bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Efficiency in agricultural production: the case of peasant farmers in eastern Paraguay
Authors: Bravo‐Ureta Boris E. , Evenson Robert E.
Published: January 2020

This paper contributes to the productivity literature in developing country agriculture by quantifying the level of efficiency for a sample of peasant farmers from Eastern Paraguay. A stochastic efficiency decomposition methodology is used to derive technical, allocative and economic efficiency measures separately for cotton and cassava. An average economic efficiency of 40.1% for cotton and of 52.3% for cassava is found, which suggests considerable room for productivity gains for the farms in the sample through better use of available resources given the state of technology. Gains in output through productivity growth have become increasingly important to Paraguay as the opportunities to bring additional virgin lands into cultivation have significantly diminished in recent years. No clear strategy to improve farm productivity could be gleaned from an examination of the relationship between efficiency and various socioeconomic variables. One possible explanation for this finding is the existence of a stage of development threshold below which there is no consistent relationship between socioeconomic variables and productivity. If this is the case, then our results suggest that this sample of Paraguayan peasants are yet to reach such a threshold. Hence, improvements in educational and extension services, for example, would be needed to go beyond this threshold. Once this is accomplished, additional productivity gains would be obtained by further investments in human capital and related factors.
Measuring research benefits in an imperfect market
Authors: Voon T.J.
Published: January 2020

In this paper, an imperfect market model is developed for evaluating agricultural research benefits. The main finding is that the increases in societal gain, and the producer's share of this gain, are larger with a monopoly than with a competitive market. The paper argues that if the market for an agricultural input or for a commodity is not competitive, then use of a competitive model for assessing research benefits could lead to understatements of both producer and total benefits.
Production technologies in Ethiopian agriculture
Authors: Kidane Asmcrom , Abler David G.
Published: January 2020

This article examines the characteristics of and choice among two production technologies in Ethiopian agriculture, one with fertilizer and the other without, using 1989–90 farm‐level data. For northwest and central Ethiopia, fertilizer usage determinants are estimated simultaneously with technology‐specific production functions. For southern Ethiopia, where fertilizer is rarely used, a single production function is estimated. Three conclusions emerge. First, fertilizer use is not significantly affected by a farm's stocks of capital or land. This is consistent with the fact that fertilizer allocation decisions under the deposed Mengistu regime were politicized to the point where farmers had little control over use. Second, fertilizer is associated with a smaller factor share for cattle and a larger share for land, meaning that those who control land may gain relative to the individual farmers who own cattle as the country develops agriculturally. Third, farms without fertilizer in northwest and central Ethiopia tend to be too small, a problem due to population pressures on the land and communal methods of land allocation. This suggests that land allocation institutions should adjust by distributing land to a smaller but more economically viable number of farmers.
Returns to wheat breeding research in Nepal
Authors: Morris Michael L. , Dubin H.J. , Pokhrel Thaneswar
Published: January 2020

Returns to investment in wheat breeding research in Nepal were estimated for two periods: (1) the Green Revolution period (1960–1990), when modern semidwarf wheat varieties first appeared and spread throughout the country, and (2) the post‐Green Revolution period (after 1990), when first‐generation modern varieties will be replaced by newer materials. Major benefits of the Nepalese wheat breeding program have included maintenance of disease resistance and faster dissemination of exotic germplasm. Attractive rates of return to investment in wheat breeding have been due in part to Nepal's ability to capture spillover benefits from neighboring countries and from international agricultural research centers.
Asymmetry in beef, lamb and pork farm‐retail price transmission in Australia
Authors: Griffith G.R. , Piggott N.E.
Published: January 2020

The hypothesis of asymmetry in price transmission within the Australian meat market is tested using monthly data for beef, lamb and pork prices at different market levels over the period 1971–1988. The results indicate that asymmetrical price response is a strategy used by beef and lamb retailers and wholesalers to adjust to changing input prices, but not by pork retailers and wholesalers. This difference is perhaps unexpected given the similarity in behaviours relating to price levelling in this market, the high cross‐price elasticities of demand between these meats, and the relatively greater degree of concentration in the pork market.
An analysis of population growth, Green Revolution and terms of trade in the presence of cropsharing in agriculture
Authors: Taslim M.A.
Published: January 2020

This explores the welfare effects of some persistent trends in some developing countries on different groups of farmers. It takes a general equilibrium approach in modelling a representative developing economy comprising a manufacturing sector and an agricultural sector where both self‐cultivating landlords and tenants carry on production. It is shown that while population growth tends to depress welfare of both the tenant and the landlord, Green Revolution has the opposite effect such that when both trends are present, peasants may or may not be better off. An adverse movement in the agricultural terms of trade reduces welfare of the landlord, but the tenant is made better off.
Japan's peanut import demand: implications for United States exports
Authors: Zhang Ping , Fletcher Stanley M. , Carley Dale H.
Published: January 2020

