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A better understanding of farmers' energy-saving behaviors can help policy-makers to formulate effective energy policies to reduce energy consumption in rural areas. This study explores the impacts of livelihood capital on farmers' energy-saving behaviors in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China. A total of 471 questionnaires were obtained from randomly sampled households. The results show that there are differences between the implementation of different types of energy-saving behaviors. Farmers' livelihood capital plays a significant role in implementing energy-saving behaviors. Specifically, natural capital and human capital have a significantly negative effect on the implementation of energy-saving behaviors. Physical capital and social capital are conducive to implement energy-saving behaviors. The effect of financial capital varies with different energy-saving behaviors. The findings of this study can contribute to the existing body of knowledge about determinants of farmers' energy-saving behaviors by confirming the role of livelihood capital. The empirical results provide a reference for stakeholders involved in strengthening rural residents' energy-saving behaviors in developing countries like China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the spontaneous impact of human, social and natural capital on food crop technical efficiency (TE) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Our study contributes to the literature by adopting the meta-analysis method to investigate the relationship between TE and the three groups of capitals to better shed light on the TE in SSA regions. Our results highlight that social capital is the most critical factor among the three groups of capitals in promoting farming productivity. In particular, agriculture efficiency benefits from increasing people's trust in institutions and the frequency of extension visits. Natural capital like temperature and elevation is essential in determining the farming TE in SSA regions. Outstandingly, our results also indicate that calorie intake, a proxy of labor quality, should be improved to achieve better productivity. • Social capital, such as people's trust in institutions and frequency of extension visits, is the most critical factor in promoting farming technical efficiency (TE) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). • Calorie intake, a proxy of labor quality in the SSA regions, plays a significant role in achieving better productivity improvement. • Agricultural development orientation in different SSA regions should base on their regional and climate characteristics (e.g., temperature and elevation) to properly guide farmers toward more productive agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of economic growth are typically based on the use of one or more stocks of productive assets to create goods for utility-generating consumption. The roles played by man-made capital, natural capital, and human capital have been explored in the literature, and more recently the notion of social capital has been brought to the fore. This paper provides an attempt to construct an inclusive model of growth, analyzing externalities and distortions due to market failures linked with social capital and environmental problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Trees play a critical role in the development of sustainable land use systems in the southern Africa region, but access to tree germplasm is limited. It was hypothesized that facilitating the establishment of farmer nurseries would promote decentralized tree seedling production in an efficient way, while at the same time provide opportunities for building natural, human and social capital. A study was conducted in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania over 2 years to analyze the productivity of farmer nurseries and their functions in sustainable development. With limited outside support, farmers produced an estimated 6.2 million tree seedlings from 1901 nurseries across the three study areas over two years. Productivity of nurseries depended greatly on access to scarce water sources during the dry season. Farmers located the majority of nurseries therefore in ecologically sensitive dambo locations and along riverbanks, both posing possible land use conflicts in the future due to increasing human populations. Farmers organized two types of nurseries, with group nurseries producing significantly fewer tree seedlings compared to individual nurseries. This was attributed to larger transaction costs associated with organization and capacity building of group nurseries. On the other hand, the success of individual nurseries appeared to depend on human and social “start-up” capital being provided by group nurseries through previous training. In the absence of rigorous valuation of the longer-term effects of both types of nurseries in building natural, human and social capital, it appears that both have a role to play in meeting local demand for tree seedlings. Results generally suggest that smallholder farmers can play a pivotal role in providing tree germplasm for the development of sustainable land use systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Support to farmer nurseries is classified as either “hard” referring to material inputs (tree seed, water, inoculum, tools and fencing) or “soft” (information, training and backstopping advice). Against a background of poor services for smallholder farmers in southern Africa, it was hypothesized that a number of support agents operating at the grass root level together with farmers themselves provide the different support functions needed in farmer nurseries. A study was conducted to evaluate the role of support systems in farmer nurseries in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. Furthermore, the early tree planting impact of farmer nurseries was assessed in Malawi. Support for hard inputs came largely from single service providers, with significant and increasing contributions coming from farmers themselves. Soft inputs came from a larger diversity of providers with collaborative effort gaining importance. There is an urgent need to facilitate grassroot level support systems with larger participation from the private sector for tree seed and from the national extension services for provision of training and backstopping advice. It was noted that individual nurseries achieved larger transplanting impact, but this did not translate into higher impact at the landscape level, because group nurseries were the predominant type. Strengthening the human capital of farmers and service providers emerged as critical in increasing impact. Farmer nurseries are shown to play a number of important and interrelated functions in building natural, human and social capital. Monitoring and evaluating farmer nurseries in catalyzing these three functions should therefore receive proper attention in assessing the impact of sustainable land use systems. Policies need to be articulated to address some of the major constraints identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Economics has been defined as the science of allocation of scarce resources towards alternative ends. This definition implies that the first step in economic analysis is to determine what ends are desirable for society. Most sectors of the society would agree that sustainability is a desirable end, but there is little agreement as to what a sustainable future would look like. The University of Maryland Institute for Ecological Economics sponsored a democratic future search process designed to create a relatively detailed, shared vision of a sustainable and desirable USA in the year 2100. This paper presents the vision developed at that conference, examines the resources required to achieve the vision, and assesses the suitability of market mechanisms for allocating the required resources towards the desired ends. We find that markets are not efficient mechanisms for allocation in this case, and propose the institutions of a ‘strong democracy’ as a promising alternative. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]