This paper examines the preferred governmental intervention towards crops growing methods in semi-arid regions. These regions are characterized by an average amount of rain which is sufficient to grow the crop but it is also very risky. The farmers' attitude towards risk motivates the government...

Pesticides are used as the primary method of pest control in Asian rice production. Conditions in China have led to demand for high and increasing rice yields, resulting in intensive cultivation and adoption of fertilizer responsive varieties. The consequence has been widespread pest...

This paper investigates the technical efficiency of two samples of maize producers in eastern Ethiopia, one involving farmers within the Sasakawa-Global 2000 project and the other involving farmers outside this program. The study uses stochastic frontier production functions in which the...

This paper reports the results of a study undertaken to estimate the economic impact in developing countries of efforts by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to breed leaf rust resistant spring bread wheat varieties since 1973. The challenge in estimating these...

In this paper, a model of the nitrogen cycle in the soil is incorporated in a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model of the Tanzanian economy, thus establishing a two-way link between the environment and the economy. For a given level of natural soil productivity, profit-maximising farmers...

This article draws together results from farm efficiency studies in six Central and East European countries that are part of the EU enlargement process. The main questions addressed concern whether there is a clear superiority of one organisational type, namely, family farms, over corporate...

A quality-of-life index (QLI), a proxy measure of utility, is constructed by factor-weighted and simple-summation weighted aggregation of socio-psychological measures of well-being. The socio-psychological measures were constructed from quality of life domains taken from selected years of the...

This paper empirically analyzes the relationship between Pakistan's industrial and agricultural sectors. Pakistan was chosen because of its status of a semi-industrialized country with heavy dependence on the agricultural sector. The relationship between cotton production and industrial growth...

Managerial efficiency for broiler producers in Saudi Arabia is generally difficult to achieve. High investment costs coupled with relatively high average production costs and the consequent incompetent market prices, have resulted in projects either working at less than full capacity or being...

A meta-analysis is perfonned to review empirical estimates of technical efficiency (TE) in developing country agriculture. The objective of the study is to contribute to a better understanding of the factors that influence estimates of mean TE. A data set of 51 observations of TE from 32 studies...