Farmers' Subjective Valuation of Subsistence Crops: The Case of Traditional Maize in Mexico

Shadow prices guide farmers' resource allocations, but for subsistence farmers growing traditional crops, shadow prices may bear little relationship with market prices. We econometrically estimate shadow prices of maize using data from a nationally representative survey of rural households in Mexico. Shadow prices are significantly higher than the market price for traditional but not improved maize varieties. They are particularly high in the indigenous areas of southern and southeastern Mexico, indicating large de facto incentives to maintain traditional maize there.Shadow prices, non-market values, supply response, traditional crops, onfarm conservation, Mexico, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development, O12, O13, Q12, Q39,

AJAE Appendix: Farmers' Subjective Valuation of Subsistence Crops: The Case of Traditional Maize in Mexico

The material contained herein is supplementary to the article named in the title and published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.Crop Production/Industries,

Value Chain Analysis of Climate-smart Shan Tea Production in the Northern Mountainous Region of Vietnam

Agricultural production in the face of climate change requires a transformation and reorientation in agricultural systems and policy making. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is such a transformative approach that aims to sustainably increase food security, by improving adaptation to climate change and capturing potential mitigation co-benefits. CSA approach goes beyond field level practices and encompasses value chains, food systems as well as enabling environments and policy. This paper provides a site-specific analysis of the contributions of organic and conventional Shan tea value chains (VCs) to CSA objectives by using a interdisciplinary approach. Our findings show that both organic and conventional Shan tea VCs simultaneously contribute to food security and adaptation. Shan tea plays a vital role in securing household income and has a strong potential in helping households to coping with extreme weather events. Potential mitigation options are mainly in the processing stage (GHG emissions from coal burning)

Impact of climate variability on internal migration in the Philippines during 2005 – 2010

Climate-migration nexus has been attracting increasing scholarly attention in the last decades. The various manifestations of climate change including extreme events that are expected to get more frequent and more intense, and slow-onset changes that increasingly affect livelihoods in a context of international climate coordination failure add fuel to the fire. Countries in South-East Asia are among the most vulnerable to climate change, and future climate scenarios predict increases in multiple indicators, including temperatures (average, minimum and maximum), annual precipitation, number of consecutive too wet and dry days, among others. Understanding how these changes may shape human mobility is key to effective policy design to protect livelihoods and establish migration as a choice rather than necessity. This report contributes to the discourse on climate change and internal migration linkages in the Philippines in three important ways. First, we use data from the latest census available (10% sample from 2010 census) to assess more recent relationships between climate change and migration than found in the robust literature to date. Given the highly dynamic nature of climate-migration nexus, as well as the structural and rural transformation in the country shaping migration, more up to date understanding of these linkages is crucial. Second, we use a large set of climate change indicators selected by a climate variability expert team and capture both extreme and slow-onset events at high spatial and temporal resolution. Third, by conducting analyses at different levels (municipality, migration streams and individual) and applying a livelihoods adaptation framework (controlling for a large set of migration drivers in addition to the climate variables) we identify linkages that can be used as policy entry points at different levels

What is the evidence-base for climate-smart agriculture in Tanzania?

Evidence exists to support CSA programming on the most widely cultivated crops (e.g. maize), and most common agricultural practices (e.g. fertilizer addition) in Tanzania. However, products and places central to rural livelihoods such as livestock, coastal drylands, and humid regions near Lake Victoria are understudied. Data on how CSA changes agricultural productivity is widely available (77% of the data), while 20% of the data is related to resilience indicators, and only 3% deals with greenhouse gas mitigation outcomes. Practitioners should draw on this rich evidence base for CSA in Tanzania, while also prioritizing the generation of evidence for understudied products, agroecologies, and practices

The adoption of improved agricultural technologies: A meta-analysis for Africa

Understanding the determinants of improved agricultural technology adoption is an important component of increasing agricultural productivity and incomes of smallholders to reduce poverty and hunger, which are the top two Sustainable Development Goals. Among the actions needed to achieve this, particular attention is paid to the identification and promotion of productivity and resilience enhancing agricultural practices. The micro-economic literature on the analysis of the drivers of agricultural technology adoption is well-established since the Green Revolution. Although numerous seminal reviews of this literature have been published, most of these were theoretical or conceptual reviews and focus on earlier literature from continents other than Africa, which is the continent facing the biggest productivity challenge now. This paper synthesizes the findings of this literature focusing on Africa using a meta-data set that brings together the results of 168 recently published papers. We find that most of this literature focuses on agronomic practices and that agroforestry and livestock related studies make up less than one fifth of the total published papers. Eleven determinants, primarily those related to information access, wealth indicators and tenure security, are found to increase adoption more than chance would dictate in the literature. Our findings provide evidence to support recommendations for future policy and research

Barriers to adoption of improved agricultural technologies. A metanalysis for Africa.

Implementation of CSA technologies is seen as a cornerstone of improving agricultural productivity and resilience in Africa – so why is adoption so low? Many factors, both internal and external influence a farmer’s decisions

Multi-factor, multi-state, multi-model scenarios: Exploring food and climate futures for Southeast Asia

Decision-makers aiming to improve food security, livelihoods and resilience are faced with an uncertain future. To develop robust policies they need tools to explore the potential effects of uncertain climatic, socioeconomic, and environmental changes. Methods have been developed to use scenarios to present alternative futures to inform policy. Nevertheless, many of these can limit the possibility space with which decision-makers engage. This paper will present a participatory scenario process that maintains a large possibility space through the use of multiple factors and factor-states and a multi-model ensemble to create and quantify four regional scenarios for Southeast Asia. To do this we will explain 1) the process of multi-factor, multi-state building was done in a stakeholder workshop in Vietnam, 2) the scenario quantification and model results from GLOBIOM and IMPACT, two economic models, and 3) how the scenarios have already been applied to diverse policy processes in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam

Interventions for Women's Empowerment in Developing Countries:An evidence gap map

This evidence gap map (EGM) plots studies on the effectiveness of interventions for women’s empowerment in developing countries (defined here as the list of countries defined by the Kyoto Protocol as non-Annex I countries). The EGM contains 423 studies, of which 288 are impact evaluations, 105 are process evaluations and 38 are systematic reviews. Most evidence is from studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. There is a relatively large amount of evidence on economic interventions and capacity-building interventions, and both these categories in the map have a high number of impact evaluations and systematic reviews. There is a dearth of evidence on policy and institutional interventions. In terms of outcomes, political empowerment outcome categories are far less populated than other outcome categories. Women’s representation in political bodies, digital access and access to justice shows very little evidence