: In recent years Chinese rapeseed production has undergone significant changes. In order to explain this evolution, this article focuses on analyzing gross margin ratios and labour cost for rapeseed and wheat which is found to be the major competing crop from a grower’s perspective. An...

The New Zealand Government is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol which provides incentive for it to reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The sheep industry is a significant contributor to the total GHG in New Zealand. It also has widespread use of selection index technology which...

Vihiga, one of the poorest and densely populated districts in Kenya is perpetually food deficit. Poor welfare indicators and resource base continue to curtail efforts to circumvent food insecurity among households in the district. In their current financial status, what are their preferences...

Researchers have identified a number of drivers of innovative capacity in rural areas such as farmers’ participation in social and commercial networks; farmers’ participation in collaborative alliances; farmers’ level of education; and farm-size. The present article extends...

In 2001, Lincoln University and six commercial, education and research partners established a 161 hectare dairy farm (milking platform) and formed the South Island Dairy Development Centre (SIDDC) to demonstrate ‘best practice’ for South Island dairy farmers. In 2008, to assess the...

The paper presents an approach for deriving repair and maintenance factors intended to indicate the accumulated repair and maintenance costs for agricultural machines. In a two-stage approach, an annual ‘repair and maintenance cost’ function is estimated and afterwards aggregated...

It is a significant challenge to be successful farming in Canada today. In an ever-changing and increasingly competitive global environment, the Canadian agricultural industry faces the impacts of international competition and trade negotiations, evolving regulations, climate change, shifting...

With increasing political pressure to produce more food whilst being environmentally and socially considerate, alongside the need to cope with climatic extremes and financial instability, farming needs to become more sustainable. To monitor and improve understanding of sustainable agriculture,...

Ireland’s dairy sector is characterised by pastoral spring-calving systems and seasonal milk production at national level. This production seasonality initiates various implications at processor level, such as poor plant capacity utilisation off-peak season or a requirement for seasonal...

Risk management is gaining importance in agriculture. In addition to traditional instruments, new risk management instruments are increasingly being proposed. These proposals include the rent adjustment clauses (RACs), which seem to be an unusual instrument at first sight. In contrast with...