bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Separability in farm‐household economics: an experiment with linear programming
Authors: Delforce Julie C. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe assumption of separability between farm‐household production and consumption facilitates analysis, but entails several important restrictions. The implications of assuming separability are discussed here in relation to the modelling of a representative Tongan farm‐household. Econometric estimation of household demand is coupled with a linear programming (LP) model of farm‐household production. When analysing consumer demand, separable farm‐household economics is undoubtedly preferable to ignoring the production/consumption linkages entirely. However, the restrictions which must be imposed on the production side of the separable model are such that a realistic LP solution is unlikely to be obtained. This is likely to be a major deterrent to adopting the separable approach for studies in which the main focus is on production rather than consumption.
Value of information on crop response function to soil salinity in a farm‐level optimization model
Authors: Feinerman Eli 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe study investigates the value of additional information on the response function to soil salinity of a given crop (potatoes), with regard to a stochastic long‐run optimization model for utilization of saline water in a single‐farm framework. The analysis provides a conceptual and methodological framework for investigating the expected value of sample information (evsi), as well as an efficient tool for empirical application. Although a few approximations have been used, the results provide an estimate of evsi and indicate the need for additional information.
From weed to wealth? Prospects for medic pastures in the Mediterranean farming system of north‐west Syria
Authors: Nordblom Thomas L. , Pannell David J. , Christiansen Scott , Nersoyan Nerses , Bahhady Faik 
Published: January 2020

AbstractMedic (Medicago spp.) pastures are widely grown in rotation with dryland cereal crops in Mediterranean climate zones of Australia. Attempts since the 1960's to introduce this system to Mediterranean west Asia and north Africa (the native region of medic) have not lead to significant adoption; farmers in the region recognize medic, but as a weed and natural pasture plant. This first detailed economic evaluation of the rotational medic system was conducted using a whole‐farm linear programming model based on the agricultural system of north‐west Syria. The model represents in detail impacts of rotation on yields, labor requirements of alternative farm activities, availability of family and hired labor, subsistence income requirements, livestock feed sources and uses at different times and a choice of sheep stocking rates. Biological data for the analysis are based on a large six‐year cropping and grazing experiment near Aleppo on terra‐rossa soil with rainfall mainly in winter and averaging about 330 mm annually. The trial compared a dryland medic‐wheat system and traditional two‐year rotations of wheat with: fallow, watermelon, lentil and vetch. Results indicate that, given current prices and yields from the trial, medic is less profitable than traditional rotations. The model was used to investigate situations in which medic would be economically preferred. Selection of a medic rotation by the model was found to be particularly sensitive to the area of the farm and the price of labor. On small farms, labor availability per hectare is high, favouring the production of labor intensive crops such as lentil and watermelon. On larger farms, labor costs of these enterprises are substantial, increasing the relative profitability of medic, especially if labor prices increase. Interestingly, the relative desirability of medic is more sensitive to its impact on subsequent wheat crops than to the level of pasture production. We also found that modest increases in the prices of sheep products (especially milk) have a major impact on the economic performance of medic. These insights will allow improved focusing and targeting of future research and extension activities.
Impacts of official development assistance on agricultural growth, savings and agricultural imports
Authors: Kherallah Mylène W. , Beghin John C. , Peterson E. Wesley F. , Ruppel Fred J. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThis paper explores the links between development assistance, agricultural output growth and imports in 56 developing economies over the period 1974–1990. The empirical model treats agricultural growth and imports, savings and aid as endogenous. The analysis also accounts for differences in macroeconomic policies. The results show that aid had a positive impact on agricultural growth. A robust relationship exits between aid and agricultural imports consistent with the argument that aid helps industrialized countries through market expansion and strengthened trade ties.
Farmers and the U.S. Congress: rethinking basic institutional assumptions about agricultural policy
Authors: Browne William P. , Paik Won K. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractAn assumption shared by most agricultural economists is that, as farm numbers decline in a democratic government, farm policy attention from rule‐makers will decline as well. This assumption – despite important work to the contrary in institutional economics – is often voiced in federated governing units, especially the U.S., where constituents are locally organized and the commitment of rule‐makers to nationwide policy is limited. While significant theoretical literature challenges that majoritarian view from the perspective of interest‐group theory, this is the first empirical test and explanation of the behavior of rule‐makers.The findings of this analysis indicate that classic majoritarian expectations are not met in the U.S. Congress. Instead, unexpectedly large numbers of legislators seek favorable policy action for farmers as distinct minorities within their districts. However, these same legislators balance their attention to farmers by also taking policy action in agriculture on behalf of other types of constituents. Legislators explain these actions as the result of their own electoral needs to satisfy vocal minorities from their political districts plus the ease with which they can marginally adjust a large base of U.S. farm programs. Thus, a kind of neo‐majoritarianism emerges.These results are especially important given the growing attention to federated governance in the European Union, East Europe, in North America through free trade agreements, and with the GATT. They indicate that farmers will continue, despite shrinking numbers, to be influential in those governing structures that have historically strong farm programs and the capacity to diversify from that policy base.
Impacts of FFW on nutrition in rural Kenya
Authors: Athanasios Athanasenas , Bezuneh Mesfin , Deaton Brady J. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractAssessing the impacts of Food‐for‐Work (FFW) on human capital formation depends on understanding the specific nutritional contributions of FFW to the overall diet of FFW participant households. However, empirical studies in this area are very scant. This paper is an attempt to fill such gap. The primary objectives are to measure the magnitude of the FFW contribution to participants' nutritional status. Primary data collected from a random sample of 300 farm‐households in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya are used. A linear programming model is used to estimate the shadow prices of nutrients. These prices are then entered into an econometric model of consumer demand for nutrients in order to estimate own and cross‐price elasticities for each nutrient component.The results indicate that FFW significantly improves the nutritional status of FFW participant households. More specifically, participants experienced an implicit income gain, which resulted in a significant nutritional improvement. The poorest FFW participant households exhibited even higher nutritional gains (32.46%) than those participants from relatively higher income groups. FFW participant households showed a 90% higher propensity to spend on nutrients than the non‐FFW participants. The findings of this study are expected to assist in the design of future ‘targeted’ food aid projects.
Equity and efficiency considerations in area versus individual yield insurance
Authors: Turvey Calum G. , Islam Zahirul 
Published: January 2020

