ABSTRACT. Small-scale shark fisheries in Papua New Guinea have developed rapidly and are largely unmanaged. While shark species are vulnerable to overexploitation, local fishers who depend on shark fin for income also have limited alternative income options. This implies a difficult trade-off for policy makers between conservation and community welfare. A case study of shark fishing activities in the Louisiade Archipelago, a major shark fin producing region, is presented to inform such trade-offs. The region has experienced a significant reduction in available income opportunities due to the recent closure of the local sea cucumber fishery. While it had been widely assumed that shark fin production and income was likely to have escalated in the region to replace lost sea cucumber income, our analysis shows that small-scale shark fin production has in fact declined. Market access constraints appear to be the major driver, with the geographical isolation of Louisiade communities, high fuel costs and low returns to shark fin (relative to sea cucumber) now making shark fin production and trade less attractive. Given that market access is likely to improve, particularly once the sea cucumber fishery reopens, some form of low-cost, community-based management of shark resources that utilises current government monitoring processes is recommended.

ABSTRACT. The Commonwealth Harvest Strategy Policy and Guidelines requires that stocks be maintained, on average, at a biomass level that produces maximum economic yield (BMEY). For many fisheries, identifying the appropriate target reference point is complex, data intensive and expensive, and a series of proxy measures have been proposed. Given uncertainty with both the proxy target reference point, and the stochastic nature of fisheries, attempting to simultaneously achieve the targets for all species may be unrealistic, and potentially result in lower returns than expected. In this paper, we present a multi-fleet, multi-species and multi-region model based on the Commonwealth trawl component of the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery. The model is developed as a goal programming model, with the dual objectives of achieving the MEY target for specified species and assuming revenue maximisation for the remainder (given a constraint on total fishing effort). The impact on profitability of incrementally adding species to the set of those actively controlled using proxy targets is assessed.

ABSTRACT. The need to realise the co-benefits of biodiversity conservation, sustainable fisheries, climate adaptation and food security from near-shore marine ecosystems is well-documented. This provides the rationale for the Coral Triangle Initiative and more specifically Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) in the Indo-Pacific region. LMMAs are delineated near-shore marine areas where rules (e.g. harvest restrictions) are applied with clear ownership and management by local communities, and in cases have achieved co-benefits in cost-effective and culturally-sensitive ways. The LMMA network in Kimbe Bay of PNG was informed by principles of successful community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and is cited as an exemplar of CBNRM and ecosystem-based adaptation. However, during a multi-stakeholder scenario-planning process in 2013, concerns were raised about the long-term ability of these LMMAs to achieve these co-benefits, given ‘business as usual’ projections of population growth, economic development and climate change. We sought to assess the effectiveness and sustainability of this LMMA network, given their current characteristics and governance. Two lines of investigation were adopted. First, the social-ecological context of Kimbe Bay was assessed using data from the scenario-planning process and consultations with four communities with established LMMAs. This assessment considered the beneficiaries, the relative contributions to livelihoods, the threats, the trends in condition, the costs of monitoring and enforcement, and the present and future values, of the biodiversity and ecosystem services derived from the LMMAs. Second, the characteristics of the LMMA network were compared with principles for successful CBNRM. These analyses revealed recommendations for improving the design, governance and management of the LMMAs, which will be presented and discussed.

ABSTRACT. Australian commonwealth fisheries are managed with the objective of maximising economic returns to the Australian community, an objective that may be served by increasing the efficiency of the fishing fleet. This paper presents a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) of the Commonwealth Trawl Sector (CTS) of the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery using data at the boat level to explore the potential the SFA approach has to determine the efficiency of the fleet and find reasons for any inefficiencies. 

This preliminary work:

·                indicates there is significant inefficiency in the CTS fleet

·                supports the hypothesis that a structural adjustment in 2006 led less efficient boats to leave the fishery, leading to improved economic returns

·                shows that inter-annual effects, such as stock availability, management changes and technical change, play a large role in the estimated frontier, and must be disentangled from each other in further work to provide further information for managers

ABSTRACT. Achieving an efficient allocation of fishery resource stocks between commercial and recreational fishers is often hampered by incomplete information about the economic value of these fisheries to the community. Economic data for Australia’s recreational fishing sector are currently not readily available in a form that can be used for resource allocation decisions. The little data that are available provide a limited picture of the economic value of the sector. This is largely due to the non-market nature of goods produced by recreational fishing. This paper provides a theoretical framework for how non-market values associated with recreational fishing can be derived using the travel cost method. It then combines this with economic information from the commercial sector to assess the effect of changes in allocation of a fish stock between recreational and commercial fishers. The framework assumes that the commercial and recreational catch is regulated via a total allowable catch. The paper also highlights some of the impediments of using this framework in applied analysis. The description of the travel cost method in a recreational fishing context is supported by a summary of some recent work undertaken by ABARES in valuing game fishing activities in eastern Australia.

