The purposes of this research were to measure the profit efficiency of sample Irish potato farms and subsequently to explore determinants of profit inefficiency in the Dedza district of Malawi. Flexible Stochastic Profit Frontier Analysis was used to measure profit efficiency. Farmers from 200 randomly selected farmers were interviewed for plot level data. Research results revealed that the ave...

Kenya's national survey data have shown patterns of fertility decline in the more socioeconomically advantaged regions. In the central areas, where urbanization and economic development is the highest, fertility has begun to decline rapidly. The lowest fertility was in Nairobi capital region; the Coast Province also experienced recent fertility decline. Fertility has remained high in the Wester...

During recent years, there has been interest in once-a-day (OAD) milking. A comparison was made of OAD with twice-a-day (TAD) milking on a case study farm in northern Victoria. The comparison suggests that operating profit and internal rate of return are similar to TAD milking if the decrease in milk protein plus fat production, as a result of OAD milking, is less than 12 percent. Although a de...

Using long-term household panel data in rural villages in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu (India), this paper attempts to describe the changing sources of household income and to identify major factors affecting the decline in poverty in rural Asia. We found that the most decisive factor directly responsible for poverty reduction is the increased income from rural non-farm ...

This study explored how (learning) experiences offered through outdoor experiential programmes, particularly the youth care farm approach, may (or may not) enhance young peoples' ability to recognise and then utilise available resources for personal growth, protection and health promotion. A total of 11 youngsters were asked to look back on their half-year stay on a care farm in the Netherlands...

Policy makers in the United States often justify agricultural subsidies by stressing that agriculture is the engine of the rural economy. We use the increase in crop prices in the late 2000s to estimate the marginal effect of increased agricultural revenues on local economies in the U.S. Heartland. We find that $1 more in crop revenue generated 64¢ in personal income, with most going to farm pr...

This paper investigates the consequences of imperfect and uneven factor market development for farm efficiency in rural China. In particular, we estimate the extent to which an inverse relationship in farm productivity can be attributed to the administrative (instead of market) allocation of land, and the extent of unevenly developed non-agricultural opportunities. Using a recently collected ho...

Article history: Received 7 February 2011 Received in revised form 28 June 2011 Accepted 5 July 2011 Available online 18 July 2011 When examining questions regarding the Lewis model, one of the most salient set of facts involves the shift of labor between agricultural and the off farm sectors. The goal of this paper is to answer several questions about the nature of this movement: How has the e...

Inter-state migration in search of livelihood is an important feature of the Indian economy. The direction of migration is determined by the direction of the inequality. Rural-urban migration is a mechanism of adjustment by an individual or group to development gaps created between the dynamic industrial sector in urban/peri-urban areas and the more inert agricultural sector in rural areas (Gue...

This chapter reviews the prospects and challenges facing the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next decade. It reviews sector performance, outlines the current market context, provides detailed quantitative medium term projections for the ten-year period 2016-25, and assesses key risks and uncertainties. The outlook for agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is situated in the conte...