IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v69y2010i8p1695-1702.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Seeds for livelihood: Crop biodiversity and food production in Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Di Falco, Salvatore
  • Bezabih, Mintewab
  • Yesuf, Mahmud

Abstract

This paper uses a farm level panel data from Ethiopia and a comprehensive empirical strategy to investigate the contribution of crop biodiversity on food production. We find that increasing the number of crop variety increases production. This result is stronger when rainfall level is lower. Moreover, the productivity analysis is complemented with the study of the determinants of farm level crop biodiversity. Empirical results suggest that rainfall, tenure security and household endowments tend to govern crop diversity decisions at the farm level.

Suggested Citation

  • Di Falco, Salvatore & Bezabih, Mintewab & Yesuf, Mahmud, 2010. "Seeds for livelihood: Crop biodiversity and food production in Ethiopia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1695-1702, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:69:y:2010:i:8:p:1695-1702
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921-8009(10)00120-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Nkonya, Ephraim M. & Pender, John L. & Jagger, Pamela & Sserunkuuma, Dick & Kaizzi, Crammer & Ssali, Henry, 2004. "Strategies for sustainable land management and poverty reduction in Uganda:," Research reports 133, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. World Bank, 2005. "Ethiopia : Well-Being and Poverty in Ethiopia, The Role of Agriculture and Agency," World Bank Publications - Reports 8707, The World Bank Group.
    3. Tilman, David & Polasky, Stephen & Lehman, Clarence, 2005. "Diversity, productivity and temporal stability in the economies of humans and nature," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 405-426, May.
    4. Melinda Smale & Jason Hartell & Paul W. Heisey & Ben Senauer, 1998. "The Contribution of Genetic Resources and Diversity to Wheat Production in the Punjab of Pakistan," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(3), pages 482-493.
    5. Salvatore Di Falco & Jean‐Paul Chavas & Melinda Smale, 2007. "Farmer management of production risk on degraded lands: the role of wheat variety diversity in the Tigray region, Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 36(2), pages 147-156, March.
    6. 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.
    7. Stefan Baumgärtner & Martin F. Quaas, 2007. "Agro-biodiversity as natural insurance and the development of financial insurance markets," Working Paper Series in Economics 61, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    8. Mintewab Bezabih, 2008. "Agrobiodiversity conservation under an imperfect seed system:the role of Community Seed Banking schemes," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 77-87, January.
    9. Van Dusen, M. Eric & Taylor, J. Edward, 2005. "Missing markets and crop diversity: evidence from Mexico," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 513-531, August.
    10. Michel Loreau & Andy Hector, 2001. "Partitioning selection and complementarity in biodiversity experiments," Nature, Nature, vol. 412(6842), pages 72-76, July.
    11. Salvatore Di Falco & Jean-Paul Chavas, 2008. "Rainfall Shocks, Resilience, and the Effects of Crop Biodiversity on Agroecosystem Productivity," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(1), pages 83-96.
    12. Owen L. Petchey & P. Timon McPhearson & Timothy M. Casey & Peter J. Morin, 1999. "Environmental warming alters food-web structure and ecosystem function," Nature, Nature, vol. 402(6757), pages 69-72, November.
    13. Mundlak, Yair, 1978. "On the Pooling of Time Series and Cross Section Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 69-85, January.
    14. Benin, S. & Smale, M. & Pender, J. & Gebremedhin, B. & Ehui, S., 2004. "The economic determinants of cereal crop diversity on farms in the Ethiopian highlands," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 197-208, December.
    15. Smale, M. & Meng, E. & Brennan, J. P. & Hu, Ruifa, 2003. "Determinants of spatial diversity in modern wheat: examples from Australia and China," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 13-26, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Elisa Gatto & Alba Marino & Guido Signorino, 2013. "Biodiversity and risk management in agriculture: what do we learn from CAP reforms? A farm-level analysis," ERSA conference papers ersa13p805, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Mintewab Bezabih & Mare Sarr, 2012. "Risk Preferences and Environmental Uncertainty: Implications for Crop Diversification Decisions in Ethiopia," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 53(4), pages 483-505, December.
    3. Tesfaye, Wondimagegn & Tirivayi, Nyasha, 2020. "Crop diversity, household welfare and consumption smoothing under risk: Evidence from rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    4. Charles Palmer & Salvatore Di Falco, 2012. "Biodiversity, poverty, and development," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 28(1), pages 48-68, Spring.
    5. 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.
    6. Vijesh Krishna & Matin Qaim & David Zilberman, 2016. "Transgenic crops, production risk and agrobiodiversity," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 43(1), pages 137-164.
    7. Matsushita, Kyohei & Yamane, Fumihiro & Asano, Kota, 2016. "Linkage between crop diversity and agro-ecosystem resilience: Nonmonotonic agricultural response under alternate regimes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 23-31.
    8. Bozzola, Martina & Smale, Melinda, 2020. "The welfare effects of crop biodiversity as an adaptation to climate shocks in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    9. Prosper F. Bangwayo‐Skeete & Mintewab Bezabih & Precious Zikhali, 2012. "Crop biodiversity, productivity and production risk: Panel data micro‐evidence from Ethiopia," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(4), pages 263-273, November.
    10. 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.
    11. Donfouet, Hermann Pythagore Pierre & Barczak, Aleksandra & Détang-Dessendre, Cécile & Maigné, Elise, 2017. "Crop Production and Crop Diversity in France: A Spatial Analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 29-39.
    12. Jean-Paul Chavas, 2009. "On the Productive Value of Biodiversity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 42(1), pages 109-131, January.
    13. Asrat, Sinafikeh & Yesuf, Mahmud & Carlsson, Fredrik & Wale, Edilegnaw, 2010. "Farmers' preferences for crop variety traits: Lessons for on-farm conservation and technology adoption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 2394-2401, October.
    14. Charlotte Fabri & Sam Vermeulen & Steven Van Passel & Sergei Schaub, 2024. "Crop diversification and the effect of weather shocks on Italian farmers' income and income risk," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 955-980, September.
    15. Pascual, Unai & Narloch, Ulf & Nordhagen, Stella & Drucker, Adam G., 2011. "The economics of agrobiodiversity conservation for food security under climate change," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(01), pages 1-30, November.
    16. Kwikiriza, Norman & Katungi, Enid & Horna, Daniela, 2011. "Estimating the role of spatial varietal diversity on crop productivity within an abatement framework: The case of banana in Uganda," IFPRI discussion papers 01051, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Russell, Noel P. & Omer, Amani A. & Pascual, Unai, 2009. "Technology, preferences and the sustainable intensification of agricultural production," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51743, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Krishna, Vijesh V. & Zilberman, David & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "GM Technology Adoption, Production Risk and On-farm Varietal Diversity," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49173, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Finger, Robert & Buchmann, Nina, 2014. "An ecological economic assessment of risk reducing effects of species diversity in grassland production," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182681, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Sibbir Ahmad & Melinda Smale & Veronique Theriault & Eugenie Maiga, 2023. "Input subsidies and crop diversity on family farms in Burkina Faso," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 237-254, February.

    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:ecolec:v:69:y:2010:i:8:p:1695-1702. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    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.