The Environmental Effects of New Zealand’s Free-Market Reforms

This paper explains one way in which New Zealand’s free-market reforms have adversely affected its environment. Liberalisation of New Zealand’s economy has radically changed the determinants of agricultural export success, largely due to the elimination of subsidies to domestic producers, and of tariffs on imports. In this exposed agricultural milieu, the dairy industry has thrived; cow numbers have increased by over 50%, with commensurate increases in herd and farm sizes. With this rapid expansion has come increasing pollution of New Zealand’s waterways. New Zealand’s Resource Management Act 1991 is potentially capable of controlling these adverse effects; however, its implementation was slow and piecemeal throughout the 1990s. So, at the same time as production and pollution from dairy farming expanded, the efficacy of environmental policy was limited. The resulting implementation gap has put at risk the ‘clean and green’ image that is an important component of New Zealand’s agricultural export success.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

作业补贴与农户绿色生态农业技术采用行为研究

绿色生态农业技术是农业可持续发展的关键,中国提出建立以绿色生态为导向的农业补贴制度,探索政府购买服务等作业补贴方式,促进绿色生态农业技术推广。但是“补给谁”“如何补”“补多少”等政策操作问题尚未很好解决。本文以农作物秸秆机械化还田技术作业补贴为例,基于江苏、山东、黑龙江三省622户农户2018年实地调查数据,综合评估了绿色生态农业技术作业补贴政策及补贴方式(即补贴种植户和补贴作业服务组织)对农户绿色生态农业技术采用行为的影响。结果表明:第一,作业补贴政策对农户是否采用绿色生态农业技术和采用时间均有显著正向影响,补贴发放给农户的地区,农户更倾向于采用绿色生态农业技术,且采用时间更早。第二,相对于无农机的农户而言,有农机的农户更倾向于采用生态农业技术,且采用时间更早。第三,农户受教育程度、家庭劳动力人数、是否规模户、技术培训对农户是否采用生态农业技术和采用时间有显著正向影响。第四,农户类型、是否加入农民专业合作社、家庭劳动力人数、技术培训对农户是否获得补贴有显著正向影响。据此,政府需要继续扩大绿色生态农业补贴的技术类型及实施区域,适当提高重点区域补贴额度,补贴对象应当向种植户倾斜;为农户提供技术指导服务,加强绿色生态农业技术培训,提升农户生态农业理念;根据不同规模种植户禀赋特征制定相应推广政策,让不同类型农户享受到绿色生态农业技术的益处;鼓励获得补贴的农机户或服务组织等积极提供生态农业技术作业服务,使其真正成为推动农户采用绿色生态农业技术的重要途径。     

农户从事生态循环农业意愿与行为的决定:市场收益还是政策激励?

发展生态循环农业是我国新时期转变农业发展方式的战略选择,农户是生态循环农业的经营主体和利益相关者,厘清农户参与生态循环农业的根本动机,对于制定有效的生态循环农业推广措施具有重要意义。文章基于湖北省391份农户调查数据,首先,在文献回顾的基础上提出市场收益、政策激励对农户生态循环农业从事意愿与行为影响路径的基本假设,并利用OLS方法分析市场收益和政策激励对农户从事生态循环农业意愿与行为的影响;其次,运用优势分析法评估市场收益类变量和政策激励类变量影响农户意愿与行为过程中的相对重要性;最后,通过交互效应检验市场收益类变量和政策激励类变量间的交互作用。结果表明:收入预期对农户从事生态循环农业的意愿与行为均有直接的积极影响,是促进农户从事生态循环农业的最重要的因素;焚烧秸秆惩罚政策和废弃物资源化补贴政策对农户从事生态循环农业的意愿有积极影响,沼气池建设补贴政策和废弃物资源化补贴政策对农户生态循环农业行为有促进作用;收入预期与废弃物资源化补贴政策在影响农户生态循环农业行为的过程中存在互补效应。本研究认为,市场收益是刺激农户采纳生态循环农业生产模式的首要因素,因此,要着力完善生态农业市场体系,增强生态农产品的市场竞争力,提升农户对生态循环农业的盈利信心;另外,政策激励对于农户采纳生态循环农业具有促进作用,应该做到约束与激励并行,同时注意加强农业政策的科学设计与落实执行。     

