Globalization and competitiveness of agricultural commodities could have significant potential benefits for food security and poverty reduction in West Africa. Participation in global trade and economy is potentially important but not enough to ensure benefits at all levels of the chains and...

This study examines the factors that determine the export performance of three major agricultural exportable commodities of cocoa, rubber and palm-kernel in the context of liberalization. Using time series data covering thirty three years and to avoid spurious result, error correction model was...

This paper evaluates the production and trade trends for maize and maize products in southern Africa, individual countries’ revealed comparative advantages in producing these products, and the expected implications of freer trade in this sector. The analysis employs mainly annual bilateral...

A study conducted to evaluate the effect of heated-air velocity and air-to-cotton ratio on the amount of moisture evaporated from seed cotton in cotton gin dryers established minimum practical airflow rates for the dryers. The results can be used to reduce energy requirements in the transport...

Numerous methods for measuring multifactor productivity have been used by economists. This report uses a recently developed approach, data envlopment analysis, to measure productivity. This method can be used not only to calculate productivity but also to divide productivity measures into...

Brazil's agricultural sector underwent major changes in the past two decades. Though Brazil is abundant in labor, land, and animal power, government subsidies encouraged the use of fertilizer and machines. Since productivity growth arises from technical change, Brazil's drive to modernize its...

This publication includes compounds evaluated from 1944 to 1976 ,at Fort Detrick, MD, for their growth effects on plants. The manually recorded results of these tests on the biological activity of 31,000 chemicals were assembled with computer-checking programs and are systematically summarized...