Economic Policy and Sustainable Land Use: Recent Advances in Quantitative Analysis for Developing Countries (Contributions to Economics)

This book provides an overview of quantitative approaches to analyse the effects of economic policy reforms on sustainable land use in less developed countries (LDCs). Its purpose is to assess recent advances in modelling approaches, to identify key issues in quantifying the relationships, and to formulate recommendations on future research directions that may add to further improve our understanding of the potential effects of economic policy instruments on soil quality changes in LDCs. Special attention is paid to modelling the responses of farm households to policy incentives. Front Matter....Pages I-XVI Economic Policy Reforms and Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries: Issues and Approaches....Pages 1-20 Soil Degradation and Agricultural Production: Economic and Biophysical Approaches....Pages 21-48 Technical Options for Agricultural Development in the Ethiopian Highlands: A Model of Crop-Livestock Interactions....Pages 49-57 Land Degradation as a Transformation Process in an Intertemporal Welfare Optimisation Framework....Pages 59-72 Population Pressure and Land Degradation in the Ethiopian Highlands: A Bio-Economic Model with Endogenous Soil Degradation....Pages 73-92 Imperfect Food Markets and Household Adoption of Soil Conservation Practices in the Dominican Republic Highlands: Household Probit and Duration Models....Pages 93-114 Soil Conservation and Imperfect Labour Markets in El Salvador: an Empirical Application of a Dynamic Control Model of Farm Production....Pages 115-134 Assessing the Effects of Policy Measures on Household Welfare and Agro-Ecological Sustainability: an Overview of Farm Household Modelling Approaches....Pages 135-150 Agricultural Prices and Land Degradation in Koutiala, Mali: a Regional Simulation Model Based on Farmers’ Decision Rules....Pages 151-168 Integrating Site-Specific Biophysical and Economic Models to Assess Trade-offs in Sustainable Land Use and Soil Quality....Pages 169-184 Effects of Land Degradation in a Diversified Economy with Local Staple and Labour Markets: A Village-Town CGE Analysis from Mexico....Pages 185-197 Agricultural Production and Erosion in a Small Watershed in Honduras: a Non-Linear Programming Approach....Pages 199-209 Alternative Approaches to the Economics of Soil Nutrient Depletion in Costa Rica: Exploratory, Predictive and Normative Bio-Economic Models....Pages 211-237 Effects of Economic Policies on Farmers, Consumers and Soil Degradation: a Recursively Dynamic Sector Model with an Application for Burkina Faso....Pages 239-253 Soil Degradation in Macro CGE Models....Pages 255-267 The Effect of Soil Degradation on Agricultural Productivity in Ethiopia: a Non-Parametric Regression Analysis....Pages 269-292 Between Free Riders and Free Raiders: Property Rights and Soil Degradation in Context....Pages 293-316 Land Rights, Farmers’ Investment, and Sustainable Land Use: Modelling Approaches and Empirical Evidence....Pages 317-334 Assessing Social Factors in Sustainable Land-Use Management: Social Capital and Common Land Development in Rajasthan, India....Pages 335-350 Modelling Economic Policy Reforms and Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries: Key Issues....Pages 351-376 Back Matter....Pages 377-377 Since the 1980s many developing countries have implemented macro-economic policy reforms to curb inflation, reduce fiscal deficits and control foreign debt. The policy instruments used, such as exchange rate adjustment, budget cuts, trade policy reforms, public expenditure reviews and privatisation, have different and sometimes opposite consequences for agricultural land use. During the same period awareness was growing that deteriorating soil quality could become a limiting factor to increase or even sustain agricultural production. As a result, food availability and even accessibility for large population groups in developing countries may be jeopardised in the near future. Recently, quantitative models have made useful contributions to understanding the impact of economic policy reforms on the sustainability of land use. They provide a consistent analytical framework to deal with complex issues such as the direct and indirect effects of economic, agricultural, environmental and population policies, the role of market imperfections in transmitting economic policy signals, and the interactions between soil quality, agricultural production and household economic decision making. Different types of models can be distinguished: bio­ economic models, focussing on the link between farm household decisions and the agricultural resource base, household and village models, examining the impact of the socio-economic environment on farm household decisions, and more aggregate models, analysing interactions between sectors and their implications for sustainable land use.

The book provides an overview of quantitative approaches to analyse the effects of economic policy reforms on sustainable land use in developing countries. It illustrates recent advances in modelling approaches at the plot, household, regional and national level. Special attention is paid to the influence of market failures and other aspects of the institutional environment on the policy-response of households in developing countries, and to problems of linking biophysical and economic models. Four key issues in quantifying relationships between economic policy and agricultural land use are used to compare the different modelling approaches. The book concludes with suggestions for future research aiming at increasing our understanding of the impact of policy instruments on soil quality.

This is an overview of quantitative approaches to analyse the effects of economic policy reforms on sustainable land use in developing countries. It illustrates advances in modelling approaches at the plot, household, regional and national level.