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| Thirtle, Colin G.; Piesse, Jenifer; Gouse, Marnus. |
| This paper begins by arguing that agricultural economics has an important contribution to make to the economic transition of the new democratic South Africa. Policies are required to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality, but does the work of agricultural economists provide the policy makers with the information necessary to make the correct choices? In this context, we update our recent work on technology, efficiency and productivity in South African agriculture, for both the commercial and smallholder sub-sectors. For the commercial sector, this means extending the total factor productivity index and estimates of the demand for labour. For the smallholder sector, there are new results on the impacts of GM cotton and white maize on output and... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Security and Poverty. |
| Ano: 2005 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/31719 |
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| Mkhabela, Thulasizwe S.; Piesse, Jenifer; Thirtle, Colin G.; Vink, Nick. |
| This paper models dairy farms in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, emphasising the complexities unique to this multi-product industry. Net and gross output approaches to measuring production are discussed and then tested using panel data from 37 dairy farms in KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 and 2007. Production functions for the three outputs: milk production, animals and farm-produced feed, are fitted as a simultaneous system to model the farms’ production activities. This simultaneous model is complemented by a single equation reduced form that is fitted as a frontier, which allows estimation of the relative efficiencies of the individual farms. The results show that, with data this detailed, it is possible to refine the model until it fits very tightly. Indeed, in... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Dairy farms; Production; Frontiers; Efficiency; Production Economics. |
| Ano: 2010 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61999 |
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| Muchena, M.; Piesse, Jenifer; Thirtle, Colin G.; Townsend, Rob F.. |
| This study is based on two 1991 sample surveys, each of ninety farms, in the predominantly arable region of Chiweshe and in the low rainfall area of Gokwe, where animals are more important. The two samples are reasonably representative of the range of conditions found in the communal areas in Zimbabwe. Programming techniques are used to determine the efficiency levels of the farms in each region. The results show that efficiency is positively related to the numbers of both cows and oxen, with only a few farms in Gokwe possibly having too many animals. Farms in Gokwe are on average about two thirds as efficient as those in Chiweshe, which is a measure of the effects of the poorer climate and soils. Non-farm income is also lower, due to lesser opportunities... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Farm Management; Livestock Production/Industries. |
| Ano: 1997 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/54978 |
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| Gouse, Marnus; Piesse, Jenifer; Thirtle, Colin G.. |
| The only commercial genetically modified (GM) subsistence food crop is white maize in South Africa, which was released in 2001/2. This paper reports on the performance of insect resistant (Bt) white maize grown by smallholders in Hlabisa, KwaZulu Natal, where the other development is minimum tillage. The results show that, contrary to many inflated claims, in the dry 2003/4 season, there was no significant difference between the yield per kg of seed for Bt and conventional maize, due to very low stalk borer infestation levels. Farmers who planted Bt maize in 2003/2004 were thus worse off as they paid more for seed and obtained no benefit. This is measured using efficiency scores from a stochastic frontier analysis. These results conflict with the yield per... |
| Tipo: Conference Paper or Presentation |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness; Crop Production/Industries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; O33; Q16. |
| Ano: 2006 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25309 |
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| Conradie, Beatrice; Piesse, Jenifer; Thirtle, Colin G.. |
| This paper examines the appropriate level of aggregation for the construction of total factor productivity (TFP) indices. The dataset covers the magisterial districts and statistical regions of the Western Cape for the years 1952 to 2002. Over these five decades agricultural production in the Western Cape grew twice as fast as in the country as a whole but this average masks substantial regional variation. Results show that TFP growth was negative in the Karoo, moderate in the Swartland, Overberg and Southern Cape, and generally above 2% per year in the Boland and Breede River Valleys, where there is extensive irrigation. |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Total factor productivity; Western Cape; South Africa; Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 2009 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49162 |
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| Thirtle, Colin G.; Lusigi, Angela; Piesse, Jenifer; Suhariyanto, Kecuk. |
| This paper calculates multi-lateral Malmquist multi-factor productivity (MFP) indices for agriculture in the eighteen regions and the commercial sector of Botswana from 1981 to 1996. The Malmquist is appropriate because prices do really exist for major inputs such as land and labour. The small size of the cross section is overcome by using the sequential version of the Malmquist, which accumulates the annual data, so increasing the stability of the frontier. The regional MFPs are the natural peer group for producing a national MFP, so the problem of choosing peers, in earlier work on international comparisons does not arise. The results show that the national MFP grew at an average rate 1.57% per annum. However, disaggregation by enterprise shows that the... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Productivity Analysis. |
| Ano: 2000 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/54228 |
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| Poulton, Colin; Mukwereza, L.; Chanonwa, W.; Loader, R.; Mariga, K.; Masanganise, Patricia; Sanyatwe, D.; Piesse, Jenifer. |
| In recent decades, significant international assistance has been provided to assist the establishment of market information systems (MISs) in a range of developing countries, including many in Africa. However, experience with state-run MISs, looking to provide current price information to market participants, has not been encouraging. Volatile horticultural markets provide particular challenges for such MISs. Therefore, it is suggested that it might be more appropriate to provide other types of marketing information to inform the production and marketing decisions of smallholder producers. This paper reports on recent efforts by the national extension agency, Agritex, to provide such information to smallholder horticultural producers in two districts of... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Marketing. |
| Ano: 2000 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/54232 |
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| Thirtle, Colin G.; Lin, Lin; Piesse, Jenifer. |
| Twenty percent of the world population, or 1.2 billion live on less than $1 per day; 70% of these are rural and 90% in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Research led technological change in agriculture generates sufficient productivity growth to give high rates of return in African and Asia and has a substantial impact on poverty, currently reducing this number by 27 million per annum, whereas productivity growth in industry and services has no impact. The per capita "cost" of poverty reduction by means of agricultural research expenditures in Africa is $144 and in Asia $180, or 50 cents per day, but this is covered by output growth. By contrast, the per capita cost for the richer countries of Latin America is over $11,000. |
| Tipo: Conference Paper or Presentation |
Palavras-chave: Agricultural Productivity; Poverty Reduction; Food Security and Poverty; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; 011; 013; 015. |
| Ano: 2003 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25834 |
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