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China is the world largest producer and consumer of rice. With stagnant yields, resource depletion, labor shortages direct-seed rice (DSR) is gaining the interest of rice producers in southern China. This study investigates the impact of the adoption of DSR on rice yield and net rice income of Chinese farmers. We use plot-level data from four provinces in southern China. Results indicate that rice yield increase by 3.1% for DSR adopters and by 0.7% if puddled transplanted rice (PTR) producers adopted DSR method. Finally, we find that net rice income increased by 66% if PTR method plots switched to DSR method. Adoption of DSR should be encouraged by policymakers.

Diversified agricultural landscapes have been shown to provide a wide range of ecosystem services. It is often stated that the main motivation behind growing multiple crops within a farm is to buffer farm income against market and climate risks. However, household characteristics, particularly the amount of off-farm income may also influence farm diversity. While the drivers of diversifying farm income have been investigated extensively, the ecologically important level of land-use diversity on a farm has seldom been used as a dependent variable. Based on data from 163 households, this paper analyzes the impact of social, economic and demographic household characteristics on crop diversification for farms located around the Laipuna Reserve in the dry forests of southern Ecuador. Using a Heckman two-step regression model, we identified factors that influence a) the probability that a farm will be diversified (PD) and b) the degree of diversification at the farm level (LUD), quantified by the Shannon index. We found that PD is positively related to the percentage of household members who depend on family income but do not work (economic dependence ratio), as well as river access and available family labor force. PD is inversely related to access to financial support (i.e. social payments and credits) and off-farm income. LUD is positively related to the number of household members and the age of the head of the household, and correlates negatively with labor force, financial support and off-farm income. Our results demonstrate that land-use diversification is not only a strategy to reduce risk, but it is also driven by farmers’ efforts to meet household, mainly subsistence, needs. Moreover, we also demonstrate that when households have access to financial support and off-farm income, the pressure to diversify their crops diminishes. Finally, we argue that forest and agricultural policies should impose instruments to support land-use diversification financially, while acknowledging the importance of financial support and off-farm income for household economies. Strategies to reduce poverty should be accompanied by direct support of land-use diversification, infrastructure development and agricultural training.

Agricultural landscapes in mountainous areas are facing the destruction due to farmland abandonment. A sustainable conservation mechanism is needed urgently for the rural areas in these places. Dazhai terraces of Longji Terraces, Southwest China are maintained well based on agricultural multi-functions developed by multi-stakeholders. From the perspective of household economics, this study examined the income structure of households in Dazhai and estimated every household’s income based on the collected data via semi-structural interviews and the statistical data. In Dazhai, the income of households is mainly comprised of agricultural income, compensation for maintaining terraces (CMT), tourism income dividend (TID) and income of local non-farm jobs (IINJ). The IINJ and the TID constitute the most and the second more part of the household incomes, respectively, which account for 70.8% and 17.8% of the total household incomes. The agricultural income just plays a slight role in improving the household incomes. 97.7% of households in Dazhai earn a higher income a year from the agricultural multi-functions than those migrant workers in the region. The sustainable high income from terraced multi-functions is the main driving force to maintain Dazhai terraces. The multi-functions of Dazhai terraces are developed jointly by local governments, companies and villagers. More importantly, these stakeholders’ cooperation rests on the reasonable benefit distribution principles between companies and Dazhai and among villagers in Dazhai. In sum, the benefit distribution mechanisms drive multiple stakeholders to maintain terraced landscapes directly or indirectly.

Dynamic changes of farmland use intensity (FUI) have an important impact on the sustainable agricultural intensification in developing countries. This study characterizes the temporal changes of FUI in response to rural transition during 1990–2015 in Zhejiang province, China. In particular, the FUI is measured by using indicators that are integrated by three weight determination methods, including analytic hierarchy process, Delphi method and entropy method. The rural transition is described from three aspects, namely regional urbanization, agricultural industrialization and agricultural commercialization. The impacts of rural transition on the farmland use intensity are quantified by multivariate linear regression. Results show that urban population proportion (UPP) and supporting capability of agricultural production (SCAP) have the positive effect on input intensity (IPI). UPP, development of secondary and tertiary industries (DSTI) and urban-rural income gap (URIG) present positive relationships with output intensity (OPI), while grain-sown area proportion (GSAP) and proportion of cash crop yield (PCCY) present negative relationships with OPI. Agricultural science and technology service (ASTS) and GSAP are positive contributors to utilization degree (ULD), while Agricultural mechanization (AGM) is a negative contributor to ULD. Redundancy analysis shows that the individual influence of regional urbanization is higher than that of agricultural industrialization and agricultural commercialization. Meanwhile the joint influences of regional urbanization, agricultural industrialization and agricultural commercialization are the strongest. Based on the results, the policies should give specific guidance to the rural transition for achieving sustainable agricultural intensification.

