The paper investigates the effect of variations in soil type, rainfall, N fertilizer amount and crop prices on the objectives of arable farms operating in Nitrogen Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) and receiving the Single Farm Payment (SFP). Sensitivity analysis was carried out using a mixed-integer...

Innovation is essential for agricultural and economic development, especially in today’s rapidly changing global environment. While farmers have been recognised as one of the key sources of innovation, many studies on agricultural innovations continue to consider farmers as adopters of...

Maize is one of the most important staple foods that is critical to food security and livelihoods of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Although maize is important staple crop for ensuring food security, it cannot ensure nutritional security. To provide and ensure an adequate supply and greater...

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...

Traditionally the definition and analysis of household well-being has focused on the main economic measures of income and wealth. However, there is now an increased interest within the wider economic literature in exploring those measures which contribute to household well-being which can extend...

The International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) in 2014 has raised a number of issues related to the economic and policy context of family farming (FF), which covers a wide variety of organisations of farm production. In this paper, after some conceptual discussion, definitional issues are...

This research estimates farm gate phosphorus balances and use efficiencies across 147 specialist dairy farms over a seven year period (2006-2012) using nationally representative data and the Republic of Ireland as a case study. This period coincides with the introduction of phosphorus controls...

AIM: Crop variable inputs (CVI's) are critical to successful crops. So we here ask: "What are the marginal returns to crop variable inputs?" And explore whether observed CVI levels maximise economic returns to farmers. We compare results to national aggregates in India. DATA: Analysed Farm...

The Markov chain model (MCM) has become a popular tool in the agricultural economics literature to describe how farms experience structural change and to study the impact of various drivers of this process, including public support. Even though some studies have accounted for heterogeneity...

One of the key features of the CAP 2014 reforms is the requirement for Member States currently distributing direct payments to farmers on the basis of historic support levels to switch an area-based payment scheme. This paper explores effects of this shift for both the farm sector and the wider...