ABSTRACT. The buyback of water rights from irrigators is an increasingly popular policy to restore environmental flows threatened by overallocation. Water purchase tenders empower government agencies to meet the public demand for environmental services, while compensating irrigators for their losses. The extent of this compensation is sensible to rent-seeking, though: targeted environmental goals often constraint government agencies to trade in specific catchments and flow conditions, and this results in narrow markets with a limited number of bidders. The efficiency of water buyback is therefore conditioned to the capacity of this policy to shift bids as close as possible to the shadow price of the would-be seller and thus limit rent extraction. This demands an in-depth knowledge of agents behavior. This paper uses a revealed preference method to estimate the objective function of irrigators in SE Spain. Agents are then confronted with decreasing water allocations to reveal the shadow price of water, whose capitalized value can be used as a benchmark to inform future water purchase tenders.

ABSTRACT. The Waimea Plains (Tasman District, New Zealand) is a major horticulture area, highly reliant on irrigation. Irrigators draw water from an integrated surface water and groundwater system. Fresh water is over-allocated by 64%. Irrigators face significant restrictions due to natural fluctuations in river flow and groundwater levels, i.e. water is unreliable. This case study evaluates different options to address these problems. A catchment optimisation model is used to assess the benefits from enabling water permit transfers and from the proposed Waimea Community Dam (‘the dam’). A spreadsheet model is used to assess the impact of different ways of cutting back water permits, should the dam not go ahead. The case study is based on farm- and orchard-level models which estimate irrigation need, profit and nitrogen leaching under different levels of water allocation, reliability and soil type for apples, viticulture, market gardening and dairy farming over a period of 40 years. Key findings are that: • water permit transfers would result in moderate benefits on average (8.6% increase in average profit) but significant benefits in dry years (46% increase in profit); • the dam would result in significant benefits by enabling expansion of irrigated areas and conversion from unirrigated pasture to higher value crops, and providing a reliable water supply for existing and future irrigators (103% increase in average profit and 10% decrease in nitrogen leaching). • Should the dam not go ahead, water permit cuts based on irrigation need would result in lower, and a more even distribution of, costs than flat-rate cuts.

ABSTRACT. This research builds on the emerging literature studying irrigator behaviour and the social network theory. In particular this study uses spatial characteristics - such as regional biophysical factors, distance effects and neighbourhood interaction - to examine the influence on the water entitlement sale decision. Irrigators in the past have traditionally been very wary of using water entitlement markets, and indeed, early permanent water sellers were ostracised in their local region. Water sellers are often described as not willing sellers, instead driven by debt, divorce and death. Irrigator locations were geocoded and spatial characteristics were linked to recent irrigator survey data covering farm, farmer and water trade characteristics (n=1,462) in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Overall findings indicated that irrigators located in poorer resource areas (e.g. water salinity level), in more rural (distance to cities) and disadvantaged regions (e.g. population decline) were more likely to sell water entitlements. Also, a neighbour effect was discerned, where, holding all other variables constant, higher numbers of other irrigators in a farmer’s local area whom had sold water, increased the likelihood of an individual farmer selling water entitlements. Hence, it seems that there is a ‘social network’ acceptability impact on permanent water selling behaviour, and that general distrust and fear of community backlash from selling water has been reduced through close neighbours’ actions.

ABSTRACT. The Swan-Canning river catchment is highly valued for its estuarine ecosystem and recreational amenity. These values are threatened by erratic winter rainfall and excess nutrients in its waterways. Residential gardens in Perth are dominated by European garden styles that include lawns and introduced species, which depend on watering and relatively high levels of plant nutrients. One of the ways to ameliorate these problems is to adopt native gardens reducing use of water and fertilisers and increasing local biodiversity. In addition to the cost, converting to alternative gardening style may result in gain or loss of welfare due to homeowner’s preferences for garden styles. This study uses the hedonic pricing method to estimate the value homeowners place on different garden styles. Results indicate that there may be a substitution between private gardens and local public open space. The information about the welfare change due to conversion of gardening styles is important to develop appropriate policy instruments targeting reduction of water use and nutrients runoff through changes is garden style.

