IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v82y2019icp204-219.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cropping systems are homogenized by off-farm income – Empirical evidence from small-scale farming systems in dry forests of southern Ecuador

Author

Listed:
  • Ochoa. M, W. Santiago
  • Härtl, Fabian H.
  • Paul, Carola
  • Knoke, Thomas

Abstract

Diversified agricultural landscapes have been shown to provide a wide range of ecosystem services. It is often stated that the main motivation behind growing multiple crops within a farm is to buffer farm income against market and climate risks. However, household characteristics, particularly the amount of off-farm income may also influence farm diversity. While the drivers of diversifying farm income have been investigated extensively, the ecologically important level of land-use diversity on a farm has seldom been used as a dependent variable. Based on data from 163 households, this paper analyzes the impact of social, economic and demographic household characteristics on crop diversification for farms located around the Laipuna Reserve in the dry forests of southern Ecuador. Using a Heckman two-step regression model, we identified factors that influence a) the probability that a farm will be diversified (PD) and b) the degree of diversification at the farm level (LUD), quantified by the Shannon index. We found that PD is positively related to the percentage of household members who depend on family income but do not work (economic dependence ratio), as well as river access and available family labor force. PD is inversely related to access to financial support (i.e. social payments and credits) and off-farm income. LUD is positively related to the number of household members and the age of the head of the household, and correlates negatively with labor force, financial support and off-farm income.

