Several studies have tried to estimate the productivity and input use efficiency of cocoa farmers in Ghana, but they shed limited light on their chronic nature and other sources of low production. This study extends the literature by analyzing a unique nationally representative sample that constitutes 30 years of production. The results showed that pure farmer technical inefficiency is not only 8 percent points larger than the regional technology gap, but also consistently dominated the overall performance of farmers from 1987-2017. The policy implication of this finding at face value suggests that improving farmer managerial skills could increase output.

This paper examines the acquisition of wood stoves by New Hampshire households through use of a utility-maximizing discrete choice model. The analysis is based on the hypothesis that wood stoves are acquired to decrease the monetary costs of home-heating. Operating costs associated with heating with conventional fuel burning capital and with a combination of conventional and wood stove heating capital are estimated. These operating costs are used to estimate probabilities of 1979 wood stove acquisition for particular types of New Hampshire households.

The European Union has opened tariff rate quotas (TRQs) after the Uruguay Round (UR), following the agreement that minimum access should be provided and current access not be restricted. The EU TRQs are described and their origin is explained. Descriptive statistics are provided in order to assess the implementation of the market access provisions of the 1994 UR Agreement. Transparency of the EU TRQ system and fill rates of TRQs are examined. Overall, the EU's record in the area of TRQs is relatively satisfactory, compared with those of other countries. Concerns remain, however, as to the exact articulation of the (regional) Europe Agreement and some quotas under minimum access.

As U.S. lamb imports increased relative to domestic production, and the relative share of chilled to frozen lamb imports increased, importers of chilled lamb have become less responsive to domestic and import prices, while the direct opposite is the case for frozen lamb imports. From 1990 to 2003, chilled lamb imports from Australia and New Zealand became less and less responsive to U.S. prices, and frozen imports became more responsive. Unconditional own-price elasticities also show that, over time, imports of chilled lamb became less responsive to import prices while frozen imports became more responsive to import prices.

Although continued attention has been given to the general study of “community,” we still lack a consensus, operational definition. Such an absence impedes development in this area of study. Because authors have used different areal conceptualizations, knowledge is, at best, case specific. This paper reviews the problem most often associated with aggregation of data, namely, aggregation bias, and considers some additional problems not usually associated with aggregation. The review serves as a prelude to a discussion of community research methodology which, at present, is beset with potential aggregation problems. Interpretation and possible implications of these findings are advanced.

Cooperative extension has prided itself on being the outreach of the land grant university. However, with changes in the structure of the population, the economy, and agriculture in particular, extension has had to change as well. Increasingly, extension service providers are reminded that they cannot be all things to all people. There is also increasing competition from other campus units that feel they have an outreach mission. As traditional base funding sources decline, decisions must be made regarding the role and function of extension within the university system. This paper explores these issues using historical data, reports, and six case studies. The case studies provide insights into the ways different extension services have collaborated and partnered in university outreach. The case studies demonstrate that the role of extension reflects such things as past experiences, the level of support for extension, the administrative structure of extension and the university, and the vision of those within and without the extension system.

Over the past three decades, the cereal subsector in Ghana has contributed immensely to food security in the country. However, limited evidence exists on the production performance of this subsector, particularly in terms of heterogeneities across agro-ecological zones. This paper analyzes the production technology and performance of the cereal subsector in Ghana using a nationally representative data set from 26,449 cereal farms and the meta-stochastic frontier approach. The empirical results suggest that the estimated factor inputs contribute substantially to cereal output, with land and seed exerting the highest impacts across all agro-ecological zones. The evidence further shows that the agro-ecology of cereal farms plays a crucial role in the performance of the subsector. The mean technical efficiency estimates strongly suggest that cereal farms in all agro-ecologies exhibit some degrees of production inefficiency. The findings further reveal total output from the meta-frontier to be much superior to those generated by cereal farms in all agro-ecologies of Ghana, indicating the existence of opportunities for cereal output gains in all agro-ecologies. We find heterogeneities in farm management practices and production technology across the various crops and agro-ecological zones to be relevant sources for cereal productivity growth in Ghana.

Organic food products, which have been sold traditionally at natural food stores, have become increasingly available through mass marketing channels. This study estimated an almost ideal demand system (AIDS) model using 2008–2010 retail scanner data to examine consumer demand for organic fluid milk products sold at conventional and natural marketing channels. Asymmetric cross-price elasticities were found suggesting relative stickiness in demand to switch from organic milk to conventional milk and from natural stores to food, drug, and mass merchandiser stores. More generally, demands shifting toward products with higher expenditure elasticities in a differentiated market can be explained by relative budget shares and expenditure elasticities.

A conceptual model is formulated that shows that a downward sloping supply function may exist for a profit maximizing firm facing a cash-flow constraint. The necessary requirement is that at least one factor must be a non-cash input. The model is tested using analysis of variance on two groups of producers from farm record data, one group facing a binding budget constraint the other group not. The results indicate that farms facing a cash flow constraint increase output more than farms not restricted by a cash flow constraint in response to a price decrease.

A number of issues arise when considering the positive and normative implications of local environmental policy making. This paper provides an overview of some of the issues and implications. These vary depending on whether local jurisdictions are charged with determining the stringency of policies or instead stringency is determined at a higher level of government and the local role focuses on implementation and the design of cost-effective measures for achieving the required goals. Key issues include both physical and economic spillovers across jurisdictions, and the extent to which stringency can be differentiated based on local conditions or preferences.

This study uses locally weighted regression to identify county-level characteristics that serve as drivers of creative employment throughout the southern United States. We found that higher per capita income, greater infrastructure investments, and the rural nature of a county tended to promote creative employment density, while higher scores on a natural amenity index had the opposite effect. We were also able to identify and map clusters of rural counties where the marginal effects of these variables on creative employment density were greatest. These findings should help rural communities to promote creative employment growth as a means of furthering rural economic development.

In response to increasing customer attention to food attributes, agribusinesses are employing novel product differentiation strategies. As an example, we investigate the use of food safety claims on new packaged food products from the food manufacturers’ perspective. First, using two product innovation databases, we investigate claim use on labels in seven English-speaking countries over the period from 1980 to 2008. Then, based on manufacturer recommended selling prices and using U.S. data (from 2002 to 2008), we apply parametric and nonparametric hedonic methods to identify supply-side (agribusiness) valuations of chemical and microbiological claims in two food categories. We identify a significant 5 cent premium per ounce for a “preservative free” claim in spoonable yogurts. We do not find a statistically significant impact for “E. coli free” messages on meat and poultry products but find a significant price premium (19.3 cents and 25.7 cents per ounce in the two models) for “antibiotic free” claims in this category.

I analyze the determinants of county-level broadband availability to gauge the extent to which the rural-urban broadband gap has narrowed and the factors that underlie that narrowing. Using data that have been collected by organizations tracking and promoting broadband in Kentucky and North Carolina, I find that in both states the rural-urban availability gap has indeed narrowed substantially, although there appears to be a limit on the extent to which broadband service will extend into the least densely populated counties. Among rural counties, availability rates increase systematically with the size of the county's urbanized population.

Short- and long-run Hicksian and Marshallian elasticities are estimated, along with Morishima elasticities of substitution, using a restricted profit function and a series of decomposition equations. Convexity in prices and concavity in quasi-fixed factors of the restricted profit function are simultaneously imposed using Bayesian techniques. The empirical model is disaggregated in the input side, utilizes a Fuss-quadratic flexible functional form, incorporates the impact of agricultural policies, and introduces a new weather index. The methodology is applied to Illinois's agriculture, and implications for agriculture in the Corn Belt and the Northeast are briefly discussed.

We explore the transfer of poultry litter among watersheds incorporating both economic characteristics (litter demand and supply) and environmental characteristics (vulnerability to phosphorus runoff, a major pollutant). A combination of techniques was employed: the Lemunyon-Gilbert P-Index model to determine watershed environmental vulnerability, GIS for land use coverages, and a goal focusing model (incorporating Saaty's eigen-value approach for penalty weight estimation) to identify optimal litter shipments among watersheds. Both primary and secondary data were used. The results should be useful to producers and policy makers in the study area and in other areas where poultry production is linked to water quality, and contribute to a more sustainable poultry sector.

Product attributes that determine nursery-stock sales from wholesalers to retail garden centers and landscapers were studied. Conjoint analysis was used to obtain data on buyer preferences. The data were analyzed using ordinary least squares and logit procedures to determine the attributes that are preferred by buyers. It was determined that good- to excellent-quality stock, offerings with a full line of additional plants, taller plants, and cash discounts are desirable attributes. Quality is the dominant attribute affecting preferences. Packaging the preferred attributes together significantly increases the probability of a plant being purchased by buyers.

This paper examines grocery retailers' ability to influence prices charged to consumers and paid to suppliers. We discuss how retailer market power manifests itself in terms of pricing and marketing strategies by setting forth and offering evidence in support of eight “stylized facts” of retailer pricing and brand decisions. We argue that little, if any, of this behavior can be explained by a model of a competitive, price-taking retailer, but that most of the indicated behavior was also inconsistent with traditional models of market power. Finally, we discuss the impacts of aspects of this retailer behavior on the upstream farm sector.

A hedonic cost function is used to isolate the operation and maintenance costs for water treatments. For small systems, costs are substantial for some technologies, but not for others. When regional differences in input costs are accounted for, small systems located in rural areas may have a cost advantage over similar systems closer to urban centers; however, costs of water treatment to meet Safe Drinking Water Act amendments may still be substantial.

Uneven monthly milk production (seasonality) is a major problem to the New York dairy industry. This article estimates expected monthly milk production response to a set of hypothetical seasonal price differentials designed to reduce the degree of seasonality. The analysis is based on a random mail survey and farm record data. The results indicate that a seasonal price differential of $1.12 per cwt. (over three times the current differential) would be necessary to completely balance spring and fall production in New York, based on the perceptions of farmers surveyed. Also, producers with better managerial skills are shown to be able to reduce their seasonality at a significantly lower price differential than less skilled farm managers.

This article estimates technical and environmental efficiencies using the stochastic frontier analysis with panel data of twenty-two main apple production provinces in China during 1992–2014. Results show that the environmental efficiency for pesticide input alone has lower mean value of 0.337 than environmental efficiency for the two environmentally detrimental inputs, pesticide and chemical fertilizer, which is 0.782. Furthermore, all efficiency scores have decreasing trends over time. Loess Plateau is more environmentally efficient than the Bohai bay region. Results of output elasticities show that chemical fertilizer has a mean value of 0.225, which is higher than for material, labor, and pesticide input. Also, apple production in China experiences decreasing returns to scale. Finally, it is also discovered that labor and chemical fertilizer have a substitute relationship, while material and labor have a complementary relationship, as do chemical fertilizer and pesticide. The results from the study should prove useful for reallocating input resources and improving environmental efficiency.