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Thesis (M.S.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisor: John C. Bernard, Dept. of Food & Resource Economics. Includes bibliographical references.

The main objective of this dissertation was to assess whether cultivated area in Iraq, as estimated using satellite remote sensing, changed during and as a result of war and sanctions. The first study used MODIS NDVI data during OIF and the end of UN sanctions to study changes in cultivated area for Iraq as a whole and to identify spatial patterns. The results revealed significant changes in cultivated area for Iraq as a whole, with cultivated area decreasing over 35,000 ha per year. Regionally, there was little change in cultivated area in northern governorates in the Kurdish Autonomous Region, significant decreases in governorates in central Iraq, and initial increases in governorates containing the southern marshlands followed by decreases related to drought. The second study used Landsat images converted to NDVI to study changes in cultivated area in central Iraq for four periods of conflict, and relates those changes to effects on food security. The results indicated that cultivated area changed little between the Iran-Iraq War (1980 to 1988) and the Gulf War (1990 to 1991), increased by 20 percent (from 1.72 to 2.04 Mha) during the period of United Nations sanctions (1990 to 2003), and dropped to below pre-sanction levels (1.40 Mha) during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003 to 2011). Finally, the third study builds on findings from the second study to address patterns of agricultural land abandonment in central Iraq. The largest areas of abandoned land were those cultivated during the Late Sanctions period (2000-2003). Further, the results indicate that proximity to surface water and roads are strong indicators of continuity of agricultural land use, and that abandoned lands are positioned in peripheral regions more distant from surface water and the transportation grid. We also found that surface soil salinity is increasing in the cultivated lands of central Iraq, regardless of whether it was cultivated during every period or during only a single period. The overall findings indicate that the UN sanctions had the greatest impact on cultivated area, which increased during sanctions, when food imports all but ceased, and then decreased after sanctions ended and food imports resumed. / Ph. D.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Small islands developing states (SIDS) sustainability is a United Nations’ aim. Their markets are often influenced by external policies imposed by larger economies. Could an anti-competitive measure affect the food vulnerability of a SIDS? This research examines the effects of an external non-tariff measure (NTM) on Puerto Rico’s (PR) agribusinesses. It explores the effects of a maritime cabotage regulation (US Jones Act) on the affordability and accessibility of produce and grains. PR imports 100% of their needs of grain and over 85% of fresh produce. PR’s food imports are generally from the US and the trade service is restricted to the use of the US maritime transportation. As a result, the supply chain of these two sectors although different, are limited by the US Act that may impact the cost of food, its availability, firms’ efficiency and other structures of production. Using a mixed convergent design, PR’s agrifood supply chains were explored and analysed in relation to the maritime cabotage regulation. Oligopolistic structures and collusion between maritime transporters and local agribusinesses importers limit the access to data, but other internal factors also have a role. Fieldwork shows that while the cabotage regulation itself is a constraint, interaction with others NTM and the current political framework between US and PR are relevant. Factors such as lack of efficiency, poor innovation and a self-limitation of the agribusinesses firms were found. The novelty of this research is the use of mixed methods to evaluate the effects of cabotage on the agrifood supply chain.

Small islands developing states (SIDS) sustainability is a United Nations’ aim. Their markets are often influenced by external policies imposed by larger economies. Could an anti-competitive measure affect the food vulnerability of a SIDS? This research examines the effects of an external non-tariff measure (NTM) on Puerto Rico’s (PR) agribusinesses. It explores the effects of a maritime cabotage regulation (US Jones Act) on the affordability and accessibility of produce and grains. PR imports 100% of their needs of grain and over 85% of fresh produce. PR’s food imports are generally from the US and the trade service is restricted to the use of the US maritime transportation. As a result, the supply chain of these two sectors although different, are limited by the US Act that may impact the cost of food, its availability, firms’ efficiency and other structures of production. Using a mixed convergent design, PR’s agrifood supply chains were explored and analysed in relation to the maritime cabotage regulation. Oligopolistic structures and collusion between maritime transporters and local agribusinesses importers limit the access to data, but other internal factors also have a role. Fieldwork shows that while the cabotage regulation itself is a constraint, interaction with others NTM and the current political framework between US and PR are relevant. Factors such as lack of efficiency, poor innovation and a self-limitation of the agribusinesses firms were found. The novelty of this research is the use of mixed methods to evaluate the effects of cabotage on the agrifood supply chain.

To respond to the high imported food prices in their domestic markets, net food importing countries in the Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) zone[1] are adjusting their import tariffs and homologate domestic prices of imported commodities such as rice, wheat, maize, and sugar. This research uses a multivariate specification of error correction model (VECM) of estimation to investigate the link between food imports, world price index of rice, wheat, maize and sugar, real effective exchange rates, domestic food production, GDP, and trade openness in the short and long run. The data are on each homogenous commodity from 1969 to 2012. This research finds a long-run relationship between world price index, domestic production, GDP, real effective exchange rates and trade openness. Under fixed exchange rates regime, GDP, domestic food production, world price index of food, and trade openness are the determinants of food imported in the CFA zones. Policy options focusing on long-term investment in domestic food production of rice, wheat, maize and sugar, and trade openness are the fundamental factors to curtail the increasing food import volume/bill under fixed exchange rate regime in the CFA zones. [1] The CFA zone in Sub-Saharan Africa is the WAEMU and CEMAC Countries, which are listed and represented in figure 1.