Suggested Citation

  • Ochoa. M, W. Santiago & Härtl, Fabian H. & Paul, Carola & Knoke, Thomas, 2019. "Cropping systems are homogenized by off-farm income – Empirical evidence from small-scale farming systems in dry forests of southern Ecuador," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 204-219.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:82:y:2019:i:c:p:204-219
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.11.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837718303995
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.11.025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pablo C. Benítez & Timo Kuosmanen & Roland Olschewski & G. Cornelis van Kooten, 2006. "Conservation Payments under Risk: A Stochastic Dominance Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(1), pages 1-15.
    2. Utkur Djanibekov & Asia Khamzina, 2016. "Stochastic Economic Assessment of Afforestation on Marginal Land in Irrigated Farming System," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(1), pages 95-117, January.
    3. De Pinto, Alessandro & Robertson, Richard D. & Obiri, Beatrice Darko, 2013. "Adoption of climate change mitigation practices by risk-averse farmers in the Ashanti Region, Ghana," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 47-54.
    4. Barrett, Christopher B. & Reardon, Thomas, 2000. "Asset, Activity, And Income Diversification Among African Agriculturalists: Some Practical Issues," Working Papers 14734, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    5. Culas, Richard J. & Mahendrarajah, Mahen, 2005. "Causes of Diversification in Agriculture Over Time: Evidence From Norwegian Farming Sector," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24647, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Harry M. Markowitz, 2010. "Portfolio Theory: As I Still See It," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Bartolini, Fabio & Andreoli, Maria & Brunori, Gianluca, 2014. "Explaining determinants of the on-farm diversification: empirical evidence from Tuscany region," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 3(2), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Peter D. Little & Kevin Smith & Barbara A. Cellarius & D. Layne Coppock & Christopher Barrett, 2001. "Avoiding Disaster: Diversification and Risk Management among East African Herders," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 401-433, June.
    9. Fisher, Brendan & Turner, R. Kerry & Morling, Paul, 2009. "Defining and classifying ecosystem services for decision making," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 643-653, January.
    10. Harry Markowitz, 1952. "Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-91, March.
    11. Leander Raes & Nikolay Aguirre & Marijke D’Haese & Guido Huylenbroeck, 2014. "Analysis of the cost-effectiveness for ecosystem service provision and rural income generation: a comparison of three different programs in Southern Ecuador," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 471-498, June.
    12. Matthies, Brent D. & Kalliokoski, Tuomo & Ekholm, Tommi & Hoen, Hans Fredrik & Valsta, Lauri T., 2015. "Risk, reward, and payments for ecosystem services: A portfolio approach to ecosystem services and forestland investment," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 1-12.
    13. McAfee, R Preston & McMillan, John, 1995. "Organizational Diseconomies of Scale," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(3), pages 399-426, Fall.
    14. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    15. Knoke, Thomas & Steinbeis, Otto-Emmanuel & Bösch, Matthias & Román-Cuesta, Rosa María & Burkhardt, Thomas, 2011. "Cost-effective compensation to avoid carbon emissions from forest loss: An approach to consider price-quantity effects and risk-aversion," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 1139-1153, April.
    16. Luz Maria Castro & Fabian Härtl & Santiago Ochoa & Baltazar Calvas & Leonardo Izquierdo & Thomas Knoke, 2018. "Integrated bio-economic models as tools to support land-use decision making: a review of potential and limitations," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 183-211, July.
    17. Leimona, Beria & van Noordwijk, Meine & de Groot, Rudolf & Leemans, Rik, 2015. "Fairly efficient, efficiently fair: Lessons from designing and testing payment schemes for ecosystem services in Asia," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 16-28.
    18. Salvatore Di Falco & Charles Perrings, 2003. "Crop Genetic Diversity, Productivity and Stability of Agroecosystems. A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 50(2), pages 207-216, May.
    19. Smith, Davd Rider & Gordon, Ann & Meadows, Kate & Zwick, Karen, 2001. "Livelihood diversification in Uganda: patterns and determinants of change across two rural districts," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 421-435, August.
    20. Block, S. & Webb, P., 2001. "The dynamics of livelihood diversification in post-famine Ethiopia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 333-350, August.
    21. Di Falco, Salvatore & Perrings, Charles, 2005. "Crop biodiversity, risk management and the implications of agricultural assistance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(4), pages 459-466, December.
    22. Wei, Duan & Chao, He & Yali, Wen, 2016. "Role of income diversification in reducing forest reliance: Evidence from 1838 rural households in China," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 68-79.
    23. Robinson, Lance W. & Ericksen, Polly J. & Chesterman, Sabrina & Worden, Jeffrey S., 2015. "Sustainable intensification in drylands: What resilience and vulnerability can tell us," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 133-140.
    24. Abdulai, Awudu & CroleRees, Anna, 2001. "Determinants of income diversification amongst rural households in Southern Mali," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 437-452, August.
    25. Stefan Baumgärtner & Martin F. Quaas, 2010. "Managing increasing environmental risks through agrobiodiversity and agrienvironmental policies," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(5), pages 483-496, September.
