A non-neutral stochastic distance function model is used to examine whether output specialization has an impact on the economic performance of vegetable producers in Benin. Specialization is assumed to have an effect on the production frontier and on the distance to the production frontier...

A procedure is developed to examine the ex-post impacts of improved maize varieties on poverty in rural Ethiopia. Yield and cost effects of adoption are estimated econometrically under assumptions of both homogeneous and heterogeneous treatment effects. A backward derivation procedure is...

Changes in productivity are usually associated With technology At the firm level, this is a natural way to think about productivity. However, in aggregate analysis, measures of productivity can change even when technology does not The measures change when the proportions of farms in stable...

A decomposition model has been used to measure sources of individual and aggregate crop output growth between 1967-70 and 1981-84. Growth in output has been attributed to changes in area, yield and area-yield interaction and the area effect has been further attributed to changes in net area,...

This paper examines the theoretical and practical aspects of natural resource use in the poor tropics given limited technological and policy intervention. Results show that if farmers were to reallocate their land use activities based on land suitability, and utilize between 10-20% of their farm...

In developing country production environment, farm production efficiency is often measured in terms of on-farm resources and producer characteristics. In this paper we postulate that input and output market related factors also influence farm production decisions hence its efficiency. Stochastic...

Agricultural intensification in West Africa is in its early stages and several hypotheses have been postulated about its evolution and possible pathways. In addition, farm efficiency may vary across farms and other socio-economic domains, opening opportunities to improve efficiency and...