We estimate total factor productivity in wool production spatially across benchmarked farms in four climatic areas in Eastern Australia. Estimates are decomposed into an environment-technology gap and technical efficiency relative to the production possibilities in each area. The environment-technology gap reflects the regional differences in the environment and variations in production technologies used in the wool enterprise. Significant gaps are found to exist between areas but they are relatively small in magnitude, emphasising the adaptability of the wool enterprise to environmental variability. Technical inefficiencies are also present in all areas but are larger among farmers who do not regularly receive consultancy advice in the benchmarking group. There is little variation in mean total factor productivity between the climatic areas.

Interest has been growing in the nature of synergies in agroecosystems, prompted in part by growing concerns about the effects of environmental degradation on agricultural productivity and interrelations between agricultural outputs and ecosystem outputs. Most productivity analyses focus on technology, technical inefficiency and scale effects on productivity; yet scope economies derived from synergies can also have substantial effects that are likely to increase in the future. Scope economies take on special importance when farms diversify to halt declining biodiversity and other forms of environmental degradation. We present results of an empirical case study based on panel data on farms in England and Wales. A stochastic input distance function is estimated using Bayesian methods that enable economies of scope to be calculated between pairs of outputs based on the derivatives of the input distance function. Results confirm the presence of scope economies from diversity, providing prima facie evidence that diversity is beneficial in farming systems in England and Wales. But a number of challenges lie ahead to improve the data set and method of measuring scope economies for further substantiation of this evidence. Chief among them is the need to obtain a better measure of ecosystem outputs. The complexity of agroecosystems, with their diverse elements and numerous interactions between elements, presents a major challenge for data collection.

In this paper the literature on industry clusters as a response to local collective failure is reviewed as a way of enhancing knowledge about how failure of food value chains to perform efficiently can be analysed and overcome. The conclusion is that there is much in the local collective failure literature that assists in an understanding of, and is consistent with, the concepts of value chain failure, value chain externalities and value chain goods. Four potential areas for enhancing the analysis of value chains by accessing this literature are noted: defining the boundary between chain failure and local collective failure; improving joint action among parties interested in overcoming chain failure; augmenting the processes of knowledge creation and application in value chains; and improving the governance of value chains. The key point is that the ability of local collective or value chain partners to produce chain goods and internalise positive chain externalities depends directly on the nature and intent of the joint action by the partners: will they cooperate or not, and, if they do cooperate, how and to what extent will they do so? These issues of coordination of economic activity and the nature of the relationships between partners go to the heart of governance within both local communities and value chains.

Cassava is an important tropical root crop for food security and national economies. In Ghana, the roots are used in popular local cuisines as well as in brewery, bakery, confectionery and plywood industries. A number of high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties are released and promoted to increase productivity and improve rural welfare. The study used a sequential mixed-method approach to identify, among drivers and impediments, the dissemination mechanism with highest impact on the adoption of improved cassava varieties (ICVs) and its intensity. The analyses helped estimate the impact of ICV adoption on productivity and households' livelihood, and to provide evidence of technological, managerial, and environmental gaps between adopters and non-adopters. Data were collected in 2014 from 608 randomly selected cassava-producing households in 14 communities in six districts of the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions. Summary statistics reveal a 25 percent ICV adoption rate. Econometric analyses indicate significant and positive effects on the likelihood of households' ICV adoption for group members, the number of varieties planted, the number of livestock owned and information received mostly through innovation platforms (IPs). Impediments to ICV adoption include the location in the Ashanti region, household size, distances to the nearest tarred road and market, and grey-skin colour of ICVs. Results from propensity score matching and instrumental variable approaches indicate positive impacts of ICV adoption on cassava and whole-farm productivities and on per-capita annual crop income. Adopters appear to incur lower total annual per-capita expenditures and expenditures on food than non-adopters but spend more on children’s education. Bias-corrected stochastic output distance functions and stochastic metafrontier production functions showed strong evidence of technological, managerial, and environmental gaps between adopters and non-adopters in both cassava and whole-farm production. In both cases, adopters were found to operate on higher frontiers and to be more efficient than non-adopters. Adopters also appear to operate in a more favourable 2 production environment than non-adopters. The study provides strong evidence of inefficiency in cassava production for both ICV adopters and non-adopters. Findings imply that policy measures could be taken to increase the 25 percent ICV adoption rate through the establishment of IPs, focusing on households in Brong-Ahafo and those who are group members that integrate livestock-farming with cassava production. ICV adoption is expected to lead to increased productivity through technological change and enhanced efficiency. Moreover, the adoption of ICVs has the potential to increase crop incomes, food security and result in higher investment in children’s education, especially for female-headed households.

