Strategic agricultural development policy and investment studies make growing use of geo-referenced data and spatial methods. Spatial perspectives provide intuitive entry points for examining the performance of agriculture, a physically-extensive, economic undertaking that owes much to spatial patterns of natural and human-endowed assets. The research described in this thesis responds to a conjuncture of three issues: a growing demand for development policy and investment support that recognizes and accounts for the heterogeneity of development conditions in a national and regional (cross-country) context; the increasing supply and utility of spatial information, including the geo-coding of community and household survey data, that open up the possibility of new, spatially-enriched approaches to strategic development analysis; and the need to provide improved theoretical frameworks, conceptual approaches, and empirical validation, especially those driven by an economics perspective, such that the growing demand meets the increasing supply in credible and effective ways. Specifically, the research tests the notion that regional, geo-referenced data on agricultural potential, population density, and market access, used alone, can provide significant explanatory power in accounting for observed variability in key economic characteristics of crop-based livelihoods, such as input use, productivity, market participation and output value. In setting out to achieve that goal I construct a theoretical framework that formally integrates the land quality, population pressure and market distance principles of Ricardo, Boserup and von Thiinen respectively. I also examine how the empirical explanatory variables perform in representing the conceptual variables of the theory. I develop and apply some innovative empirical variables - not always with success, and provide illustrations of spatial predictions of crop strategies based on application of the theory-based model, as well of geographically-explicit regression. In all these analyses I hold the regional location attribute (GIS) explanatory data to account against household and community data from the 1999-2000 Uganda National Household Survey.

This thesis attempts to demonstrate that the transition towards agrarian capitalism, whereupon small peasant farmers are relegated to the dustbin of history either through social differentiation (capitalism from below) or widespread dispossession (capitalism from above), cannot be considered as a process that occurs in a manner as determined as is commonly supposed. To exemplify this malaise in the theoretical literature concerning the 'agrarian question', the various historical and contemporary relations of production surrounding only one crop have been chosen as the object of focus. The coca leaf is the perfect exemplar of the redundancy of economic determinism. During the early colonial period there was no crop cultivated in the whole of South America that g~nerated anywhere near the same levels of profit as the coca leaf, and for which indigenous people in the mountains would risk their lives by descending to the disease infested lower altitudes on the eastern Andes to join the labour force engaged in its cultivation on large estates. Furthermore, to an almost unrecognised degree, indigenous communities would also rapidly expand their own independent levels of production so as to participate in the colonial coca 'boom'. Additionally, miners in Potosi and elsewhere eagerly parted with their share of ore in exchange for coca. As such, no other crop acted as a better medium for the introduction of indigenous peoples in South America to a monetary economy and the initial stages towards agrarian capitalism. This 'boom' came to an end in the seventeenth century on account of the abhorrent levels of depopulation, overproduction and the depletion of the mines. The second coca 'boom' occurred in the late nineteenth century on account of the industrially developed world's sudden fascination for the medicinal properties of cocaine hydrochloride following its isolation from the leaf in the mid nineteenth century. In a country that was suffering from the ravages of a very recently lost war with Chile, many people placed their hopes on cocaine to act as a means by which Peru could begin to produce and export a widely sought value-added product and thereby modernise the economy. Again, independent peasant farmers rapidly flocked to areas where markets for coca were emerging but unfortunately for them, and those engaged in the later stages of cocaine hydrochloride's production process, this second coca boom was short lived. Nevertheless, where coca was being cultivated for the traditional market on the feudal haciendas in La Convenci6n (Cuzco), employing a unique hybridization of feudal labour relations, coca came to form the predominant economic basis upon which a rural petty bourgeois emerged that were no longer willing to have their economic interests constrained by these feudal obligations. After the serfs of La Convenci6n had successfully revolted, it was less than a decade before agrarian reforms were implemented throughout the country, thereby bringing an end to feudalism. As such, coca did eventually serve as the basis upon which the Peruvian economy modernised, although not in the manner that had been originally envisaged by the coastal elites. Thus, just when it appeared that Peru was following some strange variant of eastern and western European 'paths' to agrarian capitalism, coca played a disproportionately important role in confounding the classical preconceptions of political economists. Following the expropriation of the haciendas of La Convenci6n, and their unequal distribution among the erstwhile serfs, the stage appeared to be set for the initiation of the 'capitalism from below' type of transition towards agrarian capitalism. However, rather than a minority of wealthy farmers emerging at the expense of a gradually proletarianized landless mass, the coca producers in La Convenci6n reverted to the utilisation of precapitalistic reciprocal labour relations that is only supported by waged labour when no other option is available. Meanwhile, for producers of coca operating within the illegal economy, not only has the cultivation of coca emerged as something of a last bastion of peasant farming but the full development of the 'capitalism from below' path is circumscribed by the inability of farmers to reinvest profits to expand production beyond a certain level. Therefore again, the cultivation of coca serves as an anomaly among classical conceptions of transitions towards agrarian capitalism.

