Plant import inspection can prevent the introduction of exotic pests and diseases, thereby averting economic losses. We explore the optimal allocation of a fixed budget, taking into account risk differentials, and the optimal-sized budget to minimise total pest costs. A partial-equilibrium...

This paper examines control measures for improving food safety in the dairy chain, using an integer linear programming model. The chain includes feed (compound feed production and delivery), farm (dairy farm) and dairy processing (transport and processing of raw milk, delivery of pasteurised...

This paper estimates the technical and marketing inefficiency of a sample of urban vegetable producers in Benin. Marketing inefficiency is defined as the failure of farmers to achieve better marketing output and is reflected in lower output price indices. The study proposes a Russell-type...

This paper analyzes technical efficiency and the value of the marginal product of productive inputs vis-a-vis pesticide use to measure allocative efficiency of pesticide use along productive inputs. We employ the data envelopment analysis framework and marginal cost techniques to estimate...