Japan's import demand for both raw peanuts and processed peanut products was estimated using the Rotterdam model in order to determine the impact of an increase in the Japanese raw peanut quota on peanut imports from the USA and its competitors. The results indicate that if a larger import budget were allocated to raw peanut imports by Japan, most of the increase would be allocated to imports of Chinese raw peanuts. Furthermore, U.S. exports of peanut products could be affected if Japanese expenditures on peanut product imports change as a result of an increase in the quota for raw peanut imports. Thus, this study concludes that an increase in the Japanese import quota for raw peanuts provides only limited market opportunity for U.S. peanut exports, and China appears to benefit more than the USA from an increase in the Japanese raw peanut import quota. In contrast, the value added trade of peanut products could provide a better market opportunity for the U.S. peanut industry.
Food demand in rural China: evidence from rural household survey
Authors: Fan Shenggen , Cramer Gail , Wailes Eric
Published: January 2020

The recent rural reforms in China have had great effects on agricultural production and productivity as well as rural household consumption. While much has been written on production and productivity effects of these reforms, very few Chinese studies have attempted to analyze the changes in rural consumption patterns. This paper uses a dynamic AIDS model to estimate various food demand parameters for Chinese rural households using rural household survey data recently released by the China State Statistical Bureau. The results show that all important food commodities including rice, wheat, coarse grains, vegetables, meat, tobacco and alcohol have positive expenditure elasticities. Rice, wheat and coarse grains are necessities, while meat, vegetables, alcohol and tobacco are luxuries. The expenditure elasticities for rice, coarse grains and tobacco are declining, but those for wheat, meat, vegetables and alcohol are increasing. As per capita income rises and population increases, the demand for these items will continue to increase. Therefore, China must continue to increase its food production by a greater rate in the future in order to avoid food shortages.
Compensated optimal response under uncertainty in agricultural household models
Authors: Saha Atanu
Published: January 2020

This study derives the qualitative properties of a household's optimal consumption, family labour, hired labour and non‐labour input choices under price and/or output risk through a Slutsky‐type compensation without imposing any restriction on risk preference structure or production technology. These compensated responses provide the underpinning for welfare analysis in agricultural household models under risk. The framework for the evaluation of welfare effects of product and factor price interventions in a setting of output and price risk is developed. The paper also outlines an empirical model for estimation of the compensated demand and supply responses and for validation of the paper's analytical results.
Impacts of land fragmentation on the cost of producing wheat in the rain‐fed region of northern Jordan
Authors: Jabarin Amer S. , Epplin Francis M.
Published: January 2020

In some cultures inheritance customs results in land fragmentation such that over time operating farms become composed of a collection of spatially dispersed fields rather than a contiguous land unit. This study was conducted to determine the impact of land fragmentation as measured by average field size on the average cost of producing wheat in the rain‐fed region of Northern Jordan. Primary data were collected from farmers in the region. Generalized Least Squares was used to estimate the average variable cost of producing wheat. It was determined that the average variable cost of producing wheat is a decreasing function of field size. Land fragmentation increases production costs. Continued land fragmentation will lead to decreasing efficiency and is problematic when it results in small fields.
Economics of erosion‐control and seed‐fertilizer technologies for hillside farming in Honduras
Authors: López‐Pereira Miguel A. , Sanders John H. , Baker Timothy G. , Preckel Paul V.
Published: January 2020

With population growth still at very high rates and large‐scale commercial farmers and cattle ranchers owning much of the more fertile valley land, small‐scale farmers are concentrated on increasingly marginal, steeply sloping hillsides in Central America. The continuing soil erosion and land degradation in these low‐input staple crop production hillside farming systems lead many to be pessimistic about increasing the agricultural incomes of these farmers. However, this study shows that the appropriate combination of improved technologies and agricultural policy or alternative production diversification strategies can improve the incomes of small‐scale hillside farmers in southern Honduras by over 50%. The technology components considered are stone walls and ditches combined with living tree barriers to prevent erosion of the hillsides, and a package of improved sorghum seed, seed treatment, and modest doses of nitrogenous fertilizer. A whole‐farm mathematical programming framework is used to determine the potential farm‐level income effects of the soil‐conservation and seed‐fertilizer technologies. The main conclusion is that erosion‐control devices and yield‐increasing crop varieties and fertilizer are an effective technology introduction strategy for the erosion‐prone hillside landholdings found in many areas of Central America. If policy actions or diversification strategies for disposal of surplus grain are found which are effective in reducing the risk of low income from cereal price reductions in high‐production years, adoption of the improved technologies is shown to be profitable for small‐scale farmers. Another benefit not explicitly considered would be to slow the very rapid growth of urban poverty in these countries. Sensitivity analysis results indicated that neither risk aversion nor the increased availability of crop land or initial cash have any substantial effects on the predicted adoption level of the improved technologies, or on their income impacts for these farmers.
Managerial form, ownership and efficiency: a case‐study of Argentine agriculture
Authors: Gallacher Marcos , Goetz Stephan J. , Debertin David L.
Published: January 2020

