Food Production Index Research Articles

Food Production Modelling Using Fixed Effect Panel Data for Nigeria and Other 14 West African Countries (1990-2013)

In this research, the fixed effect panel data predictive model was employed to formulate panel regression models of food production of 15 selected Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) using four (4) World Development Indicators (WDI) as explanatory variables. Data were collected from 1990 to 2013. The four WDI are Food imports (% of merchandise imports), Agricultural land (% of land area), Fertilizer consumption (kilograms per hectare of arable land) and Inflation (consumer prices annual %). The fixed effect with cross-sectional seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) static panel data method was employed. The result of the analysis shows that agricultural land and fertilizer consumption have significant positive effect on the food production index of ECOWAS countries, while food imports and rate of inflation have significant negative effect on food production index of the ECOWAS countries. It is seen that 98.8% of the variation in food production among ECOWAS countries can be explained by the variations in food imports, agricultural land, fertilizer consumption and inflation. We therefore recommend that ECOWAS countries should increase agricultural land and fertilizer consumption and reduce food imports and rate of inflation in order to boost their food production level and have excess to export.

Feeding of wheat bran and sugar beet pulp as sole supplements in high-forage diets emphasizes the potential of dairy cattle for human food supply

Besides the widely discussed negative environmental effects of dairy production, such as greenhouse gas emissions, the feeding of large amounts of potentially human-edible feedstuffs to dairy cows is another important sustainability concern. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the effects of a complete substitution of common cereal grains and pulses with a mixture of wheat bran and sugar beet pulp in a high-forage diet on cow performance, production efficiency, feed intake, and ruminating behavior, as well as on net food production potential. Thirteen multiparous and 7 primiparous mid-lactation Holstein dairy cows were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments in a change-over design with 7-wk periods. Cows were fed a high-forage diet (grass silage and hay accounted for 75% of the dry matter intake), supplemented with either a cereal grain-based concentrate mixture (CON), or a mixture of wheat bran and dried sugar beet pulp (WBBP). Human-edible inputs were calculated for 2 different scenarios based on minimum and maximum potential recovery rates of human-edible energy and protein from the respective feedstuffs. Dietary starch and neutral detergent fiber contents were 3.0 and 44.1% for WBBP, compared with 10.8 and 38.2% in CON, respectively. Dietary treatment did not affect milk production, milk composition, feed intake, or total chewing activity. However, chewing index expressed in minutes per kilogram of neutral detergent fiber ingested was 12% lower in WBBP compared with CON. In comparison to CON, the human-edible feed conversion efficiencies for energy and protein, defined as human-edible output per human-edible input, were 6.8 and 5.3 times higher, respectively, in WBBP under the maximum scenario. For the maximum scenario, the daily net food production (human-edible output minus human-edible input) increased from 5.4MJ and 250g of crude protein per cow in CON to 61.5MJ and 630g of crude protein in the WBBP diet. In conclusion, our data suggest that in forage-based dairy production systems, wheat bran and sugar beet pulp could replace common cereal grains in mid-lactation dairy cows without impairing performance, while strongly increasing human-edible feed conversion efficiency and net food production index.

An Econometric Analysis of Food Security Determinants in Malaysia: A Vector Error Correction Model Approach (VECM)

Food security issue is getting more attention by world today. Although, Malaysia is a middle income country able to produce her own food, but there is still lack of food supply for domestic needs. This paper thus analyse the factors that affect the food security model in Malaysia during the period of 1982-2011. The analysis in this paper include food production index as food security proxy while the other variables include food prices, Malaysian population, foreign workers and CO2 emission as important determinants of food security. The assessment of the impact of these factors is achieved using the Vector Error Correction Model approach (VECM). The series on the food prices, Malaysian population, foreign workers, CO2 emission and palm-based biodiesel production are co-integrated. While in the short run only foreign worker is an important determinant of food security. Hence, the results of error correction term (Ect) from VECM shows that there is a long run causality between dependent variables and explanatory variables. This model is useful quantitative tool to assess food security especially to determine specific variables that explain the highest effect to food security at the national level.

Turn on the lights: Macroeconomic factors affecting renewable energy in Pakistan

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between macroeconomic factors (i.e., population growth; urbanization, industrialization, exchange rate, price level, food production index and live stock production index) and renewable energy in Pakistan over a period of 1975–2012. In addition, this study uses oil rent as an intervening variable to overcome the biasness of the single equation model. The results indicate that macroeconomic factors positively contributed to renewable energy consumption in Pakistan. The causality test indicate that there is a unidirectional causality running towards macroeconomic factors to renewable energy in Pakistan, however, renewable energy Granger cause oil rent but not via other route. In addition, there is bidirectional causality between exchange rate and live stock production in Pakistan. Variance decomposition analysis shows that economic growth has a major contribution to increase renewable energy in Pakistan.

