INTERLINKAGE IN THE RICE MARKET OF GHANA: MONEY-LENDING MILLERS ENHANCE EFFICIENCY

Most of the large-scale millers in Ghana provide a loan to the farmers under the agreement that the farmers will bring their paddy to them. This paper examines the effect of this interlinkage on the efficiency of rice milling. A quadratic cost function was estimated, and capacity utilization was calculated in relation to money lending. The results show that if the millers provide a loan to the farmers, the operating rate will increase by 24%.Crop Production/Industries,

The Dissemination of Private Wells and Double Tragedies: The Overexploitation of Groundwater among Well Users and Increased Poverty among Non-Well Users in Tamil Nadu, India

This paper investigates the impact of the dissemination of modern irrigation systems, i.e. private wells with pumps, on the livelihood not only among the farmers who have access to wells but also among the farmers who have no access to wells and thus rely solely on traditional irrigation systems called tank irrigation systems. The analysis is based on a village and household data set collected in Tamil Nadu, India where tank irrigation systems have been managed collectively for rice cultivation. Our statistical analyses predict that once declines in collective management occur due to the dissemination of private wells, the rice yield and income of the no-well-access farmers alone will decrease, resulting in increased poverty among them. Our analyses also find that the dissemination leads to the overexploitation of groundwater, and thus results in no significant increase in rice profit among the well-access farmers. In this way, the dissemination of private wells creates double tragedies: not only increased poverty among the no-well-access farmers but also overexploitation and profit reduction among the well-access farmers.irrigation, well, common property, poverty, India, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, O3, O13, Q25,

Livestock Transactions as Coping Strategies in Zambia:New Evidence from High-Frequency Panel Data

This study re-examines the buffer stock hypothesis regarding livestock by taking into account differences in wealth level, asset types, and periods after a shock. This paper takes advantage of a unique panel data set of agricultural households in Southern Province, Zambia. The data were collected by weekly interviews of 48 sample households from November 2007 to December 2009, covering two crop years in which an unusually heavy rainfall event took place. If we consider delayed responses to the heavy rain shock, our econometric analyses support the buffer stock hypothesis for cattle as well as small livestock. Overall, this paper suggests that conventional annual data sets used by existing literature may miss the period-dependent transactions of assets after a shock.Asset smoothing, Buffer stock, Weather risk, Livestock, Sub-Saharan Africa

Rice Miller Cluster in Ghana and Its Effects on Efficiency and Quality Improvement

This paper investigates the roles of industrial cluster on the efficiency of rice milling and the improvement of milled rice quality. The data were obtained in Kumasi area, central Ghana because the enhancement of domestic rice production is a urgent policy issue in this country, but little attention has been paid to the roles of clusters in post-harvest processing and marketing. Among 63 rice millers interviewed in the Kumasi area, 24 millers form a few clusters in the city of Kumasi, while others are scattered over 25 satellite towns around Kumasi, which enables us to examine the effect of the cluster. Regression analyses reveal that rice millers in the Kumasi clusters tend to adopt more advanced technology, and that the innovation increases milling efficiency and improves 1 milling quality. Moreover, it is found from the estimation of price determination functions that in the Kumasi clusters milled rice price is affected by milling quality namely the content of whole grain, while in the rural areas there is no clear relationship between milling quality and the price. This indicates that the clusters, probably because of the concentrated transactions, will foster informal quality grading system, which is critical for the market development. Therefore, the clusters in post-harvest industry will benefit not only the industry itself but also traders and producers, and in consequence will stimulate agricultural production.rice, miller, industrial cluster, efficiency, product quality, sub-Saharan Africa, Crop Production/Industries,

