Learning in switching to organic farming

This paper estimates technical efficiency of organic and conventional dairy farming and its development over time. We control for possible selection bias and regional heterogeneity. The results suggest that technical efficiency measured as a ratio between actual and maximum obtainable output (relative to the peer group) at first diminishes when the conversion towards organic production starts. After 6-7 years from the switch, technical efficiency starts to increase again

Agricultural microcredit and technical efficiency : The case of smallholder rice farmers in Northern Ghana

In the current study, we compared technical efficiency of smallholder rice farmers with and without credit in northern Ghana using data from a farm household survey. We fitted a stochastic frontier production function to input and output data to measure technical efficiency. We addressed self-selection into credit participation using propensity score matching and found that the mean efficiency did not differ between credit users and non-users. Credit-participating households had an efficiency of 63.0 percent compared to 61.7 percent for non-participants. The results indicate significant inefficiencies in production and thus a high scope for improving farmers’ technical efficiency through better use of available resources at the current level of technology. Apart from labour and capital, all the conventional farm inputs had a significant effect on rice production. The determinants of efficiency included the respondent’s age, sex, educational status, distance to the nearest market, herd ownership, access to irrigation and specialisation in rice production. From a policy perspective, we recommend that the credit should be channelled to farmers who demonstrate the need for it and show the commitment to improve their production through external financing. Such a screening mechanism will ensure that the credit goes to the right farmers who need it to improve their technical efficiency.Peer reviewe

A scheme with two large extra dimensions confronted with neutrino physics

We investigate a particle physics model in a six-dimensional spacetime, where two extra dimensions form a torus. Particles with Standard Model charges are confined by interactions with a scalar field to four four-dimensional branes, two vortices accommodating ordinary type fermions and two antivortices accommodating mirror fermions. We investigate the phenomenological implications of this multibrane structure by confronting the model with neutrino physics data.Comment: LATEX, 24 pages, 9 figures, minor changes in the tex

Productivity growth on Finnish grain farms from 1976 2006: a parametric approach

In the long term, productivity and especially productivity growth are necessary conditions for the survival of farms and the food industry in Finland. The natural handicap and small farm size are challenges, but farmers are further challenged by the decoupling of supports and their transformation into direct income payments. Additionally, farmers actions are limited by some institutional settings that substantially reduce incentives to improve productivity. Technical progress was found to drive the increase in productivity on grain farms in Finland. The scale had only a moderate effect and for the whole study period (19762006) the effect was close to zero. Total factor productivity (TFP) increased, depending on the model, by 0.61.7% per year. The results demonstrated that the increase in productivity was hindered by the policy changes introduced in 1995. The cumulative increase in TFP over the study period was at the same level as the measured yearly changes in TFP. The results highlight the nature of grain farming in Finland as well as the challenges in simultaneously taking into account the general trend and yearly variation in TFP.;Maatalouden tuottavuus ja erityisesti tuottavuuden nousu ovat välttämättömiä edellytyksiä suomalaisten maatilojen ja elintarviketeollisuuden selviytymiselle. Epäsuotuisat olosuhteet ja pieni tilakoko ovat jo sinänsä haasteita, mutta tuottavuuskehityshaaste on entisestään koventunut, kun tuet on irrotettu tuotannosta. Lisäksi viljelijöiden kannusteet tuottavuuskehityksen nopeuttamiseen ovat olennaisesti heikentyneet pellon omistusrakenteessa tapahtuneen muutoksen myötä. Vuonna 2004 vain puolet peltoalasta oli viljelijöiden omistuksessa.Suomalaisten viljatilojen tuottavuuskehitys johtuu pitkälti teknologisesta kehityksestä. Tutkimuksen mukaan skaalavaikutukset, eli suurtuotannon edut, ovat tarkasteluvälillä vaikuttaneet hyvin vähän tuottavuuskehitykseen, ja lisäksi niiden vaikutus on ollut ajan myötä jopa laskeva. Vuosina 19762006 viljatilojen tuottavuus nousi mittaustavasta riippuen keskimäärin 0,61,7 % vuodessa. Keskimääräinen vuotuinen tuottavuuskehitys oli kuitenkin niin pieni, että kokonaiskehitys koko tarkastelujaksolla oli samansuuruinen kuin suurimmat vuotuiset vaihtelut. Tulos osoittaa viljanviljelyn tuottavuuden olevan sidoksissa vuosittain vaihteleviin sääolosuhteisiin. Tämä haastaa tutkimusmenetelmät, joiden pitäisi toisaalta osoittaa hidas taustalla oleva tuottavuuskehitys ja samalla suuri vuotuinen vaihtelu tuottavuuden tasossa

Technical change in Finnish grass silage production

Stochastic production frontier analysis is applied in decomposing output growth of grass silage production to technical change, technical efficiency change, scale effect and input growth. For 19902000 in a complete panel of 138 Finnish farms, almost three fourths of the output growth was linked to input growth. The annual technical change, the shift of the production frontier, was on average 1.4 percent. Technical effi- ciency indicated a slightly decreasing tendency, less than 0.2 percent per year. Harvesting techniques were used as indicators of different technologies. The analysis showed that production frontiers differed between harvesting techniques. The choice of harvesting technique seemed to be related to circumstances on the farm. Thus, overall technical efficiency should not be interpreted as a measure of managerial competence when all the factors are not in the farmers control. Controlling background and production environment related factors yields a considerably lower level of technical inefficiency than the models without the control. It is also shown that in general a more productive harvesting technique may be on average less effi- ciently utilized when compared to its own frontier.

Shadow Price Approach to Total Factor Productivity Measurement: With an Application to Finnish Grass-Silage Production

This paper explores an intermediate route between the Fisher and the Malmquist productivity indexes so as to minimize data requirements and assumptions about economic behavior of production units and their production technology. Assuming quantity data of inputs and outputs and the behavioral hypothesis of allocative efficiency, we calculate the exact value of the Fisher ideal productivity index using implicit shadow prices revealed by the choice of input-output mix. The approach is operationalized by means of a nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. Empirical application to Finnish grass silage farms suggests that the Malmquist and the Fisher productivity indices yield similar results when averaged over firms, but there can be major differences in the results of the two approaches at the level of individual firms

The law of one price in data envelopment analysis: Restricting weight flexibility across firms

The Law of One Price (LoOP) states that all firms face the same prices for their inputs and outputs under market equilibrium. Taken here as a normative condition for `efficiency prices¿, this law has powerful implications for productive efficiency analysis, which have remained unexploited thus far. This paper shows how LoOP-based weight restrictions can be incorporated in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Utilizing the relation between industry-level and firm-level cost efficiency measures, we propose to apply a set of input prices that is common for all firms and that maximizes the cost efficiency of the industry. Our framework allows for firm-specific output weights and for variable returns-to-scale, and preserves the linear programming structure of the standard DEA. We apply the proposed methodology to the evaluation of the research efficiency of economics departments of Dutch Universities. This application shows that the methodology is computationally tractable for practical efficiency analysis, and that it helps in deepening the DEA analysi