Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics-Revue Canadienne D Agroeconomie最新文献

This paper analyzes changes in agricultural productivity gender gaps in Côte d'Ivoire between 2008 and 2016 using decomposition methods. The analysis finds that the gender gap went from 40% in food crops and 17% in exports crops in 2008, to 19% in food crops and a statistical zero in export crops in 2016. The overall gender gap decreased by 15 percentage points over this period, and is statistically insignificant in 2016 once accounting for whether households farm export crops. Moreover, our results show that while some drivers of the gender gap remain stable across the decade (including total land cultivated, and pesticide and fertilizer use), others change their contribution (number of plots, crop choice and household labor). Despite substantial improvements, female-headed households in the bottom half of the distribution remain disadvantaged. Our results indicate that strengthening women's access to agricultural labor and adoption of export crops are policy priorities to reach gender parity.

Urban expansion often takes place on the most productive agricultural lands, affecting how the remaining agricultural land is used. Evidence on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in urbanizing areas is scarce and mostly based on cross-sectional data. Cross-sectional studies, however, cannot reflect the dynamics of urbanization and adoption. We use household panel data from 2017 and 2020 to analyze the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices among peri-urban farmers in Bangalore, India, a rapidly urbanizing region. We focus on practices for water and erosion management, integrated pest management and soil fertility management, and an integrated package of sustainable practices. Using random effects probit models with the Mundlak approach, we consider various factors besides urbanization, including exposure to weather variability, awareness of climate change, connection with institutional actors, and household and farm characteristics. Results show that urbanization, measured as changes in the percentage of built-up area, reduces the probability that farmers adopt sustainable agricultural practices. Like prior studies, we find that wealth indicators, market access, knowledge of climate change, and rainfall variability facilitate adoption. However, contact with institutional actors largely reduces farmers’ probability of adoption. Policies should promote the integration of sustainable farming technologies at the institutional level and in information and training programs to achieve sustainable intensification of peri-urban agriculture.

During the corn stockpiling system reform in Northeast China between 2008 and 2015, corn production expanded dramatically, and corn residue, which was mostly burned in-situ, caused severe air pollution issues. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we assessed the effects of the corn stockpiling system reform in China and its associated environmental outcomes with a provincial-level dataset. Our results suggest that the implementation of this policy significantly increased annual corn production in Northeast China by 15.1%. We also observed a substitution pattern between corn and soybean cultivation in the treatment area, with a percentage point increase in the net soybean-to-corn profit ratio leading to a decrease in corn production by 0.023 percentage points. Overall, based on changes in crop patterns during the system reform, increased straw resulted in increased burning and the resulting consequence to the environment is a net pollution increase equivalent to 16.03%, 0.33%, and 3.64% of the smoke and dust, SO₂, and NO_X, respectively, from the industrial sector in the treatment provinces.

Second-generation biofuel (e.g., ethanol, renewable diesel) can be made from crop residues. However, the availability of residues for biofuel production is uncertain, because farmers have the option to grow different crops and use the residues for alternative purposes, such as livestock bedding and feed, or leave them in the field to improve soil quality. Taking Canadian wheat straw supply as an example, we develop a dynamic programming model to investigate a farmer's wheat straw supply decision in response to different wheat straw and grain prices. Our model considers crop choices between wheat and canola in the context of disease risk, the trade-off between the immediate payoffs a farmer may receive from bailing and selling wheat straw, and the long-term adverse effects that removing wheat straw from the soil surface may have on wheat and canola yields. The results from this study provide insights into how farm-level supply decisions, in response to wheat straw price changes, affect soil quality dynamics and scale up to regional wheat straw supply for biofuel production. This information also has implications for land use change and the sustainability of feedstock supply for biofuels.

Adolescence is a critical period for future health outcomes. Food habits and cognitive development are underway, and it is a period of heightened sensitivity to external influences and emotional shifts. We experimentally test the individual and combined influence of food advertisements and emotional primes (i.e., positive, negative, neutral) on adolescent food choices. Participants completed a food choice task selecting five snacks out of twenty healthy and unhealthy options in an online experiment. Prior to the food choice, we randomized whether adolescents were exposed to unhealthy food or non-food online advertisements. To induce experimental variation in adolescents’ emotions, they were assigned to watch two, two-minute film clips validated to elicit the targeted emotion. The online food advertisement did not significantly impact food choices, except that Black and Hispanic groups selected a higher share of calories from unhealthy foods. Participants in a negative emotional state selected more unhealthy sweet snacks. Finally, we find only weak evidence that a positive emotional state amplified the impact of food advertisements on the nutritional quality of food selection. Together, results suggest that while a negative emotional state drives food choices, this pattern occurs independently from food advertisement exposure.