ABSTRACT. Farm exit issues have concerned policy makers for decades. Over time, farm exits have been associated with technological innovation, national economic growth and the transfer of labour from rural to urban areas. The increasing frequency of drought and associated water restrictions may result in declining agricultural profitability especially for irrigated farms and result in an increase in farm exit. Due to drought, from 2002-03 to 2009-10 the River Murray endured record low flows and irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) in Australia faced considerable stress in dealing with reduced water allocations, higher temperatures, reduced rainfall and falling commodity prices. The drought was broken in 2010 with flooding across the MDB. Using ABARES irrigation survey dataset (a rotating panel of over 3500 observations with some irrigators randomly dropped from the sample after three years) from 2006-2007 to 2012-2013, we model what influences are associated with irrigators’ plans to sell the farm in the next three years in the Murray-Darling Basin, and in particular whether rainfall and water related variables (allocation, drought) are associated with selling the farm. Results suggest that lower winter rainfall, current higher prices for water allocations and higher water entitlements are found significantly associated with a higher likelihood that irrigators are selling their farms in drought years while such significant association does not exist in non-drought years. Other influences significantly associated with selling include: older age, higher off-farm income, lower farm capital and lower farm net income.

ABSTRACT. Risk is an important attribute for environmental goods, but is often not taking into account in discrete choice experiments (DCE). This paper presents the results from a (DCE) on new water supply sources from a stated choice survey conducted in Victoria and New South Wales in Australia in 2013. Participants were asked to select their most preferred option from six new water supply sources, which varied explicitly by price and approved use (quality). The six sources are provided using different technologies which vary implicitly by the level of water security that they provide, given they are either weather dependent (for example new dam) or weather independent (such as desalination plant or recycled). Unlike previous DCEs that account for risk, we gave a subsample of participants an incentivised task to elicit level of risk aversion, based on Holt and Laury (2002). A mixed logit model is estimated, taking into account weather dependence and the risk aversion of participants. Controlling for allowed use and cost, results suggest the risk-related attribute of weather dependence is a strong driver of preferences for water source, depending on the participants’ level of risk aversion. The results also suggest that residents dislike using non-potable water in their laundry and on edible gardens. Significant heterogeneity in preferences is present, with the low environmental impact sources of recycled and stormwater more likely to be preferred by more highly educated, higher income and younger individuals.

ABSTRACT. We present a novel approach to address differences between stated and paid choices by incentivizing stated choices in a randomized field experiment. The treatment increases the incentives in the field by making each decision financially relevant. Our results show that the treatment effect is small in aggregate. However, we find that the treatment increases estimates of the marginal utility of income, especially among low-income households. The treatment also affects estimates of preferences for specific attributes by reducing willingness to pay for attributes with public benefits. Respondents with greater self-reported environmental preferences are more susceptible to the treatment in attribute space.

ABSTRACT. As price-takers, producers of dryland field crops are under pressure to increase productivity to remain competitive. However, the productivity gap between the ‘most productive’ and the ‘average’ farm business is growing, due to scale, management and/or capital constraints that limit the adoption of productivity boosting innovations. To overcome constraints and increase competiveness, the adoption of organisational innovations like joint venture (JV) structures between family farm businesses may be worth considering. This this paper aims to: 1) identify JV structures that are most attractive to managers of farm businesses, and 2) determine the characteristics of farm managers and farm businesses that may be most interested in adopting a JV organisational structure. A sample of 340 farm managers was randomly selected from a database of Australian grain growers. Respondents completed a survey and a discrete choice experiment in which they made choices between alternative JV scenarios. Roughly 55% of respondents were interested in a JV structure. Farmers preferred JV structures that offer an increase in net farm income, minimal loss of operational control and maintenance of existing annual leave. Socio-demographic variables were interacted with choice attributes to explore heterogeneity in preferences. Latent class models identified a niche segment of farmers willing to forgo greater operational control in exchange for increased net farm income, fewer JV partners, older machinery and maintenance of existing annual leave. Adoption of JVs is likely to be concentrated amongst a minority of farmers willing to consider consensus-like decision-making processes. However, the importance of operational control for most farmers highlights the potential for alternative JVs incorporating passive investors.

