This paper attempts an empirical assessment of the incentive effects of plant variety protection regimes in the generation of crop variety innovations. A duration model of plant variety protection certificates is used to infer the private appropriability of returns from agricultural crop variety...

This paper investigates the effects of network based individual social capital on the access of rural households to services. In the context of development economics, an innovative data collection approach is used to determine network based social capital. The approach originates from the field...

How much has food abundance, attributable to U.S. public agricultural R&D, contributed to the high and rising U.S. obesity rates? In this paper we investigate the effects of public investment in agricultural R&D on food prices, per capita calorie consumption, adult body weight, obesity, public...

This study examined the economic impact of a wintering barn facility on a dairy farm in the Tararua District, relative to its ability to reduce nitrogen leaching, as a means of achieving Horizon’s proposed nitrogen discharge limit. The analysis showed that the provision of a wintering facility...

In this workshop the participants identified five priority areas of concern relative to sustainable management of groundwater irrigation by farmers:1) aquifer drawdown; 2) FMIS groundwaterwater support services, 3) management problems under water-surplus conditions; 4) management problems under...

Governments around the world are betting heavily on biofuels as one part of a solution to a wide range of public policy challenges, from environmental sustainability in the face of climate change, to energy security given rising geopolitical instability, to economic growth especially in rural...

Although Pakistan's surface irrigation development has a long history, it is only about 30 years ago that the development of groundwater resources was begun. During the past decade, government policy has been reoriented towards private, instead of public, tube well development in fresh...