Canada's agricultural business risk management (BRM) programs require significant public expenditure, with unclear consequences related to climate change adaptation and mitigation through the adoption of beneficial management practices (BMPs). This study examines the relationship between Canada's current suite of BRM programs and the adoption of practices that mitigate GHG emissions in crop agriculture. We review the impacts of agricultural insurance on climate adaptation and mitigation, identifying impacts on both the intensive and extensive margins of production. We consider five potential program modifications, including: (1) changes in producer insurance premiums in AgriInsurance for the adoption of practices that would decrease the actuarially fair insurance rate if they were properly incorporated in the calculation; (2) dedicated insurance products related to trials of specific BMPs; (3) adjustments to current programs to allow more whole-farm considerations and intercropping; (4) cross-compliance measures on AgriInvest tied to environmental education; and (5) reduced insurance coverage for unfavorable environmental practices. While the effects of these potential modifications remain uncertain, they will drive the data collection process necessary to ensure that Canada's BRM programs play an appropriate role in greenhouse-gas reducing BMP adoption and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

We use an online hypothetical discrete choice experiment to examine willingness to pay for two dimensions of a clean label: simple ingredient lists and front-of-package labels. Experimental subjects were asked to choose between beef burgers, plant-based burgers, and hybrid burgers made with beef and plant protein. The burgers had either a simple or complex ingredient list and could also be labeled as organic or an excellent source of protein. Subjects were divided into two treatments: a treatment in which ingredient lists were always visible, and a treatment in which the ingredient lists were only visible if subjects clicked on the product image (click treatment). Subjects were willing to pay a premium of $4.55–$5.58 for products with simple ingredient lists in the visible ingredient treatment (relative to base prices of $5.00 to $12.50). This premium was reduced to $1.82–$2.29 in the click treatment. Willingness to pay for the organic and excellent source of protein labels was considerably lower and was generally insignificant, ranging from -$0.17 (and statistically insignificant) to $0.73. Willingness to pay for simple ingredient lists and front-of-package labels were not correlated, suggesting that demand for these attributes does not stem from an underlying preference for clean labels.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disruptions to the Canadian meat and livestock markets. While prices initially decreased, the shutdowns of beef packing plants led to a large reduction in the supply of beef and a corresponding increase in the wholesale price with ramifications along the entire supply chain. This study examines the effect of COVID-19 on price transmission and price volatility in the Canadian beef supply chain using monthly farmgate, wholesale, and retail price data covering the period from July 2005 to February 2022. We find evidence indicating that COVID-19 affected long-run price transmission from farmgate and wholesale markets to the retail market. Specifically, we find that the pandemic resulted in a 94.42 and 81.48% decrease in price transmission from the farmgate and wholesale market, respectively, to the retail market, indicating that higher prices at the wholesale level were not being passed on to consumers to the same extent. In the short run, we find asymmetric price adjustments and both direct and indirect volatility spillovers among the three levels of markets, implying strong market interactions across the beef supply chain. Overall, our results suggest the resiliency of the Canadian beef sector to COVID-19 shocks.

The objective of this study is to identify the optimal spatial distribution of Best Management Practices (BMPs) to reduce total phosphorus (TP) runoff from agricultural land in the largest Canadian watershed draining into Lake Erie, the Great Lake most vulnerable to eutrophication. BMP measures include reduced fertilizer application, cover crops, buffer strips, and the restoration of wetlands. Environmental SWAT model results feed into a spatial optimization procedure using two separate objective functions to distinguish between public BMP program implementation costs (PIC) on the one hand and farmers’ private pollution abatement costs (PAC) on the other hand. The latter account for the opportunity costs of land retirement and changing land productivity. PAC are initially lower than PIC but exceed the latter after 30% of the annual TP baseline load is eliminated. This suggests that under optimal conditions existing grant and incentive payments cover the economic costs farmers face up to a maximum of 30% of the baseline load reduction. Imposing further reductions of up to 40% results in a cost to farmers of almost $52 million per year. This is 45% higher than the optimal solution based on PIC and therefore not deemed incentive-compatible under the watershed's existing cost-sharing scheme.