Conventional dairy farming has been under pressure for lacking animal welfare, biodiversity loss through abandonment and intensification of grassland, and low milk prices during the 2015/16 milk price crisis. The relatively stable organic milk prices during the milk price crisis indicate that consumers have preferences for product characteristics besides the price. We investigate through a choice experiment the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of German conventional milk buyers for ethical attributes of milk production that address the above-mentioned concerns. Respondents have the highest WTP for animal welfare – free-stall plus summer pasture – followed by biodiversity conservation, support for small, below-average income farms, and regional milk production. Respondents also have a positive WTP to support all farms but only in combination with regional production. We further find a positive WTP to support small farms in combination with tethering. This implies animal-welfare concerns are somewhat counterbalanced by fairness aspects. Our insights may support developing labels and agri-environmental policies concerning ethical aspects of conventional milk production.

Cambodia is one of the climatic stress-prone countries in Southeast Asia. Rice is the dominant cash crop for Cambodians, and is adversely affected by recurrent droughts and floods. In addition, farmers have limited or no access to capital markets. This article investigates the impact of abiotic stresses (droughts and floods) and access to capital on the farming efficiency of smallholders in Cambodia. We find that the mean technical efficiency of rice farmers is about 0.60, implying that farmers can increase their production by about 40% with existing resources. Drought and soil fertility were identified as the major sources of inefficiency in rice production. Adoption of drought-tolerant varieties could help increase output and efficiency. We also find that access to capital and educational attainment significantly improved rice farming efficiency. Finally, we conclude that increasing rice productivity can help in improving income and thereby reducing poverty among Cambodian rice producers.

Land degradation is a critical challenge to sustainable development. This paper examines factors that shape farmer decision-making around sustainable land management (SLM) practices in Tanzania and Malawi. It seeks to understand the contradictions that often exist between what research recommends, projects promote and donors invest in and what SLM options farmers actually choose to implement. It focuses on the costs, benefits and economic drivers that shape farmer’s willingness and ability to invest in SLM (or that force them into situations that result in land degradation). The SLM techniques most commonly practiced, and which farmers express the greatest preference for, are often not those that yield the highest production gains, generate the greatest income, or involve the lowest costs. Meanwhile, other apparently profitable SLM techniques show relatively low rates of adoption. Farmers highlighted a wide range of non-monetary attributes and characteristics that determine whether they consider an SLM option to be economically attractive, viable and sustainable. These findings underscore the need to think beyond simple benefit/cost-based measures when prioritizing SLM interventions. Farmers’ needs, aspirations and preferences extend far beyond efforts to maximize short-term income and production gains or to minimize direct outlays and cash expenditures. We also found that significant gaps often exist between the SLM decisions farmers would like to make and those that they are actually able to undertake, given their economic circumstances and the resources available to them. If these broader economic factors and drivers of farmers’ land management decisions are not considered in SLM policy, research, planning and implementation, there is a risk that proposed interventions will do little either to address the root causes of land degradation or to meet farmers’ needs and aspirations.

The paper examines (i) the factors affecting households’ attitude towards conservation and relocation and (ii) the impact of relocation on the livelihood of displaced tribal communities of Similipal Tiger Reserve (STR) in India. The study uses primary data collected from 40 relocated households and compares them with 61 non-relocated households currently residing inside the core zone of STR. The study finds that the average share of income from agriculture, livestock and non-timber forest products are relatively higher in case of households residing inside the core area. Conversely, income derived from non-agricultural wage labour contributes maximum to the total income of the relocated households. Although access to educational facilities, transport and health care are reported to be some of the immediate benefits after relocation, food security of the displaced households is found to be adversely affected due to reduced crop diversity and output. The econometric results find that the working-age population and the literates in the region are more willing to relocate from the reserve. Particularly, the male members in the community are more desirous of participating in the relocation process and reaping the associated benefits as opposed to their female counterparts. The study gainsays the existing conservation paradigm via relocation and suggests that participatory capacity building of the affected community alongside consultation with all the stakeholders can go a long way in achieving the twin objectives of biodiversity conservation and local livelihood promotion.