Consumption Smoothing and the Role of Wild Food Items in Rural Zambia

この研究の目的は、農業収入の変動に対して農民がどのように消費を平準化しているかという点について、消費の内訳や野生食物の役割に焦点をあてて解明することにある。本稿では、2007 年11 月から2009 年10 月の2 年間にわたりザンビアの農村で集めた家計調査データを利用する。調査期間中の2007 年12 月に非常な豪雨が発生し、調査地の農家にとってもっとも重要な収入源である農業の生産が顕著に減少した。分析の結果、農家は主食の消費水準を平準化していたが、動物・魚介類、主食以外の加工食品、非食料の消費は平準化していなかった。このことは、農民は後者を収入変動の際のバッファとして使っていることを意味する。現金による主食食料の購入、贈与や援助による主食食料の受け取りも主食消費の平準化に不可欠の役割を果たしていた。野外で採取した野生食物は、購入食料、贈与食料、援助食料などと補完的に食料消費の平準化に重要な役割をしていた。The objective of this study is to investigate how farmers smooth their consumption against fluctuating agricultural income, focusing on the composition of consumption and the role of wild food items. We use household survey data collected over a 2-year period from November 2007 to October 2009 in rural Zambia, in which extremely heavy rainfall in December 2007 caused a significant negative shock in agricultural production, the most important income source of the farmers in the study site. We find that farmers smoothed their consumption levels of staple foods, but did not smooth those of animal and fish products, processed non-staple food, and non-food items. It means that farmers used the latter as buffers against fluctuating income. Cash purchases of staple foods, and the receipt of staple foods as gift and food aid played a critical role in smoothing consumption levels of staple foods. Wild food items collected from the bush were also important in consumption smoothing complementary to purchased, gifted, aided staple foods

Synthesized technical and socio-economic efficient evaluation of water quality improving devices and technologies: an example of the lake Kasumigaura Basin

In this study, we analyze an optimal policy and evaluate new devices and technologies to improve the water quality of Lake Kasumigaura, considering both - the total ecological system in and around the lake and the socio-economic situational changes over a certain period of time. The optimal policies are derived so as to maximize the objective function (GRP) subject to the structural equations, which describe both the ecosystem and socio-economic system.

An Optimal Investment Policy to Control the Land-based Water Pollutant into the Sea of Japan

Northeast Asia countries (e.g. around the Sea of Japan area) cooperate in economic and environmental policies, etc., because the comprehensive problems like the climate change and global warming occur in recent years. The ring Sea of Japan area consists of Japan, Republic of Korea, China, and Far East Russia in Northeast Asia, and the countries have to join forces in order to control the ocean environment and attain the sustainable development in the region. In this study, we try to evaluate the policy measure to control the land-based water pollutant into the Sea of Japan through a system simulation approach. The system simulation model is formulated a definition of an objective function and the structure of water pollutants inflow and the socio-economic system of the target countries and regions of the ring Sea of Japan. We present an optimal international policy for environmental investment taking account of economic situations and environmental influences of this area over a certain period of time through the dynamic simulation.

WHEAT IMPORT DEMAND IN THE JAPANESE FLOUR MILLING INDUSTRY: A PRODUCTION THEORY APPROACH

The translog cost function is used to analyze import demand for wheat differentiated by class and country of origin in the Japanese wheat flour milling industry. Results indicate that U.S. wheat faces strong competition in the Japanese wheat market, but its multiple classes and end-use characteristics enable the United States to preserve the largest market share in Japan.import demand, Japan, wheat, production theory, translog cost function, International Relations/Trade,

Basis Risk and Low Demand for Weather Index Insurance

Natural Resource Economics Discussion Papers are preliminary research reports by members of the GSA-NRE Kyoto University circulated for comments and suggestions. They have not been externally peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the editorial board.Basis risk --an imperfect correlation between an aggregate index and idiosyncratic crop damage-- has been widely recognized as a major impediment to embracing index insurance. However, empirical evidence is still scarce because of the difficulty in its direct measurement. In this study, we estimate the impact of the basis risk on demand for a rainfall index insurance product using household survey data from rural Zambia. First, we develop a simple model of insurance demand to motivate our econometric specifications. Then, we quantify the basis risk for each surveyed household with past rainfall data at the plot-level. Exploiting changes in insurance design across years, we use within-household variations in the basis risk to estimate its impact. Empirical results illustrate that the basis risk has significant and adverse effects on insurance demand. Despite its statistical significance, our results also suggest that minimizing the basis risk would not yield enough economic benefits to offset the associated costs