Agricultural Trade and Policy Reform: Rhetoric and Reality

Present farm policy includes a rhetoric of reduced government intervention but a reality of massive intervention.     

The Determinants of REIT Institutional Ownership: Tests of the CAPM

This study examines the determinants of institutional investment demand for REIT common stock. We estimate the demand function for financial institutions using the mean return and CAPM risk measures (beta and standard error) for REIT stocks. The objective is to determine whether institutional investment decisions are influenced by CAPM model attributes. In addition, we examine the predicatability of REIT institutional ownership based on the factors in our model. We employ conventional OLS forecasting techniques, as well as two neural network models in order to deal with possible nonlinearities in the relationships.     

Potato Research and Extension from Private Industry: Potato Production,Genetically Engineered Varieties,Pest Control and Fertility Regimes

Potato producers and processors aim to profitably improve potato yields and quality. Cultural inputs (varieties, fertility, irrigation, storage regimes) have a strong impact on the yield and quality of potatoes for chips andfrench fries. Cavendish Farms, a french fry company in P.E.I., conducts evaluations on numerous inputs. The research program is used for grower education through plot tours and workshops. A complete “on farm” extension service and crop scouting service is provided. Experimentation by Cavendish Farms has revealed favourable results from transgenic potatoes produced by Nature Mark®. Stable resistance to Colorado Potato Beetles and virus diseases (Potato Virus Y & Leaf Roll Virus) has been placed into the Shepody and Russet Burbank varieties. Evaluations of Roundup (glyphosate) herbicide resistant potatoes indicate that this trait will provide an option for post emergence weed control. The Shepody and Russet Burbank varieties account for the majority of the raw product used for french fries in the North East potato producing areas of Canada and USA. Approximately 40 new seedlings/varieties are included in screening trials each year for assessment of yield and processing quality. Preliminary findings indicate that irrigated potatoes (Shepody and Russet Burbank varieties) can be produced with considerably lower amounts of nitrogen fertilization than “dry land” potatoes. Les producteurs et les transformateurs de lapomme de terre cherchent à méliorer de façon rentable le rendement et la qualité de lew production. Les intrants au niveau de la culture (variétés, fertilité, irrigation, régimes de conservation) influent fortement sur le rendement et la qualité des pommes de terre destinées àêtre transformées en croustilles ou en frites. Cavendish Farms, société productrice de frites de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard, évalue de nom-breux intrants. Elle contribue par son programme de recherche à la formation des producteurs en organisant des ateliers et des visites de parcelles. Elle offre un service complet de vulgarisation <à la ferme >et de dépistage phytosanitaire en culture. Dans les expériences faites par Cavendish Farms, on a obtenu de bons résultats avec les pommes de terre transgéniques produites par NatureMark. On a confirmé qu'une resistance stable au doryphore et à des viroses (virus Y et virus de 1'enroulement) avait été introduite dans les variétés Shepody et Russet Burbank. On a également évalué des pommes de terre résistantes à l'herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) et constaté que ce traitfournissa. it une nouvelle option pour le désherbage de postlevée. Dans les zonesproductrices du Nord-Est du Canada et des États-Unis, les variétés Shepody et Russet Burbank représented la majeure partie des pommes de terre transformées enfrites. Une quarantaine de nouveaux plants/nouvelles variétés sont soumis à des essais de sélection chaque année pour évaluer le rendement et l'aptitude technologique (pour la transformation). Des résultats préliminaires indiquent que les pommes de terre irriguées (variétés Shepody et Russet Burbank) demandent une fertilisation en azote beaucoup moins importante que les pommes de terre de < terrain sec >.     

Adoption of New Technologies in Ethiopian Agriculture: The Case of Tegulet-Bulga District,Shoa Province

Adoption of agricultural production technologies in developing countries is influenced by a wide range of economic and social factors as well as physical and technical aspects of farming and the risk attitude of farmers. It is important to understand the role of these factors to ensure the development of appropriate technologies and the design of successful development projects. This study examines the impact of such factors on the adoption of single-ox, fertilizer and pesticide technologies as part of a post-drought recovery project in Tegulet-Bulga district in Ethiopia. Models to evaluate the probability of adoption are specified for the respective technologies and are estimated using a logit maximum likelihood procedure, results indicate that the most significant variable affecting the probability of adoption of all three technologies is farm size; the impact is negative for single-ox technology and positive for fertilizer and pesticide use. Economic factors such as income, wealth and debt generally exhibit statistically significant influence on the adoption of single-ox and pesticide technologies as do family size, access to outside information, education and experience. The effect of socio-economic factors on adoption of fertilizer and pesticide technologies is greater in the area which has more access to outside information and off-farm activities (Ankober) than in more ‘self-contained’ area (Seladengay). The impact of the degree of risk aversion of farmers is found to be significant and negative for single-ox technology in both areas, and for fertilizer and pesticide technologies in only one area. The predicted probabilities of technology adoption by an average farmer are found to increase dramatically with the level of education and access or exposure to outside information.     

Economic welfare analysis of policy-induced structural change in the Indonesian poultry industry

The performance of the poultry industry in Indonesia is analyzed in terms of changes in producer and consumer welfare as a result of public policy intended to limit the size of production units in order to distribute growth opportunities to smallet farms. Elasticities of supply and demand are estimated using the seemingly unrelated system of equations. The hypothesis of a policy-induced structural change, estimated through a dummy variable accounting for a shift in supply associated with implementation of the policy, shows a negative impact on the output supplied and the welfare of producers and consumers to the tune of about Rp 94 billion or roughly about 0.1% of national income as of 1983. The study suggests an important trade-off between more equitable income distribution and economic efficiency.     

Competitiveness in the Canadian Food Industry

Concerns about competitiveness in the Canadian food industry have generated a number of studies, inquiries and other initiatives on the subject. This paper examines the concept and measurement of competitiveness, the findings of several studies and some of the methodological issues involved in analyzing this phenomenon. While there is general agreement that the concept has most relevance at the level of the firm where it can be described as “the ability to profitably gain and maintain market share,” it has been applied mostly at the industry and country levels where there is less agreement on measurement and interpretation. This is reflected by a remarkable lack of consensus among studies of the Canadian food industry. The methodological issues most in need of being resolved are those relating to appropriate measurement and the relationship between strategic behaviour of firms and the determinants of competitiveness as found in the environment of firms Plusieurs études ont été réalisées sur la compétitivité de l'industrie agro-alimentaire canadi-ennne. Ce papier a pour but i) d'énumérer et de commenter les définitions et mesures de compétitivité couramment utilisées, ii) de synthétiser les aspects méthodologiques et résultats d'études antérieures, iii) de discuter des implications de la réglementation sur I'inocuité des aliments sur la compétitivité. Il semble y avoir concensus sur la pertinenence du concept de compétitivité au niveau de la firme. Malheureusement, la majorité des études ont analysé la compétitivité aux niveaux des industries ou des pays pour lesquels l'interprétation des résultats et les mesures sont sujet à controverse. Les résultats de ces études sont en général contradic-toires, Il nous apparait primordial d'améliorer les mesures de compétitivité de façon à mieux capturer le comportement stratégique des firmes et les caractéristiques de l'environnement dans lequel elles opérent