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Beekeeping is a vital economic activity for smallholder farmers; therefore, it is essential to provide beekeepers with information regarding the profitability and productivity of box hives to encourage them to embrace the technology. However, scant information is available to comprehensively compare the profitability and output of traditional and modern beehives. This study seeks to compare the performance of traditional and modern beehives in Baringo South Sub-County. Simple random sampling was used in conjunction with a cross-sectional survey to collect data from the 197 beekeepers who participated in the study. A gross margin analysis was performed to understand the returns of traditional and modern hives. According to the findings, individuals who used traditional beehives had a higher overall operational cost of Ksh. 1449.44 per hive, whereas those who used modern hives had a total operational cost of Ksh. 1000.73. In addition, the study also demonstrated that those that utilised modern beehives received larger gross margins in Kenyan shillings 7917.74, whilst those who used traditional beehives received Ksh. 5590.59. According to the study’s findings, modern beekeeping generates higher returns than traditional beekeeping. As a result, farmers should be encouraged to employ modern beehives to generate higher returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production plays a central role in the health of humanity and our environment. New Zealand produces a large amount of food, but it is unknown if it can produce enough of the right crops in the places to better the health of New Zealanders, profitably, while maintaining New Zealand's primary production exports and meeting ambitions to lower greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions and nutrient losses to water. We tested two scenarios that aimed at delivering a healthy diet while maximising profit and minimising GHGs (climate-focused scenario) or losses of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to water (freshwater-focused scenario). Land use change was targeted to areas not currently meeting bottom lines for N or P loss but needed to spill over to other areas to meet dietary targets in both scenarios. The maximum cost of the required land use change was about 1% of the primary sector's export revenues, and orders of magnitude less than the estimated savings for the health system from an optimised diet. We conclude that shifting productive land uses can help meet environmental targets for GHGs, N and P while saving money and improving the health of its people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this work was on modeling the financial performance of Chilean construction companies using linear fixed and mixed effects regressions, using quarterly gross margin as an indicator of profitability. Among the models evaluated, it was determined that the mixed effects model with random effects per company showed the best fit to the data set, with an estimated coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.92, with variables such as TC, TC being significant. quadratic and the short-term debt rate. The combination of quadratic and non-quadratic CT effects indicated that the positive impact of CT on margin is evident from a rate of 42% on total assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rearing of replacement heifers makes up a significant part of the total costs in dairy farming. Nevertheless, the average age at first calving for dairy heifers still stays well above 2 years in many countries. This study examined the economic and environmental impacts of increased heifer growth rates and reduced replacement rates on Norwegian dairy farms. The current average growth rate in Norway (baseline scenario) was compared to an accelerated growth rate scenario. Within each of the two growth rate scenarios, we compared three different cow replacement rates. A farm account survey dataset containing physical and economic data on 311 Norwegian farms was clustered into three farm groups: small, medium, and large. To model economic consequences, we used the whole-farm linear programming model ScotFarm. A life cycle analysis model was used to model the environmental impacts of the baseline scenario and an accelerated growth rate scenario on the three farm groups. Accelerated heifer growth rate had a positive effect (14–28%) on farm annual gross margin depending on farm size. While accelerated growth rate resulted in only minor reductions in total emissions at farm level compared to the baseline scenario, reduced replacement rate lowered total farm level emissions by up to 8%, and emissions per unit of output by up to 6%. We conclude that an accelerated heifer growth rate scenario could potentially increase farm gross margin by some 14–28% compared with a baseline growth rate scenario. Reducing the replacement rate would be more efficient to reduce farm−level greenhouse gas emissions.

The escalation of crises related to water quantity of quality, energy, food, and the environment has posed numerous challenges to sustainable development in the agricultural sector. This study seeks to establish an optimal and sustainable framework within the agricultural sector by meeting the objectives of the WEF (Water-Energy-Food) nexus index and environmental. For this, we individually optimized the objectives: maximizing the WEFN index (O1), minimizing CO2 emissions (O2), reducing chemical fertilizer consumption (O3), minimizing chemical pesticide usage (O4), and maximizing gross margin (O5) under various electrical conductivity (EC) scenarios (optimistic, moderate, and pessimistic) within the irrigation network of the Jiroft plain in Iran. In the second stage, we employed a Multi-Objective Programming (MOP) Model to attain these objectives using a weighted sum approach simultaneously. The results of the first stage revealed that under moderate and pessimistic EC irrigation water scenarios, significant alterations in the crop selection within the optimized models for O1 and O5 objectives occurred compared to the baseline scenario, which did not consider EC irrigation water. Specifically, in the pessimistic scenario with an EC irrigation water level of 2.25 ds/m, crops such as onions, tomatoes, and potatoes were replaced within the optimal cropping pattern by wheat, barley, and green-maize, leading to a notable decline in program efficiency. The results from the MOP optimization model indicated that in the pessimistic EC irrigation water scenario, the WEFN index, CO2 emissions, fertilizer consumption, pesticide consumption, and gross margin would change by approximately +12%, −48%, −28%, −8%, and −74%, respectively, compared to the baseline scenario. Consequently, an increase in EC irrigation water, despite improving environmental conditions, would substantially diminish economic profit. Thus, overlooking the impact of EC irrigation water in the WEF nexus analysis could result in misleading conclusions.

