Economic Incentives for Entry and Exit in Gum Arabic Agroforestry System in Sudan

The gum tree (Acacia senegal) in the Sahel-Sudan zone has many environmental benign functions. An important function is to control desertification. In this paper we analyze farmers' economic incentives to preserve the existing gum trees and their incentives to create new plantations using a real options approach. Results indicate that agricultural crops provide higher economic benefits as compared to gum agroforestry system. However, on the one hand, as gum arabic is produced during the dry period and land is abundant, there are low incentives for deforestation. Instead, farmers' tend to leave the land idle and let the tree growing. On the other hand, our results suggest that an increase in the prices of gum arabic of about 330 per cent is needed to induce entry and a shift in land use system from continuous agricultural production to gum agroforestry system.gum arabic, deforestation, entry and exit, real options, Sudan, Crop Production/Industries, D4, N5, O13, Q12, Q23,

Economically optimal timing for crop disease control under uncertainty: an options approach

Severe large-scale disease and pest infestations in agricultural regions can cause significant economic damage. Understanding if and when disease control measures should be taken in the presence of risk and uncertainty is a key issue. We develop a framework to examine the economically optimal timing of treatment. The decision to treat should only be undertaken when the benefits exceed the costs by a certain amount and not if they are merely equal to or greater than the costs as standard net-present-value (NPV) analysis suggests. This criterion leads to a reduction in fungicide use. We investigate the effect of the model for disease progress on the value required for immediate treatment by comparing two standard models for disease increase (exponential and logistic growth). Analyses show that the threshold value of benefits required for immediate release of treatment varies significantly with the relative duration of the agricultural season, the intrinsic rate of increase of the disease and the level of uncertainty in disease progression. In comparing the performance of the delay strategy introduced here with the conventional NPV approach, we show how the degree of uncertainty affects the benefits of delaying control

Policy recommendations from the 13th ICABR conference on the emerging bioeconomy

The International Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology Research held its 13th annual conference in Ravello, Italy in June 2009. The theme of the conference was the bioeconomy,and this topic was addressed through research presentations from academia, government, and industry. Numerous presentations from developing countries highlighted the benefits of agricultural biotechnology in these nations. The broad range of presentations provided a wealth of insights, resulting in three policy recommendations regarding future funding, international regulation, and technology transfer.global food crisis, biofuels, food safety, innovation

Europe’s Farm to Fork Strategy and Its Commitment to Biotechnology and Organic Farming: Conflicting or Complementary Goals?

The European Commission's Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, under the European Green Deal, acknowledges that innovative techniques, including biotechnology, may play a role in increasing sustainability. At the same time, organic farming will be promoted, and at least 25% of the EU's agricultural land shall be under organic farming by 2030. How can both biotechnology and organic farming be developed and promoted simultaneously to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? We illustrate that achieving the SDGs benefits from the inclusion of recent innovations in biotechnology in organic farming. This requires a change in the law. Otherwise, the planned increase of organic production in the F2F strategy may result in less sustainable, not more sustainable, food systems

Economic Transition and Natural Resource Management in East-and Southeast Asia

Abstract: For several decades the effective and efficient dissemination of new agricultural knowledge among farmers in developing countries has been problematic. Two major programs were implemented in Indonesia, namely The Training and Visit (T&V) Extension Program or The Massive Guidance (BIMAS) Program, from the mid 1960s until the end of the1980s, and the Farmer Field School (FFS) Program, during the 1990s. The main difference between these two programs is that, where the T&V was concerned, farmers were instructed what to do, while the FFS program encouraged and stimulated farmers to make their own decisions. This paper aims to discuss and compare the effectiveness of these two programs with reference to rice production in Indonesia. This paper would like to argue that, for regions where the level of development is still very low, implementing a T&V program instructing farmers what to do is probably more appropriate than an FFS. As for regions where agriculture is relatively developed, an effective FFS program is more appropriate

Policy recommendations from the 13th ICABR conference on the emerging bioeconomy

The International Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology Research held its 13th annual conference in Ravello, Italy in June 2009. The theme of the conference was the bioeconomy,and this topic was addressed through research presentations from academia, government, and industry. Numerous presentations from developing countries highlighted the benefits of agricultural biotechnology in these nations. The broad range of presentations provided a wealth of insights, resulting in three policy recommendations regarding future funding, international regulation, and technology transfer

Economic Incentives for Entry and Exit in Gum Arabic Agroforestry System in Sudan

The gum tree (Acacia senegal) in the Sahel-Sudan zone has many environmental benign functions. An important function is to control desertification. In this paper we analyze farmers' economic incentives to preserve the existing gum trees and their incentives to create new plantations using a real options approach. Results indicate that agricultural crops provide higher economic benefits as compared to gum agroforestry system. However, on the one hand, as gum arabic is produced during the dry period and land is abundant, there are low incentives for deforestation. Instead, farmers' tend to leave the land idle and let the tree growing. On the other hand, our results suggest that an increase in the prices of gum arabic of about 330 per cent is needed to induce entry and a shift in land use system from continuous agricultural production to gum agroforestry system

The Costs of Coexistence Measures for Genetically Modified Maize in Germany

We estimate the perceived costs of legal requirements ('coexistence measures') for growing genetically modified (GM) Bt maize in Germany using a choice experiment. The costs of the evaluated ex-ante and ex-post coexistence measures range from zero to more than € 300 per measure and most are greater than the extra revenu the farmers in our survey expect from growing Bt maize or than estimates in the literature. The cost estimates for temporal separation, the ighest in our evaluation, imply that the esclusion of this measure in Germany is justified. The costliest measures of the ones that are currently applied in Germany are joint and strict liability for all damages. Our results further show that neighbours do not cause a problem and opportunities for reducing costs through agreements with them exist. Finally, we find that farmers' attitudes towards GM crops affect the probability of adoption of Bt maize. Our results imply that strict liability will deter the cultivation of Bt maize in Germay unless liability issues can be addressed through other means, for example, through neighbours agreements