THE IMPACT OF CHANGES IN TRADE POLICY ON DEVELOPING COUNTRY AGRICULTURE*

The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations has attracted much attention in the developing countries. It promises to weaken moves towards bilateral trade agreements, break open trade in temperate agricultural products, and should remove the last vestiges of protection against tropical products – although tariff escalation will remain. Overall, the main gains for the developing world will probably accrue to exporters of temperate products, above all those in Latin America; whilst for some of the poorer countries, losses may occur as the benefits of special and favoured access to the industrialised countries' markets will be eroded.     

THE MEASUREMENT OF MANAGERIAL EFFICIENCY IN AGRICULTURE*

This paper is an outline only of a Ph.D. thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham. The paper proposes a socio-economic model of farm production with special emphasis placed on the role of management: formulates an econometric model, to represent the socio-economic model, in which the degree of managerial efficiency appears as a variable, and suggests means of interpretation of the econometric model to aid farm planning at the individual farm level.     

THE ECONOMIC SURPLUS OF AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM*

The economic surplus of an industry is defined as the difference between its real product, and the real income accruing to it. The surplus from U.K. agriculture measured at 1964/65–66/67 prices is estimated to have risen by about 20 million per year in recent years. The absorption of this surplus by other sectors is identified and an approximate indication is given of the equivalent surpluses and deficits of other industry groups. The economic surplus from agriculture is transferred principally through changes in relative prices, the necessity of which tends to create an unavoidable minimum rate of inflation. There is an international equivalent of these transfers of real income through price changes, but without the institutional constraints on the market which in the domestic economy preserve some measure of equity in the distribution of income.     

AGRICULTURE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PAPUA AND NEW GUINEA

Primary production including subsistence production, accounts for about 60 per cent of the national income of Papua and New Guinea. The bulk of the indigenous people are subsistence farmers, or have contact with the cash economy through agriculture, and the agricultural industries provide virtually the sole source of export earnings. The position is nevertheless changing rapidly.     

AGRICULTURE IN THE NEW RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The causes of the present crisis are sought in the historical origins of the role of agriculture in the forced march to industrialisation by the USSR and in the impact of the recent, post-Soviet reforms on agriculture. The collapse is compared with the damage inflicted on farming in the Second World War but it is also noted that the recent decline in farming is not so severe as that in industry. Some of the essential preconditions for recovery are briefly considered.     

THE PATTERN OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN FARM MACHINERY*

This paper is a detailed comparison of the actual 1967 world trade patterns in tractors, harvesting machinery, and cultivating machinery and the ideal least-cost trade patterns in these three commodities. This comparison gives a measure of the opportunity costs the world pays for having the actual trade patterns instead of the least-cost trade patterns. It also helps one identify the production centres that are best located to serve world demands. The model used enables one to measure the way in which customs duties influence the cost advantages of different production centres. It also measures the significance of transportation costs as a natural barrier protecting the domestic farm machinery industry in different countries. The year 1967 was selected for study because the Canadian Royal Commission on Farm Machinery provided some cost data relevant for that time period. Cet article comprend une comparaison détaitée des caractéristiques réels du commerce mondial (en 1967) en tracteurs el machines agricoles avec les caractéristiques idéales de commerce au moindre coût pour ces mêmes produits. Cette comparaison donne une mesure des coûts d'opportunité que le monde paie pour avoir les caractéristiques réel les au lieu des caractéristiques de commerce au moindre coût. Ceci nous aide également à identifier les centres de production qui sont le mieux placer pour servier la demande mondiale. Ce modèle nous permet de mesurer dans quelle manière les tarifs douaniers influencent les avantages, en matière de coût, de differents centres de production. 11 nous permet également de mesurer la signification des coûts de transport comme obstacle natural protectant I'industrie de machines agricoles dans different pays. Nous avons choisi pour notre étude l'annié 1967 parce que la Commission Royale D'Enquête Relative Aux Machine Agricoles a mis à notre disposition des données concernant les coûts se rapportant à ladite période.     

