Few efficiency studies, to date, have been conducted for Central Asian countries. This article fills the gap in the literature by conducting a frontier efficiency analysis using survey data obtained from the cotton producing farms in North-western Uzbekistan. The results of the restricted...

Collection of wild non-timber forest products may improve the livelihoods of communities through their direct consumption or marketing. Gum arabic is one of these products by ‘Acacia senegal’ trees that are found in Kenya. It is a source of additional income for rural households. The study...

This paper attempts to estimate overall inefficiency of the sample of vegetable farms in Uzbekistan. Using the duality between the directional input distance function (DIDF) and the cost function, the study reports allocative inefficiency scores in addition to technical inefficiency in the...

In interlocked contractual relationships traders' supplies of inputs and cash to producers during the growing season is reimbursed with harvests. This study analyses interlocking contracts in gum arabic production in Senegal. Gum arabic is a natural exudation of Acacia senegal trees that grow in...

Apart from the difficulty to attract new members, leakage of sales outside the cooperative is a major challenge for the coffee cooperatives in Rwanda. Local (independent) traders still constitute a major market for coffee producers. Yet, cooperatives also accept the produce from non-members and...