International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development
Volume:2 Issue: 3, Sep 2012

Sunflower is one of four main annual oil plants that cultivated in oil and nut varieties. This plant as an important and industrial food product and because of nutritional features and the potential for earning exchange has become a valuable product in foreign and inner markets and has a special position in agricultural sector. Khoy, by producing 40 percent of sunflower productions of country annually, is the greatest sunflower producer in Iran. The main purpose of this study is the analysis of the effects of inputs price liberalization on production of sunflower producers in this city. This study is according to a field research and cross-sectional data of 2009 have been used for it. Results show input price liberalization policy by increasing inputs prices and decreasing demand amounts of inputs, increases the production costs and decreases the production and totally it`s harmful for sunflower producers. For preventing negative effects of liberalization on production, adopting necessary policies such as merging small farms and making big ones to profit by economies of scale and increasing production and productivity with the resulted incomes from liberalization and spending them in scientific researches to produce with low costs are suggested.

Many studies conclude that the rise in global food prices due to higher demand from the development of biofuels, climate anomalies, and increased of oil prices. Not only the food commodity index rose more than 60 percent, nonfood commodity price index also rose over 60 percent andcrude oil price index has increased even further above 60 percent. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of bio-ethanol conversion and global climate change on corn economic performance of Indonesia. The results showed that the food crisis caused by climate anomalies lead the world corn prices rose 50 percent, impact on Indonesia corn imports fell by 11.86 percent. And the other hand, the energy crisis that caused the corn used as feedstock for ethanol that caused U.S. corn exports only 20 percent of their products have an impact on Indonesia on maize imports fell 32.4 percent.

The study investigated the loan repayment, its determinants and socio-economic characteristics of microfinance loan beneficiaries in the Southeast states of Nigeria. It was carried out in three states of the five southeast states. Using a multistage sampling technique, a total of 144 loan beneficiaries in the three segments of MFIs, namely; formal (commercial and development banks); semi-formal (NGOs-MFIs) and informal (ROSCAS, “Isusu” and co-operative societies) were randomly selected and interviewed in the three states. An ordinary least square (OLS) multiple regression analysis was carried out to isolate and examine the determinants of loan repayment from the respondents’ perspective. Results showed that beneficiaries had low level of education, operated enterprises at a relatively small scale, had large family size and were of middle age. Further, it was found out that the majority of the respondents were involved in farming enterprise (crop and poultry) even though trading was the most prominent single non-farming enterprise (trading, processing and artisanship). The result affirmed that the informal sector respondents recorded the best repayment rate, followed by the respondents of semi-formal and the banks brought the rear. Outstanding among the determinants of loan repayments from the respondents’ perspective were; loan size, level of education, experience, profitability and portfolio diversity. These, therefore deserve special attention in loan administration of MFIs.

The technical efficiency involved in cocoa production inCross River State was estimated using the stochastic frontier production function analysis. The effects of some selected socio- economic characteristics of the farmers on the efficiency indices were also estimated. The study relied upon primary data generated from interviewing cocoa farmers using a set of structured questionnaire. A multi-staged random sampling technique was adopted in selecting two hundred (200) cocoa farmers from Ikom Agricultural Zone in the state. The data on the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while the stochastic production function, using the Maximum Likelihood Estimating (MLE) techniques was used in estimating the farmer’s technical efficiency and their determinants. Result of the analysis showed that farmers were experiencing decreasing but positive returns to scale in the use of the farm resources. The efficiency level ranged between 0.20 and 0.93 with a mean of 0.69. The result of the generalized Likelihood Ratio (LR) tests confirmed that the cocoa farmers in the area were technically inefficient. The major contributing factors to efficiency were age of farmers, farm size, level of education, sex of farmer and age of the farms. The study observed that there is enough room to improve efficiency with the farmers’ current resource base and available technology and concluded that policies that would directly affect these identified variables should be pursued.

