The key resource in efficient production is the management input used to coordinate the land, labour and capital. Yet, our understanding of this resource is still somewhat limited, especially the factors involved in improving the managerial ability of farmers. This paper summarises three tests...

There is wide interest in both management circles and service industries in forecasts of the future uptake of computers on farm and horticultural businesses. Similarly, knowledge of how computer owning managers are utilizing them is of interest. From a 1992/93 postal survey of a stratified...

Survey information in most countries shows very clearly that farmers achieve a wide range of profitability levels. Some of the variation will be due to farmers having different goals and objectives, but a significant proportion will also be due to variations in managerial skill. If even modest...

Efficiency has been proven to be an important managerial tool in improving total factor productivity in agriculture. The four sources of economic inefficiency: allocative, technical, pure technical and scale inefficiency of a sample of seventy-six Nepalese rice farmers were examined using the...

A data envelopment analysis of a sample of 76 Nepalese rice farmers reveals average relative economic, allocative, technical, pure technical and scale inefficiencies as 34, 13, 24, 18 and 7 per cent, respectively. The significant variations in the level of inefficiency across sample farms are...

A method of determining mutually applicable supply functions, using the simplex method of linear programming, for products required in some kind of fixed proportion is outlined. The technique involves estimating the horizontal segments of a step supply function, i.e. the marginal cost function,...

A data envelopment analysis of a sample of 76 Nepalese rice farmers reveals average relative economic, allocative, technical, pure technical and scale inefficiencies as 34, 13, 24, 18 and 7 per cent, respectively. The significant variations in the level of inefficiency across sample farms are...