Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Economic Role Of The English Poor Law, 1780-1834, George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

[Excerpt] Over the 85-year period from 1748/50 to 1832/34, real per capita expenditures on poor relief increased at an average rate of approximately 1 percent per year. There were also important changes in the administration of relief with respect to able-bodied laborers during the period. Policies providing relief outside of workhouses to unemployed and under-employed able-bodied laborers became widespread during the 1770s and 1780s in the grain-producing South and East of England. The so-called Speenhamland system of outdoor relief flourished until 1834, when it was abolished by the Poor Law Amendment Act. The aim of the thesis is to provide …

Hunger, Ethics And The Right To Food, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

he management of hunger has to look into the issues of availability, accessibility and adequacy of food supply. From an ethical perspective, this paper argues in favour of the right to food. But, for this to become viable, the state has to come up with an appropriate and effective bill on food and nutrition security, address the issue of inadequate provisioning of storage space by state agencies leading to rotting of food grains - a criminal waste when people are dying of hunger; and rely on local level institutions involving the community, that complement the administrative structure to identify the …

Access To Land: Some Issues, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

The paper, or rather note, is a brief review of some existing literature. It underscores the need for improved land access to the tiller from the point of view of both equity and efficiency. Some of the suggestions are: (i) opening up of the land lease market so that tenancy does not go underground (ii) in states like West Bengal where tenancy is protected, provision could be made to make them owners in part of the land while giving up claims for the rest, (iii) reduce transaction costs in land markets, which include fees but also bribes being paid, (iv) …

Eu Trade Barriers In The Agri-Food Sector: When Protection Breeds Dependence, Olivier Cadot, Akiko Suwa-Eisenmann, Jacques Gallezot

Olivier Cadot

This paper looks for firm-level evidence that high rates of protection breed concentration of firm activities into highly protected sectors, endogenously generating vested interests in the maintenance of protection. We combine data on the EU’s trade protection for food and agricultural products measured by ad-valorem equivalents (AVEs) with survey data on France’s agri-food sector to show that indeed, small and mid-size firms and cooperatives in that sector are heavily concentrated in product lines protected by tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) at high rates. Those firms and cooperatives can be expected to be at the forefront of resistance to multilateral tariff cuts, in …

Review Of Agriculture In History, 3 Volumes (R. Kent Rasmussen, Proj. Ed.; Salem Press, 2009), Sue Ann Gardner

Sue E. Gardner

Review of Agriculture in History, 3 volumes (R. Kent Rasmussen, proj. ed.; Salem Press, 2009).

Impacts Of Sudan Macroeconomic Policy On Agriculture, Issam A.W. Mohamed Professor

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The crisis of Southern Sudan and eminent secession in 9 July 2011 is a nightmare to the Sudanese national economy. The dependence on oil revenue that controlled the country for the past 11 years and negligence of the other real economy's economic sectors, agriculture and industry severely threatens the country. That is not only with diminished returns but with also with economic nightmarish economic catastrophe, famine and internal implosion. Short-sightedness on utilizing the oil money that bubbled the economy atrophied the real economic sectors and disabled it from responding to secession consequences of parting with 75% of revenues from oil …

Wto-Doha Multilateral Trade Negotiations And Agriculture, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is the current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which launched in November 2001. With the start of this round, non-trade concerns (NTCs) were explicitly renowned and integrated into the negotiation process. Generally, multi-functionality proponents attempt to resist agricultural trade liberalization by giving high support to protect their domestic producers. These are net food importing countries, some small countries with highly protected agricultural sector and large trade deficits in some main outputs and unfavourable agro-climatic conditions. The opponents of the multi-functionality argument all claim to recognize the legitimacy of …

Geologic Constraints On Rain-Fed Qocha Reservoir Agricultural Infrastructure, Northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru, Nathan M. Craig, Mark Aldenderfer, Paul Baker, Catherine Rigsby, :Luis Flores Blanco

Nathan M Craig

This paper reports new data on qocha ponds from the Rio PucaraeAzángaro interfluvial zone, northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Qocha are a little known form of Andean agriculture that developed around 800e500 B.C. and remain in use today. Prior estimates suggested that in the study area, there were more than 25,000 qocha. While most Andean sunken beds are excavated to reach groundwater, qocha are rain- fed ponds. How these rain-fed ponds functioned has been an open question, but one that is answered in part by research presented in this paper.We suggest that a thick impermeable stratum of clay that was …

Geologic Constraints On Rain-Fed Qocha Reservoir Agricultural Infrastructure,Northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru, Nathan Craig, Mark Aldenderfer, Catherine Rigsby, Paul Baker, Luis A. Flores

Luis FLORES

This paper reports new data on qocha ponds from the Rio PucaraeAzángaro interfluvial zone, northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Qocha are a little known form of Andean agriculture that developed around 800e500 B.C. and remain in use today. Prior estimates suggested that in the study area, there were more than 25,000 qocha. While most Andean sunken beds are excavated to reach groundwater, qocha are rainfed ponds. How these rain-fed ponds functioned has been an open question, but one that is answered in part by research presented in this paper. We suggest that a thick impermeable stratum of clay that was …

