The development of land rental markets can enhance agricultural productivity and equity by facilitating transfers of land to more productive farmers and facilitating the participation in the non-farm economy of less productive farmers. In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the...

This study uses a unique set of annual provincial data on soil and water conservation (SWC) investments during the period 1989-2005 to estimate the impact of such investments on the extent and severity of erosion, the growth rate of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and rural poverty...

Energy consumption in rural areas in China is characterized by high consumption of fuelwood, straw and other biomass. Off-farm employment can play an important role in the transition towards more sustainable sources of energy by increasing rural household incomes and reducing the amount of labor...

Land fragmentation is generally seen as an obstacle to agricultural productivity improvements, but it can also facilitate labor smoothing and risk diversification. In this paper we examine the impact of land fragmentation on the variable production costs of rice farmers in three villages in...

Available estimates of cocoa supply response in Ghana are derived from aggregate time series data. The present study presents results of a cross-section profit function analysis, based on farm-level data. The results are compared with those of previous time series studies, and the methodologies...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of perceived land tenure security in China on farmers' decisions to invest in relatively long-term land quality improvement measures, taking into account the potential endogeneity of tenure security. Design/methodology/approach –...

Land conservation investments can make an important contribution to avoidance and mitigation of land degradation. Lack of tenure security and land transferability may, however, limit the extent to which farmers undertake such investments. Using real option value theory, this paper investigates...