Major issues and challenges encountered in modeling and analyzing agricultural and trade policy reforms are reviewed. We focus on the modeling approach and pay special attention to the type and scope of the models, the calibration of a realistic baseline scenario, the representation of the...

In an attempt to understand better Brazil's future role in agricultural markets, the authors of this report traveled to Brazil on a fact-finding mission in September 2003. The goal was to get a first-hand impression of Brazil's agricultural sector and especially its future potential. In this...

Over the years the control of the Government of Egypt on the agricultural sector has increasingly weakened with the progressive elimination of the input subsidy, area control, price control, procurement control, and the constraints in private sector participation in processing and trade. The...

The Saskatchewan short-term hog loan program of 2002 provided a non-market credit line to participating hog producers. The repayment conditions for cash advances committed to by the provincial government depend on later hog prices, and so the program has derivative contract attributes. We model...

While global analytical approaches to agricultural trade liberalization yield large gains for most economies, there are substantial variations in the policy regimes across commodities. To clarify the multiplicity of distortions and impacts, the World Bank's Trade Department undertook a series of...

The growth in federal conservation programs has created a need for policy modeling frameworks capable of measuring micro-level behavioral responses and macro-level landscape changes. This paper presents an empirical model that predicts crop choices, crop rotations, and conservation tillage...

We analyze the impact of trade liberalization, removal of production subsidies, and elimination of consumption distortions in world sugar markets using a partial-equilibrium international sugar model calibrated on 2002 market data and current policies. The removal of trade distortions alone...

Major changes in the use of US sweeteners have occurred since 1970, in both the amount and composition. Increased consumption of caloric sweeteners, especially in beverages, has been linked to excess energy intake and lower-quality diets. We examine how US farm policies (specifically...

This paper uses a modified policy analysis matrix (PAM) approach to assess the efficiency of cotton production in five major producing states in India. The results indicate that cotton is not efficiently produced in the second-largest cotton-producing state in the country. Without government...

Major issues and challenges encountered in modeling and analyzing agricultural and trade policy reforms are reviewed. We focus on the modeling approach and pay special attention to the type and scope of the models, the calibration of a realistic baseline scenario, the representation of the...