Small farmers in many tropical developing countries practice swidden agriculture. A key aspect of swidden agriculture is the time period during which the land is left fallow. This paper uses a new ecological-economic approach to study the fallow period and to determine the optimal length of this...

The Arrow/Fisher/Henry/ study of land development in the presence of uncertainty has been conducted in a two period model in which the development decision is indivisible. Very recently, this study has been extended to analyze the development problem in a multi-period framework. Nevertheless,...

At any point in time, a cleared parcel of forest land (CPFL) used for swidden agriculture exists in either the fallow or in the non-fallow state. Further, the practice of swidden agriculture requires one to operate in an environment of uncertainty. These two points notwithstanding, there are...

In simple, two period models of the development of land, K. Arrow and A. Fisher, and C. Henry have shown that when the decision to develop is (i) irreversible, and (ii) indivisible, a land developer who disregards the possibility of acquiring new information about the result of land development...

At any point in time, a cleared parcel of forest land (CPFL) used for swidden agriculture exists in either the fallow or in the non-fallow state. Further, the practice of swidden agriculture requires one to operate in an environment of uncertainty. These two points notwithstanding, there are...

The frequency with which a crop can be harvested on a cleared parcel of forest land (CPFL) before this land must be fallowed depends in part on the decision to use or not to use fertilizers to improve soil fertility. Therefore, we first construct a mathematical model of fertilizer use by a...

The number of times a crop can be harvested on a cleared parcel of forest land (CPFL) before this land must be fallowed is dependent on the decision to use or not to use fertilizers to enhance soil fertility. As such, we first construct a theoretical model of fertilizer use by a swidden...

We focus on the interaction between a representative polluting tannery and a negatively impacted small farmer in Kanpur, India. The tannery produces leather and toxic chemical waste that ends up in wastewater used by the small farmer to irrigate agricultural land and grow vegetables. The waste...

In this note we first develop a formal model of land use by shifting cultivators when these cultivators can select whether to plant a cash crop or a food or subsistence crop. Second, we analyze the land quality accumulation decision faced by swidden cultivators and we demonstrate how to...

In this paper we first construct a theoretical model of land use by swidden cultivators when these cultivators can choose whether to grow a cash crop or a food/subsistence crop. Second, we study the land quality accumulation decision faced by shifting cultivators and, in the process, we show how...