Executive Summary This study assesses the contribution of agriculture to Wisconsin's economy. Building on the analysis of Deller (2004), we use data from 2007 in this study. By using 2007 as the year of analysis, we are able to build on the current Census of Agriculture, which provides detailed data for 2007. We also explore changes in aggregate measures of agriculture from 1990 to 2007, and mo...

Increased agricultural productivity is a key driver of wider agriculture-led economic growth and resilience in many regions heavily burdened by food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty, and it’s essential to achieving Feed the Future’s objectives, which are guided by the U.S. Government’s Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS). Greater agricultural productivity can increase food availability an...

This paper looks at the effect of access to off-farm employment opportunities on household exposure to unexpected shocks originating in the agricultural economy. Farm households with improved access to both migrant and local labor markets are better able to cope with shocks to agricultural production. The risk-coping benefits of improved access to off-farm markets are not shared evenly within o...

,4 DECADE ago the social security system was extended to include persons with self -employment earnings from agriculture. The first year they were covered (1955)) 2.1 million persons met the minimum income requirements and paid selfemployment taxes. 1 After reaching a peak of nearly 2.4 million tax returns for 1956, the number of farm persons filing self-employment social security tax returns d...

This paper investigates the socio-ecological differences and interactions between upland and lowland areas in Shaxi Valley, Yunnan Province, Southwest China. As an analytical tool we used an extended Human–Environment System Framework by focusing particularly on the dynamics and sustainability of livelihood strategies and mountain–valley interactions. Drawing from household surveys conducted in...

Central America’s tropical forests have been felled more rapidly than those of any other world region during the latter half of the twentieth century. During this time, nearly half of Guatemala’s forests were eliminated. Most of this deforestation has been concentrated in the northern department of Petén. The remaining forests in Petén are now mainly concentrated in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (...

This paper addresses the relationship between property regimes and land degradation outcomes, in the context of peasant agriculture. We consider explicitly whether private property provides for superior soil resource conservation, as compared to common property and open access. To assess this we implement optimization algorithms on a supercomputer to address resource decision-making of individu...

Small farms and smallholder farming systems play crucial roles in agricultural development in many developing countries. From the various rural development programs designed to support such farming systems, agricultural extension services are of at most importance. However, the benefit that farmers obtain from these services and the resulting impact depends, to a great extent, by their direct a...

Central America’s tropical forests have been felled more rapidly than those of any other world region during the latter half of the twentieth century. During this time, nearly half of Guatemala’s forests were eliminated. Most of this deforestation has been concentrated in the northern department of Petén. The remaining forests in Petén are now mainly concentrated in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (...