Download or read book The relationship between farm size and efficiency in south african agriculture written by Johan Van Zyl and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Relationship Between Farm Size and Productivity in South African Commercial Agriculture written by Godfrey Ndala Tshilumbay and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Relationship Between Farm Size and Efficiency in South African Agriculture written by Colin Thirtle and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: November 1995 Commercial farms in South Africa could become significantly more efficient if they became smaller. The government could encourage that trend by removing policies and distortions that favor large over small farms. Drawing on international evidence, van Zyl, Binswanger, and Thirtle discuss the sources of economies of scale. Using representative farm-level survey data for South Africa's six major grain-producing areas and one irrigation area for the period 1975 - 90, they: * Describe the structure of South African agriculture, detailing the distribution of farm sizes and results from previous studies of farm-size efficiency. * Analyze the evidence on scale efficiency in the former homelands. * Analyze the relationship between farm size and efficiency in commercial farming and discuss how policy affects that relationship. Clearly policy has a crucial impact on the relationship between farm size and efficiency. They find that: * Farms in the former homelands seem to be scale-inefficient, which is unsurprising, given the historical lack of access to support services and infrastructure, policies that discriminate against farmers in the homelands, and the extremely fragmented and limited land-use rights of farmers there. * There is an inverse relationship between farm size and efficiency in the commercial farming areas for the range of farms analyzed, regardless what method is used. This inverse relationship seems to become stronger and more accentuated as policy distortions -- which tend to favor large farms over small ones -- are removed. * Large farms tend to use more capital-intensive methods of production, while smaller farms are more labor-intensive. And managerial ability seems to be better on larger farms. There is an inverse relationship between farm size and efficiency in South African agriculture despite South Africa's history of policies favoring relatively large mechanized farms. Clearly, efficiency gains could be significant if commercial farms became smaller. To encourage that trend, policies and distortions that favor large farms over small should be removed. This paper -- a product of the Office of the Director, Agriculture and Natural Resources Department -- is part of a larger effort in the department to design appropriate strategies for land reform.
Download or read book The Relationship between Farm Size and Efficiency in South African Agriculture written by Thirtle and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Relationship Between Farm Size and the Technical Inefficiency of Production of Wheat Farmers in Eastern Orange Free State South Africa written by Sipho A. Ngwenya and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Finding Common Ground written by Wandile Sihlobo and published by Pan Macmillan South africa. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘My hope is that people can grow to appreciate this sector – its challenges and opportunities, but most importantly, the role agriculture can play in improving South Africa’s rural economy, creating jobs and bringing about much-needed transformation (or inclusive growth).’ Wandile Sihlobo is perfectly positioned to provide a well-rounded, accessible view of agriculture in South Africa. He spent his school holidays in the rural Eastern Cape, studied agricultural economics at university, has worked in private-sector agriculture, consulting with farmers across the country, and has been an adviser to government as part of South African policymaking bodies. Finding Common Ground is a selection of key articles from Sihlobo’s regular Business Day column, framed with insightful commentary and context. The book covers the broad themes that have marked current discussions and outlines the challenges and opportunities faced by South Africa’s agricultural sector, including: The contentious and complex issue of land reform; The potential for new leadership to revive the sector; How agriculture can drive development and job creation; Cannabis as an exportable commodity; The urgent need for agricultural policy to address gender equity and youth involvement; Technological developments and megatrends that are underpinning agricultural development; The importance of trade in growing South Africa’s agriculture; and Key lessons that South Africa and other African countries can learn from one another. Ultimately, Sihlobo is optimistic about the future of South Africa’s agricultural sector and shows us all – from policymakers to the general public – how much common ground we truly have.
