Event

The Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension will host a seminar entitled “An Econometric Estimation of the Field Cost of Producing Sugarcane in the Dry North Ecological Zone in the Jamaican Sugarcane Industry.”This presentation will be made by graduate student Mr. Donald Palmer on Thursday 19^th February, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. in Room E, Dudley Huggins Building, Faculty of Science and Agriculture (FSA).

For further information please contact Ms. Ragbir at 662-2002 Ext. 2088.

This research paper provides an estimation of the efficient size of sugarcane farmers in the Dry North Ecological Zone in the Jamaican Sugarcane Industry.  To identify the efficient size of operation the ordinary least square estimation technique was used, and this was found to be 67 acres of sugarcane.  The identification of the efficient size of operation allowed us to test the hypothesis that the minimum point on the long run average cost curve was significantly greater than the present average enterprise size of eight acres. 

Eighty-six farmers were interview during the months of July and August 2008, so as to get an idea of their level of cost efficiencies.  The long run total cost curve was estimated and the cubic functional form provided the best fit for the available data.  Both the adjusted R² and the result from the Akaike Information Criterion indicated that the cubic functional form provided the best fit for the data.  The results of the estimation process indicated that 94% of the farmers operated at less than the efficient size of operation. 

Keywords: cost function, cost elasticity, maximum efficient size, sugarcane, Jamaica