The purpose of this paper is to provide interested researchers with a simple tool to evaluate the efficacy of different methods of fertility replenishment that have accompanied and made possible the contemporary agriculture. We propose a nutrient balance model created especially to be applied to...

This paper shows the potential of the Social Metabolism approach to study the industrialization of the agriculture. It provides information about the physical functioning of agrarian systems over time and their spatial differences. It also sheds light on how the industrialisation of agriculture...

This methodological manual provides basic information to estimate the net primary productivity (NPP) of historical and contemporary cropland, in terms of fresh and dry matter, and gross energy. The methodology and the proposed conversion factors can be applied to any region of the planet, with...

The investment decisions of small-scale farmers in developing countries are conditioned by their financial environment. Binding credit market constraints and incomplete insurance can reduce investment in activities with high expected profits. We conducted several experiments in northern Ghana in...

We partnered with a micro-lender in Mali to randomize credit offers at the village level. Then, in no-loan control villages, we gave cash grants to randomly selected households. These grants led to higher agricultural investments and profits, thus showing that liquidity constraints bind with...

This paper provides estimates of the economic impact of initial adoption of genetically modified (GM) cotton and of its potential impacts beyond the few countries where it is currently common. Use is made of the latest version of the GTAP database and model. Our results suggest that by following...

Four West African nations have demanded the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda include a Cotton Initiative that involves two issues: cutting cotton subsidies and tariffs, and assisting farm productivity growth in Africa. This paper provides estimates of the potential economic impacts of (a)...

This working paper provides a compilation of statistics on international wine consumption, production and trade from the mid-nineteenth century until the beginning of the Second World War. The statistical data is structured in three parts dealing with consumption, production and trade both at...

In this paper we propose a cross sectional study of some of the variables involved in major crops present in Seville's field during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This represents a comprehensive treatment and undifferentiated from each of the crops. The principal element is constituted...

The role of the state in nineteenth-century Spanish economy has been very controversial and has generally received negative judgments. This article tries to evaluate the intervention in the regulation of rice cultivation. Justified against malaria, this regulation encountered great difficulties...