Adoption of agricultural production technologies in developing countries is influenced by a wide range of economic and social factors as well as physical and technical aspects of farming and the risk attitude of farmers. It is important to understand the role of these factors to ensure the...

Trees can be considered as investments made by economic agents to prevent depreciation of natural assets such as stocks of top soil and water. In agroforestry systems farmers use trees in this manner by deliberately combining them with agricultural crops on the same unit of land. Although...

Weed control decisions are modeled in an endogenous risk framework where a producer invests in self-insurance and self-protection to reduce the severity of a realized pest infestation, or reduce the likelihood the infestation occurs. Self-insurance and self-protection are risk-reducing...

This paper attempts to explain the perplexing tendency to multiple leasing by both landlords and tenants in some countries. It shows that if the negotiation of share contracts involves significant transaction costs and there is some uncertainty regarding the output on tenanted plots, a...

Most agriculture in the Sahel Region is carried out under rainfed conditions where low and uncertain soil moisture levels limit productivity. Improved soil, water and crop management practices are required to reverse the steady decline in per capita food production and sustain output over the...

This paper investigates patterns of soil conservation adoption among low-income farmers in the Philippines. A model is presented that focuses attention on the role of assets and consumption risk in influencing soil conservation adoption decisions. Results from a reduced-form probit model of...

Chile's fruit sector, both in production and exports, has grown significantly since 1974. At that time, Chile introduced structural reforms in its economy which assured that market principles would operate regarding land ownership. Also, the government began a 'hands-off' policy which basically...

During economic development, agriculture declines as a proportion of aggregate national output. A number of theoretical explanations for this phenomenon have been advanced in the economic literature, but their relative historical significance has not been clear. This paper develops an...

A theory of settlement planning focussing on village-level production services is presented, and settlement plans are compared. The analysis draws on the modern theory of local public goods. Conditions for optimal level of services and optimum settlement size are derived, together with rules of...

The Armington procedure (AP) has become increasingly popular in agricultural trade analyses. However, some arguments have arisen concerning the relevance of using the procedure for such analyses. This study examines the assumptions commonly made when using the Armington procedure and suggests...