In agriculture, studies dealing with the separation of ownership from control have focused on sharecropping, paying little attention to the impact of management and ownership on efficiency. Using Argentine data, this study tests the hypothesis that efficiency is a function of type of management, concentration of ownership, and mechanisms for monitoring managers. Results show that management, ownership and monitoring have a greater impact on marketing efficiency than either on technical or cost efficiency.
Approximation methods for ranking risky investment alternatives
Authors: Bigman David
Published: January 2020

The paper develops and illustrates the application of criteria for ranking risky investment alternatives that are based on their certainly equivalent (ce) outcomes and determines expressions for approximating the ce outcomes by means of the central moments of their distribution. The paper develops criteria on the basis of the ce outcomes for determining a complete ranking of risky investment alternatives that can represent the choice of many – though not all – risk‐averse agents.
Price expectations of sheep and goats by producers and intermediaries in Quetta market, Pakistan
Authors: Rodríguez Abelardo , Ali Imran , Afzal Muhammad , Shah Nisar A. , Mustafa Usman
Published: January 2020

Analysis of producers' and intermediaries' livestock price expectations was used to describe the market in Quetta, the largest livestock market in the highlands of Balochistan Province, Pakistan, and to identify factors that determine price expectations of small ruminants. A total of 4800 expected prices for sheep and goats were collected from producers and market intermediaries at monthly intervals between January 1991 and December 1992. In addition to the expected price of the animal, liveweight, species, sex, breed, body condition (fatness), calendar day and month were recorded, and whether data were collected on a meat or meatless day. Monthly rainfall data were also collected. Models of goat and sheep price expectations were built to compare the similarity of the behaviour of producers and intermediaries.

Results indicated that producers and intermediaries expected high prices from November to January and during religious holidays. They expected premiums and discounts related to animals' attributes. Liveweight and seasonality had the strongest effect on prices. Rainfall in the current and previous month was positively related to seller's expected prices suggesting that livestock are retained to take advantage of favourable grazing conditions. The models of price expectations showed that producers adjusted expected goat prices (P ≤ 0.10) for seasonality, liveweight, body condition, age, sex and breed, while they adjusted sheep prices for seasonality and liveweight only. High pay‐offs could be expected if extension efforts focused on factors that determine sheep meat quality; however, the retail ceiling price of meat and the lack of grading are a disincentive to work in this direction.

Seasonality of supply and demand is important in determining prices and this study provides baseline information for market scheduling; however, scheduling of sales of transhumant pastoralists may be difficult to achieve. Further investigation is justified to understand the gap in marketing knowledge between producers who sell in the villages and those who sell in Quetta.
Estimating preference change in meat demand in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Al‐Kahtani Safer H. , Sofian Badr El‐din E.
Published: January 2020

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the preference change in the demand for meat subject to random coefficients in Saudi Arabia. A Fortran 77 program has been designed to estimate the demand function for meat using Kalman filtering techniques and maximum likelihood approach. The initial values of the coefficient and covariance estimates are an essential prior information in the Kalman filtering techniques. Results provide substantial random coefficients in red meat, implying important structural change occurs in red meat more than poultry and fish demand.
Segmentation in the informal credit markets: the case of the Philippines
Authors: Nagarajan Geetha , Meyer Richard L. , Hushak Leroy J.
Published: January 2020

This paper explains market segmentation that occurs in the Philippine informal credit markets through the matching of borrowers and lenders by their occupational specializations to internalize transaction costs and facilitate economic activity. The regression results support a predictable pattern of matching farmer lenders with borrowers specialized in non‐farm activities and trader lenders with borrowers specialized in farming.
Restructuring of traditional farms and new land relations in Ukraine
Authors: Lerman Zvi , Brooks Karen , Csaki Csaba
Published: January 2020

This paper reports the results of a 1993/1994 survey of 2500 farm managers, farm employees, and private farmers in Ukraine, highlighting changes at the farm level in response to programs of land reform and farm restructuring. As of early 1994, Ukrainian reform had moved to the first stage, which involves privatization of much of the agricultural land and creation of shareholding farms. Over 60% of agricultural land in Ukraine has been transferred from state to collective ownership; among the collective and state farms surveyed, nearly 75% have reorganized and most of them have allocated land and asset shares to members. The number of independent private farmers in Ukraine exceeds 30 000, but with an average farm size of 20 ha they cultivate less than 2% of farmland. Reform at the farm level in Ukraine has thus begun, but at present is at a very early stage.
U.S. corn exports: the role of the exchange rate
Authors: Babula Ronald A. , Ruppel Fred J. , Bessler David A.
Published: January 2020

