We study the role of bush encroachment control for a farmer's income and income risk in a stochastic ecological-economic model of grazing management in semi-arid rangelands. In particular, we study debushing as an instrument of risk management that complements the choice of an adaptive grazing management strategy for that sake. We show that debushing, while being a good practice for increasing ...

Promotion of low-skilled off-farm rural labor market participation can be an important strategy to improve livelihoods and food security of the poor in developing countries. This paper investigates rural farm households' participation in low-skilled off-farm labor markets with disaggregate data from a survey of 400 households in Tigray, the northern highlands of Ethiopia. Adopting Heckman's two...

The basis, and characterization, of pro-poor growth remain a source of debate in the current development literature. The paper sheds light on this debate with an example drawn from an analysis of household panel data from Bangladesh. The objective is to determine if observed rural income growth and the policies supporting this growth have been pro-poor — that is, whether policies and growth hav...

Over the last two years, Congress and farm groups have worked to find a policy formula that would be acceptable as a foundation for the next farm bill. Most ideas that have been floated— and that are finding some favor in the House of Representatives— largely continue the general thrust of current programs: some fixed payments, guaranteed minimum prices for farmers, and perhaps a new countercyc...

One of the great challenges in agricultural development and sustainable intensification is the assurance of social equity in food security oriented interventions. Development practitioners, researchers, and policy makers alike could benefit from prior insight into what interventions or environmental shocks might differentially affect farmers' food security status, in order to move towards more ...

this study examined the influence of socioeconomic variables of farmers on their choice of cassava varieties in kogi state of nigeria. a total of 360 cassava farmers were selected through multi-stage random sampling procedure. data collected through structured questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics, customer-buying behavioral model and dynamic programming model. the results sh...

the study examined the socio-economic and farm level characteristics influencing adoption of rice production technologies in lavun local government area of niger state, nigeria. a total of 76 farmers were randomly selected from 24 villages and data were collected using interview schedule. descriptive statistics, adoption index and discriminate analysis were used to analyze data. the result reve...

In the ear’ly 1980s, however, it became evident that farm exports would decline and that farm income growth would fall short of earlier expectations. From 1980 to 1986, farmers lost $293 billion in equity as farm real estate values declined to r’eflect the lower’ earning potential. Moreover, as crop prices fell by 14,4 percent from 1980 to 1986, many farmers were unable to meet their debt oblig...

The US farm belt has been mired in recession. Between 1960 and 2000, the food price index for major commodities dropped almost in half, and as a result, farm income has declined (Halweil 2002). Overall conditions in the farm economy in early 2000 were largely a replay of the previous year. Markets for major commodities, particularly field crops, were very weak as supplies remained large (ERS 20...