Impact of policy interventions on land management in Honduras: results of a bioeconomic model

This study examines the effects of State policies on farmers' incomes and n atural resource conditions in central Honduras. We combined dynamic linear programming with a biophysical model and applied this bioeconomic model to a microwatershed where, in recent years, farmers have turned to intensive p roduction of vegetables. We compared the outputs of different model scenari os with historical data over the last 20 years (1975-95). The main results of the simulations are: (1) the 1990 liberalization has had a beneficial im pact on the incomes of small farmers who adopted a 'vegetable pathway'; (2) the shift from extensive production to intensive vegetable production does not reduce erosion, as the greater opportunity cost of labor increased the cost of investing in land conservation; and (3) small farmers are more lik ely than ranchers to erode soils, because they are more likely to produce v egetables during the rainy season and usually cultivate steeper slopes. How ever, small farmers are more likely to invest in land conservation because soil depth becomes a limiting factor for production. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.