ABSTRACT. Models to analyse discrete choice data that account for heterogeneity in error variance (scale) across respondents are increasingly common, e.g. heteroscedastic conditional logit or scale adjusted latent class models. In this paper we do not question the need to allow for scale heterogeneity. Rather, we examine the interpretation of results from these models. We provide five empirical examples using discrete choice experiments, analysed using conditional logit, heteroscedastic conditional logit, or scale adjusted latent class models. We show that analysts may incorrectly conclude that preferences are consistent across respondents even if they are not, or that classes of respondents may have (in)significant preferences for some or all attributes of the experiment, when they do not. We recommend that future studies employing scale heterogeneity models explicitly state scale factors for all samples, choice contexts, and/or latent scale classes, and report rescaled preference parameters for each of these groups.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents the results of a procurement auction that was used to estimate the supply function for environmental services generated through a Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme in Lao PDR. The PES scheme involves local subsistence farmers conducting anti-poaching patrols to protect endangered wildlife in the Phou Chomvoy Provincial Protected Area in Lao PDR. The marginal costs of supplying anti-poaching patrols were estimated through a uniform-price, sealed-bid auction, in which local people interested in being part of the scheme bid for the number of patrols they would like to provide in response to a range of offered prices. The auction process generated a sequence of price-quantity pairs that track the marginal cost functions of each bidder. Those bidding were informed that the price they would receive per patrol would be uniform for all patrols and that the going price would be determined by their marginal costs and by what people were willing to pay for the services provided. The supply curve estimated though this auction process will be used in conjunction with estimates of the scheme’s marginal benefits to determinate the ‘price’ paid per patrol.

ABSTRACT. This article investigates the use of payments for environmental services as an alternative to constructing wildlife crossings in central Sumatra. A large Global Environmental Facility project plans to build bridges across six rivers within a protected forest in Riau, Indonesia. The bridges are expected to reduce human wildlife conflict, allowing safer migration routes for tigers and elephants. Several hundred smallholders farm, mostly rubber, along the highway within the protected forest. The success of the project depends on the willingness of these smallholders to accept a payment requiring them to forgo access to their land in the protected forest for 5 years. Willingness to participate in the ‘buyout’ program is examined via surveys of 300 randomly selected households from 4 villages bordering the protected forest. The study applies a double hurdle model to first analyse the factors that determine the decision to participate and second the factors influencing the amount of compensation required. Both male and female household members are included in the survey and analysis, with inferred valuation techniques used to address social desirability bias and hypothetical bias. This analysis provides insights into land-users willingness to participate in conservation programs in Indonesia, with policy and program design implications.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a simple model for evaluating the economic costs and benefits of resistance management strategies in cropping systems. Developing strategies to delay the build-up of resistance of pests and weed populations to control agents presents complex economic trade-offs. Growers must weigh the effect of control on the damage to crops, on future pest and weed populations and on the time to build-up of resistance. Control options also affect other aspects of the system, such as other pests and weed populations, so must be evaluated as part of the cropping system. Here we show that focusing on how strategies affect the trade-off between average annual returns and the time until resistance development enables practical evaluation of resistance management strategies and reveals which of the various economic and biological effects of different options determine their value. To illustrate this approach we analyse management of resistance of insect pests ( Helicoverpa sp.) to Bacillus toxins in cotton. We contrast this with management of herbicide resistance in weeds of wheat crops, identifying the different biological relationships that determine the efficiency of resistance management strategies in these different systems.

ABSTRACT. A key realisation in the development of an economist is that the tools and techniques learnt in one area can generally be applied to most problems. By extrapolating from that step, this paper debates that the economic foundations of one-health are similar to the economics foundations of integrated pest management (IPM). One-health provides a system based approach to understand how health issues between humans, wildlife and domesticated animals are intrinsically linked, with an aim to gain efficiency from public and private health expenditure. Recent developments within the one-health literature have started broadening the scope to include flora. This extension into plants has been derived to enhance resistance management strategies (i.e. same compounds are used to control diseases in plants and animals); and the nutrition plants providing animals (including human). As IPM is concerned with the management and consequences of managing of pests (a coverall term used to describe any species that causes harm) within society the two concepts are interlinked.

If this argument about the two concepts holds true, then the decision making rules applicable to IPM are equally applicable to One-Health. This linkage then provides practitioners of One-Health with access to a new source of detailed historical literature identifying both the positives and negatives associated with the adoption, adaptation and evolution of IPM. These findings may then prevent One-Health decision makers from stumbling into the same errors that IPM policy makers faced when dealing with public good and market failure arguments.

ABSTRACT. Eradication in a biosecurity context can be a costly exercise requiring, among other things, significant expenditure in terms of skilled staff, operating resources and compensation to affected parties. As such investment pre-incursion, to minimise future potential eradication costs and agricultural losses, is often seen as an optimal use of funds when the likelihood or consequence of incursion is high. To explore this assumption this paper will use the case study of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD). This is an event of high consequence should an incursion occur as it is the single greatest threat to Australia’s livestock industries and is expected to cause significant flow on impacts to wider society. The paper will explore key results of the Cost-Benefit Analysis of Biosecurity Queensland’s ‘Biosecurity Preparedness Program: FMD’ so as to identify when caution must be taken in simply assuming that investment in preparedness is economically optimal.

