Premium
Pasture taxes and agricultural intensification in southern Mali
Author(s) -
Dalton Timothy J.,
Masters William A.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.29
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1574-0862
pISSN - 0169-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-0862.1998.tb00511.x
Subject(s) - pasture , grazing , livestock , economics , agriculture , agricultural economics , welfare , unit (ring theory) , capital (architecture) , natural resource economics , agricultural science , geography , environmental science , forestry , ecology , biology , market economy , mathematics education , mathematics , archaeology
This study integrates biophysical simulation data with a farm household model of intertemporal optimization, to investigate changing crop‐livestock management practices in the Sudano‐Guinean zone of Mali. Over a 15‐yr time horizon we find that free grazing on the commons remains more attractive to the representative household than adopting more labor‐and capital‐intensive confinement systems, but that a relatively low level of pasture tax (around US$3 per livestock unit per year) would be sufficient to induce intensification. Because confinement raises output, the net cost of the tax to the household is only about US$1 per unit per year. Imposing pasture taxes to induce intensification could raise community welfare, if the value of commons resources liberated by reduced grazing pressure exceeds that level.