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This thesis focuses on the effects of development assistance (ODA), private foreign commercial capital (PFX), domestic savings (SAV), the openness of the economy and producer prices on agricultural output, and on export and domestic shares of agricultural output in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study uses panel data spanning 27 countries and the period 1970 to 1993. / The production function is a Cobb-Douglas type. Static export and domestic share equations are derived from a specification of the agricultural gross domestic product function. Transformed auto-regressive distributed-lag versions of the static share models are used to investigate long-run dynamics, persistence and implementation lags in the share response model. / Agricultural output is affected as follows. ODA, PFX and SAV have small positive or negative impact depending on agricultural region or economic policy environment. The impact of openness of the economy is negative in all agricultural regions, however, there is evidence of positive effect of openness within improved policy environment. None of these effects are statistically significant. / Export share is affected as follows. ODA, PFX and SAV have small positive impact in some agricultural regions and policy environments, both in the short-run and in the long-run. PFX is not significant anywhere. ODA is significant only when countries are grouped by policy environment in the short-run. SAV is significant in the short-run only in some regions, and significant in the long-run only in others. Openness has positive impact in the short-run. This is significant in many regions. Its long-run impact is mostly positive but not significant anywhere. The impact of producer price is mostly positive but not significant. / Efforts to encourage economic activities in rural communities such as improvements in domestic terms of trade in favor of agriculture, together with the provision of infrastructure are likely to stimulate output. Strategies to diversify and process agricultural exports in the face of falling agricultural commodity prices should be pursued.

This study examines recent evidence of growth and deterioration in the geography of Quebec agriculture. An explanation is sought in the changing food market linkages between producers and consumers. To this end the nature of consumer demand, the conduct and marketing strategies of processors and retailers, their productivity and competitiveness are reviewed in turn. / It is shown that the market system is inherently dynamic and increased vertical control is identified as a key factor. Its role in the process of change is explained in terms of the joint working of economic and political forces. Much policy is found inadvertently to reinforce existing trends. An explanation is suggested in the failure to recognise the complexity of the market process. As a result structural rigidity now threatens the market system. All this is directly evidenced in the spatial characteristics of the farm landscape. Policies are suggested to resolve the issue and strengthen the farm sector.

This study aims to develop a robust methodology for measuring the performance of equity-share schemes in South African agriculture. Equity-share schemes are privately owned farming operations that are generally restructured as companies with the original owner and the farmworkers as shareholders. Several studies have investigated various aspects of the performance of these schemes but no single study has yet measured their performance using a comprehensive and objective set of criteria. Four categories of criteria are proposed: poverty alleviation; empowerment and participation; institutional arrangements and governance; and financial performance. This study does not aim to assess the performance of existing equity-share schemes rather a methodology for the four criteria based on empirical evidence gathered in 2004 from a land reform project in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal and seven established equity-share schemes in the Western Cape. Poverty alleviation is measured using a transition matrix of households grouped by four different symptoms of poverty: current income, wealth, health and a principal component index of housing quality based on building materials, access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Eight. categories of indicators are recommended for empowerment and participation: control and ownership; skills transfer; understanding of the structure of the scheme; information; outcomes; trust; outreach; and participation. A scorecard applying norms based on empirical evidence gathered at equity-share schemes in the Western Cape is used to assess the indicators. A scorecard approach is also applied to institutional arrangements and governance, which are measured using three categories of indicators: accountability, transparency and property rights. Recognised indicators ;of financial performance are applied to balance sheet and income statement data provided by four of the seven equity-share schemes in the Western Cape. This analysis highlights problems with several of the conventional ratios used to measure the profitability, solvency and growth of recently restructured farming enterprises whose 'empowerment' status attracts exceptionally high levels of debt capital to finance long-term investments. To avoid these problems it is recommended that, for equity-share schemes, profitability should be measured by the return on assets or dividend return; solvency by the debt/asset ratio; liquidity by cash flow projections; growth by changes in the (estimated) real. value of shares; and workers' total returns by changes in the sum of the real wage bill, capital gains, dividends, interest and other benefits accruing to workers in aggregate. The proposed performance measures are relevant, manageable in number and have feasible norms based on empirical evidence. These indicators and their norms need to be tested on a wider scale and over time. Further research should be undertaken to estimate weights for the empowerment and institutional indicators. / Thesis (M.Sc.Agric.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

