This technical compendium was developed to serve two interrelated purposes: 1.To assist in the development of USAID Zambia’s Feed the Future (FtF) strategy by providing a broad empirical analysis of the current conditions and historical trends shaping Zambia’s agricultural and food sector;...

Evaluating the impact on market performance of investments in agricultural market information systems (MIS) face several methodological challenges. These fall into two broad categories: (a) defining the dimensions of market performance to measure (which is a function of whom the MIS is designed...

Improving farmers’ access to markets is widely recognized as a major development challenge. A review of the literature suggests that indicators of market access may bear little relationship to the specific processes of interest and hence provide misguided evidence of the impacts of improved...

This paper investigates some applications of high-resolution, three­ dimensional PC-based computer graphics to research and education in agricultural production economics. Examples illustrate issues in the identification of stages of production for the multifactor case; special cases in which...

This paper pushes beyond past efforts in employing computer graphics in a number of ways. In this paper, the capabilities of the SAS for drawing surfaces and contours of three-dimensional functional forms are combined with the drawing, annotation and sequential animation features of Harvard...

This paper examines some of the historical trends in the evolution of research using econometrics, simulation, and operations research within agricultural economics. Agricultural economists are placing increased emphasis on economic theory and on increasingly sophisticated quantitative...

Since 2002, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded programs to promote maize, dairy, and horticulture enterprises among smallholder farmers in Kenya under the Strategic Objective 7 of Increased Rural Household Incomes. On behalf of USAID, Tegemeo Institute has...

Crop income is the predominant source of income for most rural Mozambican households, accounting for 73% of rural household income on average in 2002, and greater than 80% of the total income of the poorest 40% of rural households. While the Government of Mozambique recognizes the need to...