The economic,environmental and agricultural land use effects in the European Union of agricultural labour subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy

In this study, we assessed the economic, environmental and agricultural land use impacts in the EU of a 20% reduction in the Pillar I budget of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) and spending the saved money via a subsidy on labour in primary agriculture. The impact of such a policy has been assessed with a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and a partial equilibrium (PE) model. It is concluded that reallocation of Pillar I budgets to a coupled agricultural labour subsidy increased employment in agriculture, especially in agricultural sectors and regions that are relatively labour intensive. Average employment in agriculture in the EU increased with 1.6% in the CGE model and with 0.6% in the PE model. Agricultural production and environmental emissions from agriculture increased as well. At the same time, prices of agricultural outputs decreased. Value added including subsidies increased for agricultural labour, but total value added in agriculture decreased. The latter was especially explained by decreased land prices and land-related value added. Measured in terms of equivalent variation, total welfare in the EU decreased. Welfare costs equalled about 1400 € per full-time work equivalent in agriculture extra. These results show that policy makers should weigh carefully the pros and cons of the direct and indirect overall economic, environmental and land use impacts of a subsidy on agricultural labour at the expense of the Pillar I budget of the EU CAP.

     

Can Sustainable Agriculture Feed Africa? New Evidence on Progress, Processes and Impacts

Africa faces enormous food security challenges. Most commentators agree that, despite the complexities of food insecurity, there will have to be increases in food production from existing agricultural land. Most, too, are pessimistic about the future, judging likelihood of success on the basis of past performance of modern agricultural development. Sustainable agriculture, though, offers new opportunities, by emphasising the productive values of natural, social and human capital, all assets that Africa either has in abundance or that can be regenerated at low financial cost.This paper sets out an assets-based model of agricultural systems, together with a typology of eight improvements that are currently in use in sustainable agriculture projects. In the 45 projects/initiatives spread across 17 countries that are investigated, some 730,000 households have substantially improved food production and household food security. In 95% of the projects where yield increases were the aim, cereal yields have improved by 50–100%. Total farm food production has increased in all. The additional positive impacts on natural, social and human capital are also helping to build the assets base so as to sustain these improvements in the future.This analysis indicates that sustainable agriculture can deliver large increases in food production in Africa. But spreading these to much larger numbers of farm households will not be easy. It will require substantial policy, institutional and professional reform.     

Impact on Mountainous Agricultural Development in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area forced by Migrants of the Three Gorges Project

Abstract

The Three Gorges Project attracts worldwide attention because of the Three Gorges migrants, and the agriculture of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area is a foundation for the development of the Three Gorges migrants. The Three Gorges Reservoir Area is situated at the mountainous area with bad agricultural development conditions and relatively low levels of development. As a result, the large-scale migration has special influence on its agricultural development, which has attracted much attention. The paper analyzes influence that the migrants have forced on its agricultural development based on the scientific data, and makes some explorations on the models that are suitable for the development of mountainous agriculture in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area     

Chinese Agricultural Policies in Thirty Years and Analysis on the Effects

In this article, the reforms of rural institutions and agricultural products' circulation system in China and the changes in national regulation on agricultural economy in the past thirty years were reviewed. The importance of rural land tenure reform and the pursuits of a rural market economy system to the sustained growth of agriculture for 30 years in China were recognized. Entering into the new millennium, under the New Countryside Initiative, a series of favorable policies, in the areas of rural finance, education, social security, and ecological restoration, were put into force to boost rural economy toward modernization. These policies resulted in the effect of abundant supply of agricultural products, improved rural livelihood, reduced farmer fiscal burden, rising farmer income, and increased capacity for multidimensional development in rural area. This article analyzed the issues of “San Nong” and stipulated that future policy will focus on supporting agriculture production, increasing investment in rural infrastructure, as well as enhancing coordination between urban and rural development goals.     

