This paper develops a model to explain farmers’ decision to move from agricultural activities to forestry. Farmers in Ireland have strong links with land and are reluctant to enter into forestry even when the returns from it exceed those from farming. This paper examines whether the reluctance among farmers to plant forestry originates in the nature of forestry investment, which is characterise...

Economic models of land allocation may lead to expectations for farmer response that “surprisingly" do not materialize, if market prices fail to reflect the value of farmers' product. “Shadow prices" rather than market prices explain resource allocation better for farmers who attach significant non-market values to their own crops. I extend the theoretical model in Arslan and Taylor (2008) to e...

Contract farming has been subject to intense debates regarding its role in development. Opponents argue that large agribusiness companies generally exploit the low labour costs of smallholders and transfer production risks to farmers, while smallholder farmers are often excluded from contract farming schemes. This means that such schemes result in greater income inequality and social tensions i...

The objective of this study was to determine the economic efficiency of resource utilization in broiler production farms using a nonparametric production function, data envelopment analysis (DEA). Data for the analysis were collected from a cross section of 44 farmers using a multi-stage sampling procedure. In DEA models the farmers that produce their level of output with the least amount of in...

Fifty-one per cent of 110 questionnaires, designed for obtaining information on helminth control practices and management on Thoroughbred stud farms in South Africa, were completed by farmers during 2000. The number of horses per farm included in the questionnaire survey ranged from 15 to 410. Foals, yearlings and adult horses were treated with anthelmintics at a mean of 7.3 +/- 3.0, 6.6 +/- 2....