Time series econometric methods are applied to monthly observational data over the period 1978‐1942 on real exchange rates, real corn prices, corn export sales, and corn export shipments for the United States. In‐sample fit and out‐of‐sample forecast results are used to discern whether exchange rates have elicited systematic responses in U.S. corn prices, sales and shipments, and whether the dynamic transmission mechanisms tying these variables together have changed over time. A structural break appears to have occurred in early 1985. No cointegration is found between exchange rates, price, sales, and shipments in either sub‐period. Influences are all short‐run or between stationary variables. The role of the exchange rate appears to have moderated in the post‐1985 period. Implications for policy analysis are discussed.
Poverty alleviation in Mozambique: a multi‐market analysis of the role of food aid
Authors: Dorosh Paul , del Ninno Carlo , Sahn David E.
Published: January 2020

The use of food aid in poverty alleviation programs has been hampered by two problems: the inability to target to households in need, and the disincentive effects on agriculture. In this paper, we present econometric estimates of in Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) for households in Maputo, Mozambique, and develop a multi‐market model to show that in Maputo, imported yellow maize is not only self‐targeting, but that owing to a combination of the low cross‐price elasticity with locally produced staples (particularly, white maize) and cross‐border trade in food products, the disincentive effects on domestic agriculture have been negligible.
A decision support system for strategic planning on pig farms
Authors: Backus G.B.C. , Timmer G.Th. , Dijkhuizen A.A. , Eidman V.R. , Vos F.
Published: January 2020

This paper reported on a decision support system (DSS) for strategic planning on pig farms. The DSS was based on a stochastic simulation model of investment decisions (ISM). ISM described a farm with one loan and one building using 23 variables. The simulation model calculated the results of a strategic plan for an individual pig farm over a time horizon of a maximum of 20 years for a given scenario. For six distinct replacement strategies, regression metamodels were specified to describe the outcome of the response variable as a function of the farm variables. The regression results indicated that a linear function with only nine or ten farm variables gave a reasonable estimate of the results of the simulation model. Turnover ratio, feed conversion ratio, percentage of meat, farm size, family expenses, and experience were the main parameters determining future relative farm position. For farms with high levels of family expenditures and/or financial leverage an economic replacement strategy was optimal. Risk attitudes played a minor role in the choice of the optimal strategy, because one strategy was preferred to another regardless of risk preference. To analyze the attractiveness of a chosen strategic plan for different ‘what‐if’ scenarios, the visual method using graphical representations offered sufficient information. The number of years ahead for which the decision maker evaluated the consequences of simulated strategic plans influenced which strategy was preferred.
Farm‐level nonparametric analysis of cost‐minimization and profit‐maximization behavior
Authors: Featherstone Allen M. , Moghnieh Ghassan A. , Goodwin Barry K.
Published: January 2020

This study investigates non‐parametrically the optimizing behavior of a sample of 289 Kansas farms under profit‐maximization and cost‐minimization hypotheses. The study uses both deterministic and stochastic non‐parametric tests. The deterministic results do not support strict adherence to either optimization hypothesis. The stochastic tests suggest that all 289 farms fail the profit‐maximization hypothesis, whereas 171 farms failed the cost‐minimization hypothesis. Allowing for non‐regressive technical change docs not alter the basic results; 276 farms violate the profit‐maximization hypothesis and 138 violate the cost‐minimization hypothesis. The evidence against cost‐minimization behavior seems to be far less substantial than that against profit‐maximization behavior.
The dynamics of household beef consumption in Cameroon
Authors: Tambi N. Emmanuel
Published: January 2020

Recent changes in economic conditions have introduced notable changes in household beef consumption patterns in Cameroon. While consumers are concerned about the short‐ and long‐run effects of these factors on beef consumption habits, policy makers are more worried about the appropriate period necessary for households to make complete adjustments in consumption since this information is vital for planning production. Static and dynamic demand frameworks involving the Nerlovian partial adjustment (PA) model are used to capture the dynamic nature of beef consumption parameters. Maximum likelihood estimates of the PA model reveal that the conditioning variables explain 79% of the variation in beef consumption. Income, previous consumption, own‐price and prices of fish and pork are jointly important in explaining beef consumption habits. Beef is a normal good with pork and fish as substitutes and chicken as a complement. Long‐run price and income elasticities are greater than but not significantly different from their short‐run values, suggesting that adjustment in consumption is fast with about 80% of the difference between actual and ‘desired’ consumption being completed in about 2 years. Projections show that demand for beef will reach 109620 t by the year 2000. giving an incremental total and per capita demand of 31 730 tons and 1.84 kg, respectively.
Endogenous risk in weed control management
Authors: Archer David W. , Shogren Jason F.
Published: January 2020

