Declining agricultural commodity prices

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Judith McKay and Tamera Schacher

If you are facing chemotherapy, this book can be both a reference and a comforting voice. It has real answers to many of the important questions you have. It's a self-help book that emphasizes what you can do to cope. From blood tests and intravenous medication to dealing with hair loss, nausea, stress, etc., this book is written clearly, candidly, and supportively. It contains many hints and practical suggestions that nurses give their patients, and that you can use to feel more empowered during this time. - Back cover.

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Erh-Cheng Hwa

The paper analyzes the contribution of agriculture to economic growth. By employing cross-section data for the developing and developed countries during 1960-1970 and 1970-1979, it is found that in the context of Mr. Chenery-Syrquin's model intercountry variation in agricultural growth explains a significant portion of intercountry variation in the industrial (non-agricultural) growth. Further, in the context of an aggregate production function agricultural growth is found to contribute significantly to productivity increases and thus to overall economic growth. For the developing countries sample of the 1970-79 period, the results show that a one percent increase in agricultural growth leads to approximately four-tenths of a percentage point increase in productivity. It is also found that export growth contributes positively to productivity growth while the inflation rate contributes negatively.

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Gershon Feder, Lawrence Lau, Roger H. Slade

The paper presents results from a study designed to estimate the effect on agricultural productivity of the Training and Visit Extension System in the Karnal and Kairana Tehsil districts in India. The farm level data show that in Karnal under the T & V system, the extent of farmer interaction with extension agents was greater than in Kairana and that farmers in Karnal viewed the change in the extension system favorably. Moreover, an examination of the rates of knowledge diffusion for a select set of practices for High Yielding Varieties (HYV) of rice and wheat suggests that T & V extension led to a noticeable increase in the rate of knowledge diffusion of several HYV wheat practices. The main thrust of the paper, however, is an analysis of productivity differentials between the two areas for two crops, HYV wheat and rice, and the extent to which any estimated differences can be attributed to the introduction of the T & V extension system. After making adjustments to derive a baseline differential that was consistent with the evidence derived from the detailed farm sample survey undertaken, the final results show that, after three years of T & V extension, there was a gain in productivity for HYV wheat of about 6-7 percent which can be attributed to T & V extension.

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Paul K. Conkin

This book assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that transformed farming in America and suggests how new legislation could affect it in the coming decades.