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Subject: search.filters.subject.Agriculture -- Economic aspects

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    Subsistence food production and marketing in Papua New Guinea : a research paper presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1994) Peng, Peter Benjamen
    Agriculture is the main component of the economic sector of the Less Developed Countries (LDC's) of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In most of these countries, which includes Papua New Guinea (PNG), subsistence agriculture dominates despite the tremendous advances in agricultural technology elsewhere, especially in Developed Countries, in the course of the twentieth century. The characteristic feature of these subsistence farms is low productivity which means small, if any, production surplus over consumption, which results in very little trade between the agriculture sector and other sectors of the country. In LDC's, this has often led to declining food production and increased dependence on imported food as the bulk of domestic food supply is produced by the subsistence sector. In PNG, very similar trends are noted. This paper examines some issues affecting smallholder agriculture and implications for increasing agricultural productivity in PNG. Specifically, the research problem and the focus of this study is firstly, how to increase subsistence food production and secondly, how to effectively move the rural surplus to urban consumers where it is required. To increase productivity, LDC's are faced with two choices; extend land area under cultivation if land is available or improve agricultural technology if land is scarce. While PNG is relatively well endowed with land (more than four times the average for developing countries) , much of the land is too mountainous to convert to arable land, with only less than 0.3 per cent of the land used for annual crops and grazing. The choice of strategy thus is determined by land. This paper shows that the PNG government has under-invested in agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture. Further investment in research and technology is required, focusing especially on their farming systems. Traditional farmers are not traditionalist by choice. Agricultural techniques have been developed over centuries, through years of accumulated experience of generations of farmers. Extensive literature in agriculture economics show that traditional farmers cannot normally adopt technological innovations unless the circumstances in which they operate are first changed. The important role of marketing in economic development is also underplayed. It is a common fallacy to assume that markets when left to their own devices can lead to increased productivity and efficiency within the distribution system. Government intervention is also necessary in marketing to achieve social goals of self sufficiency in food production. This study attempts to demonstrate that given the right incentives, mostly institutional and technological, subsistence food production can be increased in PNG.
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    Evaluation of small irrigation projects in the Philippines : the case of small water impounding projects : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Agricultural Economics
    (Massey University, 1995) Salguero, Sonia M
    An economic evaluation of the proposed Camagsingalan Small Water Impounding Project was conducted using the benefit-cost analysis framework to determine its economic desirability to the society. The project will be located in Sual Pangasinan and envisioned to provide irrigation water to about 55 hectares which will give the upland farmers an oportunity to shift from dryland to irrigated farming systems. The recommended cropping pattern for the project area is a crop of rice followed by a crop of mungbean or garlic. Moreover, about 20 hectares each of mango and cashew will be planted in the surrounding portion of the watershed area. Based on the twenty period economic analyis, the Camagsingalan Small Water Impouding Project would generate a substantial gain to the province and to the nation in general. At discount rate of 15 per cent, the project will result in a Net Presnt Value of P 536,194.00 using the Cropping Pattern 1 and an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 39 percent. On the other hand Cropping Pattern 2 will result in a Net Present Value of P 5,911,844.00 and an Internal Rate of Return of 41 per cent. In summary, the project based on quantifiable costs and benefits is economically desirable and worthwhile undertaking. However, a number of enviromental problems have not been dealt with in the economic analysis. These include the possible environmental and socio-economic problems that will result due to the construction of the SWIM project. Though the scale of the project is small, the extent of effect is however not yet established. Water pricing is not also dealt with in the analyis.
