Despite having the second largest livestock population in Africa and favorable climate, the contribution of the livestock, especially the dairy sector to the Ethiopian economy is minimal. The per capita consumption of dairy products of 16 liters is one of the lowest in the world. With increasing...

Breeding can result in more output per unit of inputs as well as improved quality of outputs. A genetic-based technical change component is introduced into the Malmquist index, and productivity growth due to genetic and nongenetic factors is estimated for Icelandic dairy farms with quality...

This paper investigates the effects of network based individual social capital on the access of rural households to services. In the context of development economics, an innovative data collection approach is used to determine network based social capital. The approach originates from the field...

The stochastic metafrontier method is applied to estimate technical efficiency levels in beef cattle production in Kenya. Subsequently, a Tobit model is used to assess factors that might influence efficiency. Results show that the average efficiency level is 0.69, suggesting that there is...

This paper is largely based on a study of Uganda's experience in trying to develop a modern dairy industry in the 1960s and 1970s by importing dairy cattle. In many of the developing countries of Africa, and elsewhere in the world, the drive to import dairy cattle comes from the need to...

Recent low estimates of total factor productivity change for wool producers in the Australian sheep industry indicate that they are struggling to improve their performance. This evidence is at odds with the views of many technical observers of industry performance, prompting us to re-estimate...

Agricultural land use does not only concern farmers, but is of high relevance for the environment. Agri-environmental programmes aim to foster the environmental soundness of agricultural production. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of agri-environmental programmes on the economic...

Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) Triennial Conference, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, 18-24 August, 2012