Agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy prior to independence and immediately after. Agriculture however, has suffered persistent decline since the 1970s with the exchange rate policy being implicated in the misfortune of this sector. Earlier studies on the effect of exchange rate...

The recent empirical literature on economic sustainability of certified export crops shows that certification standards that enhance yields are important for improving farm revenues and farmer welfare. However, limited evidence exists on the impact of organic certification on the adoption of...

In this paper we use panel data regressions to investigate the determinants of vegetarianism in various countries over time. Using national level aggregate data, we construct a panel consisting of 116 country-time observations. We find that there is a negative relationship between income and...

We show that the recent rise in Afghan opium production is caused by violent conflicts. Violence destroys roads and irrigation, crucial to alternative crops, and weakens local incentives to rebuild infrastructure and enforce law and order. Exploiting a unique data set, we show that Western...

We show that the recent rise in Afghan opium production is caused by violent conflicts. Violence destroys roads and irrigation, crucial to alternative crops, and weakens local incentives to rebuild infrastructure and enforce law and order. Exploiting a unique data set, we show that Western...

The extent of genetic diversity in food crops is important as it affects the risk of attack by pathogens. A drop in diversity increases this risk. Farmers may not take this into account when making crop choices, leading to what from a social perspective is an inadequate level of diversity.