Using hedonic analysis of residential properties in the upstate of South Carolina, location in the urban/rural fringe is estimated to have a significant positive value relative to either rural or urban locations. The differential impact of private and public undeveloped land on housing price is estimated empirically. The results indicate that homes in the rural fringe, urban-rural fringe and urban fringe are worth about 11, 8 and 6 percent more respectively than homes in urban areas.

This paper provides a theoretical framework to analyse land quality and labour allocation decisions by poor rural households in the context of increased population densities in slash-and-burn (shifting cultivation) agro-ecosystems. A bio-economic optimal control model is presented and its results calibrated with data from two farming communities from Yucatan (Mexico). The ecological-economic model restates the validity of the neo-Malthusian 'Population Pressure Hypothesis' (PPH) as a major factor of land degradation.

The environmental impact of industrial agriculture is under close scrutiny, by Governments, concerned citizens, and farmers. This paper discusses the need to incorporate environmental factors in measures of farm performance, as part of the continuous review of long term sustainability. The concept of natural capital allows natural resources to be considered in similar ways to other assets of the farm business.

The aim of the study presented in this article is to identify existing conflicts of land use and ownership in the 'Landwirtschaftszone', together with the problems arising therefore. This paper discusses determinants of farmland prices in Canton Zurich. A hedonic price model was used to estimate 1) the implicit value of an agricultural use of a land parcel, 2) the implicit value of the option to convert a farm parcel to a non-farm use and 3) the implicit consumptive value (value of owning land) of agricultural land.

This paper advances an empirical model assessing how, over both time and space, changes in land-use respond to changing economic and ecological conditions. Focusing on Central North Carolina, a region that has undergone extensive changes in forest cover and agricultural lands over the past two decades, landscape dynamics are modeled by exploiting a spatial database that links several satellite images spanning the years 1975-1999 to a suite of socioeconomic, institutional and GIS-created explanatory variables.

This paper examines the impact of having a preservation program on the rate of farmland loss for a 50 year period (1949-1997) in six Mid-Atlantic States: Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Because farmland loss is affected by changing agricultural profitability, demand for land for non-agricultural purposes, and farmers' alternative employment opportunities, we include variables to control for these factors as well.

The world-wide trend of a growing organic sector is also detectable in South Africa. From 2000 to 2002 the number of farmers who had converted to organic farming in South Africa increased sixfold, and although organic farming still accounts only for a minute percentage of the total number agricultural producers, the increasing importance of this sector is apparent. Based on survey results, information was gathered about organic farmers in South Africa concerning socio-demographic aspects, farming operations, motivations and problems of the conversion process.

This paper develops a model to examine the impacts of uncertainty about crop production and irreversibility of program participation on determining land rental payments and least-cost land retirement targeting in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Results show that under risk aversion only, the marginal cost of abatement and the average land rental payment are less than those under risk neutrality. However, under uncertainty and irreversibility, the marginal cost and the average land rental payment are considerably higher than those under risk neutrality or risk aversion only.