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Fresh Produce Retail Price Comparisons in Trinidad and Tobago
29-34Views:300As the competitive landscape of the food and grocery retailing sector in Trinidad and Tobago is being transformed and consumers are separated from producers, shoppers are more reliant on price/quality cues in making their purchase decisions. The purpose of this study is to identify the retail outlet with the lowest and or highest price for a selected number of fresh produce items, in an effort to direct shoppers to relatively cheap nutritious sources of fresh produce. ANOVA and the Games-Howell test were the analytical procedures used. The ANOVA results indicated that there is statistical difference for all the items at the different retail outlets – farmers’ markets, roadside markets, public markets and supermarkets.
The Games-Howell results obtained indicated that the supermarket mean prices were the highest for all items. Shoppers who purchased pineapple at the farmer’s market instead of the supermarket in 2016 could have potentially achieved the greatest savings of $6.52/kg.
JEL Classification: C12, Q13, M31
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Measuring technical, economic and allocative efficiency of maize production in subsistence farming: evidence from the central rift valley of Ethiopia
63-73Views:749This study measured the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of maize production in the central rift valley of Ethiopia using cross sectional data collected from randomly selected 138 sample households. The estimated result showed that the mean technical, allocative and economic efficiencies were 84.87%, 37.47% and 31.62% respectively. Among factors hypothesized to determine the level of efficiency scores, education was found to determine allocative and economic efficiencies of farmers positively while the frequency of extension contact had a positive relationship with technical efficiency and it was negatively related to both allocative and economic efficiencies. Credit was also found to influence technical and economic efficiencies positively and distance to market affected technical efficiency negatively. The model output also indicated that soil fertility was among significant variables in determining technical efficiency in the study area. The result indicated that there is a room to increase the efficiency of maize producers in the study area.
JEL Classifications: C67, D24, D61, L23, Q12, Q18
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Resource use efficiency among rice farmers around fragile ecosystems: evidence from Kilombero Wetland, Tanzania
77-88Views:434Farmers have been encroaching fragile wetlands as a strategy to increase their rice production thus threatening wetlands’ existence and capacity to other critical ecosystem services. This calls for efficient production to strike the balance between food rice production and wetlands’ sustainable existence. The current study sought to provide assess rice farmers’ technical efficiency of resource use by detecting the determinants of rice yield and further identify the determinants of technical efficiency of the resources used by rice farmers in Kilombero wetland. A cross-sectional survey of 145 randomly sampled farmers aided in achieving the study objective. A stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model was used to analyze data. The mean technical efficiency among farmers was at 60.54% level. The positive determinants of rice yield were land and fertilizers while labor influenced it negatively. Age, education, farming experience, group membership, and credit access reduced inefficiency while the distance to the extension agent and off-farm income increased farmers’ inefficiency. The study concludes that there is a possibility of expanding rice production without threatening the wetland’s existence. It recommends that government and other stakeholders to ensure that rice farmers are up-to-date with optimal use of fertilizers in rice production since it will assist in improving rice yield while the rate of expansion of rice lands in the wetlands will lower. Policy implementers ought to establish initiatives that inspire rice farmers to capitalize on farmer groups and join education programs to take full advantage of their potential efficiency and might participate in community development activities.
JEL code: Q15
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An application of the error correction model in analyzing the long run equilibrium between Ghana’s exports and imports
57-62Views:285This study investigates the long-run relationship between Ghana’s exports and imports for the period of 1948 to 2012. Using the Engle Granger two-step procedure we find that Ghana’s exports and imports are cointegrated. However, the slope coefficients from the cointegration equations were not statistically equal to 1. Furthermore, application of the error correction model reveals that 1% increase in the imports will significantly result in 0.56% increase in exports, suggesting that the exports’ responsiveness to imports is low. The estimated error correction coefficient suggests that 32% of the deviation from the long run equilibrium relation is eliminated, leaving 68% to persist into the next period. These results suggest persistence in the trade deficit and an option of curbing the deficit is to re-order the relationship between imports and exports with a view to reducing imports demand. These results imply that though Ghana’s past macroeconomic policies have been effective in bringing its imports and exports into a long run equilibrium, it is yet to satisfy the sufficient condition for sustainability of foreign deficit.
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EXPLORING THE MEDIATION EFFECT OF PERCEIVED USEFULNESS ON CROP DIVERSIFICATION DRIVERS AMONG SMALLHOLDER COCOA FARMERS IN TANZANIA
Views:127The living standard of smallholder cocoa farmers in Tanzania was still low despite the recent transformation in marketing structure which led to the sharp rise in price. This study aimed at examining the drivers for smallholder cocoa farmers in Kilombero, Tanzania to engage in multiple crops farming as the means of poverty alleviation. Based on the cross-sectional survey design, primary data were collected from 501 cocoa farmers obtained through a random selection process that was conducted in their respective 162 agricultural marketing and cooperative societies (AMCOS) found in Kilombero. Results from covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that, cocoa market price, payment waiting time, farm size and cocoa farm income played significant roles in cocoa farmers’ decisions to invest while taking into account their perceptions of success. It was only the off-farm income factor that was found to have no statistical significance on farmers’ decision to invest while considering the mediation effect of perception. The study just assessed the investment decisions by smallholder cocoa farmers in Tanzania. Policy makers need to enhance the marketing factors such as cocoa price and payment time to boost farmers’ financial muscles. Meanwhile, farmers themselves are advised to take measures to boost production by increasing farm sizes while adopting better agronomic as per extension officers’ training.This study contributed to knowledge gap by exploring the cocoa-related factors that affect the stallholders’ decision to invest in crop diversification other than the non-cocoa factors that were investigated in previous studies.
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Interior point algorithm for solving farm resource allocation problem
45-49Views:360This paper introduces interior point algorithm as an alternative approach to simplex algorithm for solving farm resource allocation problem. The empirical result of interior point algorithm is compared with that of the simplex algorithm. It goes further to address a profit maximization problem. The result revealed several relevant patterns. Results of the interior point algorithm is similar to that of the simplex algorithm. Findings indicated that in both algorithms, the farm is to produce peppers, wheat which is irrigated and weeded manually, hire additional month of labour, and also purchase urea and muriate fertilizer to realize a similar amount of profit. Additionally, both algorithms suggested that practicing crop rotation where beans, if grown, should be altered with wheat cannot be possible since no beans will be grown. The Simplex algorithm saves 39 iterations over Interior Point algorithm in solving the farm resource allocation problem. The findings demonstrate that the interior point algorithm offers a useful alternative to the simplex algorithm when addressing farm resource allocation problem.
JEL code: D24, D57, C61, C63, C67
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