Is nutritional improvement a cause or a consequence of economic growth? Evidence from Mauritius

Sustained economic growth in Mauritius has resulted in changes in nutrition patterns. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence and direction of causality between calories intake and economic growth. Our results as opposed to findings from the literature, supports the neutrality hypothesis, implying an absence of causality running in either directions. Therefore nutrition policies that are based on reducing calories intake can be envisaged, without negatively impacting on economic growth.

Ozone Externalities on Crop Production: Insights from UK Farm Level Data

Tropospheric ozone is an air pollutant thought to reduce crop yields across Europe. Much experimental scientific work has been completed or is currently underway to quantify yield effects at ambient ozone levels. In this research, we seek to directly evaluate whether such effects are observed at the farm level. We use both primal (production function) as well as dual (profit function) methods, with ozone as a fixed input, to explore the extent to which output and profits are affected by ozone in the UK. A panel dataset on UK farms is intersected with spatial data on ozone, and panel data production and profit function estimation methods are used. The production function does predict a statistically significant negative effect of ozone on wheat yields at the farm level. However, this elasticity is small, and indicates that ozone is unlikely to result in the imposition of substantial external costs on wheat production. The profit function implications regarding ozone are less clear. Although the estimates indicate that ozone depresses wheat farm profits and wheat supply, the elasticities are statistically insignificant, and few definite conclusions can be drawn. We conclude that the farm-level evidence does not show a substantial ozone effect in the UK, and that it may be wise to interpret economic valuations based upon experimental results with some caution.ozone, wheat, crop production, production function, profit function, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q4, P2,

Will rising household incomes solve China's micronutrient deficiency problems?

Rapid economic growth in China has resulted in substantially improved household incomes. Diets have also changed, with a movement away from traditional foods and towards animal products and processed foods. Yet micronutrient deficiencies, particularly for calcium and vitamin A, are still widespread in China. In this research we model the determinants of the intakes of these micronutrients using household panel data, asking particularly whether continuing income increases are likely to cause the deficiencies to be overcome. Nonparametric kernel regressions and random effects panel regression models are employed. The results show a statistically significant but relatively small positive income effect on both nutrient intakes. The local availability of milk is seen to have a strong positive effect on intakes of both micronutrients. Thus, rather than relying on increasing incomes to overcome deficiencies, supplementary government policies, such as school milk programmes, may be warranted.

Adoption intensity of soil and water conservation practices by smallholders: Evidence from Northern Ghana

Soil and water conservation practices are being promoted in Ghana as a way of sustainably managing the environment to support agricultural production. Despite the important role the adoption of the practices plays in conserving the environment, very few studies have been conducted to analyse the factors influencing their intensive adoption. This study analyses the determinants of intensity of adoption of soil and water conservation practices using data from a cross-section of smallholder producers in Northern Ghana. Count data models are used for the analysis. The empirical results show that access to information, social capital, per capita landholding and wealth play an important role in smallholder producers’ decision to intensively adopt soil and water conservation practices

An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Plant Variety Protection Legislation on Innovation and Transferability

Under the TRIPs Agreement, all member-countries of the World Trade Organization are required to provide an "effective" system of plant variety protection within a specific time frame. In many developing countries this has led to a divisive debate about the fundamental desirability of extending intellectual property rights to agriculture. But empirical studies on the economic impacts of PVP, especially its ability to generate large private sector investments in plant breeding and facilitate the transfer of technology, have been very limited. This paper examines two aspects of the international experience of PVP legislation thus far (i) The relationship between legislation, R&D expenditures and PVP grants, i.e., the innovation effect, and (ii) The role of PVP in facilitating the flow of varieties across countries, i.e., the transferability effect.Plant variety protection, biotechnology, technology transfer, Crop Production/Industries,

An Assessment of the Potential Consumption Impacts of WHO Dietary Norms in OECD Countries

The member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) have recently endorsed its Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The strategy emphasizes the need to limit the consumption of saturated fats and trans fatty acids, salt and sugars, and to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables in order to combat the growing burden of non communicable diseases. Adherence to the norms recommended by the WHO would call for major changes in the consumption, production and trade of several key food products and several sectors of the food industry have expectedly raised serious concerns about the potential impact of these norms on their future growth prospects. This paper attempts a broad quantitative assessment of the consumption impacts of these norms in OECD countries using a mathematical programming approach. We find that adherence to the WHO norms would involve a significant decrease in the consumption of vegetable oils (30%), dairy products (28%), sugar (24%), animal fats (30%) and meat (pig meat, 13.5%, mutton and goat 14.5%) and a significant increase in the human consumption of cereals (31%), fruits (25%) and vegetables (21%). The paper also explains the apparent dilemma that some OECD countries face when simultaneously trying to liberalise agricultural markets and promote healthy diets.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

New Product Development in Thai Agro-Industry: Explaining the Rates of Innovation and Success in Innovation

The Thai food industry is amongst the most dynamic and diverse in the world. Continual innovation in the form of new product development is critical to this industry, and yet new products are more likely to fail than succeed. In this paper,we investigate factors explaining both the rate of new product development as well as the rate of success in products newly introduced into the market, using data from a survey of firms. The methodology involves a Poisson regression to investigate the determinants of innovation and a Least Squares regression to explain success rates in innovation.New product development, Thailand, Food industry, Innovation., Agribusiness,

STOCHASTIC TECHNOLOGY, RISK PREFERENCES, AND THE USE OF POLLUTING INPUTS

We investigate the comparative static effects of environmental and agricultural policies on pesticide and fertilizer use. Since such effects depend on technology and risk preference parameters, we estimate these from a panel data set of Illinois farms. Generalized method of moments is used on a set of nonlinear first order conditions.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Dietary Transition in India: Temporal and Regional Trends, 1993 to 2012.

BACKGROUND: Rapid economic growth, urbanization, and globalization have resulted in dietary transformation in India. Triple burden of malnutrition remains a significant concern, with high prevalence of undernutrition, widespread micronutrient deficiencies, and rising obesity. OBJECTIVE: This article reviews the dietary transition in India by analyzing trends in food consumption across time and space. METHODS: Household consumption survey data from 1993 to 2012 are analyzed to examine both national- and state-level trends to investigate how diets have changed and vary across the country. Typical Indian diets are characterized using k-mean cluster analysis and associated with socioeconomic and geographical aspects. RESULTS: The article finds that on average Indian household diets have diversified slowly but steadily since the 90s. Indians diets have shifted away from cereals to higher consumption of milk. However, progress on micronutrient-rich food groups such as fruits, vegetables, meat, and egg has been worryingly slow. Even by 2012, about a fifth of rural Indian households did not consume fruits or milk, while more than half of both urban and rural households did not consume any meat, fish, or eggs. Five predominant dietary types are identified. Sections of the Indian households do consume reasonably balanced diets, but large percentages consume cereal-focused, dairy-focused, or processed food heavy diets with high processed food content. CONCLUSIONS: Diets in India have not transformed sufficiently to overcome major gaps in intakes of micronutrient-rich foods. Large regional heterogeneities in diets call for regionally differentiated strategies to improve diets