The current study aimed at development of breeding objectives and estimation of the economic values for traits of economic importance to various dairy goat breeders associations. This was achieved through the development of a bio-economic model to derive economic values for the selected traits. The input and output parameters used represented the average performance of Saanen, Toggenburg and Alpine breeds. The gross margin was estimated using the R software. Economic values for milk yield (MY, kg), pre-weaning survival rate (PrSr, %), post-weaning survival rate, (PoSR, %), doe survival rate, (DoSR, %), and kidding rate, (Kr, %) were estimated based on fixed flock size and fixed feed resources scenarios. The findings indicate varied gross margin across the breeds; Saanen (US$ 116.17), Toggenburg (US$ 68.21) and Alpine (US$ -1.11). In both scenarios, the economic values in selected traits were positive for the three breeds except for milk yield in Alpine, which was negative in both fixed flock and fixed feed resources. The positive economic values of selected traits indicated a unit increase in genetic merit of these traits. The developed bio-economic model was able to estimate the gross margin of Saanen, Toggenburg and Alpine breeds represented by Nyanza Dairy Goat Breeders Association (NDGA), Meru Dairy Goat Breeders Association (MDGA) and Dairy Goat Association of Kenya (DGAK), respectively, reared under semi-intensive production system. The study offers an opportunity to evaluate genetic and economic merit of alternative strategies for dairy goats reared in semi-intensive production systems managed by various dairy goat breeders associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the profitability of palm oil production in Igbo Etiti L.G.A of Enugu State, Nigeria. Both multi-stage random and purposive sampling procedures were used to select 120 small-scale palm oil producers. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants and analysed using frequency, percentage, and gross margin analysis. The results show that more than half (55.0) percent of palm oil producers use the traditional method of palm oil processing to produce their product whereas 17.5 percent used the mechanical method. The producers sourced their palm fruits mainly from self-sourcing (65 percent), friends and relatives (55.8 percent), and the open market (44.2 percent). The profitability analysis indicates that the total cost of N2,503,100 was incurred as the production cost for palm oil in the 2021 production cycle, out of which N429,000 representing 17.1 percent was expended on the total fixed assets while the total variable cost gulped N2,074,100, representing 82.9 percent of the entire cost. The sum of N796,900 was realized as the net profit from palm oil production in the area. This attests to the profitability of palm oil production in the area. The benefit-cost ratio analysis yielded a value above one (1.3), confirming the viability of palm oil production in the area. The study recommends that the government should initiate a policy that will encourage more people to get involved in palm oil production, as well as, facilitate the transition of palm oil production from the traditional method to the mechanical method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the profitability of oil palm processing venture in Ola Oluwa Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. The sampled 120 respondents for the study were selected using a multistage sampling procedure. Field surveys were carried out using structured interview schedule to obtain primary data utilized for the study. Data analysis was carried out using frequencies, percentages, means, and regression analysis. Results of the descriptive analysis revealed that the majority of the respondents were middle-aged (mean = 58.43 years) (92.5%), married (55.83%), female (100%), having a mean of the household size of 5 persons per household. The majority (60.00%) of the respondents had no formal education; do not own an oil palm processing unit (77.31%); small-scale processors (44.54%), with a mean of 37.21 litres of palm oil per production cycle. The mean years of oil palm processing experience, total revenue, total production cost, gross margin, and net income from oil palm processing per year were 28.39 years, ₦243,472.900, ₦103,088.808, ₦155,521.592 and ₦140,384.092 respectively. Regression results revealed that the cost of oil palm bunches, the cost of firewood, the cost of kerosene, and matches, and the cost grinding were positive significant determinants of the level of gross margin from oil palm processing in the study area. Based on the findings, the study concluded that despite the profitability oil palm processing venture in the study area, it is operated on a small-scale predominantly by aged married and widowed women; hence provision of financial assistance through low-interest loans from agricultural banks or any other related financial institution would help improve their productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability of the rice production and farmers’ income in Nigeria raises a serious concern due to the rising costs of production inputs and other factors beyond farmers’ control. As a result, the study compared the cost and returns of rice production in North central, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 387 rice farmers in the study area. Descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis and seeming unrelated regression were used to analyze the dataset collected. The