|
on Central and South America |
|
Issue of 2016‒04‒30
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Silva, Felipe; Fulginiti, Lilyan E.; Perrin, Richard K. |
| Abstract: | The Amazon Forest is the largest tropical forest in the world stretching over nine states in northern Brazil. Land use in the Amazon Forest has been under discussion due to its direct and indirect effects on emission and sequestration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2, N2O and CH4. Our interest here is to investigate whether technological change in agriculture has resulted in higher or lower costs of emissions abatement. We examined a panel of nine states from this region during the period 1990-2009, a period of rapid agricultural expansion as well as a series of new environmental regulations. The rate of technical change and its biases were estimated using stochastic and non-stochastic approaches. Preliminary results indicate a technological progress for Brazilian’s Amazon Forest states, which suggests a simultaneously expansion on GDP and contracted on CO2e emissions due to technical change. This technical change has been biased toward GDP and against emissions, indicating an increase in GDP foregone to achieve a given reduction in emissions. |
| Keywords: | Amazon forest, Agriculture, Greenhouse gasses and Technical change., Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Q54, Q55, O13, D24, |
| Date: | 2016–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea16:230092&r=lam |
| By: | Rossi, Fabiana Ribeiro; Souza Filho, Hildo Meirelles de; Carrer, Marcelo Jose |
| Abstract: | Brazil is the larger producer of fresh oranges contributing with 55% of the world´s production. The state of São Paulo-Brazil produces more than 70% of Brazilian´s national fresh oranges production. In spite of the importance of the orange activity to the economy of Brazil, more than 70% of the orange producers abandoned the activity in São Paulo between 1995 and 2014 due mainly to considerable reduction in their profits. Adopting irrigation can lead to an increase in the production factor yields and, consequently, to a reduction on the production costs per orange box, restoring the producers’ profitability. This paper aims to identify and analyze the factors that influence the adoption of irrigation systems in orange orchards in São Paulo-Brazil by using descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing and a probit model. We identified that the number of oranges varieties grown in the property, the percentage of the total agricultural income obtained with the orange activity, the number of management tools used in the production system, the risk preference of the producer with respect to the orange commercialization, the experience of the producer in the agricultural activity and the amount of money spent with technical assistance impacted significantly the irrigation adoption. |
| Keywords: | Orange production, Irrigation adoption, determinants, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, D22, O33, Q16, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea16:230121&r=lam |
| By: | Miguel Martín-Retortillo (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain); Vicente Pinilla (Universidad de Zaragoza and Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón –IA2, Spain); Jackeline Velazco (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú, Peru); Henry Willebald (Universidad de la República, Uruguay) |
| Abstract: | Since 1950 profound changes, such as new technological innovations or changes in agricultural and trade policies took place in the Latin American agriculture. This article aims to analyse the dynamics of the growth of Latin American agricultural production between 1950 and 2008. It explores whether the increases in agricultural production have been due to increases in the use of production factors, or whether production increases have been due to efficiency gains. Our findings suggest that efficiency gains made a rather modest contribution to the important increase in production; this increase was principally the result of the use of capital. This was the most important productive factor in explaining increases in output, together with more moderate increases in the use of land and labour. |
| Keywords: | Latin American economic history, Latin American agriculture, Agricultural productivity, Agricultural growth |
| JEL: | N56 O13 Q11 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1610&r=lam |