New Zealand Agricultural &
Resource Economics Society (Inc.)

The study investigates the determinants of rural households" risk perception of farmer-herder conflict in rural Nigeria. In doing so, the study constructs a farmer-herder conflict risk perception model that incorporates socio-demographic characteristics, farm-level attributes, and past experience factors. The conceptual model is empirically tested using a sample of 401 rural households in Nigeria. Results show that the estimated model explains about 42% of the variance in the risk perception of farmer-herder conflict. Age, farming experience, number of languages spoken in the household, farm size, crop and livestock diversity, ownership of formal title to land, the distance from household to their closest neighbour and location were all significant predictors of rural household"s risk perception of farmer-herder conflict. We further probe their differences in risk judgments and the source of their perceived risk in more detail by constructing two sub-indices of farmer-herder conflict risk perception as it concerns: (1) food production and supply, (2) household physical security and wellbeing. Findings reveal that age, number of languages spoken in household, household migration status and exposure to FH conflicts are important predictors of the risk perception of farmer-herder conflict relating to food production and supply. Conversely, the educational level of household head, household size and household income, livestock diversification, and the distance from household to the closest city are more important predictors of the risk perception of farmer-herder conflicts concerning physical security and wellbeing. Findings recommend initiatives/policies that facilitate the procurement of formal land titles along with a gradual shift to more sustainable herding systems to inhibit the onset of farmer-herder conflicts.

As per PG award application

This paper investigates the impact of mining pollution on the likelihood of feeling sick. We link a geocoded soil pollution information with five rounds of Mongolia Household Socio-Economic Survey data and employ logistic regression models to investigate the medium- to long-run health impacts. Our results indicate that living one kilometre away from mines reduces a person"s probability of feeling unwell by 11 per cent. The medical expenditure also increases as a result of feeling sick. Mining pollution impacts younger children more and generally aggravates respiratory illnesses. Small-scale gold mines have a larger effect on individuals" health than medium and large-scale mines. Our findings suggest that tighter environmental regulations to control mining pollution can reduce short- and long-term health risks near mining sites.

New Zealand’s native vegetation communities are declining due to land-use change, pest plants and animals, and diseases. This trend can be arrested or reversed by implementing programs to protect and restore native vegetation. Designing conservation and restoration programs require an evaluation of their benefits and costs. However, there is a shortage of New Zealand based studies of social benefits relevant to policy. To fill this gap, we conducted a nationally representative choice experiment survey to estimate the preferences for restoring and protecting native ecosystems. We used a discrete choice experiment where the attributes represented restored areas of three native ecosystems and covenants to protect native vegetation remnants. We estimated willingness-to-pay using a mixed logistic model in WTP space. We derive regional willingness-to-pay values using individual-specific estimates. The willingness-to-pay values vary by vegetation type and region and exhibit diminishing marginal value. Our results will be of interest to policymakers in planning, targeting, protecting, and restoring indigenous ecosystems.

Biosecurity response tools must be publicly acceptable to be deployed effectively. However, previous studies have lacked clarity about what participants are responding to, typically asking about the acceptability of pest controls without adequately differentiating between tool types, modes of application or surrounding contexts. In this study, we surveyed 1,333 New Zealanders using both direct measures and choice experiments to explore the relative acceptability of five biosecurity response tools in the context of differing landscapes, levels of effectiveness and potential pest impacts. Results from the direct measures indicate mechanical and biological approaches (i.e., removal of infested plants and introduction of sterilized insects) are more acceptable than chemical pesticide application (i.e., targeted ground, targeted aerial, and broad aerial spraying). Cluster analysis showed five distinct groups of respondents with different attitudes towards pest control, with the culturally sensitive group as the largest (33%) while the anti-control group as the smallest (5%). Results from the choice experiments suggest that, on average, tool effectiveness had the strongest influence on choices followed by tool type. The panel ordered random effects logit model estimates indicate that targeted ground spraying was the most preferred action while broad aerial spraying was again the least preferred. Tool acceptability was significantly affected by interactions of effectiveness with pest impacts (e.g., human and economic) and land uses (e.g., residential, conservation and forestry). The panel ordered latent class logit modelling suggests 62% consider effectiveness as the most important, 23% prefer any controls over broad aerial spraying even if less effective, and 16% would rather do nothing than have broad aerial spraying. Findings from this study may help biosecurity managers better understand and engage with stakeholders to discuss the acceptability of new biosecurity tools.

Freshwater quality is multi-dimensional. Different interventions are required to reduce contaminants (sediment, nutrients, pathogens, toxicants) or improve habitat quality (in aquatic, riparian, or wetland ecosystems). Managers of restoration funds have an obligation to invoke social values when deciding on specific interventions, while also balancing majority interests with other important values. There are numerous non-market valuation studies in the literature, but none are helpful for operational decisions. Previous studies were either not decision-relevant, not ecologically relevant, incomplete in scope, or not spatially explicit. This study recognises that people don’t have stable, pre-existing conceptions of monetary value for the environment. In the social ecological economics conception of value, willingness-to-pay is socially constructed within, and is only supported by, a specific institutional context. Therefore, I designed a valuation instrument to match the context of new freshwater rules and increased funding through Jobs for Nature, and the need to prioritise different restoration goals and locations. Restoration outcomes are uncertain, so the valuation questions asked people to prioritise different goals, not specify WTP to achieve a specific level of quality. To avoid the problem of part-whole bias I first asked people to specify total WTP for restoration funds (using current funding as the anchor) and then decomposed this WTP in a hierarchical budget allocation process similar to AHP. At the lowest level of the hierarchy I included a choice experiment to trade-off distance, current quality, and cost. Results from a survey of 1685 individuals show a strong distance decay effect, and a strong preference for focusing on the worse quartile of watersheds.

