This study assesses the performance of supply chains for two major export crops produced in Nepal (ginger and large cardamom) from a smallholder perspective. It aims to identify factors that constrain marketing choices available to smallholders, limiting the chain’s robustness from their...

This study examined consumer attitudes towards food attributes and origins, alongside consumer’s willingness to pay (WTP) for food certified for these attributes in China, India and the UK. The study used surveys including a choice experiment undertaken in each country. The economic impact of...

This paper explains a short term forecasting approach that uses whole milk powder prices from Fonterra’s globalDairyTrade. The latter provides forward contract prices eight months out from each event. The cumulative impact of up to seven successive events provides reasonable expectations...

Three axioms underpin consumer choice in neoclassical theory: weak order, independence, and continuity. Two of these axioms may not hold, however, for consumers’ choices regarding genetically modified (GM) food. Consumers may evaluate product attributes differently depending on whether the...

Focus groups were held with four pastoral sectors (sheep, dairy, deer, and beef) to investigate intensification strategies available to each sector. Focus groups first identified drivers of intensification in their sector, then identified the strategies they perceived as available, and evaluated...

Stated preference approaches are widely used in non-market valuation. However, their potential uses extend far beyond valuation. In particular they can be used to assess efficiency of resource allocations and to design optimal resource allocations. Changes to the government budget were evaluated...

In many developing countries the composition of rural households is influenced by the migration of adult household members to urban locations in search of employment. Children may be left in the care of their mother alone, or in the care of grandparents when both parents have migrated. Using...

This study examined the economic impact of a wintering barn facility on a dairy farm in the Tararua District, relative to its ability to reduce nitrogen leaching, as a means of achieving Horizon’s proposed nitrogen discharge limit. The analysis showed that the provision of a wintering facility...

This paper is a current draft of my Honours research project, and looks into whether changing economic variables have any predictive power on changing rural land use in recent years. To do this I attempt to answer three questions: 1. Do recent commodity prices have any predictive power on land...

The study examines the importance of community forest resources for income and employment in rural areas of Nepal by studying the effect of current forestry policy on forestland use. Using data from 259 households in six community forest user groups in three hilly districts (Dolakha, Kavre and...