harvested by value. For these households, any crop sales made seem to reflect the limited other options they have to obtain cash, rather than being part of a strategy of commercial production. A subsistence orientation still drives most crop production by smallholder farming households in Nigeria. The crop-specific analyses confirm that crop sales for many households are driven to an important degree by their lack of other income sources, rather than by actively seeking to produce significant commercial surpluses of a crop. That this is the case reflects a range of deficiencies in the production and marketing of many of the crops. Improved crop production technologies are not commonly used, may not be readily available, or, if available, may prove challenging to employ profitably. Nigerian crop markets remain risky with no assurances that farmers will find buyers offering remunerative prices when they bring their produce to the market to sell. Continued investments to increase crop productivity and to improve the performance and reliability of crop value chains are needed if commercial considerations are increasingly to drive the crop choices of smallholder farming households, to provide incentives for higher crop productivity, and, through the increased crop income of commercially oriented farming households, to motivate expansion in local non-farm sectors and to raise incomes for all households in rural Nigerian communities.

Author: James W. Wood
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107033411
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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An exploration of preindustrial agriculture that applies insights from biodemography, physiological ecology, and household demography.

Author: Edilegnaw Wale
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136537686
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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The purpose of this book is to assess a variety of economic issues as they relate to agro-biodiversity and show how addressing these issues can assist in agro-biodiversity policy-making. This is illustrated using empirical data from some of the countries (Ethiopia, Nepal and Zambia) which are part of the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative. The empirical chapters apply the relevant economic methods, including regression analysis, choice experiments, hedonic pricing, contingent valuation and farm business income analysis. The authors discuss the economics of managing crop diversity on-farm in the context of crop variety attribute preferences, farmers' perception of agro-biodiversity loss, and value addition and marketing of the products of traditional crop varieties. The case studies include detailed analysis of traditional varieties of groundnut, maize, rice, sorghum, and teff. The results are relevant not only to GRPI countries but also to other countries concerned with the sustainable utilization of these resources. Overall, the studies illustrate how genetic resources issues can be integrated into rural development interventions.

Author: Clifton R. Wharton
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 0202369358
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Author: Travis J. Lybbert
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520343573
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Written to provide students with the critical tools and approaches used by development economists, Essentials of Development Economics represents an alternative approach to traditional textbooks on the subject. Compact and less expensive than other textbooks for undergraduate development economics courses, Essentials of Development Economics offers a broad overview of key topics and methods in the field. Its fourteen easy-to-read chapters introduce cutting-edge research and present best practices and state-of-the-art methods. By mastering the material in this time-tested book, students will have the conceptual grounding needed to move on to more advanced development economics courses. This new edition includes: updated references to international development policy process and goals substantial updates to several chapters with new and revised material to make the text both current and policy relevant replacement of several special features with new ones featuring widely cited studies

Author: J. Edward Taylor
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520283171
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Written to provide students with the critical tools used in today’s development economics research and practice, Essentials of Development Economics represents an alternative approach to traditional textbooks on the subject. Compact and less expensive than other textbooks for undergraduate development economics courses, Essentials of Development Economics offers a broad overview of key topics and methods in the field. Its fourteen easy-to-read chapters introduce cutting-edge research and present best practices and state-of-the-art methods. Each chapter concludes with an embedded QR code that connects readers to ancillary audiovisual materials and supplemental readings on a website curated by the authors. By mastering the material in this book, students will have the conceptual grounding needed to move on to higher-level development economics courses.

Author: Steve Leung
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural productivity
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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