The New Zealand dairy sector is often cited as the most-competitive exporter of several key dairy products traded in international markets. However, ensuring its future competitiveness depends on the capacity of the sector to improve profits, build equity, and increase market share under climate and market variability. It is argued that a way of achieving this is through farmers maintaining a low cost of production within a volatile market environment. However, there is concern that changes in input use in New Zealand has been a result of a lack of cost control by dairy farmers rather than a rational response to output price changes. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper is to identify how dairy farmers, particularly the most-profitable, respond to milk price variation across time. To achieve this DairybaseTM data over a fourteen year period are used to estimate a series of panel data models considering how output and input use responds to expected price changes. The survey comprises five regions in the North Island (i.e. Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, and Lower North Island) and three regions in the South Island (i.e. West Coast-Tasman, Marlborough-Canterbury, and Otago-Southland), covering the main dairy production regions in New Zealand. After data cleaning, the final dataset includes 12,501 observations based on 3,293 dairy farms. Novel elements of the modelling approach adopted include a) the use of a Pasture Growth Index to capture climatic variability across farms across seasons b) the use of the Fonterra milk price announcements to capture expected milk prices across the season c) identifying the farms that maintain a higher level of profitability over time. Initial results highlight that when controlling for a range of possible influencing factors (such as region, farm system and weather) supplementary feed use, nitrogen fertiliser use, stock expenses and labour expenses are positively associated with output price. When farms are classified by profitability, it was found that the most profitable farms tend to adjust inputs to a lesser extent in relation to output price changes. This raises a number of questions including whether they are more profitable because they do not flex as much or because their systems are better able to cope with price shocks without having to significantly adjust their business. Further analysis is being undertaken to better understand what is driving the response of NZ dairy farmers to price changes and why this might differ across farms. This will be based on economic theories relating to: asset fixity; prospect theory and loss aversion; sunk costs and; path dependency.

Eggs are an excellent source of high-quality protein, which are easy to cook and relatively inexpensive when compared to other sources of animal protein. The per-capita consumption of eggs in New Zealand is among the highest in the world, and market research has shown that eggs are a particularly important source of protein for lower income families. In 2015 New Zealand joined the EU and some of the states in the USA in phasing out the use of conventional cages for egg production. While alternative systems (colony cages, barn, free range and pasture) are perceived to be more welfare friendly than conventional cages, they are also associated with higher production costs – which may have important implications for low-income families. This study was designed to determine whether individuals can identify the difference between cage eggs, and eggs obtained from alternative production systems. Sensory attributes evaluated were aroma, taste, texture, flavor and overall preference. At a conventional level of significance (p<0.05), the results suggest that panelists were not able to discriminate between cage eggs and eggs produced using the other systems. However, there was weak evidence (p<0.1) that panelists could detect a difference between conventional cage eggs and those produced under a pasture system. In terms of preference, although an overall ANOVA test showed significant differences for taste and texture liking across production systems, the post-hoc Tukey means separation test did not find different groupings. These results suggest that eggs produced in non-cage systems have few advantages from a strictly hedonic/sensory perspective. Future work will determine whether advanced knowledge of the production system will influence consumer sensory evaluation.

One of the main goals of New Zealand is to maintain its status as a world-class food supplier by enhancing existing sectors and developing new ventures. A couple of products provide examples of developing into export businesses, kiwifruit and apples. Other produces have not experienced the success of these industries. A key question is the role that institutions have on the ability of food and fibre businesses to grow and develop to the extent that they can enter the export market. Hence, it is necessary to determine the institutional-specific characteristics that contribute to the performance of the NZ horticultural industry. Firm performance has been measured by considering product attributes, management style, and marketing strategy. However, the relationship of institutions with performance has not been widely investigated, and it is the missing cornerstone in the strategy tripod. Since the ventures to be studied are emerging, large data sets are not yet available for running a modelled equation. Therefore, it is intended to analyse those elements through a mixed-methods approach. First, correlating institutional attributes with performance indicators, then running a cluster analysis to group the institutional characteristics by similar performance. As for the preliminary findings, we have got that formalisation degree increases with the scale and scope of the operation. Informal contracts are the most common arrangements in emerging ventures, and more structured partnerships begin to arise when businesses grow. Governance and accountability are vital for a good performance of a complex structure such as a cooperative. Finally, trust relationships are critical determinants in all stages of business development. One significant limitation is the different scales in horticulture. How big is a small farming operation is still to be determined to develop a better cluster analysis. KeyWords Agribusiness, Institutions, Export performance, Mixed methods, New Zealand

We evaluate how a regulator corrects a dynamic externality under the presence of lobbying. Our application concerns commercial lobbying in New Zealand’s most valuable public fishery. While a regulator wishes to limit the commercial harvest to maximize the discounted stream of firm profits and public utility. We show future utility drives a wedge so the profit-maximizing commercial harvest exceeds the welfare-maximizing harvest. The commercial sector responds to this incentive by lobbying to block the regulator from reducing the commercial harvest. We interpret this action as imposing a lobbying constraint. We quantify the misallocation from lobbying by developing and estimating a dynamic model. We use the estimated model to calculate that removing the lobbying constraint increases welfare by between 4.2%-6.4%. We find a large redistribution: removing the lobbying constraint would lower profits by between 12%-21% and increase utility by between 24%-43%.