Weed control decisions are modeled in an endogenous risk framework where a producer invests in self‐insurance and self‐protection to reduce the severity of a realized pest infestation, or reduce the likelihood the infestation occurs. Self‐insurance and self‐protection are risk‐reducing technologies that capture both the type and quantity of herbicides used. We supply conditions to unambiguously sign the effects of an increase in the probability of application or effectiveness failure and increased application or effectiveness uncertainty on optimal herbicide choices. If self‐protection and self‐insurance are stochastic substitutes, non‐point source pollution policies targeted to reduce herbicide loadings can increase the use of more persistent herbicides. Policies that decrease loadings by reducing total mass may induce a substitution to herbicides more damaging or more likely to be transported to sensitive areas.
Assessing the effects of tariff reform on U.S. food manufacturing industries: the role of imperfect competition and intermediate inputs
Authors: Lanclos D. Kent , Hertel Thomas W. , Devadoss Stephen
Published: January 2020

Recent work indicates that the joint effects of intermediate input and final output tariff reforms on equilibrium in the differentiated final products sector are analytically ambiguous. This issue is addressed empirically for disaggregate, imperfectly competitive U.S. food manufacturing industries. The input tariff effect dominates in most industries, leading to increases in the number of U.S. firms and total industry output as a result of tariff reform. This provides evidence that the existing U.S. tariff profile discriminates against domestic food manufacturers as input tariff effects outweigh the protection offered by output tariffs. This conclusion is robust to changes in the degree of interfirm rivalry (monopolistic competition or cournot oligopoly).
Production efficiency of Chinese agriculture: evidence from rural household survey data
Authors: Wang Jirong , Cramer Gail L. , Wailes Eric J.
Published: January 2020

A shadow‐price profit frontier model is developed to examine production efficiency of Chinese rural households in farming operations. The model incorporates price distortions resulting from imperfect market conditions and socioeconomic and institutional constraints, but retains the advantages of stochastic frontier properties. The shadow prices are derived through a generalized profit function estimation. The shadow‐price profit frontier is then estimated and an efficiency index based on the estimated profit frontier is computed and decomposed to household characteristics. Empirical results using data from China's Rural Household Survey for 1991 reject the neoclassical profit maximization hypothesis based on market prices in favor of the general model with price distortions. Farmers' resource endowment and education influence their response to the market restrictions, thus alter their performance in terms of efficiency. The estimated efficiency index ranges from 6% to 93% with a sample average of 62%. Households' educational level, family size and per capita net income are positively related to production efficiency. Households living in mountain areas or with family members employed by the government or state industries are relatively inefficient. Reducing market intervention, allowing right of use of farm land to be transferred among households, encouraging migration of excess farm labor, and promoting farmers' education will improve rural households' efficiency in agricultural production.
Wheat production in Saudi Arabia between feasibility and efficiency
Authors: Al‐Hamoudi K.A. , Sherif Sherin A. , Sofian B.E.
Published: January 2020

The cultivation of wheat in Saudi Arabia has been claimed to be resource depletable. Huge amounts of high quality inputs, especially water, seeds, and nitrogen fertilizers, have been applied to the sandy Saudi soils to increase productivity. However, the economic feasibility of wheat production has been totally neglected, mainly for political reasons. Classical production functions analysis has not yielded significant conclusions regarding the use of inputs. A 3‐year experiment on an educational farm with a soil type representative of the agricultural soil in Saudi Arabia, yielded some interesting results concerning the use of inputs. The findings were obtained through the stochastic dominance efficiency criterion which assessed the efficient levels of seeds, water, and nitrogen fertilizers in wheat cultivation when Production risk was considered.
Ex‐ante agricultural research evaluation with site specific technology generation: the case of sorghum in Kenya
Authors: Mills Bradford F.
Published: January 2020

Agricultural commodity research has very site‐specific productivity impacts. Crucial determinants of the magnitude and distribution of research benefits include agroecological conditions for technology generation and adoption, as well as commodity market‐structure. This paper presents a process for ex‐ante research evaluation which accounts for these factors with a dynamic, spatial multi‐market model. Simulation results based on sorghum research in Kenya demonstrate that potential research benefits can vary dramatically research program research target zones. In Kenya, however, population‐induced demand growth not technological development will have the greatest influence on future sorghum markets.
Utilizing conjoint analysis to design modern crop varieties: empirical example for groundnut in Niger
Authors: Baidu‐Forson Jojo , Ntare Bonny R. , Waliyar Farid
Published: January 2020

