Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

Monthly wholesale prices of imported rice were used to estimate the spatial dynamics of eight local markets and the impact of infrastructure on spatial market integration. The results, based on threshold and linear error correction models, indicate that Liberian rice markets are spatially integrated, with four main price-transmission markets, Red-Light, Gbarnga, Saclepea and Buchanan. Red-Light is the main entry market for imported rice. Its estimated period of outgoing price transmission is about five months, with bad road conditions the likely impediment to more complete market integration. In 12 of the 17 long-run, related market pairs, negative and positive price changes are transmitted symmetrically. Asymmetry in five market pairs is potentially a result of localised market power. Overall, integration responds positively to improved roads and negatively to spatial separation and quality of communication. Markets could be better integrated by improving transportation and market infrastructure.

This study estimates the dry bean yield increase in South Africa that is attributable to genetic improvements through the Agricultural Research Council's (ARC) bean breeding program. Using 32 test plots across South Africa from 1982 to 2014, results indicate that ARC breeding increased average yields by 11.65 kg/ha annually, for a cumulative 43.28% increase. These yield increases were not at the expense of yield variance, an important measure of food security. These findings indicate that the returns on investment are relatively high (an estimated 5.67:1 benefit-cost ratio) and can lead to greater food security though increased and stabilized bean yields.

Using survey data from northern Ghana, this study seeks to establish the impact of participation in non-farm work on the vulnerability of resource poor households to food poverty. Vulnerability to food poverty is assessed based on expected future food expenditure of households. The potential endogeneity problem associated with participation in non-farm work by households is overcome using a novel instrumental variable approach. Analysis of the determinants of expected future food expenditure is done using a standard Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) method. Demographic and socioeconomic variables, location variables, and household facilities are included in the model as control variables. Our study finds that participation in non-farm work significantly increased the future expected food consumption, thereby alleviating the vulnerability of households to food poverty. Our study also confirms that current food poverty and future food poverty, i.e., vulnerability to food poverty, are not independent from each other. Nonfarm work plays a crucial role in providing the means to overcome the risk of food poverty in these resource poor households. Policies that promote off-farm income generating activities, such as small businesses and self-employment, as well as the creation and support of businesses that absorb extra labor from the farm, should be encouraged in the study region. Because households in the study region are exposed to above average levels of hunger and food poverty, the study recommends the government of Ghana and development partners to take measures that enhance the resilience of these resource poor households. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/ 4.0/).

The producer, consumer, and environmental impacts of a counterfactual of ShB-resistant rice production were calculated using data from U.S. county-level rice production in the Mid-South and simulated Sheath Blight (ShB) infection and yield-loss rates. Results indicate a $43 million increase in consumer surplus via ShB alleviation, with enough additional rice produced to feed 1.7 million people. A life cycle assessment (LCA) also shows that the counterfactual has lower environmental impacts than the status quo of ShB-prone rice production. These estimates provide important economic and environmental information to donors, policy makers, and breeding programs globally on the importance of increasing and maintaining genetic disease resistance.