ABSTRACT. Predation of livestock by wild dogs is the most widespread problem in the livestock industries in Australia. While land managers spend a substantial resource to manage the impact of wild dogs, management decisions are made without sufficient information on the long-term costs and benefits of alternative management strategies at different spatial and temporal scales. In this study, we conducted a bioeconomic analysis of wild dog impact and management strategies in northern NSW livestock industries using a socioeconomic data collected through a survey of focus group property managers. We found that private and public benefits can be improved if ecological, psychological, biological and economic variables are integrated with wild dog management decisions.

ABSTRACT. Investments in R&D often have a defensive character aimed at avoiding or reducing losses in the face of uncertain future events. Environmental assurance to ensure producers’ social license to operate and prevent loss of markets from negative consumer perceptions is an example. Defensive R&D projects are not readily amenable to traditional benefit-cost analyses because of the high future uncertainty. Alternative approaches to assess risk and associated payoffs are available and should be used. We outline three evaluation methods in increasing order of complexity related to how well they address uncertainty and managerial flexibility: static discounted cash flow analysis; decision tree analysis; and real options analysis. When high uncertainty exists regarding the outcomes of an investment, and there are options such as delaying, abandoning or accelerating the investment, then real options analysis is the best method. The types of decisions that can be made as uncertainty unfolds through time must be clearly defined and the decisions available at any point in time must be expressed as functions of decisions taken previously (i.e., path dependency is important). For example, the loss from introduction of mandatory environmental certification in a market will be smaller when quick action is possible due to past investments in environmental assurance, than when past investments have not occurred. The evaluation methods reviewed and the recommendations presented in this paper are general. They are not limited to environmental assurance schemes, but would apply to other types of defensive investments, such as biosecurity and animal welfare.

ABSTRACT. While large public spending of 30.78 billion USD was used through the rice-pledging scheme, evaluation of the impact of this spending on Thailand’s farm economy has been limited. This study assesses the impact of the rice-pledging scheme on economic well-being of participating farm households in Thailand. It also investigates whether the effect of this scheme are heterogeneous across different farm types using the propensity score matching technique with the farm-level dataset covering crop year 2011/12 and 2012/13 to address the self-selection bias. We find that the rice pledging scheme enhances the direct farm revenue of participating small farms between 316.89 – 327.47 USD/farm/year higher than it is for observationally equivalent non-participating farms. The treatment effects are larger for the medium and large farm subsamples in the range of 1,222.51 – 1,258.73 USD/farm/year and 3,048.80 – 4,020.19 USD/farm/year, respectively. For the potential outcome of the net direct farm revenue calculated by subtracting direct farm revenue by farm expenses, this study reveals that the scheme enhances net direct farm revenue between 291.74 – 312.56 USD/farm/year, 1,056.06 – 1,104.01 USD/farm/year, and 2,699.32 – 3,535.10 USD/farm/year for the subsamples of small farm, medium farm, and large farms, respectively. We cannot detect the reduction of the farm debt as a result of the scheme. Exploring strategies to reduce production costs and enhance productivity of inputs, improving the program access for small farms, and designing program’s mechanism requiring participating farms to spend a portion of the received money for debt reduction may improve long-run benefits of the program.

ABSTRACT. This study examines how local political processes impact the access to the Rice for the Poor (Beras Miskin, RASKIN) program. The program that was initiated first time to cushion the impact of 1997/98 Asian Financial Crisis and continued until recently, covers about 18 million households. While eligible households were selected based on National Statistical Agency’s 2005 Pendataan Sosial Ekonomi (PSE) data, in practice village authorities are in charge at the final point of distribution and distribution mechanism could be arranged locally or be decided by head of the village. Anecdotal evidence shows that in many cases the Raskin was equally distributed which might explain while a large portion of the poor received the program, there was also big group of non-eligible beneficiaries of the program. Using rich information data from Indonesia Family Life Survey, we find evidence that involvement in political process matter for access to the ‘Rice for the Poor’ program. Households in which at least one of the household members having voted in the last head of village election have higher probability of being the Raskin beneficiaries. In handling the endogenity issue of voting participation, we use the presence of land salary in the village as the instrumental variable. Our results show that, in the case where technocratic institutions to implement the program and enforce the use of the beneficiaries data was absent or weak, being allies to local political power matter to access public resources.