A Review of Trends in Import of Some Selected Foods in Nigeria (1981-2010): Matters Arising

This research assessed empirically the quantitative analysis of some selected food imports of Nigeria (rice, wheat and sugar). Time series data were used to examine the determinant of total food imports and the trend in the quantity of the food imported. The secondary data were obtained from institutional and national database over 1981-2010. Descriptive statistics, regression and correlation analysis were used as analytical tools. Statistical analysis shows that food deficit began in the 1970’s, when Nigeria started the importation of food to feed the country. The result of the correlation analysis shows that the postulated determinants of food imports were positively correlated with the quantity of food import. The test for the individual variables shows that; national income explains 40%, external reserves explains 38%, food production index explains 46%, population explains 58% and exchange rate explains 74% of the total variation in the quantity of food import. The over-all goodness of fit of the regression analysis result shows that, the postulated regressors namely, relative price, national income, external reserves, lagged index of domestic food production, population estimate and exchange rate explained approximately 70% of the variability in the quantity of the selected food imports for the period of study. Consequently, there is the need for Nigeria to shift base from the ideology of nationalist orientation, as well as afro centric point of view and move towards unrestrained export-led growth that seeks to develop that market as the first option with corresponding development in international trade. This is however possible by limiting the importation of foods/raw materials that can be sourced for locally, increasing the domestic production of food generally and maintaining a healthy foreign investment with developed countries as a short term measure while in the long run, diversification of the economy, massive investment in agriculture and introduction of population control measures could serve as saviours to lower the rate of increase in food import demand.

Impact of Food Production on Consumer Protection and Agricultural Labour Force in South Asia: A Panel Data Analysis

The paper explores the impact of food production index (FPI) on consumer price index (CPI) of food, agricultural labor force (ALF) and rural-urban, agriculture-non agriculture populations in South Asia (SA). Although the food production in South Asian region has increased, food prices are also escalating dramatically. The issue has a dual economic impact as consumers lose and producers gain. The situation is undesirable when net consumers outweigh the net producers in a particular country. Secondary data gathered from FAOSTAT database during 2000 to 2005 were used for empirical analysis. The empirical results of the two models employed revealed that random effect test is more appropriate for the estimation. The results imply that consumer protection, CPI, and ALF are country specific determinants for food production and therefore food policy reforms can protect consumers without loosing agricultural population or labour in the region. Key Words: Agricultural Labour Force, Consumer Price Index, Food production, Panel Data Analysis, South Asia Sri Lankan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Vol.1(1) July 2009

Assessing the effect of oil price on world food prices: Application of principal component analysis

The objective of this paper is to investigate the co-movement of food prices and the macroeconomic index, especially the oil price, by principal component analysis to further understand the influence of the macroeconomic index on food prices. We examined the food prices of seven major products: eggs, meat, milk, oilseeds, rice, sugar and wheat. The macroeconomic variables studied were crude oil prices, consumer price indexes, food production indexes and GDP around the world between 1961 and 2005. We use the Scree test and the proportion of variance method for determining the optimal number of common factors. The correlation coefficient between the extracted principal component and the macroeconomic index varies between 0.87 for the world GDP and 0.36 for the consumer price index. We find the food production index has the greatest influence on the macroeconomic index and that the oil price index has an influence on the food production index. Consequently, crude oil prices have an indirect effect on food prices.

Emergence to Develop an Appraisal System for Agricultural Practices in Malaysia

This study is an effort to justify an emergence to develop an appraisal system for agricultural practices in Malaysia. The idea has come from the fact that although the policies for promoting Malaysia's agriculture sector towards sustainability were endorsed in 1998, but some agricultural practices in the country are found to be connected with environmental problems. Advanced quantitative analytical tools such as stationary tests and least squares estimations have been employed to attain the study objective and justify our arguments. The results, however, reveal that agricultural practices in Malaysia have been connected, to some extent, with environmental problems in the country. An increase in fertilizer consumption has been found to be positively connected with both agricultural production index and food production index for the country. The study also found that the contribution of Malaysian agriculture in terms of its value added to the national economy is certainly creditable, but this could have been connected with environmental problems on a greater scale. The results further reveal that an increase in the area of arable and permanent crops has also been associated with higher agricultural production index and food production index for the country. While most agricultural practices in Malaysia are observed to have been generally compatible with the standards of sustainable agriculture, an emergence still arises for the country to develop an appraisal system for monitoring its current agricultural practices. It is expected that the development of such an appraisal system will enable Malaysia to transform its agriculture into sustainable in which agricultural resources will not be exploited and environmental degradation will be absent.