Traditional irrigation water management systems in China are increasingly replaced by user-based, participatory management through water users associations (WUAs) with the purpose to promote more efficient water use and higher farm incomes. Existing research shows that significant differences...

The debate about the "quasi" moratorium on the release of GMOs in the European Union is on going. One of the major arguments that were put forward to delay the release of new traits was the one for more information. In this contribution we compare the situation for Bt-maize from the 1995 and...

The decision of whether to release transgenic crops in the EU is one subject to flexibility, uncertainty, and irreversibility. We analyse the case of herbicide tolerant sugar beet and reassess whether the 1998 de facto moratorium of the EU on transgenic crops for sugar beet was correct from a...

The gum tree (Acacia senegal) in the Sahel-Sudan zone has many environmental benign functions. An important function is to control desertification. In this paper we analyze farmers' economic incentives to preserve the existing gum trees and their incentives to create new plantations using a real...

The impact of China's new rural income support policy and recent price trends on grain production and rural income inequality is assessed for two villages with different degrees of market access in Northeast Jiangxi Province. Two village-level general equilibrium models are used to analyze...

In this paper we empirically assess and compare the environmental impact of pesticide programs for Bt, Ht (glufosinate) and conventional corn in Europe, employing the Environmental Impact Quotient. We use field trial data from Narbons, France 2004 as well as secondary data. Our results show that...

Laotian rice producers in upland areas experience highly fluctuating yields and production and producers in wet season rice areas in the southern region face high price risk. This paper examines the exposure to risk of producers in both regions facing changes in water supplies. A supply and...

This paper investigates the roles of industrial cluster on the efficiency of rice milling and the improvement of milled rice quality. The data were obtained in Kumasi area, central Ghana because the enhancement of domestic rice production is a urgent policy issue in this country, but little...