iranian pistachio is one of the strategic crops within most agricultural commodities having the highest income from exports for the country and a significant share of the country's non-oil exports but the marketing and packaging technologies for this crop are at a low level in comparison with competing countries like usa. in recent years the rate of production and its exports have decreased dra...

This study aimed at examining the merit of crop diversification as a strategy for agricultural growth in Bangladesh. Specifically, the existence of economies of diversification, scale economies and diversification efficiencies at the farm level were examined using a stochastic input-distance function approach. Results reveal strong evidence of diversification economies amongst most crop enterpr...

A study of equilibrium acreage allocation decisions at the farm and regional levels under risk aversion, yield uncertainty, and endogenous crop prices is undertaken in a two-crop, two-region setting. The main insight is that a partial specialization in one crop at a regional level may be an equilibrium dominant strategy relative to the more diversified crop mix produced on farm. This is due to ...

Introduction: Accurate information on farmer and consumer behavior is the foundation for identifying public investments and policies that can effectively promote national food security and income growth objectives. This policy brief summarizes recent findings from a study on smallholder crop marketing behavior and urban consumption patterns in Eastern and Southern Africa. The full report is dow...

Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Knowledge and Institutions (SASKI) is a thematic group that promotes sustainable agricultural production, processing and marketing systems through gender-responsive knowledge institutions within the Rural Development Family of the World Bank. Agriculture is defined to include crop, livestock and aquaculture. iii Contents

Executive Summary The lack of market information represents a significant impediment to market access especially for smallholder poor farmers: it substantially increases transaction costs and reduces market efficiency. For any one crop, the marketing chain consists of multiple middlemen, each taking a margin at every stage of the chain, and price variations in space and time are often large and...

A significant challenge facing the world today is the expected 34% increase in the human population by 2050, which will require 70% more food from existing natural and land resources (FAO, 2009). Thus, the efficiency of natural resource use must be improved to meet the food security goals for a growing population while protecting the environment (FAO, 2009). Due to their ability to utilize cell...

Tanzania is among the many African countries that have engaged in agricultural liberalisation since the mid-1980s, in the hope that reforms which introduce price incentives and efficient marketing will encourage producers to respond. This paper assesses that claim by examining the supply response of agricultural output in Tanzania. Our estimates suggest that agricultural supply response is quit...