This study examined the differences in resource use and technical efficiency between male female rice farmers in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The stochastic production frontier model was used to assess the technical efficiency of the rice farmers. Female rice farmers were found to be producing at high levels of inefficiency. The predicted efficiencies differed substantially from between 2 and 85%, with mean efficiency of 24%. The low mean efficiency index is an indication of inefficiencies in resource use. Also, female headed farms recorded a mean technical efficiency of 16.5% with a range of between 2 and 66%. The male headed farms, on the other hand, showed a mean technical efficiency of 30.8%, and a range between 2 and 85%. The results imply that on the average, female rice farmers are relatively technically inefficient than their male counterparts. The paper concludes that since women farmers contribute about 60% of domestic food supply in Ghana, it is important that efforts should be made to build the capacity of women farmers to produce efficiently.

Understanding of consumer aspiration on having quality beef is currently a focus of research in most developed markets in which choice criterion is beyond traditional attributes. However, in most developing countries like Tanzania where strategic quality improvement for the entire beef industry is at the emerging stage, the need to understand consumers’ preference for tenderness, freshness, leanness and hygiene is inevitable for gradual quality improvement initiatives for the domestic market before attempting to search for non-traditional ones. The study was done to identify consumer socio economic driving forces of importance in choice decision making for each quality attribute using a choice based conjoint analysis. Gender, education level and the rate of consumption have been observed to have a significant influence on the choice for different attributes. Consumer age, residence and purchasing habit are confined to tenderness, adipose fat content and chilling status respectively. Incomes, nature of employment, family size, and place of consumption have no choice effect.

This study attempts to assess the impact of improving agricultural efficiency on Sudan economy. It focuses on the effect of improving the efficiency of sesame, sorghum, cotton, wheat; due to their economic important in Sudan economy; on macroeconomic and sectoral variables. It uses the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) standard Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to achieve its objectives. Sudan Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for year 2004 constitutes the core database for the CGE model. The model results reveal that improving the efficiency of each agricultural commodity would increase its own output and exports, and reduce exports of the other commodities. However, the expected increases in output would generate different mixed changes on the other crops. It also indicates that improving wheat production efficiency would result in reducing its import, while improving the efficiency of the aggregate agricultural sector would increase wheat imports. The overall effect of improved efficiency of each commodity would improve the GDP due to improvement in private consumption and investment regardless of balance of trade deterioration. The study recommends an integrated agricultural efficiency improvement to achieve sound economic performance. It also encourages the innovation of fast food from local commodities to improve the balance of payment.

This study was initiated with the objectives of evaluating the marketing margin of tomato in the district of Bamako in the period of abundance 2012. The study analyzes the marketing of tomato and identifies the problems and opportunities for enhancing the gross margin. A survey was conducted using structured questionnaires to collect primary data from 40 wholesalers and 40 retailers. The results of the estimation of marketing margin functions were obtained using the relative price spread. This study revealed that the majority of respondents were more than 35 years of age; about 95% of them were female. It was also revealed that 50% of wholesalers were illiterate, while 7.5, 32.5 and 5%, had organic, primary and secondary education level, respectively. The results indicated that the farm-gate price (205.13 Fcfa/kg) and marketing cost (114.23 Fcfa/kg) of tomato are among the highly in?uential factors on the entire marketing margin. The wholesale margin function was affected by the wholesale price (408 Fcfa/kg) and wholesale cost, while the retail margin function was in?uenced by the retail price (421 Fcfa/kg) and the retailer cost.

As farming is faced with uncertain conditions such as climate (rain reduction and drought), pests, diseases, production, price and market fluctuations, it is an economic activity under risk. In order to reduce risk and stimulate investment, agricultural insurance has been planned in agriculture. This study attempts to investigate the performance insurance of agricultural crops by collecting sectional information in the region of Sistan. A Tobit model was used to analyze effective factors on the demand of agricultural insurance. The results indicate that agricultural services insurance of crops has fluctuated because of several socio-economic effects on farmers’ acceptance and demand of insurance in recent years. Annual return and experience are two main effective factors which affect farmers’ demands of insurance. The structural improvement and appropriate government policies can potentially increase the insurance of agricultural crops.

Village Development Fund (VDF) is a microfinance institution that has been established across Lao PDR since 1997. This study assesses and compares operational efficiency of the VDF in urban and rural areas of Lao PDR. Data envelop analysis (DEA) approach was used to analyze operation efficiency of VDF in Pakse (urban) and Bachieng (rural) districts of Champasak province in 2010. The result showed that the VDF, on average, had technical efficiency scores under constant return to scale and variable return to scale of 0.87 and 0.90, respectively. The fund had the scale efficiency of 0.97. The VDF in rural areas, despite their small sizes and location in poor infrastructure and public facilities, were more efficient than those in urban areas. The main input factors contributing to inefficiency were number of staff and operating costs, while output factors contributing to inefficiency were the contribution money and financial revenue. Most of the VDFs in rural areas also had better repayment rate than those in urban areas. To improve operational efficiency of VDF in Lao PDR, it is important for the management to search for optimum scale of operation. There is a need to improve skill in operation and reduce operating costs. Balancing contribution to social welfare and ensure financial return is also a key to efficiency improvement. Finally, social norms and measures would also enhance responsibilities and transparency among members and hence improve the operational efficiency of the VDF.