This paper determines the degree or extent of farmer’s risk aversion that affects sustainable maize production in Northern Nigeria. Using a ridge regression analysis, a measure of risk aversion was derived for each individual farmer in a model of safety-first behaviour from a cross-sectional...

Pests and diseases caused by bacteria, nematodes, fungi and viruses cause significant losses to tomato in West Africa. This study, carried-out within the framework of the IPM-CRSP implemented jointly by IITA, IER and Virginia Tech. and State University, assesses farmers’ perceptions on tomato...

The maize industry in South Africa has a long history of government intervention, fuelled by the two Marketing Acts (of 1937 and 1968). After the introduction of the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act (Act 47 of 1996), farmers were exposed to international maize prices, i.e. to the forces of...

Credit constraint occurs when a farmer cannot increase expenditure on inputs in order to maximize profit due to lack of farm credit or high cost of credit. Farming households are confronted with credit constraint that results in low crop output and profit. Using a non-parametric measure of...

This study tests the null hypothesis that it is sufficient to interview only the household head to obtain accurate information on household income. Results show that using a husband’s estimate of his wife’s income does not produce statistically reliable results for poverty analysis....

Agricultural inputs expenditure has not been widely incorporated in most partial equilibrium models. Moreover, input costs are treated exogenous and the recursive link between input and output side of the sector is overlooked in few of the models that attempts to incorporate input expenditures....

Sustaining and improving production efficiency of resource poor smallholder farmers under the existing credit constraint conditions require the improvement of access to credit facilities and other factors involved. The study examined the factors influencing credit constraint (CC) and production...

The production of biofuels and the establishment of a biofuels industry in South Africa have largely been hampered by the structure, procedures and requirements as set out in the Industrial Biofuel Strategy. This article sketches the industry by means of a game theoretic representation. A model...

Malgré la mise en oeuvre des différentes politiques d’ajustement structurels découlant de l’option du libéralisme économique, l’économie béninoise peine toujours à décoller avec une agriculture à dominance familiale et traditionnelle, subvenant difficilement aux besoins des...