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    The development of commercial agriculture on Mangaia: social and economic change in a Polynesian community: a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1969) Allen, Bryant James
    The problems confronting the so called 'underdeveloped nations' of the world are pressing more urgently upon mankind every year. In response there is a rapidly expanding body of knowledge associated with the technical, social and economic changes which must be brought about within such countries if progress is to be assured. Because so much of the change must occur at a village level, studies of small groups have become increasingly important. This thesis is the result of such a study based on the island of Mangaia, a small and isolated Polynesian community in the Cook Islands. The aim of the study was to trace the development of commercialisation of the agricultural system from European contact to the present day, to relate the major changes to their causative factors and to assess the present degree of commercialisation and the prospects for the future. The research thus fell into two parts, historical and contemporary. The historical data was derived from three main sources, missionary reports and letters, administration records and New Zealand Government records, with a valuable ethnological study by Hiroa providing the basis of the pre-historical material. Contemporary data was collected firstly by the administration of a questionnaire to a sample population. The instrument included a battery of schedules dealing with details of the household, the head of the household, and the agricultural plantations maintained by the household. Secondly, a land use survey was carried out which concentrated upon a classification of land into that used for food crops, commercial crops and fallow land. (see Appendix I).
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    The impact of trade liberalisation on the Indonesian food crop sector : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Agricultural Economics at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1994) Da Costa, Helder
    Studies of agricultural trade policies in developed countries generally focus their attention on impacts in their own domestic markets. Less attention has been given to impacts on developing countries nor their need for special and differential treatment in multilateral trade negotiations. This study assesses the impacts of trade liberalisation by modelling the outcome of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations. The removal of support in the industrialised nations on the Indonesian food crops sector was examined. Using the Static World Policy Simulation (SWOPSIM) model of world agricultural trade, the impacts on Indonesian consumption, production and net trade were estimated. The results indicate that Indonesian exports of corn would expand, and the country could also become an exporter of rice. Imports of sugar could expand partly as a result of a reduction in Indonesian sugar subsidies. While multilateral trade liberalisation that results in higher world prices may have a negative effect on food importing developing countries, this was found not to be the case for Indonesia (at least for the food crops studied). The increase in producer welfare would more than compensate for the fall in consumer welfare, government subsidy expenditures would fall and the country's trade balance would improve. In addition, continuing unilateral deregulatory and liberalisation measures in other sectors of the Indonesian economy, as well as in agriculture, will provide scope for the development of further new export opportunities.
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    The patterns of trade between the ASEAN and ANZCERTA countries in agricultural products : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Economics at the Department of Applied and International Economics, Massey University
    (Massey University, 2003) Zamroni, Zamroni
    A gravity model of trade could explain the trade patterns of countries, supported by either the dominance of factor endowments or economies of scale as sources of trade. The gravity model is based on the principle that the trade flows between two trading countries is positively related to their economic size, represented by their GDP and population, and inversely related to the distance between them. By using data from the period 1965-1999, this study applies the gravity model to identify empirically the determinants of agricultural trade among five member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand; and also between the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (ANZCERTA) countries, vis-à-vis Australia and New Zealand. The variables used to identify the trade patterns between these two groups are: the incomes of exporting and importing countries, populations of exporting and importing countries, distances between them, and some other augmented variables. Distance has been found to be an impediment to trade for all five ASEAN countries, but not for the two ANZCERTA countries. The level of competitiveness, which is represented by the real exchange rate, was found to be significant in respect of agricultural trade. The Asian financial crisis was not found to have significant effects on agricultural trade of most ASEAN countries or of the ANZCERTA countries. The effect of a country's membership of ASEAN varied from one member country to another. The ANZCERTA membership, likewise, did not affect significantly the observed trade patterns between Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore, the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)-ANZCERTA relationship also did not have a significant effect on the trade patterns of the ASEAN and ANZCERTA countries. Intra-industry trade (IIT) involving agricultural products among ASEAN countries is relatively low. Agricultural trade of the five ASEAN and the two ANZCERTA countries could be classified as strongly inter-industry, not intra-industry, on the basis of the findings. Generally, the IIT patterns of the ASEAN and ANZCERTA countries with their trading partners increased gradually from 1965 to 1999, but are still quite low, so that inter-industry trade still characterises the exchange of agricultural products among these countries.