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This article argues that the politics of scale in a nested hierarchy of cotton governance institutions in Burkina Faso are weighted against smaller producers, with what looks like success from a broader scale producing uneven development at the local scale. We show that at the national level, Burkina Faso has succeeded in increasing its output of cotton lint. At the local level, we see a differentiated outcome where the liberalization‐initiated system of shared liability has improved overall cotton cooperative management but this has come at a significant cost: the exit of poorer farmers from the cotton sector and an increasing debt burden on those individual farmers who remain. The novelty of this article is that it considers producers' institutions as a key level of analysis linking macro‐scale policy decisions to micro‐scale village and farm outcomes. The resulting analysis allows us to focus on the politics of scale, particularly the power relations of different actors and the ability to capture resources at different levels, as well as the role of multilevel institutions in producing differentiated outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effect of upcoming elections and government ideology on agricultural liberalization in Central and Eastern Europe countries in the post-communist period. Our results suggest first that prices and markets liberalization and land market privatization are manipulated in pre-election periods to secure re-election by favouring farmers. Second, we find no evidence that reforms in the agro-process industry, rural finance or institutional environment are affected by upcoming elections. Third, we demonstrate that right-wing governments protect the interest of the agricultural sector more than left-wing governments by affecting the speed of price and market reforms, privatization in the agro-processing industry and land market privatization. Finally, we demonstrate that liberalization the agricultural sector is partly retarded by nationalistic governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifteen years after its implementation, the North American Free Trade Agreement has been subject to evaluations from different perspectives, including environmental assessments. According to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), results of these evaluations show that at the aggregate level, the environmental impacts of free trade are marginal. This article presents relationships between corn trade and environment through an ex post evaluation. I show a quantification of the land-use change and connections with deforestation and biodiversity loss in Mexico, as poor farmers expanded their agricultural activity into marginal forest and jungle areas to compensate for lost income. I also analyze the impact on land-use change in the United States resulting from increased corn exports to Mexico. Related Articles: Ibarrarán. 2007. 'Climate Change Research and Policy in Mexico: Implications for North American Security.' VanNijnatten. 2007. 'The Security and Prosperity Agreement as an 'Indicator Species' for the Emerging North American Environmental Regime.' Related Media: Annan. 2005. 'Message of Kofi Annan.' Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005b. 'Ecosystems and Human Well-being.' Quince años después de su implementación, el TLCAN ha sido sujeto a muchos estudios desde diferentes perspectivas, incluyendo evaluaciones ambientales. De acuerdo con la Comisión para la Cooperación Ambiental (CCA), los resultados de estas evaluaciones muestran que a un nivel agregado los impactos ambientales del libre comercio son marginales. Este artículo presenta la relación entre el comercio de maíz y el medio ambiente a través de una evaluación ex post. Se muestra una cuantificación del cambio de uso de suelo y su conexión con la deforestación y la pérdida de biodiversidad en México; a medida que agricultores de escasos recursos expandieron sus actividades agrícolas hacia los márgenes de áreas con bosques y selvas para compensar pérdidas en su ingreso. También se analiza el impacto de un cambio en el uso de suelo en los Estados Unidos como resultado de un aumento en las exportaciones de maíz a México. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural liberalization is one of the most contentious trade issues in Japan and Korea. Yet, important differences characterize the Japanese and Korean governments’ positions on agricultural liberalization when negotiating on free trade agreements (FTA). The Korean government supports substantial agricultural liberalization, whereas the Japanese government is reluctant to abandon farm interests even at the risk of undermining its FTAs. Given strong similarities in their agricultural structure and politics, how do you explain divergent government positions between Japan and Korea? The structure of a country's domestic trade governance largely explains the Japanese and Korean governments’ varying approach to agricultural liberalization during FTA negotiations. Domestic trade governance refers to the decision-making structure and process on foreign economic policies. Cohesive domestic trade governance enabled the Korean government to pursue agricultural liberalization under the broader national agenda of promoting trade through FTAs. In contrast, fragmented domestic trade governance gave disproportionately larger weight to agricultural interests within the Japanese government, ultimately allowing agriculture to undermine the success of Japan's FTAs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper advances the theoretical argument for moving beyond the conventional/alternative divide in the analysis of emerging 'alternative' agri-food networks (AAFNs). In order to understand how 'place', 'nature' and 'quality'-based food networks emerge and develop, we argue that careful attention needs to be paid to the way in which specific political-economic environments shape the options available to farmers and consumers. Australia's 'competitive productivism' is the outcome of an export-oriented economy and a neoliberal political orientation, and this environment affects the development of AAFNs in various ways. Most notably, a case study of farmers that sell at farmers' markets in the State of Victoria shows that the competitive-productivist policies pursued by Australian governments entice some farmers who participate in AAFNs to develop their ideas into higher output businesses tailored to compete in emerging export markets. Other farmers deliberately choose to keep marketing through alternative channels despite competitive-productivist pressures to expand. These findings demonstrate the centrality to the experience of AAFN participants of negotiating productivist pressures, adding nuances to the story of the complex relations between AAFNs and conventional supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the case of burley tobacco liberalization in Malawi to investigate the efficacy of cash crop liberalization as an instrument for poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. The principal justification for cash crop liberalization is that markets allow farm households to increase their incomes by producing that which provides the highest return to their productive resources and use the cash to buy consumption goods. Using a latent welfare model, we find that households that selected to grow cash crops had higher incomes than those that did not grow cash crops. However, we also find that due to the lumpiness and seasonality of cash crop incomes, higher household incomes, while increasing food purchases did not significantly affect per capita food intake. Irrespective of participation in cash crops, for much of the cropping season rural households seem to rely more on nonfarm income for expenditure and consumption smoothing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]