Agricultural Innovation and Resource Management in Ghana

该项目需要在加纳进行深入的实地研究。这项研究的目标是对面临生态压力的地区的个人在土地资源管理方面面临的激励进行正式建模。研究区的耕作制度正在发生显着转变，从既定的玉米和木薯间作制度向集约蔬菜生产转变。在这一转变中的主要挑战是寻找在新种植制度下保持土壤肥力的技术。出现了三个核心经济问题。首先，保持生育力的创新方法的发展具有社会性学习的特点，即农民知道彼此的试验。第二，财产权(关键地归属于家庭中的个人)与采用保持土壤肥力的技术的激励措施之间存在密切关系。最后，有关保持土壤肥力的决策在很大程度上取决于市场的特点，特别是农民可利用的资本市场。实地考察工作由三个同步和互动的部分组成。一是多轮调查，收集计量经济学分析所需的基本数据。第一轮调查将使用已经制定的调查问卷。这些问卷将被修改或删除，并增加新的调查工具，作为似乎最合适的改变的理论框架。因此，第二个组成部分是继续理论工作，以回应收到的问卷和我与调查参与者之间非正式对话的观察。这些不太正式的互动是实地工作的第三个组成部分，其目的是对研究区域内与土地资源管理决策最相关的机构进行描述性描述。

This project entails an intensive program of field research in Ghana. The goal of the research is to formally model the incentives individuals face with respect to land resource management in an area faced with ecological stress. The farming system in the study area is undergoing a remarkable transformation from an established system of maize and cassava intercropping to intensive vegetable production. The primary challenge in this transition is finding techniques which will maintain soil fertility under the new cropping system. Three central economic issues arise. First, the development of innovative methods of fertility maintenance is characterized by social learning i.e. farmers know of each other's experiments. Second, there is a close relationship between property rights (vested critically in the individuals within the household) and incentives to apply techniques for soil fertility maintenance. Finally, decision-making with respect to soil fertility maintenance depends critically upon characteristics of the markets, and in particular the capital markets available to farmers. The fieldwork consists of three simultaneous and interactive components. One is a multi-round survey to collect the basic data required for econometric analysis. The first rounds of the survey will use questionnaires that have already developed. These questionnaires will be modified or dropped, and new survey instruments added, as the theoretical framework that seems most appropriate changes. A second component, therefore, is continued theoretical work in response to the incoming questionnaires and to observations from less formal conversations between myself and survey participants. These less formal interactions are the third component of the fieldwork, one that is aimed at developing a descriptive characterization of the institutions in the study area which are most relevant for decision making with respect to land resource management.