This paper uses cross-country panel data to estimate the agronomic inputs that lead to cereal yield improvements and the consequences for countries' processes of structural change. The results suggest a clear role for fertilizer, modern seeds and water in boosting yields. It then estimates empirical links in developing economies between increased agricultural yields and economic growth; in part...

Plant protection products are used in agriculture to improve yields, but this use can cause contamination of the environment and is also likely to have adverse short and long term effects on agricultural workers. This poster describes a systems approach to reducing the risk of operator exposure to plant protection products through the introduction of ergonomics to the design process of large ag...

The nitrogen balance can serve as an indicator of the risk to the environment of nitrogen loss from agricultural land. To investigate the temporal and spatial changes in agricultural nitrogen application and its potential threat to the environment of the Haihe Basin in China, we used a database of county-level agricultural statistics to calculate agricultural nitrogen input, output, surplus int...

How can intensive agricultural systems be designed so that they have fewer and smaller impacts on surrounding ecosystems? This is not a new challenge, but its importance to conservation—particularly in developing regions—has become apparent in recent years. This challenge is a major part of the ongoing effort to provide for the needs of a growing human population and at the same time sustain th...

Josephson, Anna Leigh. M.S., Purdue University, December 2013. How Population Density Influences Agricultural Intensification and Productivity: Evidence from Ethiopia. Major Professors: Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, Raymond J.G.M. Florax. We use household-level panel data to estimate how population density impacts agricultural intensification and farm income in Ethiopia. We hypothesize that increases i...

The paper provides an overview and a comparison of land markets covering the three candidate countries for European Union membership: Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia and Turkey. We analyse and compare agricultural land structures and factors driving land markets. The analyses are based on the available crosssection and time-series evidence on agricultural land structure...

Climate variability can induce uncertainty in yields, and threaten long term economic viability of rainfed agricultural enterprises in the absence of effective adaptation strategies. Enterprise mix diversification has been found to be an effective adaptation strategy for mitigating multiple sources of farm business risk in some contexts. The extent to which enterprise mix diversification can mi...