bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
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

AbstractIn 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

AbstractWith 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

AbstractIn 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

AbstractThe 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

AbstractAnalysis 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

AbstractThe 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

AbstractThis 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

AbstractThis 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

AbstractTime 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

AbstractThe 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

AbstractThis 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

AbstractThis 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

AbstractRecent 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

AbstractWeed 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

AbstractRecent 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

AbstractA 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

AbstractThe 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

AbstractAgricultural 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

AbstractPreferences 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

AbstractLimiting 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

AbstractThe 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.