SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

In order to evaluate food security, technology potential and the environmental impacts of production in a strategic and regional context, it is critical to have reliable information on the spatial distribution and coincidence of people, agricultural production, and environmental services. This paper proposes a spatial allocation model for generating highly disaggregated, crop-specific production data by a triangulation of any and all relevant background and partial information. This includes national or sub-national crop production statistics, satellite data on land cover, maps of irrigated areas, biophysical crop suitability assessments, population density, secondary data on irrigation and rainfed production systems, cropping intensity, and crop prices....

What is the irrigation potential for Africa? A Combined Biophysical and Socioeconomic Approach

Palavras-chave: Global; Cross entropy; Satellite image; Spatial allocation; Agricultural production; Crop suitability; Crop Production/Industries; C6; Q15; Q24.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25737

You, Liangzhi; Ringler, Claudia; Nelson, Gerald C.; Wood-Sichra, Ulrike; Robertson, Richard D.; Wood, Stanley; Guo, Zhe; Zhu, Tingju; Sun, Yan.

Although irrigation in Africa has the potential to boost agricultural productivities by at least 50 percent, food production on the continent is almost entirely rainfed. The area equipped for irrigation, currently slightly more than 13 million hectares, makes up just 6 percent of the total cultivated area. Eighty-five percent of Africa’s poor live in rural areas and mostly depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. As a result, agricultural development is key to ending poverty on the continent. Many development organizations have recently proposed to significantly increase investments in irrigation in the region. However, the potential for irrigation investments in Africa is highly dependent upon geographic, hydrologic, agronomic, and economic factors...

AGROECOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF EVALUATING AGRICULTURAL R&D

Palavras-chave: Irrigation potential; Internal rate of return; Large-scale irrigation; Small-scale irrigation; Investment; Africa; International Development; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/93736

Wood, Stanley; Pardey, Philip G..

In this paper we describe how biophysical data can be used, in conjunction with agroecological concepts and multimarket economic models, to systematically evaluate the effects of agricultural R&D in ways that inform research priority setting and resource-allocation decisions. Agroecological zones can be devised to help estimate the varying, site-specific responses to new agricultural technologies and to evaluate the potential for research to spill over from one agroecological zone to another. The application of agroecological zonation procedures in an international, agricultural research context is given special attention.

Agricultural research: a growing global divide?

Palavras-chave: Biophysical; Economic evaluation; Research priorities; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; International R&D.

Ano: 1997

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/16109

Pardey, Philip G.; Beintema, Nienke M.; Dehmer, Steven; Wood, Stanley.

Sustained, well-targeted, and effectively used investments in R&D have reaped handsome rewards from improved agricultural productivity and cheaper, higher quality foods and fibers. As we begin a new millennium, the global patterns of investments in agricultural R&D are changing in ways that may have profound consequences for the structure of agriculture worldwide and the ability of poor people in poor counties to feed themselves. This report documents and discusses these changing investment patterns, highlighting developments in the public and private sectors. It revises and carries forward to 2000 data that were previously reported in the 2001 IFPRI Food Policy Report Slow Magic: Agricultural R&D a Century After Mendel. Some past trends are...

Tipo: Report

Palavras-chave: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/55647

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH: CASE OF US-EGYPT-IRRI COLLABORATIVE PROJECT ON THE GENERATION OF NEW RICE TECHNOLOGIES

Gehlhar, Clemen G.; Nagarajan, Latha; Wood, Stanley.

Agricultural research managers and scientists are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the efficient and socially-effective use of funds spent on agricultural R&D. These pressures stem from heightened expectations of transparency and accountability in the use of public funds, as well as from the growing demand for evidence of impact on target social groups and environmental services. Finally, advances in agricultural biotechnology research and the ensuing dialogue about the desirability of using biotechnology tools for increasing food production in developing countries have highlighted the need to assess the impacts of international agricultural research in the US, the developing countries, and the international agricultural research centers...

Spatial Aspects of the Design and Targeting of Agricultural Development Strategies

Palavras-chave: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/19625

Wood, Stanley; Sebastian, Kate; Nachtergaele, Freddy; Nielsen, Daniel; Dai, Aiguo.