The bias against mangrove areas in siting fish farms prompted a comparison of the cost structure and yield performance in upland and mangrove locations. Tools utilized included descriptive statistics, budgetary and cash flow analyses and profitability ratios. Empirical results revealed that substantial revenue could be realized from both farms. While the upland farms yielded average gross revenue per hectare per year of $9,183.53, the mangrove farms made $8,135.93 revealing a slight difference. Results of combined cash flow and sensitivity analysis buttressed that of budgetary analysis. NPVs were $10,888.11 and $10,375.84, B/Cs were 1.28 and 1.29 and IRR were 48.55% and 48.51% for the upland and mangrove farms, respectively. Profitability ratios were also comparable but slightly higher in the upland farms. The conclusion is that there was little or no difference in yield performance. However, the high risk of investment loss in years of excessive flood should prompt investors in mangrove farms to compulsorily insure their farms.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of extension services in enhancing effectiveness of outgrowers’ credit system in Kisumu County, Kenya. The study specifically sought to determine whether public and private extension services play a significant role in enhancing effectiveness of out-growers’ credit system among smallholder sugarcane farmers. A total of 110 small scale farmers were randomly selected for the study. A closed ended questionnaire was used to collect data from farmers. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The findings indicated that both public and private extension services were insignificant in enhancing effectiveness of outgrowers’ credit system. Further, the findings indicated that there was no significant difference between public and private sector in provision of extension services. The findings suggest that for outgrowers’ credit system to be effective in terms of creation of awareness about credit, accessibility, timely supply of credit, supervision of credit and provision of extension advice on credit utilization, both public and private extension services should be intensified and coordinated to avoid duplication. The results also suggest that sugarcane factory extension division should be strengthened just like in the coffee and tea sub-sectors.

Economic valuation of water is useful in the administration and management of water. Population growth and urbanization caused municipal water demand increase in Iran. Limited water resource supply and urban water network capacity raised complexity in water resources management. Present condition suggests using economic value of water as a criterion for allocating policies and feasibility study of urban water supply projects. This study use contingent valuation method for determining economic value of drinking water inKohkiloye & Boyerahmad province. Required data set were obtained from 177 questionnaires by applying stratified random sampling in 2011 year. From 136 investigated urban households 111 ones are willing to pay more for qualified drinking water. Also, from 41 investigated rural households only 3 ones are willing to pay more for qualified drinking water. Results indicated that economic value of drinking water is 6877 Rial per cubic meter.

The study focused on constraints affecting the adoption of innovative agricultural technologies disseminated by the Women-in-Agriculture (WIA) unit of the Akwa Ibom Agricultural Development Programme (AKADEP) to its women clientele. The study also ascertained the awareness and adoption levels of such introduced technologies. Findings revealed that respondents were aware of 61.9% of introduced technologies, while only 33.3% were fully adopted. The study also identified seven factors responsible for the non-adoption of women farmers’ related technologies. The three highest ranking constraining factors were revealed as; high cost of inputs, low income level of women farmers and lack of regular contact with WIA extension agents. Reasons have been proffered for the relatively low technologies’ adoption levels. Recommendations have also been made to enhance the technology adoption level. These include the necessity to introduce only socio- economically and culturally compatible technologies to WIA clientele, a wholesale focus on follow-up activities after initial group based technology introduction activities, and the attachment of a credit scheme to the WIA program.

This study was carried out to identify Technical-Agronomic Factors Impressible from Fish Farming in Rice Fields. This investigation carried out by descriptive survey during July-August 2009. Studied cities including Talesh, Rezvanshahr and Masal set in Tavalesh region near to Caspian Sea, North of Iran. The questionnaire validity and reliability were determined to enhance the dependability of the results. Data were collected from 184 respondents (61 adopters and 123 non-adopters) randomly sampled from selected villages and analyzed using logistic regression analysis. Results showed that there was a significant positive relationship (p<0.05) between biological control of pests in rice fields and the fish farming in rice fields. Also, there was a significant negative relationship (p<0.10) between the fish farming in rice fields and variables of quantity using pesticide of Diazinon in rice fields and number of plows in rice fields.