Forecasting is an indispensable tool in the decision making process. People, on a daily basis, make forecasts inherently and decide on the basis of that. Formal forecasting methods are commonly applied to substantiate business decision making. Agriculture is no exception to this. There are...

The selection of a suitable model for efficiency analysis is one of the most importantissues in policy analysis. Given the recent interest in the use of distance functions asalternative representation of production technology, this study compares the empiricalperformances of the parametric...

Agriculture is considered a critical sector in attaining economic growth for mosteconomies in Africa. However, for the sector to play its role, it needs to becommercialised to enable smallholder farmers to participate in markets and, hence,improve their incomes and livelihoods. In most...

The production of biofuels in South Africa has evolved very slowly and at present there are only a handful of plants producing some derivative of biofuel. The lack of commitment from government and the utter information distortion under which the current policy framework was developed have...

Agricultural input expenditures have not been widely incorporated in most partialequilibrium models. Thus, investigating the effect of economic policies and otherexogenous factors on the agricultural sector will produce only a partial analysis, since thesimultaneous impact of these factors on...

Against the background of frequent organizational changes and restructuring, often basedon impulsive decisions rather than structured feasibility studies or evaluations, this studyexamines the nature and influence of management on the performance of the Ethiopianpublic extension service. Based...

Prior to 1997, South Africas maize marketing was organised as a single-channel fixed price system that gave privileged rights of entry to buyers and hindered the development of a more decentralized and lower-cost system. This system encouraged concentration in maize milling and gave sheltered...

The role-players in the South African (SA) agricultural sector have in recent years been increasingly exposed to international agricultural markets and this can have an important impact on them because (1) they are generally price-takers in world markets and (2) the rate of change in...

Emerging broiler famers are faced with the challenge of acquiring contracts with the contract providers in South Africa. The question is, are these emerging farmers able to perform well financially regardless of the availabilityof contracts to their disposal. Profitability is one of the core...

This study relates market reforms to agricultural trade performance, in particular the export performance of South Africas potato industry. The market reform considered here is the deregulation of South Africas potato market. Changes in producer prices and volumes of exports and imports are the...