Two increasingly shared perspectives within the international development community are that (a) geography matters, and (b) many government interventions would be more successful if they were better targeted. This paper unites these two notions by exploring the opportunities for, and benefits of, bringing an explicitly spatial dimension to the tasks of formulating and evaluating agricultural development strategies. The paper was originally conceived to address the more specific goal of proposing a spatial characterization to underpin deliberations on appropriate development strategies for the “fragile” or “less-favored” lands of Sub-Saharan Africa. In practice, however, we considered that goal to be not only impractical but, perhaps, ill-conceived. The...

Fertilizer profitability in East Africa: A Spatially Explicit Policy Analysis

Palavras-chave: International Development.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/42830

Guo, Zhe; Koo, Jawoo; Wood, Stanley.

Even though it is clear that Substantial growth in inorganic fertilizer use is a prerequisite for sustained agricultural growth in Africa, fertilizer use is still one of the factors explaining lagging agricultural productivity growth in SSA. High transport costs and less policy support pose a significant barrier to make fertilizer application profitable in Africa. This paper is aimed to identify organizational and institutional changes that could reduce fertilizer transport costs and their impacts on profitability of fertilizer application. A model is constructed to simulated transport costs from ports to farm-gate at pixel level based on the knowledge of road network condition, surface land cover type, slope, imported fertilizer price at the port, storing...

Impact of global warming on Chinese wheat productivity

Palavras-chave: Fertilizer profitability; Value cost ratio; Transport cost; East Africa; Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; International Development; Marketing.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51710

You, Liangzhi; Rosegrant, Mark W.; Fang, Cheng; Wood, Stanley.

Climate change continues to have major impact on crop productivity all over the world. While many researchers have evaluated the possible impact of global warming on crop yields using mainly indirect crop simulation models, there are relatively few direct assessments on the impact of observed climate change on past crop yield and growth. We use a 1979-2000 Chinese crop-specific panel dataset to investigate the climate impact on Chinese wheat yield growth. We find that a 1 percent increase in wheat growing season temperature reduces wheat yields by about 0.3 percent. This negative impact is less severe than those reported in other regions. Rising temperature over the past two decades accounts for a 2.4 percent decline in wheat yields in China while the...

Generating Plausible Crop Distribution and Performance Maps for Sub-Saharan Africa Using a Spatially Disaggregated Data Fusion and Optimization Approach

Palavras-chave: Global warming; Wheat yield; Production function; Marginal impact; Panel data; Climate; Wheat production; Crop Production/Industries; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/58588

Agricultural production statistics reported at country or sub-national geopolitical scales are used in a wide range of economic analyses, and spatially explicit (geo-referenced) production data are increasingly needed to support improved approaches to the planning and implementation of agricultural development. However, it is extremely challenging to compile and maintain collections of sub-national crop production data, particularly for poorer regions of the world. Large gaps exist in our knowledge of the current geographic distribution and spatial patterns of crop performance, and these gaps are unlikely to be filled in the near future. Regardless, the spatial scale of many sub-national statistical reporting units remains too coarse to capture the...

Generating global crop distribution maps: from census to grid

Palavras-chave: Sub-Saharan Africa; Cross-entropy; Satellite image; Spatial allocation; Agricultural production; Crop suitability; Crop Production/Industries.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/42374

Strategic priorities for agricultural development in Eastern and Central Africa

Palavras-chave: Research Methods/ Statistical Methods.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/21299

Omamo, Steven Were; Diao, Xinshen; Wood, Stanley; Chamberlin, Jordan; You, Liangzhi; Benin, Samuel; Wood-Sichra, Ulrike; Tatwangire, Alex.

In countries that are heavily dependent on agriculture for employment and income, underperformance is not only untenable but also potentially explosive. This is the case in the countries of eastern and central Africa—Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda—where tens of millions of people face ongoing poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. This report, the result of a two-year collaboration between the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa, identifies how eastern and central African countries can stimulate agricultural growth to address these dire circumstances. The findings suggest that...

Tipo: Report

Palavras-chave: Agriculture; Economic aspects; Africa; Eastern; Central; Agricultural development projects; International Development.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/37881

REASSESSING PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

Chan-Kang, Connie; Pardey, Philip G.; Wood, Stanley; Roseboom, Johannes; Cremers, Marleen.

This paper uses a new panel data set to examine sources of growth in African agriculture. While conventional inputs continue to be the main source of labor productivity growth in Africa, land and labor quality differentials are also significant in explaining observed cross-country productivity patterns.