Urbanisation influences the changes in food demand in developing countries. This study seeks to understand how urbanisation shift food preferences among Thai households in 76 provinces using the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS). Urbanisation is proxied by satellite images of night-time lights obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The results show that night-time lights highlight the role of urbanisation in shaping patterns of food preferences; increased urbanisation stimulates food diversity. This makes the demand for food less income-elastic, which can create a permanent change in some food preferences. Urbanisation, therefore, drives new eating habits in Thailand. Keywords: urbanisation; household food preference; QUAIDS; night-time light

In Sub Saharan Africa, farming systems are heterogeneous and dominated by rain-fed smallholder farm households. Complexity in farming systems among farm households makes targeted policy formulation and technology intervention challenging, Therefore, this study employs a multivariate statistical approach using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) coupled with cluster analysis to explore heterogeneity in a 615-household from the Africa Rising Baseline Evaluation Survey belonging to 25 farming communities in Northern Ghana. Variables selected for the study were mostly socio-economic, production potential, production intensity, production orientation, crop diversity, food security, resource endowments, and production risk variables such as risk perception and response strategies. Risk profiling of households can avoid making some households worse off when a production risk intervention is implemented. The findings of the study also account for diversity in risk perception among the different farm types and their response strategies towards risk. Preliminary results from this study identified 4 farm types with adequate level of homogeneity suitable for policy implementations.

Selection of potential crops suited to a given geographic location could assist landowners/users and their advisors in assessing land use diversification options. Diversification of land use forhill country could provide landowners/users with one pathway to greater economic, environmental or social resilience to stressors such as climate change, market disruption, labour constraints or shifts in regulatory settings. For landowners/users and their network of rural professionals, accessibility to publicly available tools for selection of site-specific crop options and open-access information on crops provide a low-cost alternative to proprietary tools. An integrated three-step process was developed using the following three core elements: 1. An ecological assessment tool, 2. A multi-criteria decision-making tool, and 3. A value chain analysis framework. This integrated process was applied and tested at three locations in the Taihape region. In the first step, an ecological assessment tool (EcoCrop) provided an initial list of crops suitable to a given geographic site. In the second step, this list of crop options was reduced by using a multi-criteria decision-making tool that took into consideration local knowledge of the site as well as an understanding of the owners’ values and farm-business. In the third step, a value chain-based business case assessment framework using publicly available information was developed to further shorten the list of site-specific crop options. This work highlighted that using open-source software tools alongside local knowledge and open-access information in a structured process can enable a landowner/user and their network of rural professionals to identify a set of site-specific crop options for further assessment.

Social norms can impact adoption of environmental practices on farms. To date, the literature focuses mostly on peer-to-peer (farmer-to-farmer) nudging. However, there is also a strong narrative in public debate regarding the pressure farmers feel from urban consumers to increase their environmental performance on farm. Additionally, industry standards and government regulations are important tools for reducing agriculture’s environmental impact as a whole. Thus, there is value in better understanding farmers’ views on how these standards and regulations should change over time. As part of the 2021 Survey of Rural Decision Makers we implement a randomised survey instrument for commercial farmers in New Zealand. We baseline all farmers by asking them their view on their current environmental performance on farm, and how strong they perceive current industry environmental standards and government environmental regulations to be. We then randomly assign the farmers to either receive no nudge, a nudge priming them on the pro-environmental views of domestic consumers or a similar nudge regarding international consumers. Proceeding the nudge, we ask the farmer’s opinions on their farm, industry standards and government regulations again, but where they believe they should be 10 years in the future. Finally, we ask a series of questions on factors that important in farmer adoption of environmental practices, including regarding social norms, to test how they moderate farmers’ responses. We hypothesise that consumer-to-producer norms will be effective at shifting farmers views towards wanting higher environmental performance, standards and regulations. We will present our preliminary findings. They will help inform the extent to which farmers are responsive to public pressure, from both domestic and international consumers.

The New Zealand agricultural sector has become increasingly reliant upon migrants to meet its growing labour needs. For many years, the sector has been plagued by recruitment and retention problems, due in part to the growing global demand for New Zealand food products, the rapid expansion of various forms of agriculture (in particular, dairying and viticulture), and the reluctance of locals to engage in such work. As a result, New Zealand has been forced to outsource much of its agricultural labour to migrant workers. This paper investigates how integration has been conceptualised in the extant literature in relation to migrant populations. It asks, what conclusions can we draw from the existing literature about the process of integration for agricultural migrants generally, and what are the implications for migrants in New Zealand? This paper defines integration as the inclusion of migrants in the host country. Rather than seeing integration as a process of migrant assimilation, integration is regarded as a two-way process, where both the migrants and the host country must adapt and learn to live with one another. This paper reports on the results of a scoping review that applied a systematic protocol to the literature on agricultural migrant integration. The purpose of the scoping review was to identify the factors that have influenced the integration process for agricultural migrants, and to determine whether there are any general conclusions that can be drawn regarding the anticipated benefits of greater integration, both for the host country and the migrants themselves. Furthermore, it outlines common obstacles integration that are specific to the context of migrant workers in the dairy sector, focusing in particular on their legal status and the implications this has for their integration.

The global agrifood trade is highly reliant on developing countries, which affects value chain transformation and which often results in an imbalance of governance and value addition. In order to address this imbalance and increase the overall value creation, this paper develops and empirically tests a framework for agrifood value chain transformation in developing countries. The research employs a qualitative methodology to explore the proposed framework, which is based on a value chain maturity assessment of current practice and identification of a transformation route. Three primary value chain maturity levels in developing countries are established: traditional, managed, and best practice. Each level is determined using key indicators relating to governance (vertical-horizontal coordination, and information flow) and value addition (value orientation, safety, and quality). The application of this framework to Indonesia’s cashew nuts value chain reveals a mix of traditional and managed practices. The short-medium term transformation focuses on enabling farmers, as the decoupled actors, to advance from a traditional to a more managed chain. Further, the major wholesaler and exporter are identified as highly influential in driving the transformation process. The long-term transformation focuses on developing best practices regarding branded value addition and collaborative governance. This framework offers a novel value chain transformation approach based on a maturity assessment technique leading to the identification of transformation routes. This method takes a holistic transformation approach via the evaluation all the value chain actors’ governance and value-addition capabilities. Follow-up research is required to identify the enablers and barriers of globalised value chain transformation, especially with respect to sustainability.

