Studies in Agricultural Economics

The European Union (EU) is committed to decarbonising its economy by 2050. To that end, significant reductions in greenhouse gases from the energy and agricultural sectors are of critical importance. However, while the EU member states each pursue a different climate strategy, all member states’ emissions are regulated by EU climate law. This paper investigates the factors explaining carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the 27 member countries, using fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and quantile regression models. Before estimations, panel unit root and cointegration tests have been used for the period 1990-2018. The applied model examines the impact of economic...

The saffron sector as a sustainable farming system plays a primordial agro-ecological and socio-economic role in the Anti-Atlas region in Morocco. Under the Green Morocco Policy, the saffron area has more than tripled; however, productivity is still very low. To evaluate the efficiency of Moroccan saffron farming and its determinants, we estimated a stochastic frontier model using survey data collected in the production area. The results show that saffron farms suffer from technical inefficiencies. More time dedicated to saffron field operations, a higher number of saffron plots and a greater distance to the urban centre increase farm efficiency, while the...

This paper applies a parametric approach to estimate technical and scale (in)efficiencies using input and output data at the level of 850 individual Colombian coffee-farms. Different Stochastic Production Frontier functions are estimated using a two-step procedure that corrects the endogeneity that has been ignored in previous works, leading to more reliable (i.e. unbiased and consistent) results. We conclude that small and medium coffee farmers are technically inefficient and exhibit increasing returns to scale, whereas large coffee farmers are close to being quasi-technically efficient and exhibit decreasing returns to scale. The corrected-for-endogeneity estimation also indicates that small and medium-sized units must...

This research aims at analysing the extent to which climate change affects cotton and cashew nuts production and exports in West African countries in the presence of intermediary market power. To that end, the paper uses a combination of approaches to calibrate a price endogenous regional bio-economic optimisation model and handles uncertainties inherent to future socioeconomic scenarios through Monte Carlo simulations. The results show that the effects of climate change on cotton and cashew nuts land use are mixed under the two simulated climate change scenarios. In fact, the effects vary across countries, ranging from experiencing only a decline, or...

This paper intends to determine the factors influencing the adoption of Management Information Systems (MIS) as well as the effects such systems have had on the technical efficiency of agribusiness firms in Cameron. 183 MIS users and 300 non-users were sampled through a multistage sampling procedure. An Ordered Logit model was employed to show that the user’s level of satisfaction, the purchase price of equipment and technological performance all have a positive effect on MIS adoption. Conversely, fear of change in firm management, access to government regulations, and complexity of MIS equipment discourage the adoption of MIS. The Cobb-Douglas stochastic...