The objectives of this paper are to estimate cost efficiency and investigate factors influencing the cost efficiency of maize-growing smallholders in Mozambique. The data used in this study came from a national random sample of 4,908 smallholder farmers conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture...

Freshco, a small producer and distributor of hybrid maize seed and macadamia seedlings, was one of the first private companies to enter the Kenya seed market after its liberalization. Currently, the company produces and markets six high yielding maize varieties that are suited for diverse...

A descriptive analysis and a survey of literature were used in this assessment of the transformation of the structure of production agriculture. The changes in production agriculture have important implications for resource use, population distribution in rural communities, and the survival of...

Agricultural studies have often differentiated and estimated different technologies within a sample of farms. The common approach is to use observable farm characteristics to split the sample into several groups and subsequently estimate different functions for each group. Alternatively, unique...

This paper empirically estimates cost functions for two milking technologies, stanchion and parlor, using farm level data from New York dairy farms for the years 1993 through 2002. A translog cost function was estimated along with input cost share equations for each milking technology by...

The production and profit impacts of recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rbST) on select New York dairy farms were estimated using data over the years 1994 through 2004, by comparing matching farms which use and do not use rbST. The use of rbST increases milk production per cow and decreases the...

The impact of inputs on the four decomposed milk outputs of fluid milk, butterfat, protein, and other solids were estimated using an output distance function, with New York dairy farm level data. Differential impacts of inputs on component production indicate that milk component composition can...