We provide an overview of the research output of New Zealand researchers in the areas of agricultural, ecological, environmental, forestry and resource economics for the period 1950-2015. Publications data from research journals, research monographs, and theses are assembled to gauge the volume and trends in research output by New Zealand-based researchers. Building on research undertaken in prior periods, priority topics and research methods have evolved through time. The volume of research produced is impressive, an indication of the enduring importance of natural resources to the New Zealand economy and the interests of the New Zealand and global profession. Preliminary hypotheses are made as to the drivers of change within the profession and suggestions are made as to future research which will sustain the profession and have utility for wider society.

Abstract The welfare of farm animals is increasing, receiving more attention in many different countries, particularly in relation to intense confinement systems like raising egg-laying hens in battery cages. Some countries have embarked on phasing out battery cages in the egg industry in response to the increasing concerns about cruelty related to battery cages. Switzerland is one of the first countries to start phasing out battery cages, which began as early as the 1970s. In the UK, battery cages were phased out in 2012, California state in the US phased out battery cages in 2015. In New Zealand, the phase-out began in 2012 and is expected to be concluded in 2022. A literature review showed broad conclusions that switching from battery cages to other production methods increases production costs. Therefore, we conducted a survey in 2019 in the layer hen industry in New Zealand to examine how phasing out battery cages affects egg producers. The survey had 46 respondents from across the country. The survey was complemented by follow-up face-to-face interviews or telephone calls involving ten egg producers to increase the response rate. In addition, secondary data was collected from the industry to complement the data from the survey and interviews. The results from the survey revealed that more egg producers are switching to free-range production systems, and the cost of production is increasing exponentially. Preliminary regressions were conducted on selected variables. The regression shows that, as the number of hens is reducing, labour costs are increasing. The research findings will help farmers decide on the best production methods as they switch from battery cages. Keywords: Battery cages, animal welfare, egg-laying hens, egg producers, and survey.

Many of the current challenges for global agriculture and food security (such as: land-use change; climate change; and agricultural productivity) manifest over a long time horizon. Agricultural productivity in particular has become an increasingly important contributor to the total growth in food production, and discussions in the literature on the nature of returns on R&D investment in agriculture point to gradual returns over longer time periods than were previously considered (in excess of 30 years). Unfortunately many of the traditional economic tools used for assessing changes in food markets are focused on the medium- or short-term. This paper addresses this gap by examining real price impacts in global agriculture over longer time horizons using a partial-equilibrium modelling framework. Results from this trade modelling show the impacts of population growth, climate change, and R&D spending on real food prices, and thus the long term prospects for agriculture and food security. Keywords: Agriculture; Climate Change; Economic Modelling; Mathematical Programming; Partial-Equilibrium; Productivity; Total Factor Productivity.

Background: Farm-level activities impact on the environment and it is therefore important that farmers adopt environmentally friendly farming practices. Although a range of practices have been developed, biophysical, economic and behavioural heterogeneity of farms complicates implementation. Attempts to increase the uptake of environmentally friendly farming practices have been strongly reliant on the voluntary engagement of farmers, which is dependent on myriad factors. A major overlooked factor is how well-being might influence this uptake. Objective: The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between farmer well-being and environmental practice adoption. We hypothesise that higher well-being is associated with higher interest into future adoption of environmental friendly practices. Methods: The participants included in this study were drawn from the 2021 Survey of Rural Decision Makers. The survey questions were designed based on the WHO5, a widely used short scale survey for wellbeing. This was followed by questions about environmental practice adoption over the upcoming two years. This allowed identification of the relationship between environmental practice adoption and wellbeing. Results: The initial analysis used a series of linear regression analyses to explore the relationship between the future adoption of environmental practices and wellbeing. Initial results will be presented during the conference. Contribution: The contribution of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, it adds to literature by identifying the relationship of farmer well-being and adoption of environmentally friendly farming practices. Secondly, it increases understanding into the complexity of farmer decision-making, which will create more insight into the support needed, e.g. how future extension programmes can be designed to stimulate the uptake of environmentally friendly farming practices, while also supporting farmer well-being.

This paper discusses the challenges faced by landowners when they seek to diversify via land use change. The project involved interactions with 11 farmers within the Waikato who were investigating various options for land use change on their properties, and involved 3 workshops which worked through; motivation to change, due diligence process, options for land use change, access to information, and the challenges/barriers they came up against and how they dealt with these. The outcome was that diversification is multifaceted and complex, with participants noting that there is significant work involved in identifying options, obtaining information, and in gaining reassurance that the land use change they were contemplating was a sound proposition. Key barriers identified were; lack of skills (by the land owners), physical limitations/resources (particularly water for irrigation), production uncertainty, capital requirements, and lack of information. Time involvement in developing the diversification was also a majore limitation.

We estimate the impact of climate change on the profits of Aotearoa New Zealand livestock farms. Assuming firms maximise profits and prices remain constant, we apply methods from climate econometrics, using year-to-year variation in weather, to identify the present and future impacts of climate change. Using data from approximately 70,000 tax returns and fine-scale weather data, we show that an extra day of very dry soil causes historically a loss of approximately 1 day"s worth in annual operating profit. These results translate into relevant additional impacts of future climate change, with dairy farms projected to have 20% lower profits and sheep/beef farms projected to have 7% lower profits. Present direct effects of temperature are more uncertain but potentially indicate large reductions in future profits due to climate change for sheep/beef farms, which tend to have fewer shade trees and less available drinking water.