AbstractEquity and efficiency considerations in area versus individual crop insurance are investigated for 609 Ontario cash crop farms. Results show that the relationship between individual and area premiums and risk reduction are explained by systematic and non‐systematic yield risk relationships. On average, area insurance premiums are much lower than individual yield insurance premiums, and in terms of efficiency in risk‐reduction individual plans are superior to area plans. As it turns out arguments of asymmetric information which has lead some researchers to investigate area vs. individual yield insurance is not totally resolved. Inequities in the benefits of area plans across farmers are not equitably distributed, favouring high‐risk producers. Adverse selection causes instability in the pooled contracts which will ultimately cause area insurance plans to fail.
Returns from research in economies with policy distortions: hybrid sorghum in Sudan
Authors: Ahmed Mohamed M. , Masters William A. , Sanders John H. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractConventional estimates of the economic return to agricultural research use market prices for the values of products and inputs; on this basis, economic rates of return are typically well above the cost of capital, suggesting that more investment in research would be socially desirable. But these estimates may be incorrect if, as is often the case, market prices are distorted by market failures or government policies and hence do not reflect social values.This paper presents a simple, partial‐equilibrium methodology with which to improve the measurement of social returns to research by taking account of multiple distortions in the market prices of products, inputs and foreign exchange. The method also takes account of variation in domestic and world prices, making a product tradable in some years and nontradable in others. The method is applied to the case of Hageen‐Dura 1 (HD‐1), Sub‐Saharan Africa's first commercially successful hybrid sorghum.HD‐1 was released in the Sudan in 1983. From the start of research in 1979 to 1992, the HD‐1 breeding program had an estimated IRR of 97% when all major policies in the sorghum market, the fertilizer market, and the exchange rate are taken into account. The high rate of return to HD‐1 research was due to the program's low cost and rapid payoff, pointing to the potential value of small adaptive research programs, taking full advantage of foreign technology and genetic material to produce locally‐appropriate crosses in a short period of time. Even in the highly distorted economies of Africa, such programs can yield very high payoffs.
Are piglet prices rational hog price forecasts?
Authors: Gjølberg Ole 
Published: January 2020

AbstractIn this paper a simple model is developed in which the piglet price serves as a forecast for the hog price 3 months ahead. The model is tested on data from Northern Europe, viz. Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland during the period 1982‐1992. The empirical results lend strong support to the hypothesis that hog producers hold rational expectations when pricing the piglets. Thus, the weight adjusted piglet price typically represents an unbiased (conditional) forecast with unsystematic errors for the hog price one quarter later.
A study of economic efficiency of Iranian farmers in Ramjerd district: an application of stochastic programming
Authors: Torkamani Javad , Hardaker J. Brian 
Published: January 2020