Demand for organically produced foods continues to show double-digit growth. However, production of certified organic food in the US has lagged significantly. Hence it provides tremendous scope as well as a challenge for the U.S. organic food production (OFP) sector. This study investigates the impact of farmer’s participation in certified OFP on farm financial performance. Using a 2012 nationwide farm-level survey and an unconditional quantile regression (UQR) approach, we find a significant heterogeneous effect of certified OFP across quantiles of farm financial performance measures (i.e., total sales and net cash farm income). Findings show that participation in certified OFP is positive and varies across the unconditional total sales quantile. The marginal impact of participation in certified OFP is higher for farms generating higher sales and net cash income, top three quantiles (75th and up). However, small farms tend to benefit from participation in certified OFP when we use farm sales as performance measure. Finally, UQR estimates show that gender of the operator, off-farm work, marketing contracts, and direct-to-consumer sales have a significant impact on farm financial performance.

Family farming plays important roles in agricultural production and the world’s food security. This paper provides an econometric analysis of income, productivity and diversification of Brazilian smallholders. Using the most updated data from the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) enables a more precise analysis than traditional agri-census data. The database contains approximately 4.7 million family farmers from all regions of the country. We used linear and tobit regression to untangle useful information behind these large datasets. The results demonstrated that the smallholders that are part of an agricultural cooperative or a member of a farmer’s association positively affect income, productivity and diversification. The age of household heads is shown to have a non-linear relationship in the three cases, while the household head being female presented a negative effect in all regressions. Although recent technical assistance showed negative impacts on income and productivity, farmer’s assistance positively affected the likelihood of a smallholder diversifying their production and, therefore, becoming less subject to price imbalances. The results support current views in the field of smallholder farming while presenting marked regional differences of a continental country, enabling policy makers to make better, more informed decisions.

This paper offers solutions to some of the challenges around maintaining productive agricultural land close to cities in countries facing a decline in urban populations. In such circumstances, some farmers have been observed to convert their land into real estate and leave farming before land prices decline, therefore decreasing the area of agricultural land close to large cities. In contrast, many suburban farmers in developed countries remain in farming even when land prices decline and suburbs shrink. We argue that such behaviour can be explained by a desire to remain in farming, even at the expense of profits. In such cases, agricultural income may be supplemented by rental income or by selling land. This paper demonstrates that, when land prices are high, a preferential taxation system may help farmers with real estate income to retain more of their land. This study is based on data from a survey of farmers in Tokyo, Japan where, in 1992, a programme combining preferential taxation and restrictions on the conversion of farmland was implemented. Our findings suggest that farmers in more populated areas with a strong dependence on real estate income tend to continue farming, as do those in less populated areas who are less dependent on this income source. Analysis further suggests that imposing heavy taxes on residential property simply increases living costs for farmers and results in the loss of agricultural land and that policies which promote diversification and reduce housing costs are important for keeping urban fringe land in agriculture.

Improved female control over land is often put forth as a means of raising the productivity of smallholder agriculture, enhancing female bargaining power and raising women’s incomes. The article uses some quantitative but primarily qualitative data on access to income and decision making, to analyse gender patterns related to welfare, incomes and control over resources in a context where women’s rights to land are particularly strong, that is in a matrilineal and uxorilocal setting. Women’s land rights are contextualized in relation to labour intensive, low productive smallholder systems and the paper assesses to what extent female control over land affects welfare outcomes, decision making and intra-household control over incomes and labour. While we find that female control over land does affect intra household relations it is clear that land reform is not enough to ensure gender equality. For any land use policy reform to have a profound affect it would have to also take into account control over other productive resources, e.g. labour, as well as the wider institutional and political context.

