Glenn L. Johnson

Farm Management Analysis

Farm management analysis , Farm management analysis , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی

Institution-Building Lessons from USAID's Agricultural Faculty Development Projects in Nigeria

This paper evaluates the impacts of USAID projects to assist in developing agricultural faculties at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), the University of Ife (UNIFE), and the University of Nigeria (UN). Earlier evaluations of these projects have not given adequate attention to the social, cultural, political, and infra structural constraints that faced both Nigerian and American administrators of these university projects (Jaeger, Johnston et al., Gamble et al., Wilcock and McDowell, Lele), the exception being a recent one by Idachaba.

The Relevance of U.S. Graduate Curricula in Agricultural Economics for the Training of Foreign Students

I am to discuss the relevance of U.S. graduate curricula in agricultural economics for foreign students. This is appropriate in commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Economics Institute, which has done so much to remedy background deficiencies in foreign agricultural economists coming to study in the United States. When inviting me, Ed Schuh said he wanted an independent view. Fortunately, this does not require me to ignore our 1974 Texas A&M meetings and its session on training and international agricultural economic development, the Agricultural Development Council report (Schertz, Stevenson, Weisblat), the recent AAEA study (Fienup and Riley 1980), and the sessions on teaching at the Banff meeting of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (Fienup and Riley 1981, Petit 1981, International Association of Agricultural Economists).

The Modern Family Farm and its Problems: With Particular Reference to the United States of America

If one were to define what is meant by ‘modernization of the family farm’, consolidation and/or farm enlargement would be rather high on one’s list of necessary requirements for modernization. So, too, would technological advance, especially the land and labour-saving varieties. Land-saving technology would be required to keep total agricultural production expanding to feed growing populations, while labour-saving technology would be required to increase per capita incomes in agriculture. These two, in turn, would require a substantial amount of off-farm migration as part of the modernization process. Another requirement for modernization would be an increasing level of education, both general and vocational, in order that farmers may handle the larger farms and the more advanced technologies which come with modernization. Still another requirement would be the existence of an institutional environment which would permit a modernized family farm to finance itself and prosper.

The US Presidential World Food and Nutrition Study and Commission on World Hunger: Lessons for the United States and other Countries

In this paper I will first examine the results of the World Food and Nutrition Study (WFNS) established by President Ford and delivered to President Carter (WFNS, 1977) and of the Commission on World Hunger (CWH) which was commissioned by President Carter and delivered to him (CWH, 1980). I also consider an educational effort to make American academic and religious circles more aware of problems associated with food, agriculture, and world hunger. In the second main section of the paper, I examine a fundamental underlying difficulty encountered in these efforts. In the second section, I will also present reasons for hope concerning American information systems and decision processes with respect to food, agricultural development and trade. The third main section deals with current issues about the American role in international food aid and the promotion of development. The fourth and last section deals with the methodological lessons from the first three sections for the research work which agricultural economists do on food, nutrition and agriculture in countries around the world.

Toward the Twenty-First Century: U.S. Agriculture in an Unstable World Economy: Discussion

The Sanderson and Clark-Harrington papers follow in the tradition of T. W. Schultzs book Agriculture in an Unstable Economy which, in turn, updated book 4 of Mills Principles of Political Economy by analyzing current trends in population numbers, incomes, international trade, resource availability, technological change, and related variables. These two papers produced no real surprises. Batie, however, raised concerns about resource availability, resources and environmental degradation, and undesirable developments in the structure of U.S. agriculture which I do not fully share. In agreement with Clark and Harrington, the USDA projections and those Sylvan Wittwer and I recently made indicate that we will have adequate resources and technological advances to meet both

Projections of Age Distribution of Farm Operators in the United States Based upon Estimates of the Present Value of Income

The increase in the average age of farm operators in the United States since 1920 is pronounced. Several studies have been made of the age of farm operators and have projected the age distribution of farm operators in 1970. This article is based on the premise that the acquisition cost of labor of the agricultural industry for younger workers and the corresponding salvage value for older workers partially determine movements into and out of farming. Present values of future income streams for hired laborers at 25 and 45 years of age in farming and in four nonfarm occupations are estimated and used in constructing an independent variable in the farm operator supply models. Projection of the age distribution of farm operators in 1970 suggests that increases in the average age of farm operators will continue and that this trend will be more pronounced than anticipated in earlier studies.