BACKGROUND: While recognizing the economic obstacles that currently block widespread use, many concerned with improving agricultural productivity and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are focusing on fertilizer as a remedy for declining soil quality and stagnant yields. Some have suggested that SSA needs to increase fertilizer use from 9 to at least 30 kg/ha during the next decade. Othe...

In this article, the reasonswhydeveloping countries trade fewer agricultural products than developed countries are analyzed. Based on earlier findings that low trade volume in the agricultural sector is due to high trade costs, the focus is on evaluating the extent to which bilateral trade costs in the agricultural sector differ among trading partners. Using a neo-Ricardian trade model, the res...

The expansion of the real output of major food and agricultural productions in China ranks as one of the nation’s great achievements. Publicly funded agricultural research has been key to the impressive performance (Huang et al. 2003). Expenditures grew rapidly from the early 1960s to the middle 1980s and the number of agricultural researchers increased throughout (Fan and Pardey 1992). The ris...

1. Importance of Agricultural Equipment Choice and Operation 2. Methods of Obtaining Access to Equipment 3. Equipment Costs 4. Equipment Selection 4.1 Individual Equipment Selection 4.2 Matching Equipment 5. Equipment Operation 5.1 Equipment Operation Co-ordination 5.2 Operation Productivity 5.3 Equipment Safety 5.4 Equipment Maintenance during Operation 6. Automation of Agricultural Equipment ...

The realization of sustainable development depends on the efficient use of energy resources. Energy consumption productivity and efficiency are among important indices that play a critical role in explaining the behavior of energy consumption structure of different economic sectors, which in turn, plays a key role in policy making. From among economic sectors, the agriculture sector, as an impo...

Greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural ecosystem account for 7%–20% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, while approximately 17% of China’s carbon emissions are from agriculture. In this study, based on the scientific calculation system of carbon emissions in agriculture, we calculated the carbon emissions of agriculture in the Hotan prefecture between 1999 and 2013 and analyz...

Wheat is a major agricultural crop in the Sistan region with a key role in local economy. The present study aimed to economically explore the efficiency of wheat production over the 2014-2016 period with the window data envelopment analysis (WDEA) approach. Also, the Malmquist productivity index was employed to assess the productivity of wheat growers in the study site under variable return to ...

The agricultural informatization contribution rate is the proportion of the contribution of agricultural informatization to the algebraic summation of agricultural economy growth accounting for the agricultural economy growth. It is a comprehensive index which reflects the function of agricultural informatization in enhancing agricultural productivity and agricultural economy development. This ...

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology can facilitate advances in productivity, safety and human quality of life through its applications in various industries. In particular, the application of WSN technology to the agricultural area, which is labor-intensive compared to other industries, and in addition is typically lacking in IT technology applications, adds value and can increase the agri...

The paper examines effects of agricultural extension on crop yields in Kenya controlling for other determinants of yields, notably the schooling of farmers and agro-ecological characteristics of arable land. The data we use were collected by the Government of Kenya in 1982 and 1990, but the estimation results reported in the paper are based primarily on the 1982 data set. The sample used for es...