Preferences for monetary and non‐monetary plant traits influence modern crop variety adoption decisions of farmers. To enhance adoption probability of modem crop varieties, it is necessary to identify and locus research on traits that significantly contribute to utility while de‐emphasizing insignificant plant attributes. This paper illustrates the potential for applying conjoint analysis to aid the design and targeting of client‐responsive modern crop varieties, farmers ranked eight orthogonally‐derived plant trail combinations used in an illustrative example. Utilities were estimated using the choice‐probability‐based method of ordered probit. Results showed that conjoint analysis can differentiate significant and non‐significant trails of modern crop varieties. The usefulness of applying conjoint analysis over identifiable disaggregated groups of a sample was also evident. Future application of conjoint analysis to the design and targeting of modern crop varieties should carefully consider sample composition and size to permit the estimation of relevant sub‐models for desired farmer segments.
Fertilizer demand in Greece
Authors: Mergos G.J. , Stoforos Ch.E.
Published: January 2020

Limiting fertilizer use is becoming an important policy objective world‐wide. However, the debate on appropriate policy measures is far from settled and evidence on fertilizer demand elasticities is still insufficient. Past studies on fertilizer demand leave several methodological and empirical issues open. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the methodology of estimating fertilizer demand using single‐equation methods. Dynamic aspects are also considered using error‐correction modelling methodology and cointegration techniques. The model is applied using data front Greece. Short‐run and long‐run price elasticities of fertilizer demand with respect to own price and to output prices show significant response to price changes and the adjustment coefficient of fertilizer use to the error‐correction term was found to be fairly rapid. The main policy conclusion of the paper is that reducing agricultural support may be an alternative and, perhaps, more effective way of reducing fertilizer demand than increasing fertilizer prices.
Economic welfare analysis of policy‐induced structural change in the Indonesian poultry industry
Authors: Suwartini Endang , Coffin H. Garth , Gunjal Kisan
Published: January 2020

The performance of the poultry industry in Indonesia is analyzed in terms of changes in producer and consumer welfare as a result of public policy intended to limit the size of production units in order to distribute growth opportunities to smallet farms. Elasticities of supply and demand are estimated using the seemingly unrelated system of equations. The hypothesis of a policy‐induced structural change, estimated through a dummy variable accounting for a shift in supply associated with implementation of the policy, shows a negative impact on the output supplied and the welfare of producers and consumers to the tune of about Rp 94 billion or roughly about 0.1% of national income as of 1983. The study suggests an important trade‐off between more equitable income distribution and economic efficiency.
Marketing reforms, market development and agricultural production in China
Authors: Weersink Alfons , Rozelle Scott
Published: January 2020

Chinese agricultural reforms have consisted of two transitional stages; initially decollectivization in the late 1970s followed by market liberalization in the mid 1980s. While much research has been conducted on the initial stage of increasing the incentives for farmers in collective cultivation, little quantitative evidence exists on how marketing reforms and the development of rural markets has affected agricultural production decisions. Using more accurate and disaggregated measures of the reform and market development components of liberalization than previous research, this study examined the effects of these liberalization policies on the agricultural production decisions in Shaanxi province. Procurement quota levels were found to be positively associated with the area planted to grain crops. Thus, quotas represent an effective way of increasing grain production and thereby also a means of achieving food self sufficiency which remains an important policy objective for the Chinese government. The involvement of state grain stations in free market grain trade and the expansion of rural markets has increased the area planted to the two potential cash crops, soybeans and wheat, and reduced the sown area of the Subsistence crop, corn reflecting the reduced need to plant corn as a self insurance mechanism for smoothing consumption. An increase in procurement quotas increases fertilizer use on grain crops, due to the policy of linking quotas to access to below‐market priced fertilizer, but decreases the use of labor, which shifts to other more profitable enterprises. Market development has increased these off‐farm employment opportunities and the earnings associated with them, thereby promoting the shift of labor out of crop production and increased the use of fertilizer which has also become more available.
The trade and environment nexus in Mexican agriculture. A general equilibrium analysis
Authors: Beghin John , Dessus Sebastien , Roland‐Hoist David , van der Mensbrugghe Dominique
Published: January 2020

This paper analyzes linkages between growth, trade and the environment in Mexican agriculture with an empirical economy‐wide model. The investigation considers trade liberalization, environmental policy reform, and their coordination. The analysis decomposes the change in pollution emission induced by changes in the sectoral composition of production, effects of technology on emission intensity, and aggregate Scale effects. Outward orientation alone induces a contraction of aggregate agricultural output, but promotes growth and pollution in some agricultural sectors. Overall, free trade does not induce wholesale specialization in dirty agricultural activities. Environmental taxes on pollution emitted in agricultural sectors have a moderate negative impact on agricultural output, except for the tax on water‐borne toxic chemicals. More liberal trade combined with targeted effluent taxes can achieve significant environmental mitigation and efficiency gains, but with the implication of a contraction of most agricultural sectors.
A stall‐feeding management for improved cattle in semiarid central Tanzania: factors influencing adoption
Authors: Kaliba Aloyce R.M. , Featherstone Allen M. , Norman David W.
Published: January 2020

