Estimating the supply response of cotton and cereal crops in smallholder production systems: recent evidence from Mali

Abstract

Cotton is one of the most important crops in West Africa and is a major catalyst of economic development in rural areas, but the sector has suffered from a decline in the world cotton price after 1999. This article exploits an unusual data set following 82 farmers over 14 years, from 1994 through 2007, to estimate a Nerlovian supply response model for cotton, maize, sorghum, and millet in long-term rotation. The resulting system of equations is estimated with two-stage least squares (2SLS), showing that this sample of Malian cotton producers have responded to prices in a relatively inelastic manner, with supply elasticities only about one-half of those estimated for producers in developed countries. Policy reforms could help producers respond more easily to prices changes, as well as to raise average productivity levels. Copyright (c) 2009 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

Worldwide Acreage and Yield Response to International Price Change and Volatility: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis for Wheat, Rice, Corn, and Soybeans

“…Askari and Cummings (1977), and later Nerlove and Bessler (2001), provided a thorough review of such literature. Some recent examples are Yu et al (2012), Vitale et al (2009), andde Menezes andPiketty (2012). Aradhyula and Holt (1989) employed the rational expectation hypothesis to investigate broiler supply in the USA; Eckstein (1984) and Lansink (1999) applied it to estimate crop acreage elasticities using aggregate agricultural data and farm-level data, respectively.…”

Enhancing Sustainability of Cotton Production Systems in West Africa: A Summary of Empirical Evidence from Burkina Faso

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“…The downward trend in cotton yields poses a serious threat to the sustainability of cotton production in West Africa [14]. Although sustainability has many definitions, the United Nations (UN) definition of sustainability as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" has been generally accepted in the development community [4,18,19].…”

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Impact of Climate Change, Weather Extremes, and Price Risk on Global Food Supply

“…These studies, which include Roberts and Schlenker (2010) and Müller et al (2011), fail to account for farmers' potentials to adapt to climatic change through adjustments in area allocation, input use, crop choice, and other agronomic practices (Tanaka et al 2011). Other studies that investigate crop production using economic variables (input and output price changes) without considering climate change, such as Arnade and Kelch (2007), Vitale et al (2009), andHaile et al (2014), implicitly assume that the effect of climate variables can be fully captured by economic variables. Although farmers respond to climate change through adjustments to their price expectations, not all climate and weather variations are predictable in advance such that farmers respond appropriately.…”