During the 2004 food crisis in Niger, the weakness of the main production system, millet, to produce enough food to sustain short term crises, has been revealed. Questions arise how the Nigerian smallholder systems can be assisted by research and development policies to intensify production and...

Public agricultural research has come under increasing pressure to redefine its strategic priorities to contribute to poverty alleviation goals. However, the issue of whether the poor benefit more from agricultural research that pursues efficiency or equity objectives remains unresolved, largely...

During the 2004 food crisis in Niger, the weakness of the main production system, millet, to produce enough food to sustain short term crises, has been revealed. Questions arise how the Nigerian smallholder systems can be assisted by research and development policies to intensify production and...

The transition out of extreme poverty and hunger in agrarian economies requires an understanding of how new agricultural technologies are adopted by poor farmers. In Uganda, improved germplasm from the cassava breeding program has generated new varieties that are increasingly being grown by...

We analyse the impacts of the CAP reforms on the technical efficiency of the crop farms. We use an output distance function and an inefficiency effects model which incorporates the influences of exogenous variables on farm efficiency. We formulate policy variables (e.g. the CAP subsidies) and...

Standard deterministic analysis of agricultural and biofuel policies can yield incomplete or misleading results. Stochastic analysis is especially important when policies have asymmetric effects and when there is intrinsic interest in uncommon events or the distribution of possible outcomes. The...

An important approach to reducing persistent technical inefficiency is through technical change. This paper considers the case of genetically modified crop production. A stochastic frontier approach is used to examine how a drastic change from non-GM to GM technology effects the position of the...

The challenges posed by food security for populations in sub-Saharan Africa and the fact that extensive production systems are reaching their limits in food-producing agriculture imply accelerating technological innovation toward ecological intensification of agricultural production systems. A...

The new EU Animal Health Strategy suggests a shift in emphasis away from control towards prevention and surveillance activities for the management of threats to animal health. The optimal combination of these actions will differ among diseases and depend on largely unknown and uncertain costs...