This article investigates the production efficiency of rice farming in Sri Lanka using cross section survey data of 90 farms. Past studies on rice farming have mostly focused on technical efficiency (TE). Here, we examine technical efficiency, allocative efficiency (AE) and cost efficiency (CE)...

Crop production is the main source of livelihood for households in Northern Ghana. The government is committed to improving crop production and knowledge about the technical efficiency of crop farms is essential in guiding policy decisions. This paper examined the technical efficiency of 189...

Motivated by recent EC proposals to “strengthen risk management tools” in the CAP in relation to farmers’ increased exposure to market price risk, this paper draws attention to a potential negative consequence of such a change in the CAP – an associated increase in cheating behaviour by...

More than two centuries ago in his Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Malthus famously issued his dire prediction that mankind was doomed to survival at a subsistence level. His concept of population growth expanding to absorb the available food supply has been roundly contradicted by...

The study which was conducted in rural communities of Kwara State, Nigeria set to uncover how pastoralists‟ families cope with their livelihoods when their husbands have gone grazing with the cattle. It examined the social and financial coping strategies of their families through Focus group...

Household Income & Expenditure Survey (2006/07) data were used to estimate the impacts of ‘Samurdhi’ – the largest state-sponsored microfinance program in Sri Lanka – on the status of household income, health, education, and food and non-food consumption. Propensity Score Matching was...

On September 23, 2009 much of New South Wales awoke to a strange phenomenon, a huge cloud of red dust, “Red Dawn” the name given by the media to the event. This dust was sourced from the far west and northwest of the state and the Lake Eyre basin, and was lifted by a concurrence of weather...

Slowing productivity growth in the Australian grains industry has led to calls for increasing investment in rural R&D to advance agricultural technology. However, recent research also suggests there is strong potential to increase productivity by enhancing uptake of existing innovations. The...

The global food system and related government policies are in disarray. In response to increasing food prices and greater food price volatility, national governments are pursuing a variety of policies to protect population groups of greatest importance for maintaining government legitimacy. Some...

Despite being a low‐income, agriculture‐based country with a subsistence‐orientation, Laos is in the early stages of a major economic transformation whereby rural households have been experiencing rapid change in their farming and livelihood systems. Some households have engaged in what...