Analysis of Productive Performance of Crop and Animal Production Systems: An Integrated Analytical Framework

This article presents a two-stage analytical framework that integrates ecological crop (animal) growth and economic frontier production models to analyse the productive efficiency of crop (animal) production systems. The ecological crop (animal) growth model estimates "potential" output levels given the genetic characteristics of crops (animals) and the physical conditions of locations where the crops (animals) are grown (reared). The economic frontier production model estimates "best practice" production levels, taking into account economic, institutional and social factors that cause farm and spatial heterogeneity. In the first stage, both ecological crop growth and economic frontier production models are estimated to calculate three measures of productive efficiency: (1) technical efficiency, as the ratio of actual to "best practice" output levels; (2) agronomic efficiency, as the ratio of actual to "potential" output levels; and (3) agro-economic efficiency, as the ratio of "best practice" to "potential" output levels. Also in the first stage, the economic frontier production model identifies factors that determine technical efficiency. In the second stage, agro-economic efficiency is analysed econometrically in relation to economic, institutional and social factors that cause farm and spatial heterogeneity. The proposed framework has several important advantages in comparison with existing proposals. Firstly, it allows the systematic incorporation of all physical, economic, institutional and social factors that cause farm and spatial heterogeneity in analysing the productive performance of crop and animal production systems. Secondly, the location-specific physical factors are not modelled symmetrically as other economic inputs of production. Thirdly, climate change and technological advancements in crop and animal sciences can be modelled in a "forward-looking" manner. Fourthly, knowledge in agronomy and data from experimental studies can be utilised for socio-economic policy analysis. The proposed framework can be easily applied in empirical studies due to the current availability of ecological crop (animal) growth models, farm or secondary data, and econometric software packages. The article highlights several directions of empirical studies that researchers may pursue in the future.agro-economic efficiency, agronomic efficiency, crop growth model, frontier production model, farm heterogeneity, spatial heterogeneity

Assessing eco-environmental performance of agricultural production in OECD countries: combination of soil surface, soil system and farm gate methods of nutrient auditing

Nitrogen balance is increasingly used as an indicator of the environmental performance of agricultural sector in national, international, and global contexts. There are three main methods of accounting the national nitrogen balance: farm gate, soil surface, and soil system. OECD (2008) recently reported the nitrogen and phosphorus balances for member countries for the 1985 - 2004 period using the soil surface method. The farm gate and soil system methods were also used in some international projects. Some studies have provided the comparison among these methods and the conclusion is mixed. The motivation of this present paper was to combine these three methods to provide a more detailed auditing of the nitrogen balance and flows for national agricultural production. In addition, the present paper also provided a new strategy of using reliable international and national data sources to calculate nitrogen balance using the farm gate method. The empirical study focused on the nitrogen balance of OECD countries for the period from 1985 to 2003. The N surplus sent to the total environment of OECD surged dramatically in early 1980s, gradually decreased during 1990s but exhibited an increasing trends in early 2000s. The overall N efficiency however fluctuated without a clear increasing trend. The eco-environmental ranking shows that Australia and Ireland were the worst while Korea and Greece were the best.

A new framework of measuring national nutrients balance for international and global comparison

Nutrients balance such as nitrogen and phosphorus balance are increasingly used as an indicator of the environmental performance of agricultural sector in international and global context. However there still is a lack of harmony in the use of methods for estimating the nutrients balance among countries. This is because of the disagreement regarding the accuracy and uncertainty of different accounting methods. The lack of harmony in the methods used in different countries further increases the uncertainty in the context of the international comparisons. This paper provides a new framework for nutrients balance calculation using the farm-gate accounting method. The calculation under this new framework takes advantage of availability of data from FAO and other reliable national and international sources. Due to this, the proposed framework is highly adaptable in many countries, making the global comparison feasible. The paper also proposes three criteria including adaptability, accuracy and interpretability to assess the appropriateness of nutrients accounting method. Based on these criteria, the paper provides a comprehensive comparison of the farm-gate and soil-surface methods in accounting country-level nutrients balance of agricultural production. The paper identifies some shortcomings of the soil-surface balance and shows that the farm-gate method has a greater potential of providing a more accurate and meaningful estimation of national nutrients balance.