Climate change and its impact on the agricultural sector in developing economies is a matter of considerable academic and political debate. This paper examines the impact of climate change and variability on Sri Lankan agriculture and identifies the potential adaptation practices and their impacts on rice productivity. More specifically, this study investigates how farming households’ decisions to adapt to climate change affects agricultural productivity in the Batticaloa district of Sri Lanka. The data were collected through a primary survey of 238 farming households. We employ a simultaneous equations model with endogenous switching to investigate the differing effects of adaptation on adapters and non-adapters. The findings show that most farmers perceive there are adverse climate change impacts on their agricultural production. We also find that farmers’ adaptation measures substantially boost rice yields. Moreover, it is shown that such strategies would benefit both adapters and non-adapters. Farmers’ access to climate related information, education, membership in farmer organizations and size of plots are found to play a key role in the adaptation process. Overall, this study provides empirical evidence of the positive impact of adaptations on food productivity and farm income, thus suggesting the need for policy interventions that enhance farmers uptake of strategies against climate change impacts.

As one of the main focuses of agricultural development research, changes in agricultural technology are a dynamic reflection of the economic environment. This paper uses the Meta-analysis method to conduct a comprehensive analysis of 77 empirical studies to reveal the influence factors, sources of heterogeneity, and influence effects of farmers on the adoption behavior of pro-environmental agricultural technology over time. The results show the following: (1) Influencing factors of farmer's pro-environmental agricultural technology adoption behavior are not completely homogeneous. Among the factors, age, farming population, family income, farm income ratio, number of plots, and land transfer have a regulating effect. Most of the observed heterogeneity relates to the research areas, funding levels and models used. (2) Age, off-farm income ratio, and land fragmentation have a significantly negative impact on farmers' adoption of pro-environmental agricultural technologies. We find no impact on household size, farming population, and village cadres. Farm income ratio, farmland protection policy awareness, land transfer, and government subsidies have significantly positive effects. (3) Over time, only land transfer has a significantly positive impact on the adoption of pro-environmental agricultural technologies by farmers, and the impact has gradually increased. The farming population, technical understanding, and number of plots have no significant impact, but their effects have weakened to varying degrees. Therefore, policymakers and other stakeholders need to consider geographical differences and farming systems, the technology needs of different farmers and affordable costs, in addition to focusing on common variables, when designing policies to encourage the adoption of agricultural technologies in China. Meanwhile, improve the development level of the land rental market, strengthen publicity, training, and subsidies, and increase farmers' information awareness.

As the largest scale payment for ecosystem services program in the developing world, one of the key objectives of the Sloping Land Conversion Program (the SLCP) is to increase rural households' income and to reallocate their employments. This paper estimates the effects of the SLCP on rural households' income and employment changes using the unique panel dataset of 1001 rural households in six provinces from 1995 to 2014. Following a strict parallel trend and other econometrics tests, the Propensity score matching-Difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) estimation technique was used. Based on the unique panel dataset, this paper expands upon existing studies by estimating the effects of mid-to-long-term and subsidy scheme adjustment of the SLCP on rural households' income and employment. Our empirical results indicate that 1) the SLCP has no significant effect on rural households’ total income, while it has a negative effect on farm income. 2) The SLCP has a positive effect on forestry labor input. 3) Half reduction subsidy of the SLCP has caused different effects on rural households’ income and employment compared with that before policy adjustment. 4) The income effects of the SLCP are indifferent by income, location, demographic or resource endowment sub groups. Policy decision-makers should pay more attention to create more off-farm opportunities for rural households enrolled in the SLCP to maintain the achievements of the SLCP.

Governments in less developed countries have identified the need to support smallholder farmers and intervene to alleviate poverty and positively contribute to household food security. In Africa, there has been a growing emphasis on value chain development so that smallholder farmers can benefit from participation in agricultural value chains. Smallholder farmers are however still faced with constraints that negatively influence their participation decisions and the level of participation in agricultural value chains. This study, therefore, investigated the factors that influence the level of value chain participation and implications on smallholder farmers in KwaZulu-Natal, Swayimane area. Primary data was collected from farming households selected through a purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and the nehurdle model. Results from the nehurdle model showed that the age of the respondent, marital status, farm income, household size, cooperative, market information, radio, extension officer, and formal education significantly influenced the participation decisions of smallholder farmers in agricultural value chains. The results further showed that off-farm income, marital status, cooperatives, access to credit, access to irrigation scheme, radio, extension officer, contact with non-government organizations, and formal education significantly influenced the level of value chain participation of the smallholder farmers. It can be concluded that the level of endowment in the physical, financial, and human resources influence participation. Further, the farmer's connectivity with the external world outside the village improves the outcomes and level of success. It is recommended that a market-led approach to farmer development be adopted to improve the commercial prospects of farmers whilst bolstering food security.

