Land Use, Production Growth, and the Institutional Environment of Smallholders: Evidence from Burkinabe Cotton Farmers

The cotton boom in Burkina Faso consisted of a growth in cotton land shares together with an overall increase in total cultivated land. This paper examines the impact of institutional changes in the cotton sector on the evolution of smallholders’ land-use decisions. The empirical analysis is supported by a structural model that takes into account the specific institutional features of the Burkinabè cotton sector and builds upon household level data collected in rural Burkina Faso. We attribute most of the change in land use to the newly established institutional arrangements between producers and stakeholders, mechanization, and slackening of the food security constraint.Burkina Faso, Cotton, Land Use, Commodity Reform, Institutional Arrangements, Farm Management, Financial Economics, N57, 013, O33, Q15, Q18,

A Structural Land-Use Analysis of Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change: A Proactive Approach

This article proposes a proactive approach for analyzing agricultural adaptation to climate change based on a structural land-use model wherein farmers maximize profit by allocating their land between crop-technology bundles. The profitability of the bundles is a function of four technological attributes via which climate variables‟ effect is channeled: yield potential; input requirements; yields' sensitivity to input use; and farm-level management costs. Proactive adaptation measures are derived by identifying the technological attributes via which climate variables reduce overall agricultural profitability, despite adaptation by land reallocation among bundles. By applying the model to Israel, we find that long-term losses stem from yield potential reductions driven by forecasted increases in temperature, implying that adaptation efforts should target more heat-tolerant crop varieties and technologies.adaptation, agricultural land use, climate change, crop-technology bundles, Land Economics/Use,

Commodity Reform and Extensive Production Growth: Evidence from Burkinabè Cotton Farmers

Over the 1996-2006 period, Burkina Faso has experienced a reform of its cotton sector, and has become the largest African cotton producer and exporter. The cotton “boom” consisted of a rapid expansion of cotton areas through the growth of land shares allocated to cotton (and new producers), together with an overall increase in total cultivated land. In this paper, we present an empirical framework to determine the contribution of total farmland changes in the increase of land dedicated to cotton, where both processes are represented by ordered endogenous variables. The empirical framework is supported by a conceptual model which takes into account the specific institutional features of the Burkina Faso rural cotton economy and builds upon data collected in rural Burkina Faso in March 2006. From measurable indicators of farmer behavior and variables that measure farmer statements for the reasons of this behavior, we are able to identify both direct and indirect effects of the cotton reform on the extensive growth of cotton seed production. They are namely mechanization and technical assistance, labor intensification, enhanced managerial abilities (learning by doing and better environment for farmers), production incentives arising from the new local organizations of producers, guarantees and confidence stemming from the sector and an easier access to agricultural inputs. They all can be attributed to better institutional arrangements between producers and stakeholders which have been established during the reform

Commodity Reform and Extensive Production Growth: Evidence from Burkinabè Cotton Farmers

Over the 1996-2006 period, Burkina Faso has experienced a reform of its cotton sector, and has become the largest African cotton producer and exporter. The cotton “boom” consisted of a rapid expansion of cotton areas through the growth of land shares allocated to cotton (and new producers), together with an overall increase in total cultivated land. In this paper, we present an empirical framework to determine the contribution of total farmland changes in the increase of land dedicated to cotton, where both processes are represented by ordered endogenous variables. The empirical framework is supported by a conceptual model which takes into account the specific institutional features of the Burkina Faso rural cotton economy and builds upon data collected in rural Burkina Faso in March 2006. From measurable indicators of farmer behavior and variables that measure farmer statements for the reasons of this behavior, we are able to identify both direct and indirect effects of the cotton reform on the extensive growth of cotton seed production. They are namely mechanization and technical assistance, labor intensification, enhanced managerial abilities (learning by doing and better environment for farmers), production incentives arising from the new local organizations of producers, guarantees and confidence stemming from the sector and an easier access to agricultural inputs. They all can be attributed to better institutional arrangements between producers and stakeholders which have been established during the reform

Holographic Operator Mixing and Quasinormal Modes on the Brane

We provide a framework for calculating holographic Green's functions from general bilinear actions and fields obeying coupled differential equations in the bulk. The matrix-valued spectral function is shown to be independent of the radial bulk coordinate. Applying this framework we improve the analysis of fluctuations in the D3/D7 system at finite baryon density, where the longitudinal perturbations of the world-volume gauge field couple to the scalar fluctuations of the brane embedding. We compute the spectral function and show how its properties are related to the quasinormal mode spectrum. We study the crossover from the hydrodynamic diffusive to the reactive regime and the movement of quasinormal modes as functions of temperature and density. We also compute their dispersion relations and find that they asymptote to the lightcone for large momenta.Comment: 42 pages, 12 figure

A FICÇÃO CIENTÍFICA COMO ESCRITA DE PODER IDEOLÓGICO: UMA LEITURA DE O GAFANHOTO TORNA-SE PESADO, DE HAWTHORNE ABENDSEN

Nesse estudo, analisaremos a ficção científica como escrita de poder ideológico. Nosso objetivo é entender como a sociedade na qual o leitor está inserido interfere na leitura de uma mesma obra literária e, para isso, escolhemos O Gafanhoto Torna-se Pesado, obra dentro da sociedade ficcional de O Homem do Castelo Alto, de Dick, publicado em 1962. Primeiramente, definiremos a ficção científica e apresentaremos o romance escolhido. Depois, caracterizaremos a sociedade nazista do livro, evidenciando sua relevância para a solidificação da obra. Por fim, analisaremos os leitores do Gafanhoto e seus posicionamentos em relação à obra