MEASUREMENT OF AGRICULTURAL TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH INCORPORATING ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS: A NUTRIENTS BALANCE APPROACH

This paper develops a new measure of total factor productivity growth in agricultural production which incorporates environmental effects. The new measure is called the Total Factor Nutrient-Orientated Productivity (TFNP) Index, and incorporates a materials balance condition. TFNP measures changes in nutrient-orientated efficiency and can be decomposed into efficiency change (EC), technological change (TC) and nutrient-orientated technological change (NTC) components. An empirical analysis, involving country-level data from OECD countries during 1990-2003, is provided using DEA methods. Estimates of mean technical and nutrient-orientated efficiency are 0.798 and 0.526, respectively. Estimated mean TFNP growth is 1.5% per year, with nutrient-orientated technological progress contributing 0.8%.Total factor productivity, environment, nutrient balance, DEA, Productivity Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Analysis of Agricultural Sustainability: A Review of Exergy Methodologies and Their Application in OECD

The present paper proposed the combination of Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Environment (CEENE) and Extended Exergy Analysis (EEA) to analyse international environmental performance in agricultural production. The unified approach allowed the cumulative analysis of comprehensive extraction of all types of resources and services from the ecosystem in agriculture. The analysis, therefore, enabled a more accurate comparison of the environmental performance of different countries or systems based on different indicators of sustainability. The application was conducted for 29 OECD countries for the years from 1990 to 2003 with some important findings. Firstly, the organic contents in top soil, feed and total water withdrawal were the three types of resources that agricultural production extracted most from the environment. Secondly, during the fourteen years surveyed, the efficiency of using exergy in the livestock sector was much lower than the efficiency in the crop sector. Thirdly, the environmental loading of economic investment had increased slightly, implying a minor increase in the pressure on the environment overtime. In addition, the empirical study on OECD countries confirmed that rankings varied widely based on different indicators. The empirical results gave some evidence to support the use of Non-Renewability- Yield Ratio firstly defined in the present paper because the rankings based on this indicator was more consistent with many other indicators

On the Effects of Monetary Policy in Vietnam: Evidence from a Trilemma Analysis

During and after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the growth cycle of Vietnam’s economy has shifted from an average annual growth rate of 7%-8% to an average annual growth rate of 5%-6% with a high level of macroeconomic instability and uncertainty from 2009 till 2016. Related studies have speculated that the operations of monetary policies during this period were not effective in recovering the economic growth and stabilizing the overall price level and total output level. This paper provides the first empirical examination of this speculation using the Trilemma framework. Our empirical results show that the State Bank of Vietnam has had adopted a set of policies aiming at maintaining exchange rate stability and interest rate independence while easing the restrictions on capital inflows. The combination of these three monetary policy approaches is found to violate the rule of Trilemma. Consequently, exchange rate and interest rate policies became less effective and failed to stabilize the economy in response to the global economic recession

The theory of planned behavior and knowledge sharing: A systematic review and meta-analytic structural equation modelling.

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is the most frequently used model in knowledge sharing. However, the empirical results are inconclusive on whether TPB can provide reasonable prediction of knowledge sharing behavior (KSB). This study aims to examine TPB in knowledge sharing and identify potential moderators of relationships among constructs in TPB

Energy transition, poverty and inequality: panel evidence from Vietnam

This paper investigates energy transition, energy poverty and energy inequality in Vietnam employing a longitudinal dataset of a nationally representative household survey. We use the data on residential energy expenditure of more than 9,000 households over the period 2004 - 2016. We find a transition from traditional energy to modern energy but this transition varies across regions, between ethnic and welfare groups and between rural and urban population. The poor and ethnic minority households still rely heavily on traditional energy sources such as coal and biomass to meet their energy demands. Electricity poverty has decreased but energy-cost poverty has increased. In addition, energy inequality tends to decrease at a more significant rate than income and consumption inequalities. We propose a national program for energy poverty alleviation be established to devise policies to lower households’ energy costs. Further assistance to the poor and ethnic minority households is also recommended so that they can afford a higher level of electricity consumption

Smallholder farmers’ adaptation to climate change and its potential contribution to UN’s sustainable development goals of zero hunger and no poverty

Climate change is likely to worsen poverty, and agriculture-dependent groups and poorest countries are at the greatest risk. Farmers’ have begun developing and implementing climate change adaptations. This study investigates the extent to which climate change adaptations by smallholder farmers have the potential to contribute to the UN’s sustainable development goals of no poverty (SDG 1) and zero hunger (SDG 2). To this end, the study measures the impact of such adaptations on food production using farm-level survey data from Nepal. We utilize a matching technique and stochastic production frontier model to examine the productivity and efficiency of farmers. Results reveal that the group of farmers adopting adaptations exhibit higher levels of productivity and technical efficiency in food production as compared to the non-adopters. It is evident from the results that policy makers should encourage farming households in climate change adaptations, which have the potential to enhance farmers’ productivity and efficiency in agriculture, thereby contributing to two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eradicating hunger and poverty (SDG’s target indicators 2.3)