The Potential of Soil Carbon Sequestration Through Improved Management Practices in Norway

The study was conducted to assess the potential of Norwegian agricultural ecosystems to sequester carbon (C) based on the data from some long-term agronomic and land use experiments. The total emission of CO₂ in Norway in 1998 was 41.4 million metric ton (MMT), of which agriculture contributed only 0.157 MMT, or <0.4% of the total emissions. With regards to methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) gases, however, agricultural activities contributed 32.5% and 51.3% of their respective emissions in Norway. The soil organic carbon (SOC) losses associated with accelerated soil erosion in Norway are estimated at 0.475 MMTC yr^–1. Land use changes and soil/crop management practices with potential for SOC sequestration include conservation tillage methods, judicious use of fertilizers and manures, use of crop residues, diverse crop rotations, and erosion control measures. The potential for SOC sequestration is 0.146 MMTC yr^–1 for adopting conservation tillage, 0.011–0.035 MMTC yr^–1 for crop residue management, 0.026 MMTC yr^–1 for judicious use of mineral fertilizer, 0.016–0.135 MMTC yr^–1 for manure application, and 0.036 MMTC yr^–1 for adopting crop rotations. The overall potential of these practices for SOC sequestration ranges from 0.591 to 1.022 MMTC yr^–1 with an average value of 0.806 MMTC yr^–1. Of the total potential, 59% is due to adoption of erosion control measures, 5.8% to restoration of peat lands, 21% to conversion to conservation tillage and residue management, and 14% to adoption of improved cropping systems. Enhancing SOC sequestration and improving soil quality, through adoption of judicious land use and improved system of soil and crop management, are prudent strategies for sustainable management of soil, water and environment resources.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: bhaskarn ath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Sustainable agriculture in Canada and Cuba: a comparison

Agriculture-related discussions in climate change research have been largely focused on the effects of a changing environment on agriculture and the possible consequences for global and regional food security. However, from a policy standpoint, it is also essential to address the impact of agriculture and related activities on environmental change. Over the last 50 years, most of the world’s agriculture has transitioned into industrial agriculture that requires greater inputs of fossil-fuel energy, water, synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, which have created substantial harmful effects on air, soil, water and biodiversity. Sustainable farming that uses less chemicals and fossil-fuel energy and emphasizes localized production and consumption has come to be viewed as an eco-friendly alternative to modern agriculture. This paper will examine the concept of sustainable agriculture and compare and contrast its practice in Canada and Cuba. The paper will conclude with lessons that the two countries can learn from each other.     

Evaluation of carbon stock variation in Northern Italian soils over the last 70 years

Carbon (C) sequestration in soils is gaining increasing acceptance as a means of reducing net carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to the atmosphere. Numerous studies on the global carbon budget suggest that terrestrial ecosystems in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere act as a large carbon sink of atmospheric CO₂. However, most of the soils of North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Eastern Europe lost a great part of their organic carbon pool on conversion from natural to agricultural ecosystems during the explosion of pioneer agriculture, and in Western Europe the adoption of modern agriculture after the Second World War led to a drastic reduction in soil organic carbon content. The depletion of organic matter is often indicated as one of the main effects on soil, and the storage of organic carbon in the soil is a means of improve the quality of soils and mitigating the effects of greenhouse gas emission. The soil organic carbon in an area of Northern Italy over the last 70 years has been assessed In this study. The variation of top soil organic carbon (SOC) ranged from −60.3 to +6.7%; the average reduction of SOC, caused by agriculture intensification, was 39.3%. This process was not uniform, but related to trends in land use and agriculture change. For the area studied (1,394 km²) there was an estimated release of 5 Tg CO₂-C to the atmosphere from the upper 30 cm of soil in the period 1935–1990.     

Can preferential credit programs speed up the adoption of low-carbon agricultural systems in Mato Grosso,Brazil? Results from bioeconomic microsimulation

The need to balance agricultural production and environmental protection shifted the focus of Brazilian land-use policy toward sustainable agriculture. In 2010, Brazil established preferential credit lines to finance investments into low-carbon integrated agricultural systems of crop, livestock and forestry. This article presents a simulation-based empirical assessment of integrated system adoption in the state of Mato Grosso, where highly mechanized soybean–cotton and soybean–maize double-crop systems currently prevail. We employ bioeconomic modeling to explicitly capture the heterogeneity of farm-level costs and benefits of adoption. By parameterizing and validating our simulations with both empirical and experimental data, we evaluate the effectiveness of the ABC Integration credit through indicators such as land-use change, adoption rates and budgetary costs of credit provision. Alternative scenarios reveal that specific credit conditions might speed up the diffusion of low-carbon agricultural systems in Mato Grosso.

