The Indonesian government has used oil palm as a major tool of rural socio-economic improvement, doing this through 'nucleus estates' operated by estate companies and through assisting individual smallholdings. The initiatives have together raised the incomes of more than 500,000 farmers, and...

AGRICULTURE IN ITS COMMON PARLENCE INCLUDES PRODUCTION, RESEARCH AND TRAINING IN THE FIELDS OF CROPS, FORESTRY, FISHING AND LIVESTOCK. NIGERIAN AGRICULTURE WAS CHARACTERIZED BY LOW FARM INCOMES; LOW CAPACITY LEVEL TO SATISFY FOOD AND FIBRE NEEDS OF THE COUNTRY, AND PRIMITIVE TECHNIQUES OF...

The objective of this paper is to work out some fundamental dynamic effects on agricultural structure, farm incomes, and efficiency that result from decoupled income payments, the transfer of payments together with a progressive payment cut. To do so, we apply the agent-based model AgriPoliS...

The term “cheap food policy” has frequently been used as a descriptor for U.S. commodity programs by those who contend these payments to farmers ultimately result in lower food costs for consumers. More recently, farm policy has been criticized for contributing to the obesity problem in the...

This paper discusses issues raised for OECD agricultural and agriculture-related policies by the policy coherence for development perspective. These issues are organised in a five-fold typology covering OECD domestic agricultural policy, agricultural trade policy, regulatory policies,...

Developing countries can produce sugar at much lower cost than in the EU, yet reform of the EU sugar policy will result in both winners and losers among them. This is because the EU is both an exporter and importer of sugar. Sugar policy reform will mean a reduction in EU sugar production,...

Biotechnology has had an important impact on the agricultural and food industries over the last twelve years by way of fast and extensive adoption of a few genetically modified (GM) crops. This has produced large efficiency gains, including higher yields and reduced costs of weed and pest...

Based on an econometric analysis of the data obtained from a survey of meat plants (n=53 ) in Iowa in summer 2007, this paper identifies the factors impacting the meat plants’ voluntary adoption of forward and backward traceability activities. The results suggest that the ownership type...

The United States is a large net exporter of corn seeds. Seed trade, including that of corn, has been expanding, but its determinants are not well understood. This paper econometrically investigates the determinants of world demand for U.S. corn seeds with a detailed analysis of trade costs...