Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture No. 4/13
Soil Degradation, Policy Intervention and Sustainable Agricultural Growth
Joydeb Sasmal
Vidyasagar University, Medinipur, India
Hans-Peter Weikard
Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Abstract
Sustainable agricultural growth in developing countries is jeopardized by soil degradation
consequent upon intensive cultivation and use of increasing doses of chemical
inputs. To pave the way to sustainable agricultural growth we develop a model that
incorporates organic fertilizer into the production technology as an input having a
double role of enhancement of soil fertility and conservation of the ecosystem. The
results show that public intervention can make equilibrium agricultural growth
sustainable by maintaining conservation of soil fertility in a setting with non-convex
resource regeneration. The equilibrium is found to be dynamically stable. On the basis
of our comparative static results we argue for soil preserving and productivityenhancing
technological innovations and suggest a combined tax and direct payment
scheme to encourage the use of soil conserving inputs.
Keywords: soil depletion, organic fertilizers, replenishment, sustainable growth, incentive payments
JEL: Q01, Q16, Q24
Vol. 52 (2013), No. 4: 309-328