In recent years, the world has been experiencing rapid and extensive global shifts that have had a positive and negative impact on different countries around the globe. These global shifts have also influenced the way countries conduct trade with their partners. A lot of countries, as a way of adapting to these changes, have been forced to review their trade policies to be in line with the trade liberalisation process. The expansion of markets has led to trade liberalisation, which promotes export growth in commodities. However in developing countries, they have experienced increases in imports and thus reflecting a certain level of uncompetitiveness of these countries with trade imbalances. This has also resulted in a declining purchasing power for some countries involved, export revenues falling as prices also fall due to intense competition in the world market. Studies have suggested that when countries liberalise they tend to experience some short falls in the first few years then a recovery thereafter. Agriculture is the major factor in the economies of developing countries. At least 80% of African economies are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. In these developing countries, a greater majority of the population lives in the rural areas where agriculture serves as a greater part of their occupation and source of livelihood. Being the engine of most African economies, the majority of the population of these countries are employed in the agricultural sector. Agricultural commodities represent by far the largest proportion of exported goods and the main raw materials for manufactured products. As a key to poverty reduction and food security, agricultural development may be seen as important. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1979.

During the last two decades two major government policies aimed at bringing structural changes in the system of land tenure in Iran have been implemented. The first was the Land Reform of 1962-66, which transferred the ownership of the land from the large landlords to the peasant and tribal producers. But during the late-sixties and the seventies a second major structural change in the system of land tenure was proposed by the government, this time aimed at the destruction of the already existing peasant, tribal and capitalist producers and the creation of very large-scale agricultural corporations. As the main objective of this policy was to bring about substantial increases in agricultural production and productivities, it is the purpose of this dissertation to examine whether these very large-scale corporations are more productive systems than the already existing autonomous producers. As the proponents of the very large-scale farms argue in terms of gains from economies of scale in very large units and of the superiority of the trained and skilled corporate managers to the family managed peasant farmers, in this dissertation an attempt has been made to examine the effect on productivity of (a) farm size and (b) management system. The following procedure has been adopted to examine the subject. [continued in text ...]

The objective of the research was to demonstrate the need, feasibility and relevance of disaggregating by income group the endogenized household sector in the Canadian Input-Output (I-O) model. Personal expenditures and revenue sources were endogenized into Agriculture Canada's I-O open model. Two models were developed, Model 1 and Model 2. Model 1 was a closed model that assumed homogeneity among households. Model 2 relaxed the homogeneity assumption. / The superiority of Model 2 was empirically demonstrated by comparing the economic indicators generated by the models. The indicators of interest were industrial output, GDP at factor cost and the number of paid jobs. A sensitivity analysis investigated the impact of changes in wages and salaries and final demand on the models. Larger differences were found between the models when wages and salaries were stimulated. As hypothesized, Model 1 underestimated the contribution of the lowest wages and salaries group by 19.9 percent and overestimated the impact of the higher wages and salaries group by 19 percent. A $1 million increase in the final demand for agricultural, agri-food and petrochemical products was also simulated. The largest impacts on industrial output occurred when agricultural production was shocked ( $3.8 million). This was followed by agri-food products ($3.2 million) and petrochemical products ( $2.7 million). While differences in the models' estimates were minimal when changes in final demand were simulated, Model 2 generated additional information on the distribution of income. / In conclusion, the results generated by the I-O model with the disaggregated household sector, Model 2, were consistent with budget data and economic theory.

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