AbstractAn extension of utility‐efficient programming to the non‐linear discrete stochastic programming method was developed and used in the analysis of the economic efficiency of a sample of farmers in Iran. The results indicate that it would be feasible to increase substantially farmers' total net revenue by increasing their economic efficiency in terms of technical and allocative efficiencies. The study further suggested that risk aversion plays an important role in farmers' behaviour. The sample farmers are risk averse and hence are likely to trade higher expected profits for lower risk. Understanding this characteristic is important for interventions intended to raise farm productivity and efficiency.
Farmers' time allocation between farm work and off‐farm work and the importance of unobserved group effects: evidence from Israeli cooperatives
Authors: Kimhi Ayal 
Published: January 2020

AbstractAgricultural cooperatives differ in many attributes which affect members' farm and off‐farm earnings in different ways. As a result, time allocation patterns between farm work and off‐farm work will vary significantly across cooperatives. Participation equations in farm work and off‐farm work of farmers who are members of Israeli moshavim are estimated jointly, including a cooperative‐specific factor in each equation. The fixed effects are found to be significant and important, but can be only partly explained by observed cooperative attributes. This provides another support to the Monte Carlo results of Borjas and Sueyoshi, that controlling for group effects is superior to alternative models. The results also imply that unobserved factors have considerable effects on farmers' time allocation, and hence should be controlled for whenever possible.
Analysis of USA‐European Community oilseeds agreements
Authors: Ames Glenn C.W. , Gunter Lewell , Davis Claudia D. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractIn 1986, the American Soybean Association filed a Section 301 petition under the Trade Act of 1974, alleging that European Community oilseed subsidies nullified and impaired benefits of previous trade concessions, specifically the tariff binding of 1962. Two bilateral trade agreements were negotiated to remedy the dispute, the Blair House Agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding on Oilseeds. The impacts of these trade agreements were simulated using a three‐region trade model. Results indicated that neither supply constraints nor penalties for overproduction will contribute to a recovery of USA soybean exports to the EC.En 1986, la Société Américaine de Soya avait envoyé une petition de la Section 301 d'Accord de Commerce de 1974, alléguant que les subventions pour les graines d'huile de la Communauté Europeénne avail empéche de faire des bénéfices sur les anciennes concessions commerciales, surtout le tarif limitant de 1962. Deux accords bilatéraux avaient été négociés pour arranger la dispute, l'Agreement du Blair House et le Memorandum sur la Compréhension des graines d'huile. Les effets de ces accords ont été simulés en utilisant un modéle commercial de trois regions. Les resultats indiquent que ni les contraintes d'offre, ni les penalités de surplus de production aideront a la récupération des exportations américaines vers la Communauté Europeenne.
Framing the Allais paradox as a daily farm decision problem: tests and explanations
Authors: Finkelshtain Israel , Feinerman Eli 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe well‐known Allais paradox is reformulated as a daily farm decision problem. Only 26% of the farmers exhibit violations of the expected utility hypothesis. Moreover, the tendency for violation decreases with the farm operator's education, experience and family size. No effects of the farm main crop or its scale were detected. Finally, when taking into account the possibility of choice errors, we find that the violation rate is statistically insignificant.
The economic and financial gains from water markets in Chile
Authors: Hearne Robert R. , Easter K. William 
Published: January 2020

AbstractChile is one of the few countries that has encouraged the use of markets in water resource management. In order to assess the impact of water markets and transactions costs in Chile, four river valleys, the Maipo, Elqui, Limarí, and the Azapa were selected as case studies. Transactions from the Elqui and Limarí valleys, during the years 1986 to 1993, were analyzed to determine the gains‐from‐trade from market transfers.In the economic and financial analysis of water markets, crop budgets were used to estimate the value of water in agricultural production. The value of water‐use rights to urban water‐supply companies was estimated using the avoided cost of an alternative investment in a water‐storage reservoir. The analysis demonstrated that the market transfer of water‐use rights does produce substantial economic gains‐from‐trade in both the Elqui and Limarí Valleys. These economic gains produce rents for both buyers and sellers. But buyers, especially farmers growing profitable crops who buy water‐use rights and individuals buying water‐use rights for potable water supply, receive higher rents then sellers. Large table‐grape producers in the Limarí Valley and individuals buying water for human consumption in the Elqui Valley received the highest rents. In the Elqui Valley net gains‐from‐trade per share were within the range of recent transfer prices of US$1000. In the Limarí Valley, gains‐from‐trade per share are 3.4 times the recent prices of US$3000 for a share of water from the Cogotí Reservoir.Where trading was active, especially in the Limarí Valley, transactions costs have not presented an appreciable barrier to trading. Nonetheless, in the large canal systems with fixed flow dividers in the Elqui and Maipo Valley there have been very few transactions. Various factors contribute to the lack of trading, but the absence of trading in these large canal systems highlights the costs of modifying fixed infrastructure, especially for trades between farmers.
Stochastic dominance analysis of on‐farm‐trial data: The riskiness of alternative phosphate sources in Burkina Faso
Authors: Hien Victor , Kaboré Daniel , Youl Sansan , Lowenberg‐DeBoer J. 
Published: January 2020

