Production functions and rationality of mixed cropping

Abstract

This paper reports on the estimation of crop-yield equations in the context of mixed cropping where several crops are grown on the same plot. Mixed cropping has been developed by traditional farmers across much of sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia. The empirical results, are based on data collected by the Agricultural Projects Monitoring and Evaluation Unit attached to the Funtua, Gusau, and Gombe Agricultural Development Projects in northern Nigeria, The results show that these seemingly haphazard crop mixes provide a useful opportunity for matching production decisions to risk preferences as the growing season evolves. Using observed prices in two different time periods, 8 out of 20 crop mixes (all involving a subset of the same 6 crops) fall on the empirical mean-variance frontier, and 9 others are not dominated by any crop mix not on the frontier. Furthermore, some variation from the absolute frontier may be explained by imperfectly anticipated prices.