If the viability and sustainability of smallholder agriculture is to be maintained and food security is to be enhanced in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), intensified, market-oriented livestock production needs to be promoted. This paper presents empirical evidence to support this contention....

This study examined the viability of prospective Jatropha based firms vis–a-vis employment opportunities in Nigeria, specifically the study identified the Jatropha bio-diesel and other allied products that were been researched into in Nigeria, estimated the costs and returns structure to...

There is increasing evidence that improved agricultural technologies benefit smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. This evidence is however relatively clearer for innovations in smallholder crop production systems as compared to innovations in livestock production systems. Moreover, it is...

A study was conducted in the four counties the maize- wheat-teapotato and sugarcane-based farming system in North western Kenya to explore the variability among household characteristics and farm productivity. The aim of this work was to establish homogenous groups of crop-livestock mixed...

The dairy landscape in the Republic of Ireland is characterized by pastoral spring-calving systems and a bell-shaped milk production curve. This seasonality at producer level initiates various implications at processor level, such as poor utilization of plant capacity off-peak season, a...

Tiie ineffectiveness of agricultural extension services in South Africa is characterised by two (//stinct paradigms i.e. the technical-educative and that of agricultural economics. This situation gives· rise to the problem of scientists not being able to present a holistic solution to...

The abolition of the milk quota regime in April 2015 will provide the opportunity for many profitable Irish dairy farms to increase their production levels. Market risk will influence the decision-making process at the farm level. Dairy farmers have acquired more recent experience of market risk...

This paper considers a range of issues relating to the contribution of meat consumption and livestock production to global warming given the need highlighted by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) to reduce global GHG emissions by over 50% by 2050. The IPCC Climate Change 2014 report...

Animal health is one of the key factors affecting the economic efficiency of the dairy industry and has important implications within an increasingly competitive marketplace. Despite the fact that the economic gains of ‘best practice’ with regard to animal health have been well documented,...

National greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategy can benefit from information on the technical and economic viability of abatement options. The life-cycle-analysis (LCA) and marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) approaches provide a good, although partial, indication for the potential of...