AbstractStochastic dominance was used to determine the risk characteristics of phosphate fertilization of millet, sorghum and maize with commercial NPK fertilizer, rock phosphate and partially acidulated rock phosphate in Burkina Faso. On‐farm‐trial data from 1989, 1990 and 1991 in three rainfall zones was used.The analysis shows that among the four treatments tested, commercial NPK fertilizer has the most desirable risk characteristics. It is acceptable to risk averse decision makers for all three crops in all rainfall zones. The no‐fertilizer control is dominated by the fertilizer treatments. The rock phosphate treatments have higher yields and in certain cases higher returns than the no fertilizer control, but those benefits are less sure than for the soluble commercial fertilizer. The distributions of cash returns to rock phosphate treatments are rarely significantly different from those of the control. Rock phosphate treatments never dominate the commercial fertilizer treatment. If farmers have a choice between commercial fertilizer, rock phosphate and partially acidulated rock phosphate, at current prices most of those who use fertilizer would choose the soluble commercial product. If the availability of commercial fertilizer were limited (e.g. by lack of hard currency), some farmers would use rock phosphate—especially the partially acidulated product.Stochastic dominance permitted a timely and detailed analysis of risk inherent in phosphate fertilizer alternatives. Because on‐farm‐trails involve a modest number of alternatives, pairwise stochastic dominance comparisons are feasible. The stochastic dominance analysis permits researchers to communicate to extension staff and policymakers not only the degree of risk, but also something about the characteristics of the crop response that contribute to risk. The key to effective use of stochastic dominance is careful study of the distributions and understanding why a technology is dominated or is potentially acceptable to risk averse decisionmakers.
The estimation of marginal utility of income for application to agricultural policy analysis
Authors: Blue E. Neal , Tweeten Luther 
Published: January 2020

AbstractA quality‐of‐life index (QLI), a proxy measure of utility, is constructed by factor‐weighted and simple‐summation weighted aggregation of socio‐psychological measures of well‐being. The socio‐psychological measures were constructed from quality of life domains taken from selected years of the General Social Surveys [General Social Surveys, 1972–1993: Cumulative Code Book. Principal Investigator, James A. Davis; Director and Co‐Principal Investigator, Tom W. Smith — Chicago: National Opinion Research Center, 1993. (National Data Program for the Social Sciences Series, no. 13).]. The Quality of Life Indices (QLI) indices are regressed on selected socio‐demographic variables using quadratic. Cobb‐Douglas, square root, and semilog functional forms. QLI is much influenced by income, education, and health. As measured here, QLI is not much influenced by year of measurement, sector, or by region of residence. Much variability in the QLI is unique to individuals, and our results are suited to predict group, rather than individual well being. Practitioners computing the benefit–cost ratio for a public program, project, or policy can weight dollars by income groups with marginal utilities derived from this study. That methodology will matter: even the ‘conservative’ quadratic equation indicates that the marginal utility of income (MUI) for families with very low incomes is half as large as for families with median incomes.
Agricultural trade liberalization: growth, welfare and large country effects
Authors: Parikh Kirit S. , Narayana N.S.S. , Panda Manoj , Kumar A. Ganesh 
Published: January 2020

AbstractThe impacts of trade liberalization for India have been examined with an applied general equilibrium model with nine agricultural actors, one non‐tradeable nonagriculture sector and one tradeable nortagriculture sector and with live rural and live urban expenditure classes. Different scenarios are generated using the model. Since comparison of GDP in two alternative scenarios can be misleading, the policy alternatives are assessed on the basis of their impact on welfare in terms of equivalent incomes of different expenditure classes. A policy is assessed preferable only when the distribution of welfare is found to be preferable in a well defined way. It demonstrates the importance of accounting for large country effects in rice trade and estimates the welfare optimal tariff/quota for rice exports for India—which is shown to be just half a million tons of net export of rice. The results also show that nonagricultural trade liberalization is even more important for agriculture than even agricultural trade liberalization, both of which help accelerate growth.