Over the last twenty years or so, dairying has become the largest agricultural enterprise in Quebec. It has also become the most profitable, supplanting other less profitable farm enterprises. Dairying in Quebec has grown to the point where Quebec is now Canada's leading dairy province. [...]

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In consideration of the chronic poverty of farmers in Rwanda as well as in other developing countries where self-sufficient agriculture is practiced, this study examines what the well studied theory of specialization and trade, if implemented, could bring to Rwandan farmers in terms of production and profits. / To attain this objective, a spatial optimization model with linear programming was built and used to maximize the potential production and net returns which were compared to those from the traditional system. The model was built in a way that it also shows the pattern of trade and quantities traded. / The results show that a regional specialization system would allow, on the national level, more production, higher net returns, and more trade than the traditional system (self-sufficient agriculture) as expected according to the theory of specialization and trade. Nevertheless, the net return in some regions decreases in the new system, which necessitates a compensation plan for those regions. / However, it has to be noted that despite these gains, the adoption of the new plans requires a consideration of many other factors that are not covered in this study. Of those factors, the most obvious are the need to improve the transportation and marketing infrastructure, changing farmers' attitudes and objectives towards commercial agriculture, and securing equity, security, and sustainability in the system.

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In Cuba, the act of growing flood in the city has become a way of life. Since the beginning of the "Special Period in Time of Peace", brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Cubans have engaged in many forms of urban agriculture (UA) to cope with the food crisis affecting the Island. In Havana, the popular garden movement occupies 8% of total urban land in agriculture (3.4% of urban land) and is practiced by 18,000 gardeners who produce vegetables and fruit, and raise small livestock to increase food security and generate income. The purpose of this study was to provide estimates of the user benefits of UA, as well as qualitative and quantitative information related do this activity. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to elicit users' willingness to pay (WTP) for the land they use, that is currently provided at no charge by the stale. The average WTP was estimated at 23.5 pesos/1000 m2/month under current conditions and 34.4 pesos/1000 m2/month with improvements in water and anti-theft services. These amounts represent about 11% and 14% of monthly household income, respectively. Aggregate WTP for popular gardens in the city of Havana was estimated to be 6.88 million pesos/year (344,000 $US) and 10.07 million pesos/year (503,500 $US) with the proposed improvements. The study has produced important results that give an indication of the use and non-use value of UA for gardeners of Havana. Results also suggest that CVM is a non-market valuation technique that can be successfully applied in Cuba, and can provide information to be integrated in cast-benefit analysis frameworks that assess the importance of UA.

The competition or rivalry for the use of water resources among economic sectors of the Pacific Northwest and among geographical regions of the western United States has intensified in recent years. This rivalry and the long run prospects for water shortages have increased the demand for research concerning the productivity of this resource in alternative uses. This demand exists because the distribution and use of water resources require investment which typically comes from both public and private sources. Private and public planning groups seek answers to questions regarding future water resource development alternatives. Agriculture has historically been a major user of water in the Pacific Northwest. A substantial portion of total investment in water resource development has also been, in agriculture. As a result water use planners and decision making bodies are necessarily interested in water use in agriculture. The success of water resource planning requires answers to questions regarding the value of the productivity of water in all its major uses, including various aspects of water use in agriculture. Different aspects of water use in agriculture which are important to decision makers include (1) the value productivity of various kinds or types of water resource investments, (2) the value productivity of water in various kinds of agricultural production in different geographical areas, and (3) the returns to private and public investment in agricultural water resources. This study was directed to providing answers to these questions. Pacific Northwest agriculture was studied from this viewpoint. Agricultural water resources were classified as irrigation, drainage, and water related Agricultural Conservation Program (ACP) practices. These are the major classifications of water resources in which investments are made in the Pacific Northwest. Production function analysis was selected as a method of investigation. Production functions were estimated for five areas or subregions in the Pacific Northwest. These areas are composed of counties with similar patterns of production. The Agricultural Census was the primary data surce, supplemented by related U.S. Department of Agriculture publications, and various state publications, Ordinary least-squares regression (OLS) techniques were employed to derive the initial estimates of the parameters of the production function models. Tests for detecting interdependence within the independent variable set of the models revealed a considerable degree of instability in the OLS parameter estimates. This condition makes the OLS solutions (and various derivations) particularly vulnerable to change from measurement error, poor model specification, and equation form. A prior information model was selected to explicitly include available prior knowledge in the estimation process. The model selected allows (1) tests of comparability of the two information sources (prior and sample), (2) over-all contribution of prior information to the new solution set, and (3) derivation of percentage contribution of the two information sources to individual parameter estimates. The results of the study indicate that no reliable estimates of value of production from drainage and ACP were possible from the sample information. Returns to irrigation were considered lower than expected in two of the farming areas and higher than expected in another. Estimated returns were high in the area which produces primarily field crops (about nine dollars per acre foot). The area has a small level of current irrigation development. Indications are that irrigation development is probably beyond the optimum level in the area where most large, projects have been developed in the past (less than four dollars per acre foot). Future development would be most profitable (assuming equal development cost) in the dryland field crop area. Estimated returns to other factor inputs indicate (1) low returns to labor in two areas, (2) generally high returns to current operating expenditures, and (3) low returns to machinery capital. Returns to cropland were about as expected in two areas (five to seven percent) but low in two other areas (about two percent). Indications are that labor mobility should be increased in the area and that future land development should be in the livestock-field crop and the field crop areas rather than the coastal area or the west-central valley areas (primarily the Willamette Valley). / Graduation date: 1972

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1988. / Bibliography : leaves [450]-465. / Photocopy. / Microfilm. / xiv, 465 leaves, bound maps 29 cm

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii, 1969. / Bibliography: leaves [211]-215. / vii, 215 l illus., tables

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii, 1971. / Bibliography: leaves [359]-363. / xv, 363 l illus., map, tables

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1975. / Bibliography: leaves [144]-147. / x, 147 leaves