Manufacturers of nontraditional crop additives may claim products will enhance yield and improve economic return, yet many offer only grower testimonials for product validation rather than unbiased, peer-reviewed research. If the do not perform as described, they serve to reduce revenue. To investigate these claims in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), field trials were conducted near Othello, Wash...

Non-optimal application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) production systems often results from a producer’s uncertainty predicting the N rate that ensures maximum economic return. Residual soil nitrate-N (NO3-N) is also unaccounted for management decisions. In this study, lint yield and profitability two cultivars (FiberMax FM 958 Deltapine DP 1646 B2XF) were compare...

The article reassesses the contribution of Sir Arthur Lewis’s 1954 article entitled ‘Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour’ to our understanding of economic development, and to the establishment of development economics as an academic discipline. It argues that Lewis’s key insight into the structural dualism characterising developing countries mapped out a new and distinctive f...

A general model of crop yield response to herbicide application is proposed. The model includes three components: the effect of herbicide dosage on weed density, the effect of surviving weed density on crop yield and the effect of herbicide directly on the crop. The model is used to estimate the response of wheat yield to application of diclofop-methyl to control ryegrass .(Lolium rigidum) in A...

When estimating climate change impact on crop yield, a typical assumption is constant elasticity of yield with respect to a climate variable even though the elasticity may be inconstant. After estimating both constant and inconstant elasticities with respect to temperature and precipitation based on provincial panel data in China 1980-2008, our results show that during that period, the temperat...

The experimental studies were conducted in 2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 crop seasons, in order to know the agro-economic yield of 'Chinês' and "Macaquinho" taro clones, propagated using huge, extra, large, medium, small and tiny cormels. The harvest was done on average on 202 days after planting, in three crop seasons. Based on the joint analysis of variance carried out, it was observed t...

This paper presents a theoretical relationship between the yield curve and future economic growth in a simple stochastic growth model. The derived relationship implies that, in a simple competitive production economy, the slope of the yield curve predicts future output growth. This predictive content of the yield curve is tested using Australian data by employing a vector autoregression (VAR) m...