Download or read book Explaining Total Factor Productivity Growth in South African Commercial Agriculture 1947 91 written by Colin G. Thirtle and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Farm Size and Productivity written by Sara Savastano and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper proposes a new interpretation of the farm size-productivity relationship. Using two rounds of the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey, and drawing on earlier work on five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the paper shows that the relationship between farm size and productivity is neither monotonic nor univocal. Most previous studies that tested the inverse farm size-productivity relationship used ordinary least squares estimation, therefore reporting parameter estimates at the conditional mean of productivity. By expanding these important findings to consider the entire distribution of agricultural productivity, the analysis finds sign switches across the distribution, pointing to a "direct-inverse-direct" relationship. Less productive farmers exhibit an inverted U-shape relationship between land productivity and farm size, while more productive farmers show a U-shape relationship that reverses the relationship. In both cases, the relationship points toward a threshold value of farm size; however, the threshold is a minimum for the less productive farmers and a maximum for the more productive ones. To the left of the threshold, for very small farmers, the relationship between productivity and farm size is positive; for the range of middle farm size, the relationship is negative; and to the right of the threshold, the relationship is direct (positive) again. From a policy perspective, these findings imply that efficiency-enhancing and redistributive land reform should consider farm size in the proper context of the present and potential levels of agricultural productivity. The results and their policy implications underline the relevance of the most recent efforts of the international development community to collect more reliable georeferenced data on farm size and agricultural productivity.
Download or read book Testing the Induced Innovation Hypothesis in South African Agriculture An Error Correction Approach written by Colin Thirtle and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: November 1995 Apparently factor prices do matter in agricultural production and in the selection of production technology. And in South Africa, more attention should be focused on the technological needs of small-scale farmers. Current policies sustain the bias toward labor-saving technical change, hardly appropriate for a labor-surplus economy in which small farmers in the former homelands face a chronic scarcity of land. Thirtle, Townsend, and van Zyl investigate whether factor prices matter in agricultural production and in the selection of production technology. Each stage of the analysis corroborates the inducement hypothesis, which implies that factor prices do matter in agricultural production and in the selection of production technology. The empirical results also suggest that observed rates and biases of technological change are influenced by average farm size, by spending on research and extension, and by favorable tax and interest-rate policies. In South Africa, the authors contend, more attention should be focused on the technological needs of small-scale farmers. The lobbying power of the large commercial farmers, combined with policies followed under apartheid, must have influenced the allocation of research and development funds between labor- and land-saving technical change. This will have distorted the technological bias toward labor-saving technical change, which is hardly appropriate for a labor-surplus economy in which small farmers in the former homelands face a chronic scarcity of land. These results show that factor prices do matter in agricultural production and the selection of production technology. And there seems to be merit to the World Bank's usual policy prescription -- structural adjustment and market liberalization -- for economies in which prices are controlled and distorted. They investigate the role of factor prices by applying cointegration techniques to a model of induced innovation based on the two-stage constant elasticity of substitution production function. This approach results in direct tests of the inducement hypothesis, which are applied to data for South African agriculture for the period 1947-92. They check the time series properties of the variables, establish cointegration, and construct an error correction model (ECM) that allows factor substitution to be separated from technological change. Finally, they subject the ECM formulation to tests of causality, which show that the factor price ratios induce the factor-saving biases of technological change. This paper --a product of the Office of the Director, Agriculture and Natural Resources Department -- is part of a larger effort in the department to design appropriate agricultural policies.
Download or read book Farming Systems and Poverty written by John A. Dixon and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2001 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.
Download or read book Farm Size and Productivity written by Douglas Gollin and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This paper considers the relationship between farm size and productivity. It begins by discussing measurement issues and conceptual issues related to agricultural productivity, including the well-documented difficulty of measuring inputs and outputs in smallholder production systems. The paper then considers the relationship between farm size and productivity, documenting patterns both across countries and within countries. Across countries, there is a weak but positive relationship between farm size and the value of agricultural output per unit of land (i.e. yield). A much stronger positive relationship holds for agricultural output per unit of labour, which is closely correlated with farm size across countries. Within countries, the relationship between farm size and yield is often negative (the widely documented 'inverse farm size-productivity relationship'). However, even within countries, there is typically a strong positive relationship between farm size and labour productivity. The paper concludes by considering the policy implications, if any, of the relationships between farm size and agricultural productivity"--Page 4.
