TRANSPORTATION DEREGULATION AND INTERREGIONAL COMPETITION IN THE NORTHEASTERN FEED ECONOMY

The effects of rail deregulation on feed transportation in the Northeast are examined through construction of a spatial equilibrium model of the Northeastern feed industry. Short-run and long-run effects of deregulation are analyzed through incorporation of rail rate structures for 1981 and 1984, respectively, into model simulations and comparison with pre-deregulation base year results (1980). The results show that the Northeast feed economy has generally benefited from rail deregulation which has led to lower transportation costs, lower feed costs and an enhanced competitive position relative to the Southeastern U.S.Public Economics,

ESTIMATING GENDER DIFFERENCES IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY: BIASES DUE TO OMISSION OF GENDER-INFLUENCED VARIABLES AND ENDOGENEITY OF REGRESSORS

This study evaluates managerial differences between men and women and assesses the degree of bias introduced by omission of gender-influenced variables and ignoring the endogeneity of farmer characteristics and input levels. The results also give insight to improving research methods for isolating the gender impact on productivity.Labor and Human Capital, Productivity Analysis,

Economic analysis of animal disease control inputs at farm level: the case of trypanocide use in villages under risk of drug resistance in West Africa

This paper presents an economic analysis of the use of drugs (isometamidium and diminazene) in controlling African Animal Trypanosomosis (AAT), a serious disease of cattle and small ruminants in villages that exhibit resistance to isometamidium in Burkina Faso and Mali in West Africa. The study applies a production function framework integrating a damage control function to assess the short term productivity effect of trypanocide use under different epidemiological conditions. We found that the marginal value products of isometamidium in all epidemiological conditions, and the marginal value product of diminazene in high-prevalence-high-resistance conditions are positive and greater than one revealing an underuse of trypanocidal drugs in those conditions. The economical optimum level of isometamidium is far larger than the current use level. In a strict economic interpretation, this implies that in the short term cattle farmers could increase the profitability if they increase trypanocide input beyond current levels. On the other hand, if the use of trypanocide increases, cattle farmers will also be more likely to experience future losses from trypanocide resistance. In this paper we demonstrated the feasibility of applying the damage control framework for measuring the productivity of veterinary therapeutic drugs at farm level in poor African countries

A strategic model for the simulation of drug resistance in African animal trypanosomiasis

African Animal Trypanosomiasis (AAT) is a major constraint to the productivity of African agricultural systems, both where animals are used for dairy or meat production and where traction power is needed to cultivate the land. Tsetse flies of the genus Glossina act as vectors that transport the parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma spp. between hosts. The strategy most widely used to manage the disease is application of trypanocidal drugs, but the emergence of resistance has put into question the long-term viability of their use. In certain areas of West Africa, drug resistant and drug susceptible strains of trypanosomes co-exist. When in such an area the disease prevalence is successfully reduced by removal of the majority of the tsetse vectors, the remaining numbers of diseased animals is so small that it becomes difficult to measure the impact of vector control on the development of drug resistance. Moreover, little is known about how resistance is likely to evolve if vector control is subsequently discontinued. Dynamic system models can simulate the processes that drive the dynamics of vector, host and parasite populations. Such models can increase our understanding of the diseases dynamics even in situations where empirical measurement is problematic. We describe a model in which cattle hosts are represented as individuals. Cattle can be infected by a drug resistant or drug susceptible strain of the pathogen, or a mix of both. Tsetse flies, represented as cohorts, can spread disease between hosts. The model incorporates processes that potentially alter the ratio of drug resistant to drug susceptible trypanosomes, such as reaction to medication, and keeps track of the proportions of drug resistance and drug susceptible strains in the trypanosome population. The model is strategic in the sense that it doesn't attempt to represent a particular situation in a particular region, but more generally aims to improve our understanding of a situation in which empirical science is constrained

The White Revolution in India: The end or a new beginning?

The milk revolution, popularly known as White Revolution, started in India in 1970 with a governmentsponsored programme - Operation Flood. This brought significant improvement to smallholder dairy systems by promoting cross-breeding, improving access to feed, veterinary services, markets, milk processing and preservation infrastructure. By 2013, India was the world’s largest milk producing country with total production of 132 megatonnes up from 17 in 1951. However, the cooperative system, the main vehicle for dairy development, was not successful everywhere especially, in regions where dairying had less potential to scale-up, leaving traditional milk production, with 80% of the market share, behind. Although cross-breeding became popular, average milk productivity per animal is still far below the global average and the traditional sector lacks awareness, capacity, incentives and resources. Simultaneously, urban and peri-urban dairying is developing rapidly, but accompanied by health and environmental experiments, Overall, we need systematic, location specific, holistic approaches to address the constraints. We present initial findings on promising approaches from research in Assam, Bihar and urban and peri-urban dairying. These suggest a ‘third way’ of dairy development driven by demand and value chain evolution that can complement the approaches implemented by co-operatives and more recently by large private sector investment

An impact evaluation of technology adoption by smallholders in Sichuan, China: the case of sweet potato-pig systems

We employ propensity score matching (PSM) framework to examine the impact of sweet potato-based feed technology adoption on household-based pig production in Sichuan, China. An ex post survey in six villages was conducted in 2009, of which five villages were in project intervention sites (exposed area) and one village in the same township but not exposed to project intervention (non-exposed area). We randomly selected 111 households in the exposed areas from the list of households previously interviewed in a baseline survey and 53 households from non-exposed area. Matching estimators such as nearest neighbor matching (NNM), radius matching (RM) and kernel matching (KM) were used to estimate average treatment effects. Results indicate positive net benefit from adoption of sweet potato-based feeding technology, i.e., gross margin estimates of silage adopters are on average higher by 2-4 RMB per kg liveweight of output than non-adopters of similar characteristics. Silage adopters are also likely to produce 3-7 more slaughter pigs per year than non-adopters having similar characteristics, on average. Analysis of factors driving adoption indicates that sweet potato-based feed technology is not suitable in all smallholder context in Sichuan. Where this is suitable is in systems where sweet potato is an important crop, where there is limited access to input markets such as in upland or mountainous areas, where corn is not an important crop, and where households raise no more than 10 pigs given available household labor for pig raising in rural areas (generally either old people who are no longer active in the labor force, or young children who are still in school). Overall, the results show that sweet potato-based feed technology plays an important role in helping household-based pig producers become resilient, by having options in feeding strategies that help them cope with volatility in output prices (e.g., prices of live pigs as a function of retail prices of pork) and input prices (e.g., price of corn vis-à-vis price of pork, price of industrial feed). Exposure to the technology and its benefits through actual demonstration also appears to be more effective in engendering uptake and sustaining adoption.Technology adoption, impact assessment, crop-livestock systems, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics, O22, O33, Q16,