International audience; Although Sierra Leone aims to improve the livelihoods of its rice-farming households, the effect of specific policy changes on diverse households remains an open question. This study presents a household model that simulates strategies of production and consumption for rice-farming households in Sierra Leone. It accounts for non-separability between household production and consumption decisions, accounts for resource constraints, and uses a risk-adjusted measure of welfare. The model simulated the effects of three policy scenarios seeking to improve food consumption and calculated production, consumption and socio-economic indicators. The scenarios included: 1) subsidizing rice seed costs, 2) subsidizing palm oil production costs, and 3) subsidizing the conversion of lowlands into land suitable for rice production. The model was applied to four representative rice-farming households in northern Sierra Leone that differed in their land resources and rice consumption. The four household types included: 1) Upland_intensive, 2) Lowland_intensive, 3) Upland_extensive, and 4) Lowland_extensive. Results show that extensive lowland-based households had the lowest rice consumption (54 kg capita−1 year-1) and caloric intake (843 Kcal capita−1 day−1) in comparison with the other household types. Subsidizing rice seed costs in the lowlands, compared to the baseline scenario, improved rice consumption across the households by 15–34%, and farm income by 12–57%. Regardless of the scenario, differences in caloric intake, in comparison to the baseline scenario, were less than differences in rice consumption, thus indicating substitution effects between the different foods (vegetables, cereals, oils, and sweet potatoes). A maximum caloric increase of 16% was achieved by subsidizing palm oil production costs. Subsidizing lowland conversion for rice cultivation improved rice consumption mainly through the subsidy’s positive effect on rice production, which in turn effected self-consumption. Depending on the scenario, the increase in household income was mainly because of an increase in upland rice area, an increase in rice sowing rates, an increase in cash, or a specialization in lowland rice combined with planting a cash crop.

This paper studies the effects of investment support from the common agricultural policy on labour and total factor productivity of agricultural firms in Sweden. Detailed firm-level data on 34 300 firms are used to estimate a matched panel model that relates firm productivity to a series of factors reflecting internal and external characteristics. The recently developed Coarsened Exact Matching method is used to estimate matched control groups and handle selection bias. Findings show a positive and significant treatment effect of investment support on firm productivity, but only for small firms. The analysis also reveals that an increase in the size of the support in relation to firm income has a negative and significant impact on productivity for all firms. Differentiating between various types of investment supports indicates heterogeneous treatment effects. The policy instrument can improve its efficiency if targeted to small firms and investments that have a link to public good provision.

The loss and degradation of wetlands in the Mekong Delta has been caused by a combination of human activities (social systems) and natural events (ecological systems). However, the complexity and interaction of these socio-ecological factors are poorly understood. This study provides a better understanding of the complex social-ecological factors affecting land-cover change in the Phu My Lepironia grassland conservation area, part of Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve, Vietnam. A systems thinking approach was used to determine the interaction between the social system and land-use and land-cover changes. Results indicate that ensuring food supply and improving income are the key endogenous drivers of wetland degradation in the study area. Over-exploitation of wetland resources and inappropriate agricultural practices are accelerating wetland conversion and degradation. The conflict and unclear land tenure, coupled with a desire for higher income, has driven the community to convert and reclaim large parts of the wetland. This process is also driven exogenously by wetland access and the fluctuation of commodity prices, which in-turn results in transition from traditional to extensive cropping systems and expansion of cultivated land into the protected wetland. The relationship between people and wetlands must be central to the development of wetland policies and wetland management approaches. This will improve how land use policy supports sustainable sources of food and income for the local community and concurrently reduce pressures on wetland degradation. Any efforts made to protect the remnant wetland grassland and its diverse ecosystem by regulation should be supplemented by developing and sustaining the relationship between social systems and ecological systems.

