Agricultural Production Index Research Articles

The Impact of Monetary Policy on Agricultural Development In Nigeria (1970-2010)

The need to correct the existing structural distortions in Nigerian agricultural sector and put the economy on the path of sustainable growth is compelling. This raises the question of what monetary policy to adopt to develop the agricultural sector in order to realize the potentials of the sector. The broad objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the monetary policies in promoting agricultural development in Nigeria. Secondary data were used in this study. The data were sourced from the publications of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) such as CBN statistical bulletin, CBN statements of Accounts and annual reports, as well as Federal Office Statistics (now National Bureau of Statistics) Publications of relevant years. The relevant variables for which data were sourced include: Minimum Re-discount Rate (MRR), Treasury Bill Rate (TBR), broad money supply (M2), agricultural sector output and index of agricultural production at 1990 base year for the period 1970 to 2010. The method of analysis used in this study is the Ordinary Least Square method (OLS) using E-view. The results of the analyses showed that although CBN's monetary policies play crucial role in influencing the level of agricultural productivity in the country, it has not recorded significant progress in terms of providing enabling environment for better performance in the agricultural sector. It is consequently recommended that the Central Bank of Nigeria should introduce more monetary instruments that are flexible enough to meet the ever-growing financial sector in order to attract both domestic and foreign investors; while more stringent punishment should be made for non-compliance to the monetary policies by financial institutions.

The influence of temporal variation on relationships between ecosystem services

A growing literature aims to identify areas of congruence in the provision of multiple ecosystem goods and services. However, little attention has been paid to the effect that temporal variation in the provision of such services may have on understanding of these relationships. Due to a lack of temporally and spatially replicated monitoring surveys, such relationships are often assessed using data from disparate time periods. Utilising temporally replicated data for indices of freshwater quality and agricultural production we demonstrate that through time the biophysical values of ecosystem services may vary in a spatially non-uniform way. This can lead to differing conclusions being reached about the strength of relationships between services, which in turn has implications for the prioritisation of areas for management of multiple services. We present this first analysis to illustrate the effect that the use of such temporally disparate datasets may have, and to highlight the need for further research to assess under what circumstances temporal variation of this sort will have the greatest impact.

Climate change and agricultural growth: an examination of the link in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the link between climate change and agricultural growth in Malaysia, and pursue three sub‐objectives: to determine and analyze the link between agricultural growth rate and climate change score; to determine and analyze the link between per capita CO2 emissions and agricultural production index; and to determine and analyze the link between per capita agricultural production index and per capita CO2 emissions.

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.

Comportamento espectral dos solos na paisagem a partir de dados coletados por sensores terrestre e orbital

Parte da variabilidade dos índices de produção agrícola está associada com as características do solo e da paisagem. Dessa forma, práticas de manejo, como a adubação, devem levar em consideração esta variabilidade. O sensoriamento remoto é uma ferramenta que pode fornecer, de maneira rápida, informações para o manejo do solo, pois relaciona a radiação eletromagnética com os atributos do solo. Assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o comportamento espectral, em dois níveis de aquisição de dados (terrestre e orbital), de diferentes classes de solos ao longo de toposseqüências na região de São Carlos e Ibaté, SP. Para isso, amostras de terra georreferenciadas foram coletadas em 319 pontos, em três profundidades. Em seguida, obtiveram-se os dados radiométricos em laboratório, na faixa espectral entre 450 e 2.500 nm. Os mesmos locais amostrados na camada superficial, no campo, foram avaliados na imagem de satélite. A partir dos resultados obtidos, pode-se concluir que: (a) teores de areia grossa, argila e matéria orgânica, e cor tiveram relação com a reflectância dos solos; (b) ao longo das vertentes ocorrem variações nos dados espectrais dos solos; e (c) solos da mesma ordem taxonômica, porém com classes texturais diferentes, apresentam diferentes comportamentos espectrais, podendo ser discriminados por sensoriamento remoto.

DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND EXPANSION IN NIGERIA: APPLICATION OF ERROR CORRECTION MODELING (ECM)

This study used an ECM to analyze the determinants of agricultural land expansion in Nigeria. Results show that at first differencing, Augmented Dickey Fuller test indicated stationarity for all the variables (p< 0.05) and there were 7 cointegrating vectors using Johansen test. The dynamic unrestricted short-run parameters of permanent cropland growth rates (68.62), agricultural production index (10.23), livestock population (0.003), human population (-0.145), other land (-0.265) and cereal cropland growth rate (0.621) have significant impact on agricultural land expansion (p< 0.05). The study recommended that appropriate policies to address the problem of expansion of agricultural land and agricultural production must focus on development of cereal and permanent crop hybrids that are high yielding and resistant to environmental stress, human population control and guided use of land for industrial and urban development, among others.

The fertility of women Poland in the period of trasformation of the political and economics system (the 80’s and 90’s)

Wielkopolska (western Poland) is a region, with good reason, called the main food base of Poland. All indices of agricultural production have always been there (since 19th century) much higher than elsewhere in the country (Ratajczak 1977/1978, Buszko 1984, Gorzelak 1989, Czyzewski et al. 1992; table 1). Such a situation had a beneficial effect on the amount of the income generated by a family of Wielkopolska and, thus, decided on its better financial status. Additionally, rural inhabitants of this region have always been characterised by a more advantageous educational structure in comparison with people of other Polish villages. Generally, it is easy to detect the relationship between the life standard, the level of education and family planning. The aim of this paper is to assess fertility of women from villages of Wielkopolska in the period of transformation of the political and economic system in Poland.

Weather indices of agricultural production in the Netherlands 1948-1989. 2. Grassland.

Three models for deriving weather indices for grassland production are described and were applied over the 1948-64 period. The meteorological and agronomic models, but not the trend model, could also be used to calculate weather indices outside this period. The results of the 3 methods differed considerably. The meteorological model was most suitable for calculating a weather index for a long period. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)

Weather indices of agricultural production in the Netherlands 1948-1989. 1. General methodology and the arable sector.

The methodology of deriving weather indices for different types of agricultural production is outlined. The indices so derived should be useful for economic research. Indices are derived for wheat, barley, oats, rye, culinary potatoes, industrial potatoes, sugarbeet, legume crops, oilseed rape, flax, fodder beet and silage maize in the Netherlands for each year from 1948 to 1989. The most extreme variations in the indices were

Comments on “The Economic Cycle in Bourbon Central Mexico: A Critique of the Recaudación del diezmo líquido en pesos,” by Ouweneel and Bijleveld

In the years after 1780, the prices of livestock; of meat sold in towns, of maize, pulque, sugar, and tobacco; and of land for sale and rent all rose in New Spain. Conversely, the price of goods imported from Europe fell. Since the wages of the laboring classes did not rise, the income of that section of the population which entered the labor market fell. And, with regard to a wide range of commodities, the purchasing power of silver coin fell. Much of the economic growth of this period, expressed in fiscal receipts, trade figures, and mintage of specie may have been illusory, the result of inflation rather than of real increase in activity or value. It is the aim of Arij Ouweneel and Catrien C. J. H. Bijleveld (hereafter cited as O-B) to ascertain the causes of inflation after 1780; to question the value of church tithes as an index of agricultural production; to deny the possibility of using maize price series as an index of inflation; and to subject a variegated set of statistical series to computerized correlation in order to demonstrate the incidence of hardship among the Mexican masses. Their intentions are ambitious and will undoubtedly provoke much discussion. The purpose of the comments which follow is not to challenge their underlying vision of Bourbon Mexico, but simply to examine the strength of their arguments and to query the reliability of some of their statistics. O-B are at their most original in providing a century-long list of the number of tributaries in selected districts in central Mexico. This shows that the number of registered individuals rose from 187,547 in 1770 to a maximum of 340,113 in 1798, an increase of 8i percent in 28 years. Obviously, the superior level of official competence, so apparent after the Galvez visitation, may well have affected the rate of registration. That the total did not change in the years 1786-89, at a time when the country was racked by harvest failure, indicates the dimension of what O-B