GENERATING PLAUSIBLE CROP DISTRIBUTION MAPS FOR SUB-SAHARA AFRICA USING SPATIAL ALLOCATION MODEL

Palavras-chave: Productivity Analysis.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/21600

Spatial data, which are data that include the coordinates (either by latitude/longitude or by other addressing methods) on the surface of the earth, are essential for agricultural development. As fundamental parameters for agriculture policy research agricultural production statistics by geopolitical units such as country or sub-national entities have been used in many econometric analyses. However, collecting sub-national data is quite difficult in particular for developing countries. Even with great effort and only on regional scales, enormous data gaps exist and are unlikely to be filled. On the other hand, the spatial scale of even the subnational unit is relatively large for detailed spatial analysis. To fill these spatial data gaps we proposed a...

Ex-Ante Analysis of the Benefits of Transgenic Drought Tolerance Research on Cereal Crops in Low-Income Countries

Palavras-chave: Sub-Sahara Africa; Cross entropy; Satellite image; Spatial allocation; Agricultural production; Crop suitability; Crop Production/Industries; C60; Q15; Q24.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/19965

Kostandini, Genti; Mills, Bradford F.; Omamo, Steven Were; Wood, Stanley.

This paper examines the ex-ante benefits of transgenic research on drought in eight developing countries, including the potential magnitude of private sector profits. The framework employs country-specific agroecological-drought risk zones and considers both yield increases and yield variance reductions when estimating producer and consumer benefits from research. Risk benefits from yield variance reductions are shown to be an important component of aggregate drought research benefits, representing 41 percent of total benefits across the eight countries. Further, estimated annual benefits of $US 93 million to the private sector suggest that significant incentives exist for private sector participation in varietal drought tolerance research.

SPATIAL PATTERNS OF CROP YIELDS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Palavras-chave: Crop Production/Industries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9940

Wood, Stanley; You, Liangzhi; Zhang, Xiaobo.

From a theoretical perspective crop yields should tend to converge over time and space as: growth in yield potential exhibits diminishing returns; an increasing share of farmers shift to using high yielding varieties (HYVs); barriers to the free flow of knowledge and information are removed; and significant investments continue to be made in supporting institutions whose mandates include facilitating and accelerating the cross-border flow of improved agricultural technologies. Using a new, sub-national crop yield database for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) we examine whether convergence is indeed occurring, and discover it is not. On the contrary, there is evidence of divergence. We test three hypotheses that might help account for this finding:...

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND KNOWLEDGE SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Palavras-chave: Crop yields; Maize; Rice; Soybeans; Latin America; Caribbean; South America; Crop Production/Industries.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/60322

Johnson, Michael; Resnick, Danielle; Bolwig, Simon; Chamberlin, Jordan; You, Liangzhi; Wood, Stanley; Hazell, Peter B.R..

While greater growth in agriculture and the broader rural sector is crucial for ameliorating Africa's high levels of poverty and malnutrition, developing strategies to achieve these objectives is hindered by a number of factors, including the broad array of interventions needed, the lack of accurate data, and dearth of trained local policy analysts. As such, this paper proposes a Strategic Analysis Knowledge Support System (SAKSS) in which data, tools, and knowledge are compiled, analyzed, and disseminated for the purposes of identifying a set of priority investment and policy options to promote agricultural growth and rural development. These analyses can in turn help inform the broader process of designing, implementing, and monitoring and evaluating a...

ASSESSING THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF CROP PRODUCTION USING A GENERALIZED CROSS-ENTROPY APPROACH

Palavras-chave: Agricultural growth; Strategic analysis; Sub-Saharan Africa; Community/Rural/Urban Development.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/60184

You, Liangzhi; Wood, Stanley.

While agricultural production statistics are reported on a geopolitical – often national - basis we often need to know the status of production or productivity within specific sub-regions, watersheds, or agro-ecological zones. Such re-aggregations are typically made using expert judgments or simple area-weighting rules. We describe a new, entropy-based approach to making spatially disaggregated assessments of the distribution of crop production. Using this approach tabular crop production statistics are blended judiciously with an array of other secondary data to assess the production of specific crops within individual ‘pixels’ – typically 25 to 100 square kilometers in size. The information utilized includes crop production statistics, farming system...