A Model of Crop Selection in Semi‐subsistence Agriculture and an Application to Mixed Agriculture in Fiji

Abstract

Abstract The vast majority of the world's farmers operate as semi‐subsistence producers. Models of fully subsistence agriculture are modified to allow a two‐goods analysis of cash crop and staple crop production. A further extension allows comparisons between two groups of farmers possessing different production functions for their respective staple crops. Production possibility curves are constructed for each group of farmers and an empirical test formulated. Empirical results confirmed the hypothesized behavioral relationships which would give rise to the observed differences in resource allocation and resource productivity between Indian and Fijian farmers operating within a similar agricultural environment.