In Vietnam, poverty is prevalent and extreme severe among rural ethnic minorities (REM). This study employs binary and fractional logit models to investigate the determinants of poverty and the poverty intensity of the REM. Data are obtained by combining the 2012, 2014, and 2016 Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys. The results show that both household and commune-level factors affected the likelihood and intensity of poverty of the REM. Among the household-level factors, education, wage-paying employment, housing conditions, and domestic remittances reduce poverty and its intensity. Poverty incidence reduction also hinges on development programmes on credit and scholarships. The likelihood and shortfall of poverty declined for households residing in the Red River and Mekong Deltas, and in southeast Vietnam. However, language barriers, farm size and overseas remittances influenced the poverty intensity but not the likelihood of poverty. At the commune level, the availability of high schools, paved roads, and production units contributed to poverty reduction. Additionally, limited access to the district hospital or post-office widened the poverty gap, although with no statistically significant impact on the likelihood of poverty. Our results suggest that previous studies using only logit models have neglected several influences of poverty intensity, which the current research overcomes.

This study analyzes the impacts of off-farm work on the technical efficiency (TE) of wheat production, using data collected from 549 farming households in China. Unlike previous studies that only capture one dimension of off-farm work, in this study, we consider multiple dimensions, including off-farm work participation status of household heads, location choices (local or migrated off-farm work), and off-farm work intensity. We employ the stochastic frontier production model to estimate TE of wheat production and a two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI) approach to address the endogeneity of the off-farm work variables. We find that: (1) household heads’ off-farm work participation significantly increases TE of wheat production; (2) local (rather than migrated) off-farm work participation significantly increases TE; (3) off-farm work intensity significantly increases TE when household heads work off the farm for more than 9 months. Additional analysis reveals that off-farm work participation of household heads, rather than other members, plays a significant role in improving TE of wheat production.

Understanding the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the financial health of firms is key to evaluating COVID-19 related government policies and estimating the potential longer-term impacts of the pandemic. This study uses Goods and Services Tax (GST) data and other government datasets containing firm information to measure firm-level financial effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 in Aotearoa New Zealand. We compare the revenues and expenses of firms during the periods of restrictions to the counterfactual revenues and expenses that we would have expected to occur in the absence of the restrictions. We use regression analysis to estimate the average impact of restrictions on individual firms across Aotearoa, as well as by region and sector. Nationally, the introduction of Alert Level 4 in April 2020 was associated with a 60% reduction in revenue (48% when controlling for expenses), recovering to normal by September 2020, when the study period ends. Auckland, Otago, and Nelson were the most impacted regions, while the worst-hit sectors were ‘Accommodation and Food Services’, ‘Arts and Recreation Services’, ‘Retail Trade’, and ‘Construction’. Our findings provide a foundation for future analysis of COVID-19 or similar interventions on businesses in Aotearoa.

Environmental DNA has been recognised as a valuable tool for describing marine biodiversity and detecting the presence of targeted species. This points to a promising biosecurity surveillance tool. Different methods and materials are available at each step, from how the water samples are collected, to how they are filtered and subsequently analyzed. We compare the methods and available combinations, accounting for the costs of materials required, numbers of personnel involved, as well as the time and skill demanded by the tasks. Using experimental data the efficacy of each approach is estimated, for both the detection of a target species (Sabella spallanzanii), and providing a measure of biodiversity. Using both Linear optimisation and frontier analysis, we identify and discuss the efficiency of valid method combinations in terms of time and monetary costs for achieving the desired detection goals.

Farmer controlled cooperatives contribute significantly to the growth of the rice sector in the Philippines – the country’s most important agricultural sector both in production and in consumption. These cooperatives are promoted and supported by the government as a way of empowering farmers as buyers, value-adders, and sellers in the supply chain. Despite ongoing financial support from various government agencies, many of the country’s rice farmer cooperatives struggle to remain viable. Cooperative failure is often attributed to poor management, inadequate capital, and opportunistic side-selling by members. However, a growing body of literature views these problems as symptoms of much more fundamental flaws in the institutional arrangements that tend to characterise cooperatives in developing countries. This research describes the institutional arrangements and governance practices observed in case studies of four rice farmer cooperatives located in Davao del Norte province, and examines their impact on cooperative performance. Variables measuring financial aspects of their performance and the nature of their institutional arrangements and governance practices were analysed using hierarchical cluster analysis. Better performance was found in cooperatives that applied strategies to mitigate some of the free-rider problems created by conservative laws and norms governing cooperative societies in the Philippines. The findings offer a better understanding of fundamental problems confronting the country’s rice farmer cooperatives, and highlight policy and operational changes that may help to improve their performance.

The apple industry is one of the major drivers of the New Zealand horticulture economy. Shortages of skilled labour, particularly for harvesting are jeopardising the competitiveness and profitability of the apple industry. This has required the industry to consider alternative harvesting technologies, including robotic harvest technology as an answer to labour shortages. However, harvesting robots are not yet commercially available and no studies have assessed the economic feasibility of such technology so far. In addition to the cost of acquiring and maintaining the robots, adoption requires changes in tree architecture. A bio-economic model is developed to analyse the feasibility of robotic harvesting of apples under various varietal, an orchard type and size scenarios - using the concept of net present value (NPV). Results suggest that fruit value and yield are the key drivers for the adoption of harvesting robots. Robots are less profitable in a single- compared to a bi-varietal orchard planted with relatively low value and or yielding varieties as it is relatively more expensive to harvest a low-value variety relative to the net returns generated. Utilising harvesting robots reduced manual labour required by an average of 48% to 54% across varieties and orchard sizes compared to manual harvesting. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the NPV and internal rate of returns (IRR) were positively affected by increases in the harvesting speed and harvesting efficiency of the robot. Keywords: Robot, labour, bio-economic model, net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), New Zealand, apple orchard.