     

A quantitative integrated assessment of pollution prevention achieved by Integrated Pollution Prevention Control licensing

This paper presents an innovative, quantitative assessment of pollution avoidance attributable to environmental regulation enforced through integrated licensing, using Ireland's pharmaceutical-manufacturing sector as a case study. Emissions data reported by pharmaceutical installations were aggregated into a pollution trend using an Environmental Emissions Index (EEI) based on Lifecycle Assessment methodologies. Complete sectoral emissions data from 2001 to 2007 were extrapolated back to 1995, based on available data. Production volume data were used to derive a sectoral production index, and determine ‘no-improvement’ emission trends, whilst questionnaire responses from 20 industry representatives were used to quantify the contribution of integrated licensing to emission avoidance relative to these trends. Between 2001 and 2007, there was a 40% absolute reduction in direct pollution from 27 core installations, and 45% pollution avoidance relative to hypothetical ‘no-improvement’ pollution. It was estimated that environmental regulation avoided 20% of ‘no-improvement’ pollution, in addition to 25% avoidance under business-as-usual. For specific emissions, avoidance ranged from 14% and 30 kt a^− 1 for CO₂ to 88% and 598 t a^− 1 for SO_x. Between 1995 and 2007, there was a 59% absolute reduction in direct pollution, and 76% pollution avoidance. Pollution avoidance was dominated by reductions in emissions of VOCs, SO_x and NO_x to air, and emissions of heavy metals to water. Pollution avoidance of 35% was attributed to integrated licensing, ranging from between 8% and 2.9 t a^− 1 for phosphorus emissions to water to 49% and 3143 t a^− 1 for SO_x emissions to air. Environmental regulation enforced through integrated licensing has been the major driver of substantial pollution avoidance achieved by Ireland's pharmaceutical sector — through emission limit values associated with Best Available Techniques, emissions monitoring and reporting requirements, and performance targets specified in environmental management plans. This compliant sector offers a positive, but not necessarily typical, case study of IPPC effectiveness.     

农户认知、外部环境与绿色农业生产意愿——基于湖北省632个农户调研数据

以湖北省632个农户调研数据为实证，在考虑绿色农业生产外部环境的情况下，结合农户对绿色农业生产的认知和农户特征因素，利用logistic回归探析农户绿色农业生产意愿的影响因素。结果表明:（1）农业收入占家庭总收入比重、绿色技术的经济效益和了解程度、农村环境污染现状、政府补贴都对农户绿色农业生产意愿具有正向影响；（2）农户年龄、绿色技术采用风险和政府管制则会减弱农户的绿色生产意愿。因此在推进农业生产绿色化转型的过程中，应加强职业农民培育和绿色农业生产技术的宣传培训，确保绿色技术的适用可靠性。同时政府应加强完善农业绿色生产制度，通过激励政策替代管制和惩罚机制，引导和规范农户绿色农业生产行为     

循环农业经济体系的内涵及其构建

协调经济发展与环境保护之间的关系，建立以循环经济理念为核心的循环农业经济体系，是改变传统农业经济增长方式，促进农村经济可持续发展的一项重要课题。本文在分析中国农业发展所面临的生态环境安全问题的基础上，探讨了循环农业经济体系的内涵及其特点，并与传统农业、生态农业和绿色农业进行了比较；由此构建了循环农业经济体系的框架，即由目标层、参与主体层、技术层和制度层四个层面共同组成的综合体系，各层面之间通过耦合、互动、协作、共进最终实现农业发展的生态效益、社会效益和经济效益的统一。     

耕地利用集约度变化及其驱动因素分析——以湖北省为例

耕地利用集约度的变化关系到粮食安全和社会经济的可持续发展。运用逐步回归和通径分析等多元统计分析方法，对湖北省1990年至2008年的耕地利用集约度变化的驱动机制进行研究。研究表明，耕地利用集约度总体上稳中有升；农产品价格、耕地质量和财政支农是影响耕地利用集约度的主要因素；农产品价格、耕地质量和财政支农政策既是影响耕地利用集约度的直接原因，又是其他因素对耕地利用集约度影响的间接原因；在市场经济条件下，农民的耕地利用行为表现出市场化的趋势。因此，应稳定并逐步提高农产品价格，保障土地整理实施的质量，改善耕地质量，并加大政策对农业的扶持力度，从而提高农民农业生产积极性和耕地利用集约度、提升农民收入和保障国家粮食安全     