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Rapid globalization from 1860-1930 had an enormous impact on world agriculture but one under-explored feature is the increasing role of capital intensive agriculture over the period. The thesis explores the first survey of almost 7,000 self-moving traction engines designed for steam ploughing, called ploughing engines produced in England by the major manufacturers. Manufacturers' data (production date, engine type, horsepower, key variants and the location of owners during the study period) was compiled in Access and analysed. The data show most new domestic sales occurred by 1879, mainly to individuals, but a brisk second-hand market encouraged the development of steam contracting companies. Orders from foreign governments accelerated overseas sales after the 1880s. GIS (geographic information systems) software was used to test the hypothesis that the emerging railway network facilitated early UK ploughing engine distribution and the thesis shows it had an important impact on ploughing engine diffusion, at least in the early years of the industry. The hypothesis that soil type influenced the distribution of ploughing engines was also tested using the GIS mapping tool, by superimposing ploughing engine locations onto digitised soil maps of England and Wales, but these results are inconclusive. To assess the relative importance of the variables shaping ploughing engine diffusion, sales data is explained by regression analysis of price changes for arable products compared with the price of coal. Tillage of wheat and proximity to urban centres together explain more than half the variation across counties in 1879. The previous scholarly consensus was that the effect of the steam plough on agriculture was minimal so the topic has received little attention in the literature. Until now, it has not been possible to build up an accurate sales picture because of lack of evidence, but the thesis suggests that steam ploughing engines were a bigger factor than previously thought in agricultural development in certain key parts of South Eastern England and the Midlands. The thesis also shows that there was a financial benefit from the displacement of horses by steam; engines could plough heavy land and bring new land into production.

Farm mechanisation in Chilalo has in the past caused severe labour displacement, but the 1975 land reform has altered the institutional basis of farming and provides an opportune moment for the evaluation of mechanisation policy. The present study uses, inter alia, data from interviews with Chilalo smallholders in order to arrive at an understanding of any problems arising from seasonality in employment, since this is an essential prerequisite for relevant policy formulation. Examination of the availability of oxen and family labour in relation to the requirements imposed by typical crop mixes shows that during even a single cropping season periods of excess labour and/or oxen availability alternate with periods of sometimes acute shortage. Traditional methods do exist for easing 'bottleneck' periods but the introduction of fertilizer and improved seed has upset such arrangements. In some cases, particularly during harvest, post-harvest operations and weeding, requirements have increased quite sharply. Smallholders have reacted by increased use of purchased inputs such as labour, herbicides and equipment but the land reform proclamation has introduced new problems by prohibiting the hiring of labour by 'able bodied' farmers. The search for appropriate methods of relieving bottlenecks has thus assumed greater urgency. Evidence from various sources concerning crop yields indicates the magnitude of the losses which can result from both energy shortages and inefficient traditional techniques. Losses are particularly high in harvesting and threshing. An evaluation, conducted in the light of the above findings, of the 'intermediate' technology presently available in Chilalo suggests new areas in which engineering research on improved implements might fruitfully be concentrated. Meanwhile a comparison of costs of available alternative technologies for various farm operations permits the identification of a 'least cost' mix of traditional, 'intermediate' and modern technologies. Finally it is possible to suggest a number of ways in which 'surplus' labour might usefully be employed in the slack season(s).

In recent years Ethiopia has experienced recurring droughts and famines of serious magnitude. This study examines some of the diverse factors that impact household food security in Ethiopia including the drought-related factors. The study also analyses the implications of such impacts on agricultural development policy. The case study material comes from Birbirsa na Dogoma in Ambo District in the Oromiya Region in Ethiopia. The study area was purposively selected but it can be shown to be representative according to a number of criteria. Many of Ethiopia's staple crops are grown in the district and the farming system and the farmers are typical of those in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The study was undertaken at the level of the district to determine the extent that officials of the relevant institutions agree with the farmers on the perceptions of the main causes of household food insecurity. The underlying idea tested is that farmers' perceived needs should be taken into account in national policy. Fieldwork focused closely on the extent to which farmers' perceptions were taken into account in achieving household food security. A very comprehensive survey was also conducted of the perceptions and approaches of officials at the district and village levels. The study shows that the rural communities of Ethiopia are trapped in low input and low output farming systems and have no capacity to mobilize investment inputs to increase productivity in terms of returns to land and water or to other inputs. Like many political economies south of the Sahara the majority of the Ethiopian population gain livelihoods in rural areas from rain-fed farming with few options for off-farm employment. The mobilization of farm and village level surpluses is impaired, and in the case of major tracts of Ethiopia such mobilization is prevented, by pernicious annual climatic and economic cycles, which prevent the accumulation of surpluses to meet the recurring environmental stress of periods of drought.

Up until the mid 1980s it was consistently assumed that an increase in a policy price would lead to an equivalent and sustained increase in the corresponding market price. This has clearly not been the case for the UK cereals market. The principal concern of this research is therefore to identify the exact forces that determine market prices given imperfect policy price transmission. The UK cereals market exhibits unique characteristics which suggests particular directions for the analysis. The discontinuity of cereal production in combination with their non perishable nature implies that the supply of storage theory along with its intertemporal allocation aspects are of considerable importance in determining market prices. As a direct consequence of the supply of storage theory, one is compelled to consider the role that price expectations play in the decision of farmers to supply cereals onto the market. To fully incorporate these factors a structural model of monthly periodicity has been developed. A further advantage of this approach is that the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy's intervention system may be explicitly modelled. The marketing year is treated as finite implying that supply is given, initially by production and subsequently by carry in stocks. Farmers, food processors, international traders and the intervention agencies all have a demand for current consumption. Intervention demand is included in the modelling work as a function of the relationship between the spot price and the intervention price. Intervention demand is also subject to two conditions; firstly intervention must be active and secondly the market price must be below the intervention price. For the feed wheat and feed barley markets a separate set of ninety six simultaneous equations have been established to explain the seasonal interaction of prices and quantities within these dynamic markets. Since farmers are assumed to act rationally, price expectations are solved within a rational expectations hypothesis.

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No description available.

No description available.