The potential of agricultural biotechnology to produce seed traits that reduce yield risk generates widespread excitement. Hopes are high that in an era of tightening water constraints and climate change drought tolerant (DT) crop varieties will stabilize food production and allow for greater...

Much of the world's agricultural productivity growth over the past fifty years has been attributed to the international spillover of benefits from research and develop- ment (Alston, 2002). Because the impact of these spillovers often varies with distance, geography, and climate, attention has...

This study investigates the factors that impact the duration of trade relationships in U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable imports. We employ both the survival analysis (KM estimates and Cox PH model) as well as a count data model. The preliminary results indicate that SPS treatment requirements...

Productive utilization of resources has enabled American agriculture to supply the nation with vast quantities of food at a high level of efficiency. However, the USDA shows that 2011 pesticide expenses increased by about $100 million resulting from a slight increase of planted acres and a...

This paper investigates the effect of land fragmentation on farm efficiency in Kosovo utilising agricultural household survey data. To recognise heterogeneity among agricultural production systems in Kosovo, we estimate the technology separately for different groups or “classes” of farms,...

There is a large literature which investigates the relationship between market concentration and innovation. It is difficult to find a suitable measure for innovative output. We use a rich dataset based on university trials of corn hybrids to estimate, using fixed effects, a production function....

This study analyzes the implications of increasing population density in Kenya’s rural areas on smallholder production and commercialization. Using data from five panel surveys on 1,146 small-scale farms over the 1997-2010 period, we use econometric techniques to determine how increasing rural...