findings revealed that most of the rice farmers were male, averagely young and have at least 9 family members in their respectively households. Results from Kwara State showed that total cost is higher among the upland rice farmers compared to their lowland counterparts, but reverse was the case in term of net profit, as this favoured the lowland rice farmers. For Niger State and pooled data, the lowland rice farmers had higher net profit than the upland rice farmers. Seemingly unrelated regression estimates indicated that costs associated with fertilizer, herbicide, seed, pesticide and labour used were significant and influencing factors affecting the revenue of rice farmers in the study area. While inaccessibility to cheap farm inputs was the major constraint affecting the rice farmers, other challenges include lack of storage, inadequate rainfall and inadequate credit facilities. The study recommended seamless access to improved rice varieties by the farmers as this can scale up adoption of improved technologies, boost production and ultimately the net revenue of rice farmers. Farmers are also advised to join and/or form a registered occupational groups through which credit facilities can easily be accessed, to expand the farming operations because of the positive and complementary role of social group and access to credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable food systems require mechanisms that assure consumers about the sustainability of agricultural production. Building on the existing literature on the impact of sustainability standards, this study is the first to assess the effectiveness of participatory guarantee systems (PGS) for the certification of organic produce. The study uses representative farm-level data on local vegetable value chains in northern Vietnam and uses a broad set of sustainability outcomes as well as counterfactual analysis, including systematic robustness checks. The results show that PGS significantly improves farm profitability (+117%), agroecology performance (+40%), and gives farmers more choice of sales channels (+23%). However, PGS had no significant effect on returns to labour and reduced the average crop yield. Capacity development on nursery practices, transplanting of healthy seedlings rather than direct seeding, reduced tillage, and collective crop planning and management are some of the innovations that can counter adverse effects on crop yields, increase soil health as well as improve returns to labour, and thus attract more youth to farming. Overall, the study shows that organic PGS can make vegetable production more economically viable and more agroecologically sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: This research investigates safety practice compliance among urban vegetable farmers in Ghana's Ashanti Region and its implications for the environment, farmers' health, and consumer safety. Design/methodology/approach: An empirical approach was adopted, utilizing field survey data from 387 urban vegetable farmers in key vegetable-producing communities. The study employed various data analytical techniques, including frequency distributions, a Bonferroni multiple comparisons test, and ordered logistic regression. Findings: The research emphasizes the need for enhanced awareness and education among farmers to ensure adherence to safety practices. It reveals a significant positive relationship between farmers' awareness and compliance, underlining the role of informed decision-making and knowledge dissemination. Additionally, higher gross margin values are associated with increased compliance, indicating the motivating influence of profitability in allocating resources for safety measures. Furthermore, farming experience is positively linked to compliance, emphasizing the importance of practical knowledge and expertise. Practical implications: Based on the findings, the research offers policy recommendations to promote compliance with safety practices. These include enhancing farmer education and awareness programs, improving profitability and market access, fostering knowledge-sharing platforms, addressing affordability concerns, and strengthening enforcement and monitoring. Implementing these measures will enhance compliance, safeguarding the well-being of farmers, consumers, and the environment, thereby ensuring the long-term sustainability and growth of Ghana's urban vegetable sector. Research limitations/implications: While this study focused specifically on urban vegetable farmers, pesticide usage extends beyond vegetable production in Ghana. Future research should incorporate essential crops like maize, cassava, and rice to provide a more comprehensive assessment of pesticide practices and their implications in the broader agricultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's agricultural production is heavily dependent on synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer. Its energy-intensive production and use are associated with a number of environmental burdens, such as global warming and marine eutrophication. Furthermore, fertilizer prices are subject to high volatility and have been rising steadily for years. One strategy to reduce the dependence on synthetic N fertilizer is to include legumes in the crop rotation, but it is important that this practice is economically viable to be adopted by farmers. Through gross margin analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA), we quantified the economic and environmental impacts of introducing grain legumes into rainfed