The western Corn Belt region of the United States has become a hotspot for agricultural extensification and consequent land use and land cover changes. The goals of this research were to characterize geographic patterns of grassland loss resulting from cropland expansion in the eastern Dakotas, and to understand how these changes were associated with characteristics of individual farms and farm operators. We collected data on grassland conversion and other land use decisions through a mail survey of farm operators in North and South Dakota. Overall, 40% of respondents converted at least some grassland to cropland between 2004 and 2014, and the total acreage of converted grassland was equivalent to 5.1% of the surveyed farm acreage. Although most converted grassland acres (3.2% of farm acreage) were from land enrolled in the conservation reserve program (CRP), there were also substantial amounts of native grassland conversion (1.0%) and tame grassland conversion (0.9%). The total acreage of grassland conversion was more than four times larger than the acreage enrolled in CRP and other conservation programs. Different types of grassland conversion (e.g., native grassland versus CRP) were concentrated in different parts of the study region, and were spatially disjunct from the areas of highest conservation program enrollment. Larger farms were more likely than smaller farms to expand their cropland acreage and accounted for a disproportionate share of grassland conversion. Younger farm operators, higher levels of farm income, higher proportions of rented croplands, and marginal yields were also associated with cropland expansion and grassland conversion. Although CRP and other land retirement programs will remain important policy mechanisms for conservation in this region, they are not sufficient to maintain current levels of grassland cover and do not provide protection for native grasslands. Alternative conservation strategies and new agricultural policies are thus critically needed to maintain the ecosystem services provided by grasslands.

Efficient use of limited landholding in farming is the key to poverty reduction and inclusive growth in the agrarian economies like India that have a large number of land-constrained farmers. It is generally suggested that cultivation of horticultural crops in dry season can increase cropping intensity and help in better use of land leading to greater livelihood opportunities and higher farm income. However, limited scale of farming, market imperfections, lack of social and human capitals and failures of policies and institutions pose several constraints to optimum use of land and hence intensification in agriculture. This paper explores if collective farming and participation in value chains can potentially enhance scale of farming by the land-constrained farmers and strengthen their market linkages. The paper is based on experiences and insights gathered through repeated engagements and focus group discussions with land-constrained farmers and other stakeholders from two selected villages under the project Promoting Socially Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in West Bengal and Bangladesh (SIAGI) and their nearby markets of West Bengal, India. It is found that collectivization and development of diversified value chains along with off-farm activities can strengthen market linkages of land-constrained farmers. Apart from distance, market assurance and market acceptance also influence choice of markets by the land-constrained farmers. Further, given the limited scope and associated risks of collective marketing, particularly in the absence of enough aggregation opportunities, diversified crop baskets aligned with market demand appear to be more beneficial. However, the choice between crop diversification and cluster development still remains a critical issue and, therefore, requires further scrutiny.

Land provides the basis for food production and is an indispensable input for economic livelihoods in rural areas. Landownership is strongly associated with social and economic power. This holds not only across communities and households, but also within households. The link between landownership and women’s empowerment has been relatively well documented in general, but not specifically in relation to agriculture. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing how self-reported primary ownership of land is associated with agency and achievements in agriculture among female and male farmers in northern Ghana. We use a recursive bivariate probit model on indicators in four domains: decisions on agricultural cultivation, decisions on farm income, agricultural association membership, and time allocation. Our empirical estimates indicate that primary landownership is positively correlated with decisions on agricultural cultivation. Yet, we also find that the gender gaps in participation in cultivation decisions and the use of agricultural earnings continue to persist among male and female primary landowners. Our findings underscore the importance of land in enhancing women’s agency, but also point out that policies aiming to encourage women to become primary landowners (solely or jointly with their spouses) may not suffice to reduce gender inequality in agriculture.

In the last decade Slovenia has experienced more frequent natural disasters in forests. The most severe and widespread one that affected Slovenian forests, which cover more than a half of Slovenian territory, was a large-scale ice storm in early February 2014. This study aims to investigate the effect of the public support on the recovery of forest farms affected by the 2014 ice storm. Analyses focus particularly on the ability of Slovenian forest farms’ income recovery in a short-time period. The economic resilience of forest farms in the absence of forest disaster payments due to the absence of legal certainty for disaster aid in 2014 and 2015 provides an interesting framework for identifying the income effect of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments. The Farm Accountancy Data Network has been used with applied statistical and regression methods to estimate the public support effect on selected woodland area size samples. Results suggest a positive effect of CAP payments on farm income recovery. The magnitude of the effect is high and significant for the less favoured area and disaster payments that were given for farm production loss in the 2013 drought. Although the magnitude of the effect is weak, investment payments show a significant positive effect on farm income recovery for all studied forest farm samples.

