Wages, prices and agriculture : how can Indian agriculture cope with rising wages?

Rapid economic growth in India has resulted in rapidly rising rural wages. Using the framework of variable profit functions and household level data, we study econometrically the wage impacts on crop agriculture. Rising wages are associated with decreasing crop output, other things being equal. Crop prices would need to increase by 80% in the short run to offset the effect of an agricultural wage increase, or by 140% in the short run to offset rural non-farm wage increases as well. However, because non-land farm assets respond positively to the non-farm wage, in the medium term this increase is reduced to 74%. During the period of 1999/00-2007/08, growth in non-land farm assets, the labour force, education and technology has easily compensated for the wage increase, and probably also for the accelerating wage growth. Focusing on growing these shifter variables is a much better policy option than raising prices that would come at the expense of consumers or taxpayers.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1477-95522020-06-01hj2017Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

Design factors influencing willingness-to-pay estimates in the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism and the non-hypothetical choice experiment: a case of biofortified maize in Zambia

Two of the experimental methods used to estimate willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for a non‐market good, the Becker‐DeGroot‐Marschak (BDM) mechanism and the non‐hypothetical choice experiment (nHCE) often lead to significantly different WTP estimates, complicating the choice between the methods. In Zambia the same group of researchers used both techniques to evaluate WTP for orange maize, which provides more vitamin A than other varieties. This provided an opportunity to analyse the sources of the difference. In the BDM experiment, one group of respondents was provided with more training opportunities than the other, and made higher bids. Accounting for lexicographic behaviour in the nHCE reduced the estimated WTP. These two design factors together resulted in a decrease in the WTP difference for orange maize (1,279–632 ZMK) although the difference remains statistically significant. More training was also shown to eliminate the effects of different orders in which maize varieties were presented.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/147795522021-02-01hj2019Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

Who will make the 'best' use of Africa's land? Lessons from Zimbabwe

Conflict over African land – between small holders and large industrial farmers and between domestic farmers and global agribusinesses – raises key questions about who will make the best use of African land and which farmers do most to decrease poverty and produce more food, industrial inputs, and exports. Zimbabwe has already gone through two major changes in land occupation, and thus provides an important test of what is the 'best' use of the land. Three measures of 'best' use have been cited in Zimbabwe: reward for military victory, poverty reduction, and agricultural production. Initial evidence indicates that commercial small holder production is a better use of the land than larger, more mechanised farming

Scaling up in agriculture, rural development, and nutrition: Moving local-and community-driven development from boutique to large scale

Non-PRIFPRI1; 2020DG

From failure to success in South African land reform

This article assesses the achievement of land reform in South Africa with respect to the number of beneficiaries relative to rural employment and the demand for land and increases in livelihoods and agricultural output. Even though there are islands of success, for the past twenty years the Land Reform Programme has not satisfied these criteria. Implementation has been poor and farm workers’ and farm dwellers’ rights have not been protected. This failure is primarily attributed to the use of group or co-operative farming; inadequate participation by the beneficiaries; the absence, late arrival or poor quality of post-settlement support; and capacity problems in the civil service. Success requires radical change in design and implementation. A reformed programme should be based primarily on family farmer models, from the provision of housing and gardens for supplementary food production to small commercially oriented family farms, and on intensive participation of the beneficiaries or their groups in the identification, planning, implementation and financial management of their projects. This will allow civil servants to focus on the identification of land to be acquired, the approval of land acquisition and investment plans, and the supervision of financial management and implementation of the projects, thereby relieving their capacity constraints. Before scaling up these approaches they should be tested in pilots on a significant scale, sponsored by any group with the required commitment and capabilities. Pilots should be evaluated independently, based on the number of livelihoods created, household food security and agricultural production

Decentralization and Empowerment for Rural Development

This book examines the empowerment of citizens in general and of the poor and marginalized groups in particular by the process of decentralization. It discusses the precise role of Panchayat and local governance on the quantity and quality of services. Some of the findings include – long term impacts of political reservation for women, positive relationship between local revenue generation and quality of governance, significant welfare gains due to parochial politics and even bribes. The mechanisms through which improvements in governance are achieved include Gram Sabha meetings with specific agenda related to services, participation of households in such meetings, and, the impact of specific institutions such as VECs, VWUSCs, and the Pani Panchayats

Impact of restricted and unrestricted fiscal grants on tax efforts of rural local governments in India

This paper examined the impact of restricted and unrestricted fiscal grants on tax efforts of Rural Local Governments in India using ARIS/REDS panel data. We estimated the system as a whole via three stage least squares, where the first stage equations are the ones predicting the grants in order to deal with the simultaneities of grants received and taxation. The results have shown that a wage impacts on taxation exists, but is very small and, the productivity impact of grants on taxes is either zero or negligible. This means that incentives effects associated with the specifics of the intergovernmental fiscal system in the states is the main determinant of village taxation. We find that a bolder approach to shift about a third of the tied grants to block grants could lead own taxation to rise almost four fold. In the papers which analyze the services of education, health care and water supply we find the positive impacts of the village expenditures on these three services on choices, reduced private expenditures and outcomes