MSCAGR / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness / The study was conducted in the Mutale Local Municipality, Vhembe District of South Africa on a proportionally randomly selected sample of 153 smallholder farmers after clustering them into agricultural zones and commodity groupings (vegetables under irrigation, dryland maize and citrus fruit farming). Data were collected through a structured qualitative and quantitative questionnaire that was administered face-to-face to respondents and captured into the SPSS Version 24 computer program. The same program was used to analyse data through cross tabulations and logistic regression modelling. In particular, the study focussed on the impact of socio-economic characteristics, challenges that farmers face and views of extension officers on transforming subsistence farmers towards commercialization. The most critical findings of the study were dominance of women, lower youth participation, poor training and educational achievements, non-membership to agricultural organizations, low income levels and dependence on social grants and lack of credit as factors that could impact on farmers’ transformation process. Farmers’ challenges that could impact on transformation were identified as lack of production inputs, water, access to market and supportive infrastructure such as mechanization. However, the views of extension officers regarding transformation centred mostly around insufficient land holdings, climate change and financial support. In contrast to farmers, extension officers viewed market access as a minor challenge. The study recommended for development of strategies that could increase youth participation in farming such as start-up credit, reduction of dependence on social grants by adopting strategies that could increase productivity and thus income, exposure to funding opportunities through training and increased involvement of institutions of higher learning into smallholder farming activities.

As intra-industry trade increases in U.S. agricultural and food processing industries, the historical agricultural trade surplus is tightening. In efforts to maintain the trade surplus a focus has shifted towards the promotion of agricultural and processed food exports among small and medium sized firms. This study intends to identify and evaluate the potential for exports among small to medium sized agricultural and food processing firms in Kentucky through a collection of survey data. The objectives of this thesis are to identify the state’s product marketing opportunities and product specifications for international exports while identifying transaction requirements for potential exports. An analysis of the constraints and challenges faced by firms in the decision to export reveals rational behavior Binary logistic regression analysis is used to identify the impact of firm characteristics, perceived marketing conditions and information constraints, and financial aspects on a firm’s decision to export. A second logit regression analyzes the impact on a non-exporting firm’s interest in international marketing opportunities. The lack of international market information, financial constraints, and risk are found to be significant factors in the decision to export and interest in foreign marketing.

The main aim of my thesis is to compare results of different groups of students who took part in the statistic course on VŠE. The thesis is dividend into two parts. The first part is focused on theoretical solution of used data comparison. The second part is practical and it is focused on results comparison from different angles with descriptive statistics and some statisistics tests. The results from partial comparison of data from different points of view are summarized at the end of the thesis.