Function of Agricultural Land Use and Its Evolvement in Peri-urban Area: A Case Study of Beijing

Abstract

Rapid urbanization in Beijing stimulates the urban land expansion and diminishes available agricultural land. Monofunctional agricultural land use can not meet the demand of the development of the multifunctional agriculture and urbanization any more, so multifunctional agricultural land use is going to be promoted in the city. This article proposes the evolvement of the land use change from 1992 to 2004 and discusses some evolvement views.     

Population,Land Use and Deforestation in the Pan Amazon Basin: a Comparison of Brazil,Bolivia, Colombia,Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela

This paper discusses the linkages between population change, land use, and deforestation in the Amazon regions of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, and Venezuela. We begin with a brief discussion of theories of population–environment linkages, and then focus on the case of deforestation in the PanAmazon. The core of the paper reviews available data on deforestation, population growth, migration and land use in order to see how well land cover change reflects demographic and agricultural change. The data indicate that population dynamics and net migration exhibit to deforestation in some states of the basin but not others. We then discuss other explanatory factors for deforestation, and find a close correspondence between land use and deforestation, which suggests that land use is loosely tied to demographic dynamics and mediates the influence of population on deforestation. We also consider national political economic contexts of Amazon change in the six countries, and find contrasting contexts, which also helps to explain the limited demographic-deforestation correspondence. The paper closes by noting general conclusions based on the data, topics in need of further research and recent policy proposals.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

Water use in arid rural systems and the integration of water and agricultural policies in Europe: the case of Andarax river basin

Water is a precious resource in arid rural areas with irrigated agriculture. Nonetheless, water and agricultural policies in Europe show different management scopes and objectives, usually translated in divergent drivers of rural change. This paper has a double aim: to propose a specific method for quantitative biophysical analysis of water use in rural systems with the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism approach and to show the usefulness of this method for the assessment of the integration of water and agricultural policies. The river basin scale is chosen, since it is the socioecological unit for water management established in the water framework directive 2000/60/CE. A multi-scale water use accounting is provided for a Mediterranean river basin in Andalusia, integrating water cycle, ecosystems and social levels. Particularly focusing on agricultural production, a relevant set of indicators is proposed in order to analyze and compare different metabolic patterns. Finally, the integration of water and agricultural planning is assessed in terms of external (biophysical) and internal (economic, institutional) constraints of the new water-use patterns generated by the scenarios posed in these policies. While on a European level water policy is ambitious in terms of ecological conservation, the lack of integration within the common agricultural policy and the entanglement of multiple scales of political and economic organization of local ruralities blur its priority in a rather slow transition to a new water culture.     

Public Investment and Environmental Sustainability of Agricultural Production in China

Abstract

The excessive application of fertilizer and pesticides in grain production in China has posed a threat to the environmental sustainability of agricultural production. One of the major reasons of the increasing usage of chemical inputs by farmers is their trying to reach higher yields, especially In absence of adequate public inputs, such as development and extension of appropriate technology and necessary production infrastructure, etc. Based on the crop-specific data of the past 20 years, this paper examines how the public Investments in agricultural researches could impact on the reduction of farmers' private material inputs of major grain crops in China. It manifests that the increased investments in public sector, especially in agricultural researches, is a favorable and effective way to reduce farmers' private material inputs and should be given a priority consideration in the policy emendation to increase yields and improve production sustainability.     

Structural Adjustment of Oasis Agriculture in Xinjiang

Abstract

Xinjiang's oasis agriculture has made enormous strides over past decades. Structural adjustment of oasis agriculture sector has promoted production diversification. Xinjiang's oasis agriculture sector is entering a new era. The era means more adjustments in oasis agricultural and rural economic structure so as to realize the sustainable development of agriculture. By summing and analyzing the main problems in Xinjinag's oasis agricultural structure, such as raising farmer's income, industry structure within agriculture, rural urbanization, pressure coming from market, agricultural environment degradation, puts forward the thinking, director and countermeasures to adjust oasis agricultural structure.