This study's objectives were to determine factors influencing smallholder farmers' adoption of a stall‐feeding management system for improved dairy cattle in semiarid Tanzania and other related technology packages, Heckman's two‐stage procedure was used to determine factors influencing participation in the project and the adoption of recommended management practices. Stall‐feeding technology is Jocularly attractive to those households with fewer resources particularly those that are female headed. Wealthier farmers, as measured by area of land cultivated, are less likely to adopt the stall‐feeding technology. Household labour is found to be important in determining the degree to Which the technology and associated management practices were adopted. Age of the household head has a positive impact on the size of the Intensive feed gardens. Different measures of extension‐related contact are significant in influencing the potential lor adopting stall‐fed technology, the number of stall‐fed cattle kept, the probability of growing water melons, and the size of intensive feed gardens. The implications are that research and extension messages with reference to the stall‐feeding management system need to be targeted to specific types of households (e.g., female farmers, those with children to provide labor, and limited resource farms). This supports the notion that technology development and dissemination need to be sensitive not only to the characteristics of the biophysical environment but also to the socioeconomic environment, which is often neglected. The study also demonstrates that in the poorer parts of the world where land is very limited, a strategy for improving ecological sustainability can be linked closely to one for increasing agricultural productivity.
Consumption risk, farm characteristics, and soil conservation adoption among low‐income farmers in the Philippines
Authors: Shively Gerald E.
Published: January 2020

This paper investigates patterns of soil conservation adoption among low‐income farmers in the Philippines. A model is presented that focuses attention on the role ot assets and consumption risk in conservation adoption decisions. Results Iron, a reduced‐form probit model of adoption are reported. These econometric findings indicate that patterns of soil conservation adoption reflect relative risk considerations in addititon farm and household characteristics. Farm size, tenure security, labor availability, and land quality all exhibit a positive association with soil conservation adoption. In contrast, controlling on these and other household characteristics, the probability of adoption falls as consumption risk rises. These results underscore a need for greater sensitivity among policymakers to the role of consumption risk in influencing soil conservation decisions in low‐income settings.
Technical efficiency in the Spanish agrofood industry
Authors: Apezteguía Belén Iráizoz , Gárate Manuel Rapún
Published: January 2020

This study estimates frontier production functions with cross‐section data lor the Spanish agrofood industry by using deterministic and stochastic parameuic approaches. We compute the individual technical efficiency for each firm, compare the results and explain the relationship between technical efficiency and other relevant quantitative variables. The results indicate that the Spanish agrofood industry has a level of efficiency between 68% and 93%; which means that it is potentially capable of increasing production without increasing its Consumption of inputs. This efficiency level is positively related to factor productivity and unitary labour costs.
How to define and study farmers' management capacity: theory and use in agricultural economics
Authors: Rougoor Carin W. , Trip Ger , Huirnc Ruud B.M. , Renkema Jan A.
Published: January 2020

Textbooks and articles on farm management stress the importance of the management capacity of the farmer with respect to his farm results. However, explicit definitions together with an elaboration of this concept are hard to find. In this article, aspects of management capacity are grouped into: (1) personal aspects, consisting of fanner's drives and motivations, fanner's abilities and capabilities and his biographical facts such as age and education; and (2) aspects of the decision‐making process, consisting of practices and procedures with respect to planning, implementation and control of decisions at the farm. Empirical studies on the role of management capacity in relation to farm results are reviewed. Frontier production functions are widely used in recent literature to estimate technical and economic efficiency of farms. However, in explaining differences in efficiency most studies do not go further than adding a biographical variabk (e.g., level of education). This study concludes that a next step would be to include aspects of the decision‐making process. Longitudinal on‐farm observations, which give possibilities for studying the dynamic aspects of the decision‐making, are suggested to further analyze the concept of management capacity.
The effects of expenditure growth and urbanisation on food consumption in East Asia: a note on animal products
Authors: Rae Allan N.
Published: January 2020

Consumption functions for total animal‐derived food products were estimated for six East Asian countries. Incorporation of urbanisation was found to make a significant contribution to the functions. The urbanisation elasticities were always positive, indicating that the process of urbanisation had a positive effect on the demand for animal food products. The expenditure elasticities were also positive, but often less than they would be if estimated from consumption functions that excluded the effects of urbanisation. Thus, projections of consumption that ignore the influence of urbanisation may be biased.
Pasture taxes and agricultural intensification in southern Mali
Authors: Dalton Timothy J. , Masters William A.
Published: January 2020