bread wheat rotations in northern Spain. The analysis covered the full two-year sequences of barley-wheat, rapeseed-wheat and vetch-wheat. We further investigated the effect of four different bread wheat genotypes on the environmental and economic performance. In this case study, replacing synthetic N fertilizer with legume-fixed N in a two-year cropping rotation decreased most of the analysed environmental impacts. Modelled greenhouse gas emissions were 24 % lower for vetch-wheat compared to barley-wheat and 11 % lower compared to rapeseed-wheat. Despite higher wheat yield, the vetch-wheat rotation had an 18 % lower gross margin than the rapeseed rotation and a 1 % higher gross margin than the barley rotation. The sensitivity analysis showed that only when fertilizer and wheat grain prices were more than doubled, that the legume rotation became more profitable than the other rotations. Consequently, farmers would require a financial incentive to include legumes in crop rotations and reduce environmental impacts. • Replacing synthetic N fertilizer with legume rotation reduced environmental impacts. • Modelled GHG emissions were 24 % lower for the vetch-wheat than barley-wheat. • Vetch-wheat was less profitable than rapeseed-wheat despite fertilizer cost savings. • Higher fertilizer and grain prices made vetch-wheat more profitable than rapeseed-wheat. • Bread wheat genotype Cellule generated the highest gross margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• How accelerated heifer growth and/or lower replacement rate affect farm margins. • Utilising the heifers' growth potential improves farm short-term profit. • Reduced replacement rate does not affect short-term profit. • Replacement rate is a more efficient mean than growth rate to cut greenhouse gas emissions. • The results may give economic and environmental benefits for the dairy industry. Rearing of replacement heifers makes up a significant part of the total costs in dairy farming. Nevertheless, the average age at first calving for dairy heifers still stays well above 2 years in many countries. This study examined the economic and environmental impacts of increased heifer growth rates and reduced replacement rates on Norwegian dairy farms. The current average growth rate in Norway (baseline scenario) was compared to an accelerated growth rate scenario. Within each of the two growth rate scenarios, we compared three different cow replacement rates. A farm account survey dataset containing physical and economic data on 311 Norwegian farms was clustered into three farm groups: small, medium, and large. To model economic consequences, we used the whole-farm linear programming model ScotFarm. A life cycle analysis model was used to model the environmental impacts of the baseline scenario and an accelerated growth rate scenario on the three farm groups. Accelerated heifer growth rate had a positive effect (14–28%) on farm annual gross margin depending on farm size. While accelerated growth rate resulted in only minor reductions in total emissions at farm level compared to the baseline scenario, reduced replacement rate lowered total farm level emissions by up to 8%, and emissions per unit of output by up to 6%. We conclude that an accelerated heifer growth rate scenario could potentially increase farm gross margin by some 14–28% compared with a baseline growth rate scenario. Reducing the replacement rate would be more efficient to reduce farm−level greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversified Farming (DF) practices are strategies to support biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Despite the potential ecological benefits of DF practices, their acceptance among farmers remains limited. Therefore, understanding farmer's perceptions is essential for effective policy decision-making and applicable agri-environmental policies. We conducted structured face-to-face interviews with 145 farmers in Lower Saxony to estimate the ecological-economic performance of DF practices based on farmers' perceived changes in yield, variable costs, and gross margin of cereal production. Farmers expected diversified crop rotation to increase gross margin (20%), while reduced tillage, direct seeding and flower strips would decrease it (58%, 61% and 13%). Cover crops were expected to provide ecological benefits with only slightly reduced profit (1%). Farm soil fertility was positively related to the perceived gross margin, while farmers' risk attitude and the number of DF practices applied showed no significant influence. Farmers working on mixed farms, i.e., integrating livestock and crops, expected lower variable costs than farmers working on arable farms. Our findings highlight that DF practices can be valued differently, with the greatest benefits seen in improved crop rotation. The acceptance of DF practices that farmers perceive as negative, such as reduced tillage and direct seeding, would require adapted agri-environmental incentives. • Understanding farmers' perception of the performance of Diversified Farming practices is essential for effective agri-environmental policy • In interviews, farmers expected diversified crop rotation to have high ecological and economic performance • Cover crops were also expected to provide ecological benefits, but to reduce profit • The adoption of reduced tillage and direct seeding was seen critical because of increased weed pressure • Mixed perceptions of DF practices require adapted agri-environmental incentives [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]