    26. Niehof, Anke, 2004. "The significance of diversification for rural livelihood systems," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 321-338, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jarisch, Isabelle & Bödeker, Kai & Bingham, Logan Robert & Friedrich, Stefan & Kindu, Mengistie & Knoke, Thomas, 2022. "The influence of discounting ecosystem services in robust multi-objective optimization – An application to a forestry-avocado land-use portfolio," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Zhang, Yihao & Wu, Ya & Yan, Jianzhong & Peng, Ting, 2022. "How does rural labor migration affect crop diversification for adapting to climate change in the Hehuang Valley, Tibetan Plateau?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. Alarcón-Aguirre, Jaime S. & Aguirre-Mejía, Patricia M. & Palacios-Hinestroza, Hasbleidy & Sulbarán-Rangel, Belkis, 2020. "Evaluation of the forestry administrative system that regulates the activity of extracting wood from the Northern Ecuadorian amazon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    4. Mazhar Biland & Alam Zeb & Ayat Ullah & Harald Kaechele, 2021. "Why Do Households Depend on the Forest for Income? Analysis of Factors Influencing Households’ Decision-Making Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    5. Silvio Franco & Barbara Pancino & Angelo Martella & Tommaso De Gregorio, 2022. "Assessing the Presence of a Monoculture: From Definition to Quantification," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-10, September.
    6. Isael Fierros-González & Jorge Mora-Rivera, 2022. "Drivers of Livelihood Strategies: Evidence from Mexico’s Indigenous Rural Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-16, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Asfaw, Solomon & Scognamillo, Antonio & Caprera, Gloria Di & Sitko, Nicholas & Ignaciuk, Adriana, 2019. "Heterogeneous impact of livelihood diversification on household welfare: Cross-country evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 278-295.
    2. Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu, 2019. "The Political Economy Dynamics of Rural Household Income Diversification: A Review of the International Literature," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 273-290, December.
    3. Chuan Liao & Christopher Barrett & Karim-Aly Kassam, 2015. "Does Diversification Improve Livelihoods? Pastoral Households in Xinjiang, China," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(6), pages 1302-1330, November.
    4. Xuhuan Dai & Zhilong Wu & Yao Fan & Bo Li & Zihan Yang & Bo Nan & Xu Bi, 2019. "Characteristics and Determinants of Livelihood Diversification of Different Household Types in Far Northwestern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, December.
    5. Rössert, Sebastian & Gosling, Elizabeth & Gandorfer, Markus & Knoke, Thomas, 2022. "Woodchips or potato chips? How enhancing soil carbon and reducing chemical inputs influence the allocation of cropland," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    6. Knoke, Thomas & Steinbeis, Otto-Emmanuel & Bösch, Matthias & Román-Cuesta, Rosa María & Burkhardt, Thomas, 2011. "Cost-effective compensation to avoid carbon emissions from forest loss: An approach to consider price-quantity effects and risk-aversion," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 1139-1153, April.
    7. Matthies, Brent D. & Kalliokoski, Tuomo & Ekholm, Tommi & Hoen, Hans Fredrik & Valsta, Lauri T., 2015. "Risk, reward, and payments for ecosystem services: A portfolio approach to ecosystem services and forestland investment," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 1-12.
    8. Junior Davis & Dirk Bezemer, 2005. "Key emerging and conceptual issues in the development of the rural non-farm economy in developing countries and transition economies," Development and Comp Systems 0510017, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Tesfaye, Wondimagegn & Tirivayi, Nyasha, 2020. "Crop diversity, household welfare and consumption smoothing under risk: Evidence from rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Susanne Neuner & Thomas Knoke, 2017. "Economic consequences of altered survival of mixed or pure Norway spruce under a dryer and warmer climate," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 519-531, February.
    11. Knoke, Thomas & Kindu, Mengistie & Jarisch, Isabelle & Gosling, Elizabeth & Friedrich, Stefan & Bödeker, Kai & Paul, Carola, 2020. "How considering multiple criteria, uncertainty scenarios and biological interactions may influence the optimal silvicultural strategy for a mixed forest," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    12. repec:dgr:rugcds:cds-27 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Koirala, Krishna H. & Mishra, Ashok K. & Mehlhorn, Joey, 2014. "Using Copula to Test Dependency between Energy and Agricultural Commodities," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170364, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Luz Maria Castro & Baltazar Calvas & Thomas Knoke, 2015. "Ecuadorian Banana Farms Should Consider Organic Banana with Low Price Risks in Their Land-Use Portfolios," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    15. Elisa Gatto & Guido Signorino, 2014. "Crop-diversity and Cereal Production under the CAP Reform: Evidence from Italy," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(3), pages 35-50.
    16. Kilian Nasung Atuoye & Roger Antabe & Yujiro Sano & Isaac Luginaah & Jason Bayne, 2019. "Household Income Diversification and Food Insecurity in the Upper West Region of Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 899-920, July.
    17. Elisa Gatto & Guido Signorino, 2011. "Long-run relationship between crop-biodiversity and cereal production under the CAP reform: evidence from Italian regions," ERSA conference papers ersa11p964, European Regional Science Association.
    18. Ali Oumer & Andreas de Neergaard, 2011. "Understanding livelihood strategy-poverty links: empirical evidence from central highlands of Ethiopia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 547-564, June.
    19. Johny, Judit & Wichmann, Bruno & Swallow, Brent, 2014. "Role of Social Networks in Diversification o Income Sources in Rural India," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170357, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Dragicevic, Arnaud Z., 2019. "Rethinking the forestry in the Aquitaine massif through portfolio management," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    21. Lee, Heera & Bogner, Christina & Lee, Saem & Koellner, Thomas, 2016. "Crop selection under price and yield fluctuation: Analysis of agro-economic time series from South Korea," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1-11.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:82:y:2019:i:c:p:204-219. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.