This study integrates biophysical simulation data with a farm household model of intertemporal optimization, to investigate changing crop‐livestock management practices in the Sudano‐Guinean zone of Mali. Over a 15‐yr time horizon we find that free grazing on the commons remains more attractive to the representative household than adopting more labor‐and capital‐intensive confinement systems, but that a relatively low level of pasture tax (around US$3 per livestock unit per year) would be sufficient to induce intensification. Because confinement raises output, the net cost of the tax to the household is only about US$1 per unit per year. Imposing pasture taxes to induce intensification could raise community welfare, if the value of commons resources liberated by reduced grazing pressure exceeds that level.
The rise and fall of public sector plant breeding in the United Kingdom: a causal chain model of basic and applied research and diffusion
Authors: Thirtle C. , Bottomley P. , Palladino P. , Schimmelpfennig D. , Townsend R.
Published: January 2020

This paper examines the barley and wheat breeding programmes of the Plant Breeding Institute (PBI), which was the most successful public plant breeding institute in the UK, until privatization in 1987. The PBI's shares in barley and wheat seed sales are explained, showing that the success with barley was largely a matter of serendipity, whereas the wheat programme followed a more normal pattern. For wheat, the causal chain, or recursive, model decomposes the well‐documented link between research expenditures and increases in agricultural productivity into three stages. These are the effects of R&D expenditures on basic research output, measured by publications, the effect of publications and applied R&D expenditures on trial plot yields, and the diffusion of the trial plot technologies, which raises yields on farms. Applying the model to the FBI's wheat varieties allows estimation of the lag structures. In contrast to the results for aggregate agricultural research, for a single plant breeding programme alone there is a considerable lead time before there is any response, followed by a lag distribution only a few years long. The returns to the R&D investments are calculated from the causal chain model, from single equation estimates and by evaluating the yield advantage of the PBI varieties. All three approaches give consistent results, which show that the returns to barley and wheat alone were sufficient to support the entire PBI budget and still give rates of return to applied research of between 14 and 25%. The return to the basic science expenditures of the John Innes Institute has a lower bound of 17%, but must have been even higher than for the PBI if the other Institutes were taken into account. The paper concludes by commenting on the effects of the privatization of the PBI.
Pesticide productivity, host‐plant resistance and productivity in China
Authors: Widawsky David , Rozelle Scott , Jin Songqing , Huang Jikun
Published: January 2020

Pesticides are used as the primary method of pest controf in Asian rice production. Conditions in China have led to demand for high and increasing rice yields, resulting in intensive cultivation and adoption of fertilizer responsive varieties. The consequence has been widespread pest infestations. Many studies have estimated pesticide productivity, but few have estimated the productivity of alternative methods ot pest control, namely host‐plant resistance. None have estimated the substitutability between these methods of pest‐control. The productivity of pesticides and host‐plant resistance, and the substitutability between them is measured using two‐stage Cobb‐Douglas and translog production functions. Under intensive rice production systems in eastern China, pesticide productivity is low compared to the productivity of host‐plant resistance. In fact, returns to pesticide use are negative at the margin. Host‐plant resistance is an effective substitute for pesticides and substantial reductions in pesticide use could be achieved, with no loss in rice production, through improvements in host‐plant resistance. These results suggest that pesticides are being overused in eastern China and host‐plant resistance is being underutilized. Government policies to promote increased pesticides in rice might be ill advised given the low productivity and negative returns, particularly in light of well known negative externalities associated with pesticide use.
Co‐integration and error‐correction modelling of agricultural export supply in Cameroon
Authors: Tambi N. Emmanuel
Published: January 2020

Estimates of factors influencing Cameroon,s exports of cocoa, coffee and cotton are derived in a system of equations using the Engle‐Granger and Johansen co‐integration and error‐correction representation procedures. Two co‐integrating vectors involving cocoa and coffee exports as endogenous variables are identified in the system while tests for exogeneily of cotton exports are consistent with the independence of cotton from the other two commodities. These findings are corroborated by estimates of a restricted error‐correction model which lead to acceptance of the hypothesis that cocoa and coffee exports are‐indeed determined endogenously to the system and not linked to cotton exports. Statistical significance of the error‐correction terms for cocoa and coffee validates the existence of an equilibrium relationship among the variables in each of these co‐integrating vectors. The combined short run dynamic effect of lagged quantities of cocoa and coffee, export/domestic price ratio and GDP jointly explain changes in exports of cocoa whereas lagged quantities exported do not seem to have a significant short‐run dynamic effect on changes in coffee exports.