Volume 122 - Issue 1

The analysis in this paper estimates micro-economic drivers of diversity in crop production in Afghanistan with particular emphasis on the implications of household access to non-farm income. Descriptive analysis shows that a third of farmers do not diversify, while the majority of those that do, grow only two or three crops. Econometric analysis reveals that while landholding size, farm characteristics and assets, and proximity to markets significantly increase diversification, a significantly lower degree of diversification is found for households with higher non-farm income. This is consistent with the hypothesis that allocation of farm labour away from non-farm activities decreases diversity due to negative labour effects, perhaps because the opportunity cost of farm labour is higher than rural wages. Identification through instrumental variables confirms endogeneity in off-farm income, revealing that unobserved factors such as risk-aversion behaviour and relative efficiency may drive household decisions to diversify into both non-farm activity and crop mixing.

Fertiliser use is an ambigious issue in agricultural economics with different arguments commonly given for and against it. The aim of this paper is to find the most important factors affecting fertiliser use in Lithuania, serving as a basis for our fertiliser tax modelling of Lithuanian family farms. Raw data from Lithuanian farms was collected from the Lithuanian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) covering the years 2003–2017, and data from other selected countries was also found in the FADN database, although in this case, different years (2004–2016) were available. Results suggest the significant factors affecting fertiliser use on family farms in Lithuania differ significantly from other EU countries. Hence, our empirical results confirm that there is no unique methodology or unique set of financial instruments for fertiliser tax modelling among EU countries, and this should be taken into account in future studies. We also noticed that investment in land, the extent to which farm output consists of wheat, rye and field vegetables, the use of harvesters and finally, land quality should also be taken account in future fertiliser tax modelling.

In the light of the growing concerns about the sustainability of the current input-intensive agriculture system, the need for an alternative farming system has arisen. Among the various alternative farming models practised across the world, Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) has recently come into the spotlight. This paper envisages the economic viability of ZBNF in a local setting. In the empirical survey, the study considers one cluster of farmers practicing ZBNF in Purulia district of West Bengal, India. Empirical evidence presented in this paper is based on the performance of this alternative model of farming in respect of three important parameters, namely cost of cultivation, yield and income. Evidence reveals that the natural farmers have experienced a reduction in per hectare production cost and per hectare yield for their crops in the post-conversion period. More importantly, farmers adopting the ZBNF model (i.e. treatment group) in Purulia were able to enhance their income, compared to their chemical counterparts (i.e. control group). Moreover, an in–depth analysis of performance has been carried out, thereby identifying the factors influencing the long-term sustainability of ZBNF. Results indicate that the long term sustainability of this model of farming is contingent upon the interplay of agro-climatic conditions...

This paper assesses consumer preferences for margarine among Hungarian and foreign university students (studying in Hungary) by using the discrete choice experiment. The questionnaire-based survey was preceded by a focus group interview which, supplemented with knowledge gained from literature, established product attributes involved in the examination (such as price, fat, salt and sunflower oil content). Results suggest that the increase in fat and salt content result in reduced consumer utility and willingness to pay for margarine products. Sunflower oil content, however, was not found to play a significant role in consumer choices. When comparing the two groups, we found that international students tended to be more health conscious than their Hungarian counterparts.

This paper aims to explore the efficiency of Hungarian dairy farms. Based on FADN data representing more than 950 dairy farms in Hungary, our sample contains more than 6800 data points which we analysed by applying different Data Envelopment Analysis models. Results suggest that the average technical efficiency of the Hungarian dairy sector during the examined 10 years was 77.6%, meaning that output could be increased by 22.4% without changing the level of input (efficiency reserve). Large and small farms are more efficient (79.2%) than medium sized farms (59.2%). Moreover, large farms keeping more than 501 dairy cows were found to be more efficient (92.5%) than the other two size categories (77.9% and 65%, respectively). Farms located in Northern Hungary had less efficiency reserves (23.6%) that the farms operating in the Great Hungarian Plain, Central Hungary (34.8%) or in the Transdanubian Region (27.6%). All this suggests high reserves for potential efficiency growth.

Increasing productivity is the best and most efficient way for achieving economic growth in the agriculture sector. Guilan province in northern Iran is a leading region in sericulture production in Iran. The production of sericulture has been very volatile and in recent years as a significant proportion of the producers was out of production. This study investigates Total Factor Productivity (TFP) changes and its components in the sericulture system of Guilan province, Northern Iran, during 2007-2016. For this purpose, non-parametric Malmquist index and panel data of 15 counties over 11 years were used. Results show that only Talesh and Rudsar counties achieved productivity growth during the period analysed. Moreover, three counties of Astana-Ashrafieh, Lahijan and Masal & Shandermann experienced negative changes in efficiency and technology, which resulted in a significant negative change in TFP. Among understudy counties, only Sowme’ehSara County had year-to-year increase in productivity over the period 2007 to 2016. Furthermore, the counties of Roodsar and the Sowme’ehSara had the highest and lowest fluctuations of year-to-year TFP, respectively. The average of TFP change for all counties was negative. Overall, findings show that with the exception of the years 2011, 2014 and 2016, the major changes in TFP all occurred...

Azerbaijan is a highly oil-dependent country that needs to find new avenues for increasing its international competitiveness. Therefore, this paper analyses the competitiveness of various fruit and vegetable products by calculating domestic resource cost ratios, using the data for 2015–16 as representing base years. Out of the 10 products analysed, almost all were found to have high competitive potential, especially on the Russian and European markets. In order to maintain competitiveness in the arable sector, however, Azerbaijan will need to achieve dynamic improvements in productivity and run a wise agricultural policy.