Data on livestock production for four provinces of Pakistan, namely Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP) and Balochistan, for the period 1980-81 to 2008-09 were used to examine inter-provincial productivity growth rates. It was noted that the types of livestock products across the provinces are not similar, e.g. livestock is kept mainly for milk purpose in Punjab and Sindh, while in KP and Balochistan it is reared generally for meat. Total factor Productivity (TFP) estimates for livestock are lower than those for crops (Ellahi et al., 2010). Further, KP scored the highest estimate of 0.98% growth in TFP per annum showing its better efficiency than others. Major determinant causing divergence in the growth of livestock TFP is road development, impacting positively in Punjab and Sindh, and opposite of this for KP and Balochistan due to difference in the type of services required. The effect of water resource development has a negative impact on livestock TFP, except for water-scarce Balochistan. The coefficient estimates for animal treatment and vaccination for various provinces are mostly negligible, except partially for Balochistan.

Synergies are reported for mixed-enterprise farming systems in a benchmarking group in the Wheat-Sheep Zone in New South Wales, Australia. A stochastic input distance function is estimated and a measure of synergies is calculated, based on the second cross partial derivative of output variables in the distance function. Evidence is presented of strong synergies from complementarity between sheep and beef enterprises, sheep and crop enterprises, and beef and crop enterprises.

We employ binary logit and Poisson estimators to model socioeconomic, institutional and environmental factors influencing the adoption of certified seeds, in particular, and integrated crop management practices, in general, in rice production in the Philippines. Estimates of factors influencing adoption are reasonably consistent between the two models but some differences are noted, particularly with respect to soil deficiencies and risk aversion. Results were found to be consistent between models in terms of the positive impacts on the adoption of certified seed technology and integrated crop management practices of farmers' education, machinery ownership, irrigation water supply, capacity-enhancement activities and profit-oriented behavior. Conversely, soil and nutrient deficiencies are impediments to their adoption. Extension-related variables have the biggest impact on technology adoption. Results of this study provide information that is important in domestic policy making. Avenues for policy implementation to be analyzed for their contribution to net social benefits include the delivery of more capacity-enhancement activities, mechanization options and affordable credit to farmers as well as the provision of irrigation facilities and improved water technologies. Moreover, the government should consider short-term strategies that offset environmental adversities such as drought and submergence. Lastly, government interventions to improve the educational status of farming households, overcome the effects of small farm size and encourage more profit-oriented behavior by farmers are necessary to enhance technology adoption in rice production in the long run.

There is strong evidence that innovation is a primary driver of a nation's economic growth. As Australia continues to compete in the global economy, it is imperative that businesses should be innovative to improve their performance. In this paper, we evaluate the status and main drivers of innovation in small businesses in the food sector in Australia. Discrete choice modelling and bootstrapping procedures are applied to a panel of firm‐level data collected through the ABS Business Characteristics Survey (2006–2007 to 2010–2011 for the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Business Longitudinal Database Confidential Unit Record File) to investigate the factors affecting the likelihood of small food businesses to innovate. Results show that businesses are more likely to innovate if they collaborate, have higher information and communication technology intensity, and use science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills. We also found that small food businesses, even at the sub-sector level, do combine different types of innovation when innovating. The propensity to innovate also increases for small businesses that have flexible working arrangements, face moderate‐to‐strong market competition, operate overseas and seek finance through debt and equity. The relative importance of these factors was found to vary between agricultural and non-agricultural food sub-sectors.