The conventional 'Neolithic package' comprised animals and plants originally domesticated in the Near East. As farming spread on a generally northwest trajectory across Europe, early pastoralists would have been faced with the challenge of making farming viable in regions in which the organisms were poorly adapted to providing optimal yields or even surviving. Hence, it has long been debated wh...

The appearance of farming, from its inception in the Near East around 12 000 years ago, finally reached the northwestern extremes of Europe by the fourth millennium BC or shortly thereafter. Various models have been invoked to explain the Neolithization of northern Europe; however, resolving these different scenarios has proved problematic due to poor faunal preservation and the lack of specifi...

Concern over the loss of genetic diversity in the world’s field crops has increased due to the commercial introduction of genetically modified crops. Mexico is particularly sensitive to this issue, as it is the center of genetic diversity for maize and home to a large number of indigenous farmers who propagate this diversity. This paper analyzes to what extent the biodiversity of maize may be e...

Abstract This paper presents a model where misallocation in the agricultural factors of production is caused by transportation costs to and from local markets, which result an inefficiently large share inputs operated less productive subsistence farmers. The derives some testable predictions are verified empirical analysis, based on representative census Ugandan farms. Specifically, farmers ope...

Leptospirosis has been reported in rural areas of Brazil. However, there is limited information about the exposure risk or the risk of Leptospira infection for rural-based populations. A cross-sectional study was carried out in order to determine the prevalence and risk factors for prior Leptospira infection in a rural subsistence farming region of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, an area in w...

Locust swarms hit subsistence-staple-crop-growing households at random and are not privately controllable. An aerial-spraying optimal control model that supports the said households’ livelihood at least expected cost is therefore developed. The qualitative properties of the model are analysed under economically plausible but mild assumptions. The steady state comparative statics reveal that the...

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