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Biodiversity Conservation under an Imperfect Seed System: the Role of Community Seed Banking Scheme

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  • Bezabih, Mintewab

    (Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University)

Abstract

The study is an empirical investigation of agrobiodiversity conservation decisions of small farmers in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The primary objective is to measure the effectiveness of Community Seed Banking (CSB) in enhancing diversity while providing productivity incentives. The analytical framework draws from the synergetic nature of the possible improvment of the working of the seed system and enhanced diversity. We employ Amemiya’s GLS estimator to investigate simultaneity between participation and the level of diversity. Our results indicate a significant impact of participation in CSB on farm-level agrobiodiversity. However, farmer knowledge and experience associated with biodiversity conservation were not found to have the expected reinforcing impact on the degree of biodiversity. CSB participation also led to a moderate productivity increase consistent with the need for such incentives to enhance diversity at a farm level. Our assessment of the performance of the GLS estimator yielded a significant discrepancy between the GLS and bootstrap estimates. This led to the conclusion that bootstrapping asymptotic estimations might be required for appropriate inference even when sample sizes are reasonably large.

Suggested Citation

  • Bezabih, Mintewab, 2005. "Biodiversity Conservation under an Imperfect Seed System: the Role of Community Seed Banking Scheme," Working Papers in Economics 185, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0185
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/2737
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agrobiodiversity; Seed system; Amemiya’s GLS; Bootstrapping;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C35 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q29 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Other

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