Public spending in Agriculture is important for innovation in agriculture, adoption of technology, and consequently productivity growth and poverty reduction. Subsequently, African countries through the Maputo and Malabo declarations, committed to increase public spending in agriculture by 10 percent. Even though most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have not honoured this commitment, public spending in agriculture has significantly increased over the years. The aforementioned notwithstanding, the region has experienced a decline in per capita food production. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of public spending on agriculture on food production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, we analyse the role played by institutional quality in the effectiveness of public agricultural spending for improving food production. Country-level panel data has been collected for 17 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, for a period of 36 years. Estimation results from a fixed effects model, establish a positive relationship between food production and public agricultural spending. The quadratic expression of the per capita public agricultural spending variable in the model was significant and positive, indicating diminishing marginal returns of public spending. While government effectiveness, a measure of institutional quality is statistically significant, it is negative, showing that, institutional quality alone does not drive production. The interaction term for institutional quality and food production is not statistically significant either, implying that institutional quality does not influence the effectiveness of public agricultural spending in increasing food production. This result show that public spending in agriculture is a pertinent measure in improving food production, but poverty may affect the role played by institutions in enhancing its effectiveness. Keywords: Agricultural public spending, food production, panel data, institutional quality, Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper investigates the local impacts of a foreign invested copper-gold mine in Mongolia. Employing a difference-in-differences model and household data from 2008 to 2016, I find that the multinational mining company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities had positive socioeconomic outcomes. A ten percent increase in CSR spending resulted in 2.2 and 2.3 percent increases in income and food consumption, respectively. Households increased their medical expenditures and reduced their education expenditures. While sickness did not increase, educational attainments improved in mining areas. The results indicate that CSR activities of extractive industries can generate positive welfare outcomes for residents, in addition to the traditional benefits.

Merchandise exports play a crucial role in generating income for Thailand. This study explores how spatial effects of macroeconomic variables affect Thailand’s exports of manufactured and agricultural products. The study employs spatial statistics and econometric modelling to identify the spatial pattern of Thailand’s exports. The results show that spatial dependence significantly determines Thailand’s exports to neighbouring countries. Further analysis reveals that the spatial Durbin model including time and importer fixed-effects is the preferred model to investigate spatial dependence in Thailand’s exports of both product categories. The spatial effects influencing the export of manufactured products mainly arise from the neighbouring countries’ income and globalisation, while for agricultural products they stem from the neighbouring countries’ factor endowments and real exchange rate. Our findings underscore the importance of spatial interaction between countries determining Thailand’s exports.

New Zealand is a small advanced economy (SAE) in the South Pacific Ocean. Policy advisors often compare New Zealand’s economic performance with those of other successful SAEs. These comparisons generally recognise that New Zealand is uniquely distant from the world’s largest and highest income markets. Nevertheless, it has become commonplace for policy advisors to say “Geography is not destiny: New Zealand can do better”. This paper draws on standard regional economic development analysis to conclude that geography matters for economic strategies. It introduces endogenous growth theory, which explains how the properties of knowledge mean that knowledge can sustain increasing returns to scale and hence productivity growth. The paper draws on that theory to introduce a mission-oriented innovation research programme that has contributed to creating and capturing greater value from New Zealand food and fibre exports.

Conducted biennially since 2013, the Survey of Rural Decision Makers is a leading source of information on New Zealand’s rural sector. The 2021 survey includes 5500 responses from farmers, foresters, growers, and lifestyle block owners across NZ. The questionnaire is updated each wave to reflect current policy interest. It closed on 15 August. This presentation will begin with an overview of the Survey of Rural Decision Makers. It will then provide preliminary analysis on a new topic for 2021 – well-being and stress. Specifically, well-being is measured via the World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5), a psychologically validated, generic self-assessment of specific feelings during the past 2 weeks, recorded on a 0-25 scale. WHO-5 is valid as a screening tool for depression and as an outcome measure in clinical trials (Topp et al. 2015). It has been also been used to measure well-being across a wide range of non-clinical contexts, including by StatsNZ and district health boards in NZ. The mean WHO-5 score among respondents is 16.3, similar to that for the NZ population as a whole. Scores below 13 are indicative of poor well-being and can be used as an indicator of mental health risk. More than 21% of respondents score below 13, indicating considerable strain on NZ’s rural community. While mean scores vary across industry, low scores are common across all of them. Respondents were also asked to indicate how often they feel stressed. Those who experience stress “sometimes”, “often”, or “always” were then asked to identify the primary sources. Nearly half of respondents indicated that they feel stressed, and among them, regulatory pressure was identified as the primary cause by a wide margin: Indeed, more than 80% of commercial respondents who “often” or “always” feel stressed cite regulatory pressure as a main cause. As with well-being, stress exhibits considerable variation within and across industries.

In recent times "big push" interventions have been implemented at the household level in a bid to deal with poverty in low income and lower-middle-income countries. Although some studies have evaluated the impact of these big push interventions on health and education outcomes, there has not been as much focus on their impact on production activities particularly asset accumulation and farm output of farming households. This study assesses the impact of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), a big push project, on farming households in Ghana. Using primary data from 202 farming households which participated in the MVP and 97 farming households from a non-MVP village farmers, We employ Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Augmented Inverse Probability Weighting (AIPW) to evaluate the differences among participants and non-participants in terms of economic and financial outcomes because of the MVP interventions for agricultural productivity. Our findings indicate that participating in the MVP resulted in Ghs 195 per adult equivalent increase in assets added from the MVP over 10 years. However, MVP participation also resulted in a GHS 83 per adult equivalent increase in farm expenditure, which is less than the . GHS 587 per adult equivalent increase in farm output. Our findings suggest that big push projects like the MVP can lead to substantial increases in asset accumulation and farm output and incomes, and provide insights for policymakers into the effectiveness of long-term "big push" interventions for achieving sustainable development goals, SDG1 and SDG2, in low income and lower-middle-income countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

We apply a switching regression estimation method to show that input traders in many ways play the substitute role of the public extension agents in a developing country. Owing to the inadequacy of the public extension services, farmers in developing countries often rely on the suggestions of agricultural input traders. As profit-making agents, these traders, in their turn, may have an incentive to exploit farmers by suggesting relatively expensive inputs. We collect primary information from 379 farmers in Bangladesh in two seasons. We then apply the Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) estimation procedure to predict farmer"s expenditure on pesticides, conditional on whether they rely on traders" advice. Our findings suggest that pesticides expenditures are not statistically different between the farmers that depend on traders" suggestions and those that do not. We conclude that by providing unbiased, helpful information to the client farmers, profit-maximising agricultural input traders render public extension workers" services, correcting possible market failures. Expanding the number of registered agricultural-input traders and integrating them in the public extension programs against misuse and overuse of agricultural inputs, such as pesticides by farmers, would be an effective market-based environmental policy in developing countries.

