Journal of Agricultural Economics最新文献

Flower strips can provide many economic benefits in commercial orchards, including reducing crop damage by a problematic pest, rosy apple aphid (Dysaphis plantaginea [Passerini]). To explore the financial costs and benefits of this effect, we developed a bio-economic model to compare the establishment and opportunity costs of perennial wildflower strips with benefits derived from increased yields due to reduced D. plantaginea fruit damage under high and low pest pressure. This was calculated across three scenarios: (1) a flower strip on land that would otherwise be an extension of the standard grass headland, (2) a flower strip on land that could otherwise be used to produce apples and (3) a flower strip in the centre of an orchard. Through reduction of D. plantaginea fruit damage alone, our study shows that flower strips on the headland can be a positive financial investment. If non-crop land was not available, establishment of a flower strip in the centre of an orchard, instead of the edge, could recoup opportunity costs by providing benefits to crops on both sides of the flower strip. Our study can help guide the optimal placement of flower strips and inform subsidy value for these schemes.

This study provides empirical evidence on the role of institutional quality in driving countries' participation in Global Value Chains (GVC) by distinguishing domestic from multinational firms (MNEs). Drawing on the Analytical Activities of MNEs (AMNE) database of OECD, we use a panel gravity framework to assess whether institutional quality improves GVC firms' participation in the food, beverages, and tobacco industry and whether the responsiveness to changes in institutional quality differs between domestic and multinational firms. A key finding is that the lower the institutional quality the greater the gap in participation between multinational and domestic firms. In developing countries, where institutions are relatively weak, domestic firms' GVC participation is correspondingly low relative to that of multinational firms.

We present a theoretical model that identifies the optimal resource allocation between surveillance and intervention for eradicating exotic livestock diseases. We apply a game theory approach to analyse the strategic interaction between the Animal Health Authority (AHA) and the stockbreeders. The model elucidates how the breeders' pay-offs depend upon the AHA's choices and vice versa. We first model the stockbreeder reporting decision (passive surveillance) under uncertainty. Then, we analyse how the AHA should efficiently allocate resources between active surveillance (inspections) and intervention, and determine how this trade-off is influenced by various economic factors, such as the operation size and breeders' risk attitudes. By explicitly considering the relationship between passive and active surveillance, the model reconciles the literature investigating the nexus between compensation payments and reporting with the literature on the relationship between surveillance and intervention. We use the case study of a parasite of social bee colonies, the Small Hive Beetle, in Italy, which presents no moral hazard concerns, and hence limits the complexity of the analysis. However, the model can be adapted to other types of exotic diseases and livestock. The model does not provide precise quantitative prescriptions of the optimal values to be assigned to indemnities and probability of monitoring. Rather, it contributes to the understanding of the economic factors that influence optimal surveillance and intervention strategies.

Using a 2007–2014 panel of Austrian crop farms, we analyse the effect of multiple dimensions of land fragmentation on farms' production efficiency and risk performance. We use data envelopment analysis (DEA), a non-parametric linear programming approach, to estimate efficiencies. Technical efficiency is decomposed into (i) scale efficiency, (ii) pure technical efficiency and (iii) input-mix efficiency. Risk efficiency, a concept borrowed from modern portfolio theory, measures the performance of a farm relative to a mean–variance frontier. A second-stage DEA analysis reveals that farms with fewer plots and a shorter average farmstead to plot distance tend to be more technically efficient. Larger plots allow for better exploitation of returns to scale. The scattering of plots has no statistically significant effect on technical efficiency but provides benefits in terms of higher risk efficiency. Land consolidation projects should carefully weigh the costs and benefits associated with different dimensions of land fragmentation.

Agricultural production is the main driver of nitrogen pollution and diversity loss. This study assesses the potential of cropland reallocation to simultaneously increase production and decrease nitrogen balances, and its impact on crop diversity. Our technological specification extends the by-production approach by dynamically modelling the impact of the N balance from the previous year on current year crop production. We use a robust order-m data envelopment analysis to estimate the production frontier, and the Hill-Shannon index to assess crop diversity before and after optimal cropland reallocation. The application uses Farm Business Survey data from farms in England and Wales between 2015 and 2019. The results show that efficiency gains would have increased crop production by GBP 10.31 per ha and decreased the nitrogen balance by 1.05 kg per ha, when compared with a business-as-usual scenario. Reallocation, only focusing on increasing production, would have increased crop production by GBP 83.74 per hectare and reduced the nitrogen balance by 2.01 kg per ha. Reallocation, focusing on increasing production and decreasing the nitrogen balance, would have increased the former by GBP 71.88 per hectare and reduced the latter by 4.99 kg per ha. The median cropland diversity increases by approximately 0.24 species per farm in both reallocation scenarios. Our results suggest that farmers can simultaneously improve economic and environmental performance, which would increase crop diversity. Effective policies should address barriers to diversification and foster management practices that both increase production and decrease nitrogen balances.

Country-specific variations in food standards often reflect national regulatory traditions, but they also disrupt trade by increasing associated costs and limiting market access. Aligning such standards between countries should reduce or eliminate the additional market access costs and enhance trade. Yet, whereas evidence abounds on the trade effects of country-specific public mandatory food standards, relatively little is known about the trade effects of regulatory homogeneity across countries. Exploiting the EU–Swiss trade relationship and data on maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides, we assess the channels that explain the effects of regulatory homogeneity of standards on agri-food imports. Estimating a reduced-form gravity model, we find that similarity in Swiss-EU MRLs on a product-pesticide pair increases Swiss product-level imports from the EU by 10%. This consists of a 7.7% increase in the average import value per product per firm, a 1.4% increase in the number of product varieties imported and a 0.6% increase in the number of importing firms. Regulatory homogeneity also increases import volumes by 9.4% and decreases import prices by 1.6%. Accounting for firm heterogeneity, we find more pronounced trade effects for smaller firms. These findings are confirmed in firm-product level estimations, where we also find that the import-enhancing effects increase with increasing regulatory heterogeneity. Our results imply that even with mutual recognition, there remains a preference for imports that align with domestic standards. In terms of policy implications, our findings show that regulatory homogeneity enhances food security by increasing product variety and lowering prices.

Agri-food systems are transforming quickly in Africa. An important issue in the transformation process of agricultural production is the role of small farms. While many authors have looked at this question, one aspect that has received little attention is the role of small farms in the production of nutritious foods, an important topic given the low availability and relatively high prices of nutritious foods and the consequent low level of nutrition security in the continent. Using a unique large-scale dataset from Ethiopia—one of the largest countries in Africa that has been transforming rapidly—we look at the production of vegetables and dairy products. We find a strong association between farm size and partial productivity measured in terms of output, value of outputs and profit per hectare/cow, with productivity twice to four times as high for larger farms. These farms have substantially higher input expenditures as well as differences in farm technologies compared to small ones. Our findings have important implications for the debate on the role of small farms and nutritional improvements in the continent.