An unusually detailed sample of large farms in Rostov, Ivanovo and Nizhny Novgorod regions of Russia in 2001 allows micro-economic examination of the production of grain and sunflower crops on Russian farms. Farms are found to have some excess capital and labour, but not land and other types of...

Studies show that cereal diversity positively affects mean yields, suggesting increased crop diversity as a means of increasing production (Di Falco and Chavas 2009, Baumgärtner and Quaas 2010). In practice though, agricultural development has relied on nondiverse systems. Using the Ethiopian...

Quality control can happen at the farm level. However, adoption of better agricultural practices largely depends on the availability of appropriate technology, the introduction of improved varieties, and farmers’ awareness and training

Using a threshold vector error correction model approach we find the wheat market of Russia segmented, with the primary grain export region poorly integrated into the domestic market. Results also indicate that trade costs are high, hindering spatial market efficiency of wheat markets in Russia....

In August the Soviet government agreed to the second one-year extension of the US-USSR grain agreement, which has regulated grain trade between the two countries since 1976. Although a net exporter of grain for the best part of this century, the USSR has become increasingly dependent on imports...