ABSTRACT. In a research project focussing on improved rice establishment and productivity in Cambodia, opportunities for mechanized rice crop establishment were investigated for dry direct seeding of rice in conventionally cultivated fields using a multi-row drill operated by a two wheel tractor (2WT), a power source widely available in Cambodia.

Farmers’ surveys (n=600) undertaken within three provinces showed a widespread adoption of a wet direct seeding technique involving manual broadcasting of pre-germinated seeds into puddled fields. Due to their poor financial conditions, farmers pay high rates of interest on any capital borrowed and face significant production risks, which are often mitigated by no or low use of inputs. On-farm adoption of seed drill technology would involve significant initial capital investment and increased operating expenses including improved management practices, which are essential for maximising the benefits of drill seeded rice. Before recommending drill technology to farmers, it is important to quantify the likely benefits and costs associated with its adoption on typically small size farms in the lowland rice eco systems.

This paper aims to estimate the costs and net benefits of adoption of 2WT drill technology (based on average values v/s marginal parameter values) by assessing the true ownership costs and quantifying realistic contract rates; the current adoption trends are identified; and the key agronomic, mechanical, socio-economic and policy issues limiting adoption are discussed. The paper concludes with recommendations on 2WT drill adoption strategies required to help maximise its economic benefits for an inclusive growth of the rice industry in Cambodia.

ABSTRACT. Cassava is the second most important food crop in Africa after maize. It is a major staple crop for more than 200 million people in East and Central Africa, most of them living in poverty in rural areas. Recently, cassava has gained importance as a cash crop for smallholder farmers in this region. However, its production is undermined by several factors, particularly the problem of emerging and endemic pests and diseases. The whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) is the most serious pest of cassava, causing significant yield losses through direct feeding damage and as a vector of virus diseases. However, there are few empirical assessments of the economic impacts of the whitefly on smallholder producers. We are conducting a comprehensive socio-economic study covering Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi to determine the status of cassava production with the following specific objectives and research questions: • Is cassava production profitable? • Are cassava producers technically efficient? • What is the current adoption rate of improved cassava production technologies? • What is the economic impact of the whitefly on smallholder farmers?

The primary data for this study is being collected from cassava farmers in Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi—using a pre-tested survey questionnaire that is orally administered to individual farmers. A total of 1200 respondents were selected and interviewed using a multi-stage random sampling technique. An economic analysis is being conducted using gross margin (GM) analysis and a stochastic frontier production model to evaluate the productivity of cassava farmers in this region. We present some of the preliminary results, discuss the implications, and the further work required.

ABSTRACT. The accelerated farm mechanisation, increased share of purchased inputs, fluctuation in prices and higher wage rates increased vulnerability of small farmers than large farmers in India. In this context, historical inverse relationship between farm size and productivity has changed into positive one, with larger farms getting advantage of large scale mechanisation and technology. The paper revisits the farm size and productivity debate at the state level by using unit level data of cost of cultivation for rice crop. The paper has found that, there was widening gap between bottom 25% and top 25% (based on farm size) of the farmers in terms of yields, gross returns, profitability with large farms better off. The condition of tenant-small farmers was more precarious due to high land rents (50% of total cost). The share of loss making farms is 17% among bottom 25% of the farmers compared to only 3% among top 25% of the farmers. The distress of small farms is aggravated by higher risk in profitability. The regression results show that there was a positive relation between farm size and profitability after controlling for state structural variables and input use.

ABSTRACT. While seasonality in the consumer demand and producer supply of agricultural commodities is well understood, relatively little is known regarding seasonal variation in the adoption of farm technologies, such as hybrid seeds, whose effectiveness may vary across seasons. Hybrid seed adoption studies in LDCs tend to suffer from a problem of temporal aggregation where data is either (1) measured in a snapshot of time, in which case seasonal variation cannot be analyzed, or; (2) aggregated over the course of a year or multiple years, where cyclical seasonal variation is washed out. This study will uncover the seasonal dynamics in hybrid seed demand by analyzing the case of Chili in Indonesia, which is an important commodity that is produced all year long despite seasonal variation. However, there appear to be significant seasonal bottlenecks in input markets, and identifying seasonal change in hybrid seed use by farmers will be critical for improving the functioning of the seed-system. In analysis, factor demand functions will be estimated using a unique dataset of 597 chili producers. The study will test for structural change in the demand for hybrid seeds going from dry season to wet season and identify season specific constraints to hybrid seed use. Results will inform the seed research program and seed value-chains on seasonal constraints or demand for seed attributes that are important for farmers. This can improve targeting of hybrid seed diffusion programs that tend to be uniform across seasons.