Third World Development and Trade: Discussion

The primary focus of the papers presented at this session is the empirical question of whether agricultural development in third world countries contributes to increased or reduced agricultural exports from the United States. The studies cited by the authors and the papers by Kellogg, Kodl, and Garcia and by de Janvry and Sadoulet reflect a consensus among agricultural economists that agricultural productivity gains in developing countries generally do not harm U.S. farm interests and may even be necessary for increased U.S. agricultural exports. A second theme of the session, addressed by Paarlberg, concerns the reasons farm organizations continue to oppose development assistance despite evidence that their fears are unfounded. In fact, the evidence is somewhat mixed, as Paarlberg notes. Kellogg, Kodl, and Garcia estimate the relationship between all agricultural imports and income, concessionary food sales, and an index of agricultural production. Their results indicate that production increases are much less important in determining the level of imports than income. The correlation between income and agricultural growth may render the significance tests somewhat unreliable. In addition, the concessionary food sales variable may be incorrectly measured since it includes only U.S. food aid. Between the early 1970s and the early 1980s, U.S. concessional sales increased more

Measuring Productivity Change in U.S. Agriculture

To understand the sources of change in productivity, that appropriate public policy and programs can be developed to increase productivity growth, a reliable and updated measure is needed. The term “productivity” discussed here refers to total factor productivity, or the ratio of value of total agricultural output to that of all inputs used in agricultural production.The first comprehensive work on the measurement of productivity change in U.S. agriculture was done by Loomis and Barton in 1961. Since then, this index has been updated annually as an offical USDA agricultural productivity index. The weakness of using index numbers lies in the arithmetic formula used. It implies a specific functional form of the production function that may not accurately describe the data. Thus, a need arises to consider an alternative estimate of productivity.

An Index of the Physical Volume of Production

pHYSICAL productlon, economically considered, assumes three major forms: agriculture, mining, manufacture. The present study of the physical volume of production recognizes this basic differentiation of industry. In Part I, appearing in the September issue of the REvIEw, an analysis was made of the course of agricultural production in the United States from I879 to I920. In the present part, a parallel study is undertaken of the physical volume of production in mining from I879 to I919. A subsequent installment will deal with the volume of production in manufacture. The methods followed in the analysis of mineral production are those devised and explained in the study of the physical volume of production in agriculture. It will be recalled that two distinct indices of agricultural production were developed: an and an index. Similar unadjusted and adjusted indices of the physical volume of production in mining are calculated in the present part of the study. A recapitulation of the methods of computing these indices seems desirable. The unadjusted index is of the fixed-base type. It is arrived at by a few comparatively simple steps. The original items of each series are first reduced to percentages of a base for the series, this base being the arithmetic average of the items of the five-year pre-war period, I909-I3. The several commodities are next assigned weights equal to their respective average annual aggregate values during the same base period, I909-I3. Finally a weighted geometric mean of the relatives of each year is computed. These weighted geometric means for the years of the period of study constitute the unadjusted index. The adjusted index is calculated by entirely different methods. The normal or secular trend of each series is first determined. The original items of each series are then expressed as percentages of the corresponding ordinates of the series' line of secular trend. Finally a weighted arithmetic mean of the relatives of each year is calculated, the same weights being used as in the computation of the unadjusted index. The adjusted index consists of these weighted arithmetic means. These methods are made to yield in Part II not only the two indices of mining but, in addition, corresponding indices of the total production of agricultural and mineral raw materials. The unadjusted raw-material index combines the separate unadjusted agricultural and mineral indices as a weighted geometric mean; the adjusted raw-material index combines the separate adjusted indices as a weighted arithmetic mean. In both raw-material indices, the weights assigned to agriculture and mining are proportionate to the aggregate values of agricultural and mineral production in the United States in the last pre-war census year, I909. The raw-material indices are thus only a logical extension of the methods adopted in the construction of the indices for agriculture and mimmng.