A multivariate probit (MVP) model was used to analyse the determinants of strategies adopted for adapting to climate change in a sample of smallholder rice farmers in south-west Nigeria. An efficient endogenous switching regression model (ESRM) was used to estimate the impact of climate change adaptation strategy on the net income of rice farmers. The MVP results show that the socio-economic factors, the institutional factors, and locational variables of some households statistically influenced the choice of climate change adaptation strategies employed. Complementarities among all the adaptation strategies used by the farmers were revealed by the positive pair-wise correlation matrix of the MVP model. The study also indicated that farmers affected by prolonged drought and incidences of flood were more likely to adopt adaptation strategies on their farmlands. The ESRM treatment effect indicated that the average net income per rice farm of those who adopted the strategies was significantly higher than that of those who did not. Thus, the government, stakeholders, and donor agencies must provide capacity-building innovations related to agricultural extension systems and climate change education through information and communication technologies. This investment in education is essential for development and would encourage farmers to adopt appropriate climate change adaptation strategies.

Drought and high temperatures are major threats to sustainable food production and consequently the livelihoods of the majority of Africans who depend on fragile agricultural systems. As a response to these threats, climate-smart agricultural technologies, such as drought-tolerant maize (DTM) varieties, have been developed and promoted on the continent. It is well-known that the adoption of improved technologies generally impacts positively on the wellbeing of adopters. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the impact of any technology or intervention is always an empirical question. Therefore, this study sought to determine the factors that influence the adoption of DTM and subsequently estimate how yield, commercialization intensity, and farm income are affected by adoption. To establish causation, we relied on observations from 200 farm households in the Northern Region of Ghana and estimated an instrumental variable regression. Consistent with findings reported in the literature, we found that DTM adoption is primarily driven by access to seed, extension service, labor availability, and location of farm households. In addition, we found that DTM adoption positively impacts on yield and commercialization intensity. The magnitude of impact is not trivial. For example, the yield of farm households increased by more than 150% (936 kg/ha) following DTM adoption. These results imply that policy-makers and development practitioners must support research and promotion of climate-smart agriculture to improve adoption and welfare indicators, such as yield and commercialization.

This study analyzes the effectiveness of rural credit policy to increase the adoption of ICLS. Analyzes are based on a survey with 175 farmers in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Our estimates suggest that rural credit has positive and relevant impacts on the adoption of ICLS. In turn, the adoption of these systems may also involve investments in fixed capital and increases in operational costs, which create additional demand for rural credit. Other factors, such as access to extension policy, production scale, ex-ante perceptions, and market infrastructure also explain ICLS adoption. The access to rural credit policy is also determined by dependence on farm income, farmer’s perception of transaction costs, and supply of credit in the municipality. The study finally discusses important implications for the devising of rural credit policies and the diffusion of sustainable production systems in developing countries.

In biome Pampa, Brazil, cattle farmers have managed the natural grasslands using practices that result in overgrazing, low productivity and low farm income. In addition, farmers in the region converted natural grasslands from beef production to more profitable activities, such as cash crops. This conversion and overgrazing have caused environmental problems in biome Pampa. Although several innovations that increase beef productivity without damaging the environment are currently available to farmers in the region, the adoption rate remains low. This study used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to identify the beliefs that influence farmers' intention to use improved natural grassland. The TPB hypothesizes that adoption is driven by intention, which in turn is determined by three psychological constructs: attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. These three constructs are derived from behavioral, normative and control beliefs, respectively. Results show that attitude had a strong impact on intention, followed by subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Results also show that farmers' intention to use improved natural grassland depends on the extent to which farmers think this innovation allows for increasing the cattle density, the extent to which they think family and cattle traders support them in their decision to adopt and the extent to which farmers think they have sufficient knowledge and access to technical assistance.

This paper empirically quantifies environmentally augmented rural household incomes in Cambodia and analyzes how economic land concessions (ELCs) affect such incomes. Data is derived from a structured survey of 600 randomly selected households in 15 villages in three study sites in Cambodia, where local livelihoods are highly reliant on access to land and natural resources, supported by qualitative data from focus group discussions. Gini coefficient decomposition, multiple regression models, and propensity score matching (PSM) models were employed to analyze the composition of income portfolios, determinants of major income sources, and the impacts of land grabbing on incomes. Results documented high reliance on environmental income (32–35% of total household income) and farm income (51–53%) across income quartiles; demonstrated the variation in product composition across quartiles and the contribution of each major product to income inequality; and identified the main household characteristics influencing absolute and relative incomes. ELCs were found to consistently have negative impacts on household total income, environmental income, size of available cultivable land and livestock holdings, and increasing the distance to forests. The total household annual income subjects to ELCs were estimated to decrease by 15–19%. While providing some employment opportunities, we find no evidence of positive income effects of ELCs on households in the areas where ELCs are located.