ABSTRACT. Similar to many other developing countries, supermarkets are developing rapidly in Indonesia. The specific requirements posed by supermarkets in terms of greater product homogeneity, quality, timing, safety, sorting, grading and packaging have influenced the supply chain of agricultural supply chains. Most previous literature have analyzed the impact of supermarket development on profit and income obtained by farmers selling to supermarkets, but paid less attention on possible employment effects in rural areas. It is expected that the development of supermarkets does not only impact directly on small farmers supplying to supermarket chains, but also impact indirectly on poor households in rural areas who cannot participate directly in the supermarket chains. Such impact could happen through their participation in agricultural labor markets. The majority of agricultural commodities is producing in rural areas and is often quite labor intensive. This study sought to examine the impact of supermarket development on employment generation in rural areas. The data comes from a farm survey conducted between March and April 2010 of 602 chili farmers selling to the traditional and supermarket channels in West Java Province. A double-hurdle model was performed to estimate the determinant of hired labor use in chili production. The results will have important implications for poverty reduction and rural development in developing countries. Higher earnings obtained by labors could lead to productivity gains in agricultural sector. The results will also inform policy makers on how to formulate strategies in order to ensure the potential impacts are realized.

ABSTRACT. Horticultural crops including fruits and vegetables play a significant role in providing new and profitable sources of income for farmers. Horticultural crops also contribute to employment opportunities in rural areas. However, there is an important question of whether shifting to horticultural crops can raise smallholder farmers’ livelihoods. Thus, understanding the potential benefits from horticultural diversification would be useful to promote horticultural crop adoption among farmers. On the other hand, it is still unknown whether the diversification towards high-value horticultural crops impacts off-farm income as its potential benefits may attract household members (labour) to engage in horticultural production instead of in non-farm activities. To address this knowledge gap, this study aims to examine the relationship between horticultural crop diversification and both agricultural and off-farm income. This study uses primary data obtained from a survey of Indonesian farmers that produce a variety of agricultural products, and uses a simultaneous equation regression model - a three-stage least square (3SLS) estimation, to understand the relationship between horticultural crop diversification and measures of livelihoods. This regression model is a combination of the 2SLS and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) estimation methods, and is estimated simultaneously for agricultural and off-farm income. Salient results as well as policy and agricultural development implications will be discussed in the presentation and provided in the full paper. Ultimately these findings can be helpful for policymakers when deciding to promote diversification toward horticultural crops to smallholder farmers and keep maintaining their income.

ABSTRACT. Cocoa beans production in West Sumatra province has increased bu an average of 23 percent over the years meanwhile other province only increase by 9 percent. Increasing production must be supported by efficient marketing in order to increase the welfare of cocoa farmer. The objective of this article is to analyze the determinants of marketing efficiency. Two stage analysis are conducted, firstly calculating the marketing efficient using data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. Secondly, calcuting factors affecting the marketing effiency using Tobit regression. The research was conducted in the Pasaman Regency and 45 farmers were chosen as respondents. The results indicate that only 13 farmers (29 percent) are efficient. Meanwhile main occupation, land area and price are variables that has significant affect on efficiency.

ABSTRACT. One of the interesting facts of Indonesia’s agricultural census in 2013 is a drastic decrease of the very small farmers compared to the census in 2003 in Indonesia. However, agricultural land is still dominated by small farmers who have less than one hectare of land. These facts have consequences not only on the inequality of farmers’ lands but also their incomes. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the effects of agricultural land-occupying inequality on rural income inequality. We use various methods to calculate inequality of agricultural land and income inequality, such as Gini ratio, Generalized Entropy indices, and Atkinson indices. Using Susenas and Agricultural Census data in 2013, we find a robust positive effect of agricultural land-occupying inequality on rural income inequality.

ABSTRACT. Australian agriculture is characterised by family farm businesses. An important consideration confronting most families is the issue of farm succession. Factors such as farm size, type of farming enterprise, age and attitude towards farming are key influences on succession planning identified in the literature. However, succession is a complex and often emotional process with additional challenges posed in an Australian context by an ageing farming population and increasing climatic variability. This study uses survey data to evaluate the nature of farm succession and the importance of intergenerational agriculture in the Riverina Region. Findings indicate that almost 50 per cent of farm businesses do not have succession plans. Farms with gross operating values greater than $500,000 are more likely to have succession plans in place than smaller operations. Around 70 per cent of respondents indicated that it was becoming increasingly difficult to find successors for family farms. Key reasons include lack of viable income, financial constraints and the attractiveness of alternative employment opportunities.

