Risk and uncertainty over the results of agricultural production were always considered as impediments for the development of agricultural sector and rural areas. Besides traditional weather and market related sources of uncertainty, agriculture in transition economies is facing one more major...

This paper studies a land use switching model as a measure of adaptation to climate change in tart cherry industry in Michigan. In order to capture the effects of extreme events, we employ a real options land conversion model where an underlying stochastic process allows a Poisson-type jump...

Conservation farming (CF) practices are widely considered to be important components of sustainable agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa because of their potential to raise farm productivity and incomes while maintaining or improving soil quality and reducing vulnerability to variable...

Despite Zambia’s sustained and fairly robust agricultural growth since 2000, rural poverty levels have remained at about 80% over the past 15 years. Because over 70% of Zambia’s agricultural households are small-scale farmers cultivating less than two hectares of land, they must effectively...

Though Zambia has considerable agricultural potential, the sector’s contribution to growth and poverty reduction has been limited. The sector remains one of the most important employers of labour and remains the main source of livelihood for most rural households in Zambia. Thus key...

Economists have long held that broad-based agricultural growth is the most powerful source of poverty reduction in developing countries where most of the rural population is engaged in agriculture (Johnston and Mellor 1961; Mellor 1974; Lipton 2006). However, in Zambia’s case, despite sustained and...

The advancement of South America’s agro-pastoral frontier has been widely linked to losses in biodiversity and tropical forests, with particular impacts on the Brazilian cerrado, the Atlantic Forest, and the Amazon. Here I consider an important, yet largely overlooked, driver of South...

Land is a natural resource that is valued for many reasons. Farmers utilize land to earn their livelihood and as a store of wealth for future retirement. Rural residents have increasingly sought open space for home sites and pursuit of a lifestyle. Developers seek financial opportunities to...

Land is a natural resource that is valued for many reasons. Farmers utilize land to earn their livelihood and as a store of wealth for future retirement. Rural residents have increasingly sought open space for home sites and pursuit of a lifestyle. Developers seek financial opportunities to...