This presentation reports a review of existing scholarly and industry literature regarding the current trends in the global plant-based and bovine (mainstream dairy) milk industries. The rising global consumption of plant-based milk alternatives (dairy milk substitutes) in many parts of the world warrant an in-depth investigation. By synthesizing existing scholarly and industry literature, this paper highlights some of the factors driving the demand for plant-based milk alternatives, which may or may not be associated with the decline in consumption and sales of mainstream dairy milk in different parts of the world. Considering the importance of the dairy industry to the New Zealand economy, emerging global trends surrounding the substitution of mainstream dairy milk with other plant-based alternatives, which may affect the sales of dairy products, could be of concern to New Zealand. Based on this review, the article also attempts to explore possible collaborations between the New Zealand dairy and plant-based milk industries that could create an avenue for novel beverage products and help cushion any future effects of a decline in revenue from dairy milk.

In recent decades, New Zealand has introduced more environmental compliance processes in an effort to improve the environment and ecosystems within the farming communities. Such compliance processes often involve the construction of farm environment plans (FEP) and subsequently the audits of the plan implementations. However, anecdotal reports from farmers and rural professionals indicate that FEP auditing can be very time consuming, leading to high costs for farmers and less efficient use of time for rural professionals (auditors). This study used a qualitative approach to investigate whether using drones can benefit both farmers and auditors in the farm environmental compliance process, by saving time and providing evidence of compliance from a different, aerial perspective. The researchers observed eight audits on a range of Canterbury farms, including extensive high and hill country, dairy, and arable; followed by semi-structured, in-depth interviews with farmers and auditors separately. Results of this research show that drones can reduce the time taken to conduct an FEP audit. However, a strong positive professional relationship, including high levels of confidence and trust between farmer and auditor is necessary for achieving environmental outcomes through compliance. In other words, drones can only enhance environmental compliance provided the critical level of trust and confidence that farmers and auditors have for each other exist, indicating that the farmer-auditor relationship is fundamental for the FEP audit process. Additionally, there are certain technical conditions, such as weather and farm system types, that are more suited to use drones in FEP audits. These findings suggest that that a drone can be used to achieve a more time efficient and effective FEP audit process, under selected auditing conditions. This is provided that a strong professional relationship between farmer and auditor and ‘farmer buy-in’ exists.

In this study, we examine the relationship between women’s empowerment in livestock and household food and nutrition security. Employing data collected from 400 randomly selected households in two major livestock producing Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) in Nsanje District, Malawi, we compute the Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI) and estimate its impact on two indicators for food and nutrition security: Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS). Tobit regression results show that empowerment of women in the livestock sector, especially in decisions pertaining to agricultural production, nutrition, and income control, increases household dietary diversity. In addition, factors such as household income, household size, and main occupation of the household head also play a significant role in ensuring household dietary diversity. On the HFIAS scale, whereas the aggregate WELI measure is not statistically significant, women’s agency in agricultural production decisions and household income have positive impacts on household food security. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the impact of women’s empowerment in livestock on household food and nutrition security. The results highlight that nutrition-sensitive programmes should target women’s agency in livestock production and nutrition decisions for improved food and nutrition security in low income and lower middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Keywords: Food and nutrition security, Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI), Tobit model, Malawi.

Thailand has experienced severe air quality problems for the past 10 years. Complicating this situation, the Thai government allocates insufficient budgets for the management of air pollution. This paper aims to estimate the willingness to pay for air quality improvement in Thailand using a contingent valuation method to reveal the benefits that people will gain if air quality improves. The results show that the total benefits from air quality improvement would be 18.8 billion Baht in 2020. This finding can be used as a guideline to set the budget to deal with air pollution by the Thai government.

Farmers rely on intuitive or naturalistic decisions to guide many of their day-to-day activities. This can be very efficient and reduce the burden of decision-making. When addressing more difficult, complex and long-term decisions farmers rely on strategic processes. Farmers’ strategic decision-making can be supported through farm management plans that incorporate their goals and objectives and address possible areas of conflict within their farm systems and with their environment. An example is provided from the Nguturoa catchment in the Manawatu. It highlights that such plans can be used to integrate personal, family, and community expectations for farming businesses. Farm planning doesn’t have to replace intuitive decision-making, but when the decisions are large, or significant, a farm plan can ensure that farmers retain control and reduce the risks from making big changes. This is particularly useful if the changes have an impact on whole farm systems and involve complex interactions. Farm plans developed for the sole purpose of ensuring that the actions of farmers meet natural resource rules are almost always likely to result in degrees of non-compliance. In the same way that driving always at the speed limit can sometimes mean that a vehicles speed is not suitable for the driving conditions. Goal based farm plans can be outcome focussed rather than relying on external policies and rules and so farmers are motivated to implement them. Farm plans can be prescriptive describing the actions that farmers must follow, or they can be goal-based assisting farmers to achieve their desired outcomes. Farm plans that are goal-based do not need to be large documents, they can be easily and readily accessed to keep them personal, up-to-date, relevant and practical.