ABSTRACT. In this study, we investigated factors affecting adoption of agricultural technologies using survey data of 205 farm households from three districts in Timor-Leste. We analysed factors affecting adoption of three agricultural technologies - improved variety of seeds, fertilizer and pesticides. Results from both Probit and Tobit regression models suggest that farmers with poor road access are less likely to adopt improved technologies. We found that farmers’ attitudes to risk and sources of information about technologies significantly affected their adoption decisions. In addition, household size, farmer’s age, education and years of experience influenced adoption decisions. Likewise, farm size, family labour hours, and whether farms were divided into parcels also influenced technology adoption. These findings point to the need to improve local infrastructure as part of agricultural development policy in Timor-Leste. Improving farmers’ education and better agricultural extension could improve the uptake of agricultural technologies in Timor Leste.

ABSTRACT. Despite the extant literature on agricultural land prices, little is known about the impact of market structure on land price formation. Most empirical studies implicitly assume that land prices are formed on competitive markets. This is a rather abstract view of land market transactions, because it does not explicitly take into account the market type (search markets, auctions), market liquidity, regulations on market access, market power of participants or informational aspects. Applying spatial econometric and matching techniques to a rich set of individual transaction data in Germany we empirically explore the role of market microstructure on agricultural land prices.

Our results show that land auctions obtain higher prices on average compared with search markets, which can be explained by a higher degree of market transparency. Moreover, we find that auction-specific variables have a statistically significant impact on realised land prices. In particular, the number of bids turn out to have a positive impact on the final price, a finding that is in line with auction theory. Furthermore, land prices increase with the share of non-agricultural bidders. Realised auction prices are also higher if the winning bidder is a residential farmer.

Knowledge of the impact of these factors is relevant not only from an academic point of view, but also for stakeholders involved with land transactions. Land sellers, such as state agencies or banks may use this information to design land auctions. Furthermore, land buyers can better decide whether to use search markets or land auctions for land acquisition and design optimal bidding strategies.

ABSTRACT. Access to quality seed yam is a major constraint to yam production in Cameroon. This study evaluates the performance of farm enterprises engaged in seed yam (minisett) production as a source of quality planting materials for yam growing communities. Using cross-sectional data from 131 smallholder seed yam farm enterprises, a Cobb-Douglas stochastic production function with inefficiency effects model is estimated. Results show a wide variation in the estimated technical efficiency with an average score of 61%. Access to markets out of farmers’ communities, increase in the number of extension visits, price of mature tuber, and the number of years of farmers’ education positively and significantly increase the technical efficiency of seed yam production. Lack of access to credit was found to be a limiting factor to improving their performance. Our results highlight the importance of technical support and extension services, improving access to markets and pricing in order to enhance the productivity of smallholder farmers in developing countries.

ABSTRACT. Cassava is an important tropical root crop for food security and national economies in Africa. In Ghana, it is the most important staple food also used in breweries, bakery and confectionery industries. A number of high-yielding and disease resistant improved cassava varieties (ICVs) have been released and are being promoted in the rural communities through establishment of demonstration plots, distribution of planting materials, formation of innovation platforms and media releases. Past studies investigated the determinants of ICV adoption without accounting for the diversity in the diffusion strategies. This paper fills the gap by examining the socio-economic and demographic factors, the varietal attributes and importantly the dissemination mechanisms that affect farmers’ decision to adopt the ICVs and the intensity of adoption. A sequential mixed-method approach is employed for development and triangulation purposes. It combines preliminary interviews and focus group discussions with a questionnaire-based survey of 608 farmers randomly selected in 14 communities in six districts located in the deciduous-forest and transitional agro-ecologic zones. Econometric analyses reveal significant and positive effects on the probability of ICV adoption for female-headed households, the total family labour, the desired cassava attributes, the number of livestock owned and information through the Extension Agents and the innovation platforms. Other dissemination mechanisms only significantly affect the intensity of adoption. Among the impediments to ICV adoption are grey skin colour of the cassava and distances to the nearest tarred road and market. Other findings are presented and discussed along with policy recommendations.

ABSTRACT. This study estimates statistical models emulating maize yield responses to changes in temperature and precipitation simulated by global gridded crop models. We use the unique and newly-released Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project Fast Track ensemble of global gridded crop model simulations to build a panel of annual maize yields simulations from five crop models and corresponding monthly weather variables for over a century. This dataset is then used to estimate statistical relationship between yields and weather variables for each crop model. The statistical models are able to closely replicate both in- and out-of-sample maize yields projected by the crop models. This study therefore provides simple tools to predict gridded changes in maize yields due to climate change at the global level. By emulating crop yields for several models, the tools will be useful for climate change impact assessments and facilitate evaluation of crop model uncertainty.