青海高原生态环境与农业可持续发展

从青海高原生态环境特征出发,具体地阐述了该地区生态的脆弱性,认为该地区生态环境恶化主要是人类不合理开发利用资源的缥果,在新的市场经济条件下,应注意保持资源开发利用和保护增殖的平衡,走开发与保护并举的道路,提出了建立生态农业,以可持续发展去协调人地关系的初步对策,力求做到农业资源永续利用,保持生态的良性循环。     

TESTING FOR CHANGES IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE DEMAND FOR MEAT IN AUSTRALIA

Quarterly data from 1962 to 1983 for beef, lamb, mutton, pig meat and poultry were used to test for constancy in the structure of meat demand in Australia. The cumulative sum, cumulative sum of squares and Farley-Hinich tests were applied to a range of models to ensure that any rejection of stability was not due to an inappropriate functional form or omitted dynamics. Little evidence was found of a marked swing away from consumption of any meat, with the exception of mutton. The results suggest that changes in prices and in total consumer expenditure are far more important than changes in tastes as determinants of meat consumption.     

INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SERVICES FOR MARKETING: AN APPRAISAL IN TERMS OF CONVENIENCE FOR WORK IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Adaptation of computer technology to the assembly of bibliographical information has expanded enormously the amount and range of information that can be held. Convenience in use remains an important consideration. This criterion is applied to some international bibliographical systems from the viewpoint of a particular discipline. A second stage selection based on the primary sources seems necessary to take full advantage of their potential.     

APPLICATIONS OF GAME THEORY MODELS IN AGRICULTURE*

Due to the time lag between investment and payoff, the price-taking nature of agriculture, stochastic weather variables and other factors, the uncertainty faced by decision makers in agriculture is greater than and different from that confronting managers of most other sectors of economy. In this paper, game theory models have been applied to the problem of decision making under uncertainty in agriculture. The authors examine and compare the pros and cons of the four conventional theories of choice in decision making in agriculture. The four theories are: (a) Wald's maximin criterion, (b) Laplace's principle of “insufficient reason”, (c) Hurwicz's “optimism-pessimism” criterion and (d) Savage's “regret” criterion. In this study, applications have been made to the choice of type of farming, optimum dosage of fertiliser and manure and the most appropriate time of selling agricultural produce. The authors propose an additional theory of choice—the criterion of “benefit”—which seems more appropriate than the conventional theories under many situations.     

THE RETURNS FROM RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIAN BROADACRE AGRICULTURE*

Many people share the view that too little is invested in R & D in agriculture. The relationship between several measures of productivity and research expenditure was estimated using data from ABARE's surveys of broadacre industries and a new data series on R & D expenditure for the period 1953 to 1988. The internal rate of return to research was estimated to be in the range of 15 to 40 percent which does not provide strong evidence that Australia is either under- or over-investing in public research.     

FAMILY AND EMPLOYMENT IN AGRICULTURE: RECENT CHANGES IN FRANCE

This paper examines changes which have occurred in agricultural employment in France during the last two decades. It focuses on family employment since nowadays farm families provide more than half of the labour supply of the industry, as in nearly all the developed countries. The reasons behind the variation in the annual rate of decline in agricultural employment are split into two sets of factors: alterations in the age structure of the farm population, and modifications in the tendency to enter and leave farming in each age group. In respect of the later, the varied consequences of the occurrence of the economic crisis are discussed, together with the effects of deep sociological changes, especially in the relationships between members of the farm family.     

AN APPROACH TO THE ECONOMETRIC ESTIMATION OF ATTITUDES TO RISK IN AGRICULTURE*

A simple model is developed relating the debt and asset portfolio of the farm to the production decision, which leads to a small non-linear system of equations. The system is estimated with time-series cross-sectional data from Australian broadacre agriculture using non-linear three-stage least squares. This gives a new method of estimating risk aversion coefficients by using actual behaviour of farmers in a realistic economic environment, rather than games played in artificial situations. Australian farmers are found to be risk averse, and the partial coefficient of risk aversion decreases with wealth and increases with income. The results are consistent with the results of studies by Binswanger in India and elsewhere using a completely different method. This consistency suggests that the partial risk aversion coefficient is a relatively robust measure of attitudes to risk.     

THE IMPACT OF SUPERVISED CREDIT PROGRAMMES ON TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN DEVELOPING AGRICULTURE*

Restrictions on input use frequently accompany the granting of institutional credit to farmers in developing agriculture. A general economic framework is suggested to analyze the net social benefits of such a policy. The paper discusses the potential for manipulating the policy variables to foster more rapid adoption of new agricultural technology. An empirical analysis of the impact of a supervised credit programme in Guatemala on farm performance and farmer decision-making is presented.