In this paper, we assess the potential for rehabilitation of comparative analysis under its new guise of benchmarking. After a brief description of comparative analysis, we discuss the deficiencies that surrounded its fall in reputation: neglect of economic principles, limited scope for action,...

Technical efficiency, scale and scope economies, marginal productive contributions for inputs and outputs, and efficiency drivers were determined for the Southeastern U.S meat goat enterprise. The average technical efficiency was 0.88. We find increasing returns to scale and scope economies for...

Agriculture production in the Texas High Plains is highly dependent on climate especially with the decline in water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. There is increasing pressure on the Ogallala Aquifer as a result of an increase in population and expansion of agricultural production. The decline...

We estimate a production function for U.S. dairy farming to examine the productivity of organic and non-organic dairy production by system and size. Across organic/non-organic systems and size classes, size is the major determinant of competitiveness based on various measures of productivity and...

Grass-fed beef cost and returns survey data from 2012 were analyzed to measure technical efficiency of GFB farms in the U.S. We found all inputs with expected signs. The average technical efficiency of GFB was 70% and the farms are operating with increasing returns to scale.

Impacts on Australian agriculture of projected climate change are likely to be spatially and temporally diverse, with many regions likely to experience increased downside risk in agricultural production. Some regions, such as south-west Australia, are projected to be particularly at risk of...

The objective of this study is to assess the technical efficient frontier of rice farms using input-oriented data envelopment analysis. The frontier represents the minimum applicable level of efficiency of inputs given the current level of yields, technologies, and managerial ability among the...

Transgenic pest-resistant varieties are hypothesized to reduce farmers’ demand for on-farm diversity through an act of substitution, as both serve as production risk reducing instruments. This adverse agro-biodiversity impact of technology adoption might be partially counteracted by an...

The island of Bali is one of the main cattle producing areas for Indonesia. Bali is also known for its extensive tourist sector. Frozen and chilled beef are imported to fulfil the tourist demand. This imported beef, most of it from Australia, competes with the local beef in the tourist sector....