Publisher's Synopsis
In most developing countries, agriculture is the dominant sector, measured in terms of employment of resources and of income generation. Above all, it is a source of livelihood and sustenance for the majority of of people within it, and its growth provides the greatest hope of higher standards for this majority. It also provides a surplus of food, raw material, capital and labour to other sectors; hence the development of agriculture plays a major role in total economic development, and formulation of agricultural development strategies is a crucial factor in this.;Agricultural production systems can be characterized by four basic resource-technology situations: unlimited land - static technology; limited land - static technology; unlimited land - dynamic technology; limited land - dynamic technology.;In the last situation, where land area under cultivation is the scarce factor, growth of output depends on intensive and scientific applications of other inputs. This is the situation that involves the great majority of farmers in developing countries, and is the cone that converns us in this study.;The author describes the study area, sampling technique used in the selection of sample participants, and the methods of data collection. The analytical framework of this study and the techniques used to analyse the framework are given. The results of the empirical analysis of the comparative physical performance of location specific and exotic High yielding Varieties (HYVs) are supplied. Tests of economic efficiency of the sample participants growing Location Specific Varieties (LSVs) and Exotic Varieties (EVs) are discussed. The important conclusions are presented and the study also suggests directions for further research to increase productivity and improve monetary gains and their distribution.;The most recent methodologies of Stochastic Frontier Production Function and Restricted Profit Function have been applied in this study to measure the physical and economic performance of the location-specific research. It is in this context, that the present work can also be considered a reference book on methodology describing the application of quantitative methods in agricultural research.