Persistence Of Crisis In Indian Agriculture: Need For Technological And Institutional Alternatives, Srijit Mishra, D. Narasimha Reddy

Srijit Mishra

The crisis in Indian agriculture has two dimensions - agricultural developmental and agrarian livelihood. Some aspects of the agricultural crisis are decelertion in production, productivity and value of output from early 1990s in almost all crops. Withdrawal of the state from public investment in irrigation and related infrastructure, providing access to formal credit, and waning link between research & extension and farming. As a result, the farmer faces multiple risks, vagaries of weather, price shocks, and spurious inputs among others, further compromising on his already lower returns. On agrarian crisis, what is worrying is that the deceleration in agriculture happened …

A Second Look At The Pesticides Initiative Program: Evidence From Senegal, Olivier Cadot, Melise Jaud

Olivier Cadot

This paper investigates whether the Pesticides Initiative Program has significantly affected the export performance of Senegal's horticulture industry. We apply two main microeconometric techniques, difference-in-differences and matching difference-in-differences, to identify the effect of the Pesticides Initiative Program on exports of fresh fruits and vegetables. We use a unique firm-level dataset containing data on sales, employment, and exports by product and destination markets, as well as firm enrolment year, over 2000-2008. The results suggest that while the program had no significant effect on exports pooled over all products and destinations, it had a positive effect when considering fresh fruits and vegetables …

Small And As Productive: Female‐Headed Households And The Inverse Relationship Between Land Size And Output In Kenya, Mwangi Githinji, Charalampos Konstantinidis, Andrew Barenberg

Mwangi Wa Githinji

Access to land and particularly its distribution has reemerged as an important part of both academic and policy discussions in the last decade, leading to the resuscitation of the debate on the relationship between size of holdings and output per land unit. Across the world, studies have suggested the existence of a decreasing relationship between land size and output per unit of land. The most-widely accepted explanation for this relationship is that households with smaller holdings tend to be labor rich relative to land, and therefore can achieve higher output through the increased application of labor. Despite the rich literature …

Farming Williamsburg: A Collaborative Oral History Project Of Williamsburg's Agrarian Past, Angela Labrador

Angela M Labrador

No abstract provided.

Exploring Sectoral Contributions To Growth In Fiji: A Focus On Agriculture Development, Ronald R. Kumar

Dr Ronald R Kumar

Information, Direct Access To Farmers, And Rural Market Performance In Central India, Aparajita Goyal

Aparajita Goyal

This paper estimates the impact of a change in procurement strategy of a private buyer in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Beginning in October 2000, Internet kiosks and warehouses were established that provide wholesale price information and an alternative marketing channel to soy farmers in the state. Using a new market-level dataset, the estimates suggest a significant increase in soy price after the introduction of kiosks, supporting the predictions of the theoretical model. Moreover, there is a robust increase in area under soy cultivation. The results point toward an improvement in the functioning of rural agricultural markets. (JEL …

Nutrient Based Subsidy (Nbs) & Support Systems For Ecological Fertilization In Indian Agriculture, Srijit Mishra, Gopikrishna Sr

Srijit Mishra

The intensive agriculture model was introduced in India in the 1960s as part of the Green Revolution. This brought in a package which included massive irrigation projects, new high yielding input responsive varieties and chemical fertilizers. Initially, it did increase production. But now, the food production is stagnating and one has been observing diminishing returns and falling dividends, especially in the agriculture intensiveareas of the country.

The chemical and synthetic fertilizers, particularly Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK), are highly subsidized. The amount of subsidy on this has grown exponentially during the last three decades from a mere Rs. 60 crore …

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vice versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.

Home Grown School Feeding Programmes In Africa, Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa

Professor Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa

No abstract provided.

School Feeding Programmes In Africa - A Case Study, Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa

Professor Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa

No abstract provided.

Building Sustainable Agricultural Development Through Home-Grown School Feeding - The African Approach, Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, Linley Chiwona-Karltun

Professor Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa

Proper nutrition is critical for optimal growth, cognitive development, general well-being and academic performance of children. Access to good nutrition either at home or through the educational system can contribute to the elimination of malnutrition and its associated health and developmental problems. In this regard, The 2005 UN World Summit recommended the expansion of local school feeding programmes, using home-grown foods where possible as one of the “Quick impact initiatives” to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, especially for rural areas facing the dual challenge of high chronic malnutrition and low agricultural productivity.

