Harsha de Silva, Director, E-development Labs (private) Limited and Senior Economist, LIRNEasia - Agricultural Market Development through Information and Communication Technology (ICT): A Developing Country Experience

One of the fundamental characteristics of a well functioning market is the ability to transmit useful information to decision makers at the micro-level, which will ultimately culminate in the development of effective macro-level policies. A key assumption in economics is that market information is readily available to role players in business and marketing. In reality however, farmers in the developing world, unlike their developed countries counterpart, are still faced with the challenge of accessing credible market information. Market information is an essential component of agricultural production, distribution and marketing. The availability of timely and accurate market information to farmers by means of fast and effective modern information technologies has enormous potential of greatly enhancing agricultural production, investment, financial and strategic decisions. The objective of this executive interview is to show how information and communication technology (ICT - enabled agricultural market information service can improve productivity, bargaining power and market profitability of rural farmers in developing countries). Dr. Harsha de Silva, the architect and implementer of Govi Gnana Service (an agricultural knowledge service: GGS) in Sri Lanka shares his views and experience. The interview was conducted at the 15th Annual World Food and Agribusiness Forum, Symposium and Case Conference in Chicago, USA.Information and communication technology (ICT), agricultural markets, market information, Agribusiness,

An Overview of the Global Economy: Markets, Competitiveness and Trade Facilitation. Executive Interview: The Honorable Carole L. Brookins, U.S. Executive Director to the World Bank, 2001-2005

The global economy is growing increasingly more integrated. The dawn of the 21st century was marked with cutting edge technologies creating the platform for greater connectivity and competition among global markets. The evolving economic paradigm is re-defining the way products are moving across markets, regions and continents. The combined effect of technological advances, global political economy and seasonal weather variability has called for dynamism in the way businesses are run. The potential benefit of this development is that it could culminate into increased productivity through the involvement of more people in economic activities across the globe, and the development of new efficiencies and new technologies to better manage our environment and create the right economic blocs. This synopsis is an interview conducted with the Honorable Carole L. Brookins, former Executive Director to the World Bank, 2001-2005. The objective was to relate current and evolving global economic trends to their importance on markets, competitiveness and trade facilitation across the globe. This interview was conducted at the 16th Annual World Forum, Symposium and Case Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina in June, 2006.Global economy, emerging markets, competitiveness, trade facilitation., International Relations/Trade,

Volatility Spill-over in a Customs Union: The Case of South Africa Sheep Import from Namibia

Prices guide economic agents’ resource allocation and output mix decisions. The extent of price transmission determines the nature of market integration. Volatility spill-over in spatially linked agricultural markets has been investigated, but not across borders. We developed an E-GARCH model which enabled us to explore various properties of price volatility – volatility persistence, asymmetric interference and volatility spill-over. We found the existence of significant volatility spill-over within the South African Customs Union (SACU) using sheep price data in Namibia and South Africa, especially with the introduction of Small Livestock Marketing Scheme (SLMS) in namibia. The results show more stickiness in the retail market than the wholesale market in South Africa (90% and 49%), suggesting a greater impact of price volatility on South Africa consumers than the processors. In terms of volatility spill-over, the asymmetric effect is significant at 5 percent suggesting that these two markets are somewhat integrated, since the incidence of volatility spill-over from Namibia has influenced price information transmission in the South African sheep market. Furthermore, 79 percent of the volatility in the Namibian market is transmitted through sheep meat retail prices to the South African sheep market. The measure of volatility persistence is significant; indicating that 45 percent of the volatility transmitted to the South African sheep market is persistent.Livestock Production/Industries,

Approximate scattering state solutions of DKPE and SSE with Hellmann Potential

We study the approximate scattering state solutions of the Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau equation (DKPE) and the spinless Salpeter equation (SSE) with the Hellmann potential. The eigensolutions, scattering phase shifts, partial-waves transitions and the total cross section for all the partial waves are obtained and discussed. The dependence of partial-waves transitions on total angular momentum number, angular momentum number, mass combination and potential parameters were presented in the figures.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure