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European Review of Agricultural Economics Advance Access originally published online on August 18, 2006
European Review of Agricultural Economics 2006 33(3):289-314; doi:10.1093/eurrag/jbl016
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© Oxford University Press and Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics 2006; all rights reserved. For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Crop genetic diversity, farm productivity and the management of environmental risk in rainfed agriculture

Salvatore Di Falco

Kent Business School, Imperial College, Wye, Ashford, UK

Jean-Paul Chavas

University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

Corresponding author: Salvatore Di Falco, Applied Economics and Business Management—Kent Business School, Imperial College, Wye Campus TN25 5AH, Wye, Ashford, UK. E-mail: s.difalco{at}imperial.ac.uk

Received March 2005; Revision received June 2006. This paper presents an assessment of the linkages between crop genetic diversity, farm productivity and risk management. A flexible moment-based approach is used to analyse the impact of crop genetic diversity on the mean, variance and skewness of yield. Using farm-level data from Sicily (Italy), econometric evidence shows how crop genetic diversity can increase farm productivity and reduce risk exposure. The empirical results indicate that crop genetic diversity can reduce variance, but only if pesticide use is low. Furthermore, high diversity levels can reduce downside risk exposure (e.g. the risk of crop failure). This provides useful insights on the linkages between resilience and crop genetic diversity.

Keywords: diversity, farm productivity, production risk, wheat production


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Home page
 Land EconomicsHome page
S. Di Falco and J.-P. Chavas
Rainfall Shocks, Resilience, and the Effects of Crop Biodiversity on Agroecosystem Productivity
Land Economics, January 1, 2008; 84(1): 83 - 96.
[Abstract] [PDF]


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