Agricultural Productivity and Deforestation

40 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2020

See all articles by Ryan Abman

Ryan Abman

San Diego State University

Teevrat Garg

School of Global Policy and Strategy, UCSD

Yao Pan

Aalto University - Department of Economics

Saurabh Singhal

United Nations - World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER)

Date Written: September 14, 2020

Abstract

Improving agricultural productivity is vital to anti-poverty and food security goals but can have ecological ramifications. Increasing the relative value of agricultural land may spur deforestation, but factor market constraints paired with improvements in existing land productivity may reduce the demand for clearing forests for agriculture. Leveraging the discontinuity in eligibility for a large agricultural training program, we find that the program reduced deforestation by 14%. The program increased adoption of promoted practices such as manure-use and crop rotation driving higher productivity but no increase in cultivated area. Median estimates suggest that carbon savings alone cover 15% of program costs.

Keywords: borlaug's hypothesis, agriculture, deforestation

JEL Classification: Q23, O13

Suggested Citation

Abman, Ryan and Garg, Teevrat and Pan, Yao and Singhal, Saurabh, Agricultural Productivity and Deforestation (September 14, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3692682 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3692682

Ryan Abman

San Diego State University ( email )

5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182
United States

Teevrat Garg (Contact Author)

School of Global Policy and Strategy, UCSD ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0519
United States

Yao Pan

Aalto University - Department of Economics ( email )

PO Box 1210
FI-00101 Helsinki
Finland

Saurabh Singhal

United Nations - World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER) ( email )

Katajanokanlaituri 6B
Helsinki, FIN-00160
Finland

HOME PAGE: http://www.wider.unu.edu/aboutus/people/resident-researchers/en_GB/Saurabh-Singhal/

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