Supply Response of Field Crops to Price and Environmental Factors in Traditional Rainfed Agriculture

Abstract

This study aimed to estimate supply response crops, i.e., sesame, groundnut, sorghum, and millet, in traditional rainfed agriculture, in North Kordofan State, Sudan, from 1990 to 2015. The response is estimated as the yield and area responses to prices, temperature, and rainfall. The study depended mainly on secondary data obtained from the records of the Ministry of agriculture and animal resources, Elobied Crops Market, and Elobied Airport Metrological Station. The co-integration and vector error correction approaches were applied to estimate the response. The results found that the estimated responses of crop yield in the long run to price were negative and inelastic for sesame, groundnut, and elastic for sorghum. It was positive and inelastic for yield millet yield. The estimated responses of crop area to price in the long run were negative and inelastic for sesame, sorghum, millet, and elastic for groundnut. The estimated responses of crop yield in the long run to temperature were negative and elastic for all crops and ranged from-24.01 to -197.83. The estimated responses of crop area in the long run to temperature were positive and elastic and ranged from 37.121 to 411.747.The estimated responses of crop yield to rainfall index, in the long run, were positive and elastic for groundnut (2.357), sorghum (4.667), and millet (1.142), but it is inelastic for sesame (0.509). The responses of crop area to rainfall index were negative and elastic and ranged from -13.745 to -1.086. The study concluded that rainfall index and temperature factors are the most dominating factors influencing yield and area behavior in the long-run, hence farmers’ decisions.