Page - (000164) - in Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

villagesby0.16%.Presenceofacidicsoil inAPRvillagesreducesagricultural land by0.3%. Theeffectsof travel timetomarketandacidicsoildisappearinNPRvillages: the travel time coefficient for NPR villages¼ 0.032; z¼1.12; P> Z¼ 0.26) and, acidic soil dummyforNPRvillages¼0.033; z¼0.48;P>z¼0.63). Presenceof sufficientwater for long run crops increases the total agricultural land in a village by0.14%. 8.6 DiscussionofMainResults In this paper I explain the direction and magnitude of impacts on agricultural intensity andextensive frontier using randomeffects equations for village agricul- tural land and intensity of cultivation. I discussfindings below: 8.6.1 Effect ofPopulation The study finds that a 10% increase in population leads to a 4.3% increase in agricultural land.This is consistentwith thefindings inCropper et al. (1999),who report that a 10% increase agricultural household density in North Thailand increases agricultural land by 4%. However, it is higher than the elasticity of cleared landwith respect to population reported in a spatially explicit studyof the effectsofpopulationandtransportationcosts inCropperetal. (2001): In that study, a 10% increase in population leads to a 1.5% increase in cleared land in the forested areas of North Thailand.33 It is lower than the elasticity reported by Panayatou (1991) forNortheast Thailand. That study reports that a 10% increase in population leads to a 15%decrease in forest cover. Theeffectsofpopulationdonotdifferacross the twosetsofvillagesexplored in this paper i.e. villageswith ambiguous property rights andvillageswith no secure property rights. There is some evidence of a significant difference in direction of impact for soybean cultivation, but themagnitudes of impact are very small. 8.6.2 Effect ofTravelCosts I find that transportation cost has a quantitatively modest impact on agricultural decisions in the study area. For total agricultural land in a village, the effects of 33In this study the elasticity for cleared landwith population is smaller. 148 J. Puri