When Beef Was King. Or Why Do Colombians Eat So Little Pork?, Shawn Van Ausdal

Shawn Van Ausdal

This article seeks to understand why Colombians, compared to many other Latin Americans, have traditionally eaten so much more beef than pork. The article first points to the development of a culinary tradition that favored beef. The bulk of the argument, though, centers on the fact that, historically, beef has been substantially cheaper than pork. This price difference, in turn, is rooted in the low productivity of Colombian agriculture, which made corn, often used to fatten hogs, expensive. Additional factors that favored beef include a receding agrarian frontier, a small hog population, the various advantages of cattle, a conflict–ridden history …

Agricultural Productivity Growth In India, Amarnath Tripathi, Anubhuti Ranjan Prasad

amarnath tripathi

Considering the importance of agricultural productivity growth for raising the standard of living, the paper analyzed the impact of some production variables (input) on agricultural productivity growth (output) in India from 1969-70 to 2005-06. We selected time series data for aggregate analysis with the use of Cobb-Douglas production function. The estimation results showed that all key parameters are significant and are of the expected sign. Labour, capital and land have positive impact on agricultural productivity growth.

Risks, Farmers’ Suicides And Agrarian Crisis In India: Is There A Way Out?, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

Poor returns to cultivation and absence of non-farm opportunities are indicative of the larger socio-economic malaise in rural India. This is accentuated by the multiple risks that the farmer faces – yield, price, input, technology and credit among others. The increasing incidence of farmers’ suicides is symptomatic of a larger crisis, which is much more widespread. Risk mitigation strategies should go beyond credit. Long term strategies requires more stable income from agriculture, and more importantly, from non-farm sources. Private credit and input markets need to be regulated. A challenge for the technological and financial gurus is to provide innovative products …

Are There Lessons For Africa From China’S Success Against Poverty?, Martin Ravallion

Martin Ravallion

At the outset of China’s reform period, the country had a far higher poverty rate than for Africa as a whole. Within five years that was no longer true. This paper tries to explain how China escaped from a situation in which extreme poverty persisted due to failed and unpopular policies. While acknowledging that Africa faces constraints that China did not, and that context matters, two lessons for Africa stand out. The first is the initial importance of productivity growth in smallholder agriculture, which will require both market-based incentives and public support. The second is the role played by strong …

Antidumping Duties In The Agriculture Sector: Trade Restricting Or Trade Deflecting?, Nisha Malhotra, Horatiu Rus, Shinan Kassam

Nisha Malhotra

In this paper we analyze whether U.S. Anti-Dumping (AD) duties in the agricultural sector are effective in restricting trade. More specifically, does imposition of an antidumping duty restrict imports of the named commodity or is there a diversion in the supply of imports from countries named in the petition to countries not named in the antidumping petition? We find that AD duties have had a significant impact on the imports of agricultural commodities from the countries named in the petition. However, our results also indicate that, unlike the manufacturing sector in the US, there was little trade diversion towards countries …

Guide To The California Fairs Collection, 1856-1997, Karen Lewis, Lynn Bonfield, Nancy Loe

Nancy E. Loe

The Western Fairs Association, the California Joint Committee on Fairs Allocation and Classification, and Louis S. Merrill, former director of the Western Fairs Association gave the California Fairs Collection, one of the major archival collections on fairs and fairs management in the Western United States, to Cal Poly in 1982. In addition to extensive material on the management of fairs in California, the collection also contains information on fairs in other Western states, as well as foreign fairs and world fairs.

The Fairs Collection contains archival and printed material created in three separate offices: Western Fairs Association, a non-profit trade …

Critical Examination Of Ghana’S Agriculture Policy Under Vision 2020 Document - Ppt, Hector Addison

Hector Addison

Ghana, like many developing economies has a huge agricultural based with cocoa being the major export commodity. Since independence in 1957, Ghana had struggled to put together and implement and model of development that guarantees better life for her citizenry. This paper looks at one such document and analyzes it from agriculture perspective in the context of present realities. It is clear that Ghana stands to gain from a transformed agricultural sector which might lead the way to discover the eluded glory as a resource endowed nation

Agrarian Scenario In Post-Reform India: A Story Of Distress, Despair And Death, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

Indian agriculture today is under a large crisis. An average farmer household’s returns from cultivation would be around one thousand rupees per month. The incomes are inadequate and the farmer is not in a position to address the multitude of risks: weather, credit, market and technology among others. Social responsibility of education, healthcare and marriage instead of being normal activities add to the burden. All these would even put the semi-medium farmer under a state of transient poverty. The state of the vast majority of small and marginal farmers and agricultural labourers is worse off. An extreme form of response …

Suicide Mortality Rates Across States Of India, 1975-2001: A Statistical Note, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

Age-adjusted (5+ years) suicide mortality rate (per 100000 persons) has been calculated by sex across states of India for 1975-2001. Farmers and non-farmers suicide mortality rate are also given for 1995-2001.

Farmers' Suicides In Maharashtra, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

An agrarian crisis has precipitated a spate of suicides in Maharashtra. The suicide mortality rate for farmers in the state has increased from 15 in 1995 to 57 in 2004. The rain-dependent cotton growing farmers of Vidarbha are faced with declining profitability because of dumping in the global market by the US, low import tariffs, failure of the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme and withdrawal of the state (resulting in declining public investment in agriculture, poor government agriculture extension services and the diminishing role of formal credit institutions). The farmer now depends on the input dealer for advice, leading to supplier-induced …