This paper determines the degree or extent of farmer’s risk aversion that affects sustainable maize production in Northern Nigeria. Using a ridge regression analysis, a measure of risk aversion was derived for each individual farmer in a model of safety-first behaviour from a cross-sectional...

Today, development and dissemination of new technologies constitute an important strategy for agricultural intensification, poverty reduction and food security in developing countries. Rice is an important source of farmers’ income and foreign currencies in developing countries. Although women...

L’objectif de ce papier est d’identifier les contraintes de commercialisation des petits ruminants sur le marché aux bestiaux. Ces contraintes sont particulièrement prononcées chez les petits éleveurs. Notre recherche met en évidence la relation entre les caractéristiques de cette...

This study identifies the reasons for low producer prices of rice that have not covered its production costs for many years in Madagascar. The following points will be discussed: the farmers’ marketing conditions and the rural rice market structure, including the functions of each intervening...

Financing smallholder farming has been one of the major concerns of Kenya’s development efforts. Many credit programs have evolved over the years but with dismal performance. In a study that sought to find the best way to fund smallholder agriculture, it became necessary to analyze and...

Drought is endemic to southern Africa. In Zimbabwe farmers have been experiencing drought once every two to three years. Relief agencies have traditionally responded to drought by providing farmers with enough seed and fertilizer to enable them to re-establish their cropping enterprises. But, in...

This paper evaluates the production and trade trends for maize and maize products in southern Africa, individual countries’ revealed comparative advantages in producing these products, and the expected implications of freer trade in this sector. The analysis employs mainly annual bilateral...

Commercial rice imports have accounted for approximately 61%, food aid in rice accounted for about 2%, and domestic rice accounted for some 37% per annum of rice consumption in Ghana over the four years between 2000 and 2003. Compared to the 1990s, these figures show a gradual decline in the...

For European operators of biofuels plants there are not many hedge vehicles available to hedge operational margins. Cross hedges for rapeoil (with the rapeseed futures contract) and RME (with the NYMEX diesel futures contract) could be useful instruments. We use recent developments on threshold...