New Zealand relies heavily on the export of its primary products, including meat products. However, there has been a recent shift in international consumer preferences towards dietary choices containing less meat, as observed in the rise of the global market for alternative protein products. It is therefore useful for New Zealand"s agrifood exporters to understand international consumer preferences regarding meat reduction and alternative protein consumption in order to improve practices, enhance marketing and communication strategies, and boost their market position. This paper presents the results of consumer surveys of alternative protein consumers in the United Kingdom and California, United States of America in 2020 examining preferences regarding meat consumption and alternative protein products. Results show only moderate differences in dietary choice and meat consumption reduction, and a range of motivating and dissuading factors for alternative protein consumption in both markets. In addition, findings show that UK consumers are much more motivated to consume alternative protein products based on environmental and animal welfare concerns relative to their US counterparts.

An OECD survey (2015) revealed that New Zealand had the lowest use of economic instruments in managing environmental issues. The use of economic instruments could potentially improve the Resources Management Act (RMA) system’s outcomes. The application of the “polluter pay tax” concept in the Hinds/Hekeao Plains Area is an example of an economic instrument for managing freshwater resources within the RMA framework. The Hinds/Hekeao Plains Area Plan, Plan Change 2 to the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan developed through a collaborative planning process. The Ashburton Zone Committee (ZC) led this process, working with the communities and other stakeholders. ZC recommendations to the Canterbury Regional Council (CRC) included a range of freshwater outcomes to be achieved while facilitating 30,000 ha of additional irrigation. The ZC"s biggest challenge was finding a suitable solution package to address competing demands between irrigation and the poor state of freshwater quality. Generally, Nitrate-Nitrogen levels in groundwater were higher than 50% of NZ Maximum Acceptable Value. The proposed solution package included on-farm mitigations that were affordable for farmers. The ZC did not support costly advanced mitigations due to damaging economic effects on farmers. However, the ZC agreed to implement a catchment-wide Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) project using surface water with low Nitrate Nitrogen concentrations which could help achieve water quality outcomes with fewer economic consequences. The implementation of MAR trials over 16 sites during the last four years has shown significant progress. This project has come to a point where the funding for future MAR work requires to be sourced from the catchment instead of using general rates. Therefore, the CRC’s 2021-31 Long Term Plan included a Targeted Hinds Regional Environmental Infrastructure Rate, to implement the MAR project in the future.

Agriculture is entering a new wave of on-farm innovation, from fenceless farming to drone use. The organisations and people influencing on-farm adoption decisions have been researched using the general farming population or farmers who have control over the adoption process for their farm. However many current and emerging technologies will be utilised by future farmers. This study investigated the influence of different organisations and people on students’ use of technology on-farm, using data from a quantitative survey of tertiary level students. Four different types of technology of increasing complexity: applications, robots, smart sensors and swarm robotics were considered. Results indicate that employers and agricultural professionals would have a lot of influence on students’ use of technology on-farm, followed by a students’ partner, family and fellow staff. Technology sellers, levy organisations university staff and product processors had a moderate level of influence while on-line media had little influence. There were few significant relationships between influencers and students level of knowledge of a technology, other than a positive correlation between other family and technology sellers and students’ knowledge of applications. There were significant positive correlations between influencers (other family, employer, technology sellers’, agricultural professionals) and students’ views of the usefulness of applications and also between influencers (other family, employer, agricultural professionals, fellow staff, online) and students’ views of the usefulness of swarm robotics on-farm. The findings from this study indicate that employers, other family and agricultural professionals are key influences of students’ use of technology on farms in New Zealand, and also have a positive influence on students’ view of the usefulness of applications and swarm robotics.

This study analyzes the impacts of off-farm work on the technical efficiency (TE) of wheat production, using data collected from 549 farming households in China. Unlike previous studies that only capture one dimension of off-farm work, in this study, we consider multiple dimensions, including off-farm work participation status of household heads, location choices (local or migrated off-farm work), and off-farm work intensity. We employ the stochastic frontier production model to estimate TE of wheat production and a two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI) approach to address the endogeneity of the off-farm work variables. We find that: (1) household heads’ off-farm work participation significantly increases TE of wheat production; (2) local (rather than migrated) off-farm work participation significantly increases TE; (3) off-farm work intensity significantly increases TE when household heads work off the farm for more than 9 months. Additional analysis reveals that off-farm work participation of household heads, rather than other members, plays a significant role in improving TE of wheat production.

Biodegradable mulch films (BDMs) technology is regarded as an environmentally-friendly substitute to traditional plastic mulch films in agricultural production. Given the high price and it is new to the market, it is not easy for farmers to accept and adopt it. To understand farmers’ decisions on BDMs adoption, this paper employs a double hurdle model to explore the key factors affecting farmers’ willingness to adopt and willingness to pay for BDMs using the sample data from Yunnan province China. The results indicate the two-stage decision-making process, where some factors, such as income, crop type, and perception of the technology, only affect farmers’ willingness to adopt but not willingness to pay for BDMs. The role of technology-specific characteristics is more important than adopter-specific characteristics in the adoption of BDMs in China – training for understanding and using the technology has a positive effect on both the adoption and willingness to pay. Understanding the role of factors on different stages of farmers’ decision-making could assist policymakers in designing programs, specifically tackling difficulties confronting farmers at different stages of decision-making.

Many studies have been carried out to analyse dairy farms’ production performance but for the case of New Zealand, only a limited number has gone beyond the technical efficiency (TE) component of farm productivity. This current study aims at analysing the total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its decomposition, i.e. the technical change, technical efficiency change, scale effect and allocative efficiency change in New Zealand dairy farming. The data used in the study were unbalanced farm-level panel data for the period of 2005-06 to 2018-19 season, containing more than 2,400 farms and 11,000 observations from DairyNZ surveys. Farms were grouped into three regions including Northeast (Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Lower North Island), West (Taranaki, West Coast-Tasman) and South (Marlborough-Canterbury, Otago-Southland), and Stochastic Frontier Analysis was used to estimate the TFP change in each region. The results provide empirical evidence of different relative importance of the various components of the TFP growth in different regions, and that more regionally specific policies are needed to support the country’s dairy industry. Keywords: total factor productivity, stochastic frontier analysis, dairy farms, New Zealand