Download or read book Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization A Framework for Africa written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2019-03-13 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This framework presents ten interrelated principles/elements to guide Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization in Africa (SAMA). Further, it presents the technical issues to be considered under SAMA and the options to be analysed at the country and sub regional levels. The ten key elements required in a framework for SAMA are as follows: The analysis in the framework calls for a specific approach, involving learning from other parts of the world where significant transformation of the agricultural mechanization sector has already occurred within a three-to-four decade time frame, and developing policies and programmes to realize Africa’s aspirations of Zero Hunger by 2025. This approach entails the identification and prioritization of relevant and interrelated elements to help countries develop strategies and practical development plans that create synergies in line with their agricultural transformation plans. Given the unique characteristics of each country and the diverse needs of Africa due to the ecological heterogeneity and the wide range of farm sizes, the framework avoids being prescriptive.
Download or read book Unlocking markets to smallholders written by Herman D. van Schalkwyk and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-03-10 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assesses the institutional, technical and market constraints as well as opportunities for smallholders, notably, emerging farmers in disadvantaged areas such as the former homelands of South Africa. Emerging farmers are previously disadvantaged black people who started or will start their business with the support of special government programs. Public support programs have been developed as part of the Black Economic Empowerment strategy of the South African government. These programs aim to improve the performance of emerging farmers. This requires, first and foremost, upgrading the emerging farmers skills by providing access to knowledge about agricultural and entrepreneurial practices. To become or to remain good farmers they also need access to suitable agricultural land and sufficient water for irrigation and for feeding their cattle. Finally, for emerging farmers to be engaged in viable farming operations, various factors need to be in place such as marketing and service institutions to give credit for agricultural inputs and investments; input markets for farm machinery, farm implements, fertilizers and quality seeds; and accessible output markets for their end products. This book develops a policy framework and potential institutional responses to unlock the relevant markets for smallholders.
Download or read book Policy Distortions and Agricultural Performance in the South African Economy written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Agriculture on the Road to Industrialization written by John Williams Mellor and published by International Food Policy Research Insitute. This book was released on 1995 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The framework for discussion includes three components: increased incomes resulting from growth in the agricultural sector; the expenditure of that increased income; and the consequent expansion of other sectors of the economy.
Download or read book The Role of Smallholder Farms in Food and Nutrition Security written by Sergio Gomez y Paloma and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-01 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book discusses the current role of smallholders in connection with food security and poverty reduction in developing countries. It addresses the opportunities they enjoy, and the constraints they face, by analysing the availability, access to and utilization of production factors. Due to the relevance of smallholder farms, enhancing their production capacities and economic and social resilience could produce positive impacts on food security and nutrition at a number of levels. In addition to the role of small farmers as food suppliers, the book considers their role as consumers and their level of nutrition security. It investigates the link between agriculture and nutrition in order to better understand how agriculture affects human health and dietary patterns. Given the importance of smallholdings, strategies to increase their productivity are essential to improving food and nutrition security, as well as food diversity.
Download or read book Revisiting the Farm Size Productivity Relationship Based on a Relatively Wide Range of Farm Sizes written by Milu Muyanga and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper revisits the inverse farm size-productivity relationship in Kenya. The study makes two contributions. First, the relationship is examined over a much wider range of farm sizes than most studies, which is particularly relevant in Africa given the recent rise of medium- and large-scale farms. Second, we test the inverse relationship hypothesis using three different measures of productivity including profits per hectare and total factor productivity, which are arguably more meaningful than standard measures of productivity such as yield or gross output per hectare. We find a U-shaped relationship between farm size and all three measures of farm productivity. The inverse relationship hypothesis holds on farms between zero and 3 hectares. The relationship between farm size and productivity is relatively flat between 3 and 5 hectares. A strong positive relationship between farm size and productivity emerges within the 5 to 70 hectare range of farm sizes. Across virtually all measures of productivity, farms between 20 and 70 hectares are found to be substantially more productive than farms under 5 hectares. When the analysis is confined to fields cultivated to maize (Kenya's main food crop) the productivity advantage of relatively large farms stems at least partially from differences in technical choice related to mechanization, which substantially reduces labor input per hectare, and from input use intensity.
