This paper is part of the first author´s dissertation (Master degree).

Crop residue use for soil mulch and animal feed are the two major competing purposes and the basic source of fundamental challenge in conservation agriculture (CA) where residue retention on farm plots is one of the three CA principles. Using survey data from Kenya and applying bivariate ordered...

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...

The high agricultural process of the Argentine humid pampas forces the intensification and relocation of cattle and dairy systems into subhumid and semiarid region to keep their competitiveness. In consequence, there is an increasing water demand scenario in these fragile areas in relation with...

Researchers and policymakers increasingly recognize that the livestock sector supports the livelihoods of a large proportion of rural households in most African countries and may have an important role to play in rural poverty reduction strategies. In order to develop this insight, economywide...

We develop conceptual and process simulation models to determine the probability of a recall and predict its size. We compare the costs of recalls with and without traceability for a ten year planning horizon by simulating the expected recalls caused by Escherichia coli O157:H7 contamination for...

The United States is the third largest consumer of seafood products in the world. The percentage of imported seafood consumed in the U.S. has steadily increased from 66% in 1999 to over 84% in 2009 (NOAA, 2012). Food safety, especially of imported foods and products from developing countries,...

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...