The discussion about alternatives for tobacco cultivation is a very conflicting issue as it strikes into the heart of the tobacco industry which is the tobacco leaf. The aim of the paper is to contribute to this discussion and support the policy makers. To this end, the paper provides an evidence based approach for modeling the phasing-out of tobacco which describes the possible effects on farm income, labor demand and environmental impacts. In the context of the EU Research Project DIVTOB a model was developed to study the impacts of tobacco phasing-out on a specific region approach. The methodological approach can support the policy makers to overcome constraints related with the future implementation of alternative livelihoods to tobacco cultivation on the basis of evidence. In the broader context of tobacco control, the paper presents a method for an effective implementation of articles 17 and 18 of the WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC). The paper also shows a transparent approach to overcome in an effective way the uncertainties spread by the tobacco industry and their allies about phasing-out of tobacco especially in low-income and middle-income countries. The application of the proposed model to four case studies in Greece and Spain achieves, under different scenarios, important results useful for policy makers and policy implications.

The global population is continuously increasing and good quality land and water resources are simultaneously declining. This condition emphasizes the need of optimal allocation of these resources to fulfill the rising food requirements. This study presents the development and application of two management models for the seasonal optimal allocation of resources to maximize the net annual return of a canal command area of India. The models results show a reduction in rice and mustard crop areas against an increase in wheat, millet, cotton, and sugarcane crops. Under the optimal land and water allocation, the groundwater utilization increased, which in turn mitigated the waterlogging problems of the command area. The net annual return from the command area has increased by about 22%. The different optimal resource allocation strategies show an increase in net annual return with the increase in ranges of deviation from the existing conditions. The developed models can be used as a reliable decision aid for taking the farm and regional level decisions of optimal resources allocation and are able to solve the waterlogging problems of irrigated agriculture. The management models presented here are simple and can be used in any part of the world for maximizing the net agricultural return by mitigating the waterlogging problems in irrigated agriculture. However, under different hydro-geologic conditions, the constraints of the model may differ depending on the groundwater quality/quantity conditions and surface water/groundwater availability.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) improves agricultural productivity and enhance farm income on a sustainable basis, enhance water and nutrients use efficiency, resilient to climatic stresses, and lowering the emissions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) to a minimum level. Water-smart, energy-smart, carbon-smart and knowledge-smart practices and technologies significantly contributed directly or indirectly to improve productivity, enhance resilience and reduce GHG emission. Cotton is one of the important cash crops of Pakistan. It is a climate sensitive crop and suffered by multiple shocks as climate change and market discrepancies during the last two decades. The present paper aimed to estimate and compare the resource use efficiency including technical, economic and water use efficiency of adopters of CSA and non-adopters in cotton production. The study was conducted along Lower Bari Doab Canal (LBDC) irrigation system in Punjab, Pakistan. First-hand information was gathered through a well-structured and comprehensive questionnaire from 133 adopters of CSA and 65 farmers cultivating cotton with traditional methods. Input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis technique was employed to investigate the technical, economic and water use efficiency, assuming variable return to scale. The Bootstrap Truncated Regression was used to identify the factors influencing the resource use efficiency. The results showed that the adopters of CSA were using inputs more efficiently. The analysis revealed that adopters have higher cotton yield from per m3 irrigation water than non-adopters. Adopters were found to be financially sound, having easy access to credit and fast adaptation behavior towards environmental changes, and therefore, economically better off as compared to non-adopters. Bootstrap Truncated Regression analysis revealed that easy access to credit, provision of extension services, awareness regarding CSA, availability of good quality groundwater and right of ownership of tubewell were significantly affecting resource use efficiency. The finding suggested certain policy implications for creating awareness and financial support for the cotton growers to expedite the adaptation of CSA practices and